By Rev. Dr. Charles J.
Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist
Partnership
Fifth Sunday of
Easter, May 18th, 2014
We hurt. We suffer.
We have pain, heartache and heartbreak in life. Why? This is the unanswerable question we have to
live with, rather than will ever have an answer for. We will have to live with it, die with it,
and have faith without it being answered.
We all know, or will what it means to ‘hurt’, but we will never have a final
solution or learn a full reason ‘why’ that can answer this unanswerable
“problem of pain” once and for all.
What we do have, or
should I say, “who” we have, as both the question and our answer, is Jesus
Christ. He is the one, as Peter says in
today’s text, “also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example, so that (we) should
follow in his steps” (2.21). Those are certainly some big “shoes” to fill,
aren’t they? Who of us can, or ever
would want to really “walk” in these suffering “footsteps of Jesus” that might
“glow” but not “sweet” in the way the gospel song might imply? Can we
indeed see ourselves walking in the way of suffering, which Peter says, can
make us feel like “slaves,” can be “unjust,” or might mean either emotionally or
physically being “wounded” for the sake of Christ? And what if, we cannot be completely
‘healed’ without the wounds? What if it
is not only “by his strips that we are
healed”, but Jesus really does serve as an “example” of who we should be and how when we should live and suffer,
and how we are also to be fully and finally “healed” or “saved” not only
through his own “wounds” but we are also to be healed and made complete through
the marks, the stripes, and the wounds we ourselves ‘bear’ in our own body and
in our very life.
Is this not also what
did Paul meant when he said, “I bear in
my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6.17), and when he
claimed even to find “joy” (Phil.
2.17) in “fellowship of his sufferings (Phil.
3.10)?” Along with Peter, these are indeed, some very strange words, as well
as, unwanted examples, but could there not be some ‘healing’ and ‘saving’ in
this message for us?
YOU HAVE GOD’S APPROVAL
These words from Peter
start out with some very negative language about “slaves accepting the authority of… both “gentle” or “harsh” “masters”. It also challenging because it tells us we
gain “credit” by “enduring pain” or by “suffering unjustly”. Who wants to get that kind of credit in their
life account? Who would want to have
life as that kind of cruel “master”? These are ‘demanding’ images, but
not the most demanding. It comes as Peter
suggests that “if (we) endure when we do right and suffer for it,
(we) have God’s approval.” (2.20).
God’s approval? This makes me
think of the person who said, “If God
does this to his friends, I’d rather be his enemy!” Does this mean that God
approves of you or I having to hurt or suffer when I am doing what is
right? What kind of God “approves” of
that? Can it make any sense that the God
who is Almighty God, and who is over all, not only allows, but also “approves”
of our suffering, even if it for the sake of doing the right thing?
This does not and will
not make any sense, if we do not also understand where Peter is coming
from. As a Jewish Christian, Peter lived
in a world, where it was believed and taught that if you are good, you will be
rewarded, and if you are bad, you will have to suffer for it. My parents tried to teach me the same
thing. It is true to a point, but it
only goes so far, and it doesn’t go far enough in helping us get through
life.
And that’s was what the
book of Job was about. Job’s friends
sincerely believed that Job must have done something wrong, because they
understood that God would not allow him to “suffer” evil, unless he had sinned
and done something wrong. Yet, in the
Bible story, Job keeps protesting to his friends and taking his clear
conscience to God, declaring that he had done nothing wrong and he simply can’t
understand why God would put him through all this suffering. Why me? Why me? Why me? He keeps asking, and
God never really gives him an answer, except to say that he has done nothing to
deserve what he is going through.
Furthermore, in the end
God declares that Job wouldn’t understand what is going on, even if God told him
because he is a mortal human being, and Job is not God. This is the only answer God gives, comes
right out of the whirlwind of Job’s on pain and suffering. Job never fully understand “why” he has to
suffer, but he can only trust God and keep going through it, never fully knowing
‘why’ but only realizing that he does not ‘suffer’ because of his own sin, because
God is not against him, no matter how much it hurts.
Again, the main point in
Job goes against what general, conventional Jewish wisdom taught; that a person
always suffered for doing something wrong.
Job’s experience with pain and suffering now opened the door for a new,
even greater truth about pain; that sometimes, in this world of sin, evil and
pain, even a righteous person will suffer, and maybe will have to suffer even
when they are doing what is right.
