Jeremy L. Berg

I was mowing on my lawn tractor the other day, weaving in and out around trees at dusk. The darker the sky grew, the more blurry the trees became—appearing as dark figures standing guard over our yard by night. My mind was drawn to a strange episode in the Gospels. 

Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked. The man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees walking around. Once again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and when he opened them his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly (Mark 8:23-25).

In Mark 8, Jesus attempts to heal a blind man, but only gets him halfway there the first go. It takes a second work to complete the job. He’s halfway to seeing fully. An improvement for sure, but the story would land flat if Jesus left him only halfway to seeing!

The story is not suggesting any shortcomings in Jesus’ healing power, but rather that our transformation sometimes requires a second stage if we are to experience the fullness of the Kingdom.

Unfortunately, many Christians may be only halfway to real discipleship and partially blind to the Cruciform Kingdom. Many of us have prayed the prayer, made a confession of faith, been baptized, maybe even attend church regularly. But many such churchgoers have only a fuzzy, blurry grasp of the cross-shaped Kingdom Jesus calls disciples to embrace and embody. (For this reason, we are spending the summer discussing “The Cruciform Kingdom” with Greg Boyd, a video series on Seminary Now. Join us Sundays at 5pm.)

Jesus’ clarion call to a cross-shaped discipleship is found in Mark 8—just a few verses after the story of the half-sighted man mistaking people for “trees walking.” Jesus says: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Another word for the cross upon which the Savior died is the “Tree of Calvary.” Quoting Deuteronomy, Paul speaks of Jesus on the cross saying: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). The mark of true discipleship is taking up one’s own “tree” and walking in a self-sacrificial, other-oriented Way that takes the form of the cross, i.e., cruciformity. 

In the healing of the blind man, the fact that the people looked like “walking trees” was a sign of incomplete healing. When it comes to discipleship, however, the opposite is true: full disciples should take on the appearance of cross-shaped figures walking around displaying a cruciform Way of life. When people look at our lives, do they see little crucifix scenes on the move? As a tall guy, I’ve often been compared to a tree. Do I look like a replica of the Tree of Calvary in my posture toward others? “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take the form of the Tree and follow me” (Mark 8:34 my paraphrase). 

To the extent that Christians have made a profession of faith and attend church, but have not yet grasped the cross-shaped nature of the Cruciform Kingdom and its cross-shaped ethics, they are only partially “converted” and half-Christian. Some key aspects of a cruciform life include:

• Choosing self-giving love and sacrifice over a me-first ethic of personal gain and self-interest
• Embracing grace and generosity narratives while rejecting narratives of scarcity and meritocracy.
• Exercising “power-under” others and resisting “power-over” tactics of coercion
• Choosing non-violent resistance and enemy-love over violence and retribution

May our churches become like tree orchards in bloom, filled with disciples so committed to the cross-shaped life that onlookers remark, “I see people, but they look like trees (i.e., crucifixes) walking around!” Then we will know Christ’s work has been made complete in us. 

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).