Suffering Beyond Me

Love without suffering is meaningless and suffering without love is unendurable.  The message of the gospels is, “God so loved the world…” (John 3:16) in the context of suffering. But seeing love and suffering harmonized in Jesus can be missed.  Eyes without faith are veiled to the power and wisdom of God in Christ’s suffering and see only a Roman execution.  But one aspect of the cross that can be applied is how God comforts in suffering and brings suffering together with grace.  Grace in that context can produce a spiritual benefit to the person they is suffering and beyond.  This is a mystery that even witnesses of the crucifixion of Jesus could not always get.

At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down’ (Mark 15:34-36).

The scoffers listened only in Aramaic and not Hebrew but their ignorance was more than that.  The bystanders mishearing “Eloi” for Elijah is like a metaphor for the misconceptions bound to happen if we do not see Jesus on the cross in the right perspective.  The right perspective is not seeing Jesus struggling to live but dying so we might live. As Irenneus of Lyon said several times, “he conquered death by death”.

The bystanders had not even rough guesses on this point like is common cynics of today.  It is for this that Paul wrote, “For the messageabout the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).  Taking in Psalm 22 correctly is to appreciate the supreme sacrifice of Jesus bringing all of God’s covenantal promises to be manifest.

What more can happen in being the light of Christ as the spiritual Israel, the Body of Christ, if they walk in the knowledge of this “power of God”?  We can connect the passion of Jesus on the cross with our struggles in life.

Jesus said we will have tribulation “but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Trials are inevitable but our choice to merge suffering with grace is a choice. This would in turn be a truer representation of the gospel than a prosperity emphasis like that of Joel Osteen.  “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  The balance on this is lived in the Christian who is “being saved”.

Paul sums up the truth of the kingdom to include suffering and its benefits but always with hope. He shows beauty in suffering with faith to complete work the Body of Christ.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:24-1:28).

In misreading this passage one may think we are becoming our own saviors in the “lacking in Christ’s afflictions”.  But this is not the case.  We do not fulfill the atonement of the cross but we appropriate the graces of Christ-centered suffering for his glory.

What is lacking in Christ’s afflictions- – Christ gave himself as the perfect Sacrifice for our redemption and the forgiveness of our sins.  There is no “lack” in that Sacrifice; Paul referred to our duty to respond to that offer of redemption by cooperating with the grace we are given. Such cooperation means seeking holiness, carrying our crosses, patiently enduring redemptive suffering, and keeping the moral law.  Through redemptive suffering, Christ’s disciples share in his cross and consequently share in his graces for the conversion of themselves and of others as well as make reparations for our sins and the sins of others (Didache Bible).

It is truly in the cross of Christ we behold the ultimate “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Ideally, we can share a bit of the interior life of Jesus while he was hanging on the cross that can bear intercession for others.  This below sums up the truths and benefits of Christ’s quote from Psalm 22 through the lens of the cross and a community that suffers in him.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-12).

It is through prayer and meditation that holiness through suffering occurs.  Since God’s power is made perfect through weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), we can suffer knowing and representing Jesus as ourjoy set before us. Jesus knows our pain and it can be from and through our pain we share the gospel most authentically which is what the world needs.  The fruit of that is the believer evangelizing with a love that weeps and gives true hope.  The start of some stories are that we were lost.  In Christ, we tell the world we were found with wounds on us.

LOVE SUFFERS AS MEANT TO BE

                        It is a cold dish to be served when the rescue one depends on does not come in an hour of dire need.  One can ponder the ER patient who has been mangled and the lidocaine is delayed.  Or an unwanted divorce with the other spouse not wanting to give it a chance.  The cliche can easily be said that, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure” but comes far short of consoling.

But the message of the cross can give a sense of meaning whether the rescue comes or not. That message is comfort in the context ofmeaning in the atonement of Christ having practical application to our lives.  We see in the cross God is not in the capricious punishing business at the cross or through all of salvation history.  He had grace planned all along.

A strange comment is made by Jesus on the cross. He is supposed to be the best example of faith in God yet he says something that is counter-intuitive to modern, faithful thought.

                                                THE FOURTH WORD

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34

But there is more to these words than meets the eye.  One may perceive that agony and sense of being detached from hope in seeing Jesus on the cross especially in light of how he spoke of the love between him and the Father.  This appearance seems to be raised a notch with the words below that counter-intuitively show the fruit of the cross is comfort to the suffering.  If we look further there is a calling inthe suffering.

Jesus is drawing from Psalm 22 and sparing enough breath barely for a shorthand reference to a broader context psalm that was well known then.  This psalm referred to on the cross hits themes of all salvation history.

The crown of this psalm points to praise and thanksgiving that reverberates in the holy congregation. The declaration of the gospel hidden in that psalm is a template for God’s long-term faithfulness, provision to the hungry, universal worship, boldness to worship, resurrection and proclaiming his salvation.  All of this would be clear to a scholar of the scriptures of that day if they listened with an open heart.  And with that heart one would see the sacrifice as a seed and suffering as the ongoing nurturing of the Church that is to cooperate in all of the above.

Those themes are centered on Israel, and show God’s discipline, holiness and covenantal faithfulness to Israel.  The line Jesus uses could sound like God is being called out of touch but the full context of the psalm is saying God initiates and has a plan.

On the responsiveness of God’s love there are highs and lows in the faith narrative of that psalm. There is cited personal brokenness yet personal consolation. In fact, there is faith with petition to God in suffering but prophetic details of the crucifixion.

Yea, dogs are round about me; a company of evildoers encircle me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots. (Psalms 22:16-18).

In the gospels we read that none of his bones were broken and in crucifixion his hands and feet were pierced.  The intricate tapestry of God’s fulfillment points to how our initial and ongoing conversion should be understood that suffering is to be expected.  Though we are not called to atone for our sins, there is a suffering natural to the Christian life which compliments what the atonement already gives. Appreciating his suffering is in the gospel of initial conversion, but embracing suffering is part of the ongoing conversion in taking up ones cross.  Paul illustrated this beautifully.

Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:8-11).

Finally, it should not be lost that this psalm points to the right worship that comes through suffering while pleading in the hour of ones death.  But the end of that psalm is important: that of thanksgiving.  And how that suffering is for something good as an outflow of the discipleship experience is the next part to be looked at.