What the book of Job
hints at, become fully true in the suffering of Jesus Christ, who was the most righteous; but still
suffers, not because he sinned, but Jesus suffers because he is righteous. This was something never made clear in the
Law of Moses, neither in the words of the Prophets, nor in the writings and
wisdom of Solomon. It is a reality that
was only fully revealed and realized in the suffering and pain of Jesus on the
cross.
YOU ALSO HAVE CHRIST’S EXAMPLE
Now that we can see how
‘suffering’ can have God’s approval, not because we deserve it, or because God
desires our pain, but we can suffer because
this is how life is, even when we are
good and faithful people, not because we are bad or deserve it. With
this kind of understanding of what it means to have “God’s approval” in our suffering, perhaps we can better hear (even if we don’t
want to) the next thing Peter says, when he surprisingly writes to them, and perhaps
also to us, “For this you have been
called…” (2.21). Can we dare hear a call to suffering, a call to endure
pain, hardship and even to have heartbreak in our lives, for the sake of the “calling” of God in Jesus Christ? Why would God call us to that?
Of course, if we are in
our right mind, none of us should want to suffer, even for doing good, let
alone for doing evil. But before we can
fully understand what “suffering”
might mean “for us” and as we
remember God is not “against us, ” Peter
wants his readers to understand how Jesus is the “example” we can “follow,”
even in our own moments of pain and suffering.
Christ is the one who is our
example because he “committed no sin and
no deceit was found in his mouth” (v.22).
Christ is also our example because “when
he was abused, he did not return abuse” and “when he suffered, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to the one
who judges rightly (v. 23a).”
That’s a lot to digest, as
Peter calls us to consider bearing the weight of ‘suffering’ without responding
in negative ways that makes matters worse.
But perhaps the main point Peter makes comes when at the end, as he
suggests that Jesus is our example because he “entrusted himself to the one who judges rightly (v. 23b).” Trusting God, even when life can’t be
trusted, is the example Jesus sets for all who suffer. Trust is the only thing that can get us
through our pain and our suffering, and this kind of ultimate ‘trust’ is the
kind that only God can give.
A few years ago, the
British philosopher, Onora O’Neill, argued that our society is suffering from a
crisis of trust (As cited by Rowan
Williams in “Tokens of Trust”, WJK, 2007, p. 3). Who needs a professional
to tell us what we know already? But why
is this happening? Why are we becoming
less trusting of professionals and more cynical about government, about the educational
system, about established institutions, about health care, about churches, and
even less trusting of each other? Do you realize that more Americans believe in
UFO’s (48%) and in ghosts (45%), than go to church (20%). What in the world is going on? Perhaps
a clue comes from the work of American Philosopher Charles Taylor. In his book “A Secular Age”, Taylor writes to demonstrate how society today has become
less religious and much less trusting of traditional faith and much more secular,
skeptical, and suspicious, if not also superstitious. We live in a world that has a much more
difficult time, “trusting” or believing in God, or participating in worship,
and but is still, if not more preoccupied with fetishes, fantasies, fairies, and
fiction. However, Taylor goes on to show
that even though humans are caring less about faith or trusting in a supreme divine
power, our ‘secular age’ is also “very far from settling in on unbelief”. As
some has rightly suggested, it appears
we’re going backward to the times when people lived in fear of multiply unknown
powers. We’ve moved from believing in
the one true God we can trust, to believing in the powers we can’t trust for
anything.
Even if the majority of
people don’t trust God, we still need God; perhaps now, more than ever
before. Even some of the most elite thinkers
among us are coming to understand just how little we can believe and trust in
life by itself. In other words, Taylor implies,
that less religion does not necessarily mean less faith. Since we will always live in a world filled
with unspeakable suffering, which will continue to be filled with more
unanswerable question, than answered ones, we have no less need to trust God. We definitely don’t want all these ‘unanswered’
questions to cave in on us and keep us from doing the good we can, sharing the
love we have, and having the trust and hope we need for life. Trust in God, as our Creator, Sustainer, and
Redeemer , even for secular people, could still prove to be the only way to
keep trusting, loving, and doing good, especially when life hurts or goes
against us. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Secular_Age).
This is exactly why
Christ is our example, isn’t it? Jesus
is our example in suffering because right at the center of the most mysterious,
unsettling darkness, sin and suffering, is the God who loves us and is at work
reconciling all things through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5.19). Because Jesus trusted God, when everything
seemed to turn against him, Jesus did not give in or give up to the evil around
him. As the clearest example, Jesus
trusted God and we too are called to trust God and we can know know that God
can be trusted because God raised Jesus from the dead giving Jesus, the one who
trusted to the end, the keys to life and the keys to the kingdom. Thus, as Jesus lived and died in trust, we can
know that God can be trusted, even when it hurts.
