“Face the Cross “ by facing suffering
“ Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.” ( Romans 8:18-19)
In this fifth week of the Lenten season we “Face the Cross “ by facing suffering. We all suffer one way or another in this world. Having faith in Jesus is not taking the easy way out either. However, suffering can also make us more mature in our faith and bring us closer to God. Through suffering we come to understand more fully that we are not as in control of our lives as we think we are and we must rely on God and others more than we think we should have to.
Christian apologist and author Lee Strobel, in doing research for his book THE CASE FOR FAITH, once asked Barna researchers and pollsters to conduct a survey to determine the one question most people would want to ask God if given the opportunity.
"By far, the number one question that people wanted to ask God is 'Why He allows pain and suffering in this world?'"
In offering the world a theological answer to this question, it's important not only to explain the involvement of free-will and the consequences of the fall of human-kind. We have all sinned and are all, therefore, deserving of God's judgment, which includes both physical and spiritual death (Romans 6:23). This, alone, should humble us in the face of SUFFERING. Add to this the realization that God doesn't just sit back while we endure SUFFERING. God asks nothing of us that God hasn't asked of Himself. This, even though we are deserving of our pain, while Jesus was not.
For although the world suffers as a consequence of disobedience, God has also suffered as a consequence of God’s love for us. Jesus does not leave us here alone to suffer, but has come down and fully embraced our suffering, making it His own.
Add to these considerations the fact that there is one thing Jesus suffered that has not been asked of us--to suffer, not for His own sin, but for the sins of others! In light of all of this, we must let the bitter chill of unjustified resentment melt away, replaced by the warmth of eternal gratitude.
As John Stott has so eloquently articulated:
I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the Cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us.
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
Enduring persecution and mocking for being Christian can be one of the toughest burdens to bear, but no matter how bad suffering gets, we need to remember that even when Jesus was being mocked and ridiculed on the cross, he did not sulk in suffering. He looked outward as we can too. Reach out to a specific person God has put into your path to help out with a problem. When we look beyond ourselves, our own a personal suffering takes a back seat and we have a better view of the big picture, of God’s grand design for God’s people.
AMEN