The Karma of Christ (Cambodia 2006, Part 2)
Over 90% of Cambodians are Buddhist. Buddhist philosophy, ritual, and architecture pervade this country. On day 3 of our trip, while in the northern province of Siem Reap, I took this picture of some Buddhist monks walking along the road in their traditional orange robing. I am thankful that now, more than ever before, such men are beginning to hear a message that is the exact opposite of Buddhist teaching. They are beginning to hear, Cambodia is beginning to hear, the gospel.
For a very long time Buddhism has been the worldview held by the majority of Cambodians. Central to Cambodian Buddhism is the doctrine of karma. Karma is the belief that one’s status in life now and in the future depends upon one’s own deeds, behavior, and performance.
The basic karma equation works like this:
- good behavior and performance = reward
- bad behavior and performance = punishment.
This is a tragic way to live.
Most people, be it in Cambodia or America, live under a default religious mentality that their good behavior will earn them “God
points” and their bad behavior will reap “God demerits.” This, however, is the opposite of the Christian gospel.
Karma is bad news. The gospel is good news.
The gospel is good news. It’s the best news we humans could ever hear.
However, before the gospel tells us good news, it first tells us bad news. The gospel declares that all people have a badly damaged relationship with God, one so badly damaged that we can’t fix it ourselves. Even worse, we are at fault for this broken relationship. Worse still: God will justly and severely punish people for the treason of breaking relationship with him.
According to the Bible, we all have very bad karma.
According to the Bible, we have no hope of saving ourselves through keeping our performance or karma. Yet the good news is that God can fix this relationship. The gospel tells us that God has acted to fix this relationship through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
Jesus is the only one who has ever had perfect “karma.” Jesus is the only one who ever lived a life of perfect obedience, righteousness, and sinless-ness. Jesus lived the life that you and I could never live. To speak in Buddhist terms, Jesus never lived a day or committed a deed of bad karma. Yet, the bloodline of the gospel is that despite his perfect life, Jesus purposely died the terrible death of a bad karma criminal–the death you and I ought to have died. Instead of sending us to the cross to punish us for our sins, God the Father sent Jesus to the cross and punished him. Jesus lived the “good karma” life we sinners are unable to live and died the “bad karma” death that we sinners deserve to die. And what’s more, after three days in the grave Jesus rose again and showed himself to be victorious over sin, bad karma, and death.
Buddhism teaches that you must save yourself from sin. The only Savior in Buddhism is yourself.
Christianity is the exact opposite. The gospel teaches that you cannot save yourself. The gospel teaches that your only hope is laying claim to a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. And he is the perfect, one and only Savior for sinners like you and me. And now, more and more Cambodians are encountering and being transformed by this message.
I am thankful that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the move in Cambodia. While in Cambodia I heard many stories of Buddhist monks who have heard the gospel, repented of their sin, and laid claim to Jesus the Savior.
The gospel first came to Cambodia in the early 1900s. But little progress was visible until the terror of the Khmer Rouge came in the 1970s. Under the genocidal Khmer Rouge very large numbers of Cambodians sought refuge in Jesus the Savior. But it appears that now, more than ever, more and more pastors and churches are being raised up in Cambodia to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring many to a karma-less way of living found only in Jesus. I count it a great honor that I got to spend time with 50 of these men. In their churches and communities they are witnessing the gospel get a hold of and transform many lives. In that I rejoice.
JBuzz,
Good thoughts on buddhism and karma. I’ve found it interesting to compare the concept of karma with retribution theology found in the old testament, particularly in the wisdom literature. The concepts seem similar in some respects. Retribution theology basically says, “The wicked will suffer and the righteous will prosper.” This is one of the major messages of Proverbs. If you do evil it will come back on you. i.e. Pr. 10:3,4 “The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” or 11:17, “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”
In a very general sense these are true. If you do the right things life will, in general, go better for you. This was my main motivation for staying away from drugs in high school & college…they’ll trash your life. But, we know that retribution theology doesn’t always work like clockwork. Hence you have Ecclesiastes, which laments the suffering of the righteous and the prosperity of the wicked. And, of course, there’s the danger of reversing the formula. “If you sin you will suffer” may be true. But, “if you suffer you must have sinned” is not necessarily true (this is what Job’s buddies couldn’t figure out; they thought he must have done something to deserve the bad karma).
The cool thing about all this jazz is that Jesus is the great karma buster. We have all done enough evil to deserve retribution, but Jesus took our punishment upon himself. He was the righteous one who suffered for the wicked. That is really, really, really, really, good news for us.
Thanks for your thoughts bro! Keep it going.
love, cj
Very thought provoking comments Justin & Christian. It’s certainly a central issue that we all deal with; “why did that happen?” Tons of the christian life is the clear reaping of what we’ve sown and yet we just can’t always box God into our perceptions that way either.(good thing) Why did my little 13 year old christian client get cancer, or any number of other examples we can come up with? I think we just need to learn to “be still and know” that he is God and that he is GOOD in a child-like trust which is impossible without his grace and spirit. We don’t like those places of not knowing and we don’t like the tension or struggle of resting in letting God be God. We’re just scared sheep clinging to our backyard teeter-totters, resisting the Lord who wants to lead us to Disneyland. Sometimes that twisty path just doesn’t look like we would have planned. Fortunately Jesus knows our hearts better than we do and knows what we NEED to reap to answer our true souls deep longings. Those potholes in the path lead us deeper into his arms, which is a taste of Heaven (Eternal Disneyland). For me that’s where
the “consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds” part of James makes sense. When I look back at certain trials I’ve managed to “reap”, or even just experience in the Lord’s wisdom, the biggest joy and blessing is relational. I know Jesus better in ways that I wouldn’t have chosen to without the catalyst of tough times.
I love it when nutjobs like you misinterpret my teachings and advocate suffering on those who worship different Gods.
Dear “Jesus,”
I’m curious, how did my Karma of Christ post misinterpret the teachings of Jesus and advocate suffering for those who worship different gods? I’m not understanding the nutjobiness of my post.
