St. Catherine’s Monastery, 275 miles from Cairo in the depths of the Sinai desert, is the oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery in the world. Built at the foot of the mountain where many believe Moses saw the burning bush and subsequently received the Ten Commandments, it has served as a sanctuary of worship, refuge, and scholarship for more than 1,500 years.
I was privileged to visit the monastery some years ago, where I was deeply moved by the monks’ passion for worship, community, and scholarship. They are stewards of some of the world’s oldest biblical manuscripts, treasures they continue to study and make available to the world.
However, their future is now in peril.
In May, an Egyptian court issued a ruling that allows the state to control what is and is not allowed at St. Catherine’s, stripping the monks of all legal authority. The government has already taken control over academic access to the site and continues to undermine its autonomy. With enough pressure, the monks may be forced to abandon the ancient monastery altogether.
Ironically and tragically, this oppression is being conducted in the name of religion. Egypt’s Islamic government is gradually subsuming non-Sunni religious institutions and refuses to shield Coptic Christians, churches, and homes from attacks. It also refuses to permit renovations of churches while pouring enormous sums into building and renovating thousands of mosques.
What is the essence of Christianity?
Oppressing Christianity in the name of religion is nothing new, of course.
Jesus’ greatest persecutors were religious leaders convinced they were serving God by their actions. Saul of Tarsus was similarly certain that by persecuting Christians he was imprisoning heretics (cf. Acts 22:3–5). Jihadist Muslims see Christians as infidels who oppose the one true faith and must therefore be opposed in the name of Allah (cf. Qur’an 2:190).
However, we don’t have to persecute the church to fall prey to the temptation of religion that competes against a genuine relationship with Jesus.
I’m old enough to remember a day when church activities consisted primarily of worship and Bible study. Then churches discovered that they could add buildings and programs to attract the community and hopefully attract them to the Lord. Gymnasiums, family life centers, children’s and youth weekday activities, and need-based programs (AA, divorce recovery, and so on) proliferated. These strategies followed Jesus’ example as he met felt needs to meet spiritual needs, healing bodies to heal souls.
Such programs can be effective ways to reach people who likely would not come to a worship service or a Bible study. I know of pastors and other Christian leaders who reached for Christ through softball leagues, sports programs, recovery groups, and similar ministries.
But the downside of the upside is that we can confuse activities at church with a transforming relationship with Jesus himself. Our Great Commission is clear and simple: the church exists to “make disciples” of Jesus by evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved (Matthew 28:19–20). If we do anything else, we can be many things—but we are no longer the church.
Our Lord was clear: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Not “come to my teachings,” or “come to my movement, “ or “join my church,” but “come to me.”
Experiencing the risen Lord Jesus himself is the essence of Christianity.
“God is the strength of my heart”
In his Confessions, St. Augustine famously prayed, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The second phrase explains the first.
God made you and me in his own image so we could have a personal relationship with our Maker (Genesis 1:27). This only makes sense. Humans can relate to humans on a level different from our relationship with any other living beings, not to mention inanimate objects.
Because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), he made us for intimacy with himself. This is why we are commanded to love God with “all” our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). Everything “religious” we do is to be a means to this end: We worship God as our “Audience of one,” as Kierkegaard reminded us. We read Scripture to hear “God preaching,” as J. I. Packer noted. We pray to commune with our Lord. We serve others to serve him.
In fact, God says everything we do in life is to be a means to the end of knowing him and making him known:
Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me (Jeremiah 9:23–24).
According to Paul, anything we must give up to know God personally and intimately is a cost worth paying: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
The psalmist agreed:
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25–26).
“Let us run with confidence and joy”
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here” (Matthew 17:4 NIV). St. Anastasius, the seventh-century abbot of St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, commented on Peter’s declaration:
Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”
It is indeed good to be here, as you have said, Peter. It is good to be with Jesus and to remain here forever. What greater happiness or higher honor could we have than to be with God, to be made like him and to live in his light?
Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy: “It is good for us to be here.”
When last did you “retire from the world” to “turn to the Creator”?
When last was it “good” for you to be with Jesus?
Why not today?
Quote for the day:
“Everything we do for God will be the overflow of intimacy with God.” —Dan Baumann
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