BY HIS WOUNDS YOU HAVE BEEN HEALED
As we suffer, because we
are human, we can know that when Christ put has on “human flesh’ and “dwelt
among us” he suffered and trusted God, and nothing less than this same kind of ‘trust’
will be demanded from us when we suffer.
But at the same time, we also need to realize Christ is the example in
suffering who gives us hope in our pain, rather than dread. Just as no less than ‘trust’ will be demanded
of us when we suffer, as we suffer in this world, no less will be given to us in
hope than was also given to Jesus Christ.
Our hope beyond the pain
begins with Peter’s very next words, declaring that “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from
sins, we might live for righteousness….” (v.24). Because of what Christ’s
suffering accomplished, we can now know that our own suffering is never
meaningless. Christ’s suffering “bore our sins” and “frees us
from sins” so that we “might live
for righteousness” and never have to be afraid to suffer for the sake of
doing right. In other words, we can even
endure even the ‘unjust’ pains and hurts of life, because God can be trusted to
make any and all of our suffering worth the pain. Just as God turned Jesus’ tragic suffering
and death into forgiveness and grace, God can and will turn our own suffering
into something more than the hurt we now feel.
When Peter says, ‘By his wounds
we have been healed’ through Jesus’ pain, God promises us that we are
‘healed’ not just in a hurting world, but we can be ‘healed” through the hurts
of life, if we will follow Christ’s example.
Since God is the “guardian”
of our soul, God is able to ‘heal’ through hurt that comes from doing what is
right.
Most of us reflect on
how Jesus saves us “by his wounds”,
but we think too little on how Jesus is also our ‘example’ in suffering and how God still heals through “wounds”, whether they are the wounds of
Jesus on the cross, or whether they are ours as we bear the cross. Henri
Nouwen, reminded me how God’s healing comes by moving toward the pain and hurt,
rather than running away from it. In
this book, “The Wounded Healer” he through an old Jewish legend, Nouwen shows
us , as Peter does, that there is no
healing in life or death without the wounds.
“A Rabbi came upon
Elijah the prophet, and asked him, “When will the Messiah come?”
“Why don’t you go and
ask him yourself,” Elijah answered.
“Where is he, and how
will I know him?”
“He is sitting among the
poor covered with wounds, and he is binding up his own wounds one at a time, so
he has time to stop and take care of the others who are also wounded.”
So, the Rabbi goes to
the Messiah and asked him, “When are you coming?”
“Today”, the Messiah
answered. I am coming to you today.”
So the Rabbi goes back
to Elijah the Prophet, who asks: “What
did the Messiah tell you?”
“He indeed has deceived me,
the Rabbi said, for he told me that he is coming today.
Then Elijah reminded the
Rabbi, “Did you not find him “today”?
And will you not find him again, and again, today, or any time, if you listen
to his word and if you go and look for him among the wounded, binding up his
wounds one at a time, so he can stop and take care of the wounded?” (Adapted and Paraphrased from “The Wounded
Healer”, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, Doubleday, 1972, p. 81, 94-95).
Not, long ago, I hear about a woman who went to retire in Florida, but she said she would have gone crazy being retired, if she had not become involved in reaching out to the needs of others.
In another incident, a
couple lost their daughter in terrible accident, but after her death, they
found healing by putting all their dreams and hopes for their daughter into
establishing a non-profit so that other young people might be better warned about
such dangers.
Who does not know about some
movie star, or some other wealthy person, who rose to the top, but now spends
much of their time, stooping back down to the help the people at the bottom, so
they can keep their sanity and find a real purpose for living?
And finally, where is
the person who loses a spouse, endures an debilitating injury, and finds
themselves wounded and hurt, who then, decided to get involved in binding the
wounds of others, and caring about the brokenness of the world, and then,
amazingly, if not miraculously, found that the wound they were carrying
themselves, had new hope of healing?
We all know stories like
this and what they tell us is true: Only
those who find trust, follow Christ’s example, and then move straight into the pain
and wounds others can expect God’s healing.
As Peter says, “Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example…” (v. 21). Christ left us an ‘example’
not only so that “by his wounds” we will be healed, but when you
follow Christ’s example, and when you follow him, and bear your cross, by binding your own wounds and by bearing
the “wounds” of others, you will be healed again and again, because you really
do trust God as the “guardian of your
soul”. Amen.
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