July 12, 2020 – Suffering On Mission – Missio Dei 3 – Romans 8
SUFFERING ON MISSION
The Rev. Jay Traylor
Rom 8:18-25
Isa 55
Psa 65
Matt 13:1-9,18-23
Context
There was an Austrian psychiatrist named Victor Frankl. Victor Frankl was a survivor of the Holocaust. He was kept in the concentration camps at Auschwitz, Turkheim, and others. And Frankl wrote a very popular book called “Man’s Search for Meaning,” based in part on his time in the concentration camps. In it, he said the following thing about suffering. Frankl said that a person’s suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the “size” of human suffering is absolutely relative.
Frankl believed that to alleviate suffering, one needed to imagine “a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then to immersively imagine that outcome.” And Victor Frankl was not a Christian. However, I think he was probably correct; suffering will fill whatever vessel it inhabits. But I think he was INCORRECT in his assessment of how to deal with it. He was correct if FEELING BETTER is the goal. If feeling better is the goal, Victor Frankl has a really good solution – simply imagining a better outcome and then immersing yourself in that possibility. But what Frankl is describing is not Christianity in any meaningful way. He’s basically describing the beginning stages of the bestseller from 15 years ago called “The Secret.”
If feeling good is the goal, Chrisanity might not be for you. But if being caught up in the redemption of all things that the creator of the universe is doing for his glory and for the good of those who call upon his name, if THAT is the goal, then Christianity very much has something to say about suffering and its place in our lives.
Prayer
Body
Some books of the Bible are historical narratives. Some are poems. Some are books of prophecy. And, some are letters, and in the case of Romans, this is a letter that is partly a fundraising letter, partly a plea for unity in the church, and partly one very carefully laid out logical and rhetorical argument about who we are apart from God, what he has already done for us in the person and work of Christ Jesus, and how we should therefore live in light of that.
It’s essentially a series of propositions – A and therefore B and therefore C. It’s why so many verses in Romans, and really in all of the letters of Paul, cause that’s how we writes, start with a “Therefore.” And, anytime you see a “therefore” as the start of a sentence, you have to ask “what’s it there FOR?” Basically, it’s saying, “In light of what I just said, blah blah blah.” The statement after the Therefore is based on whatever came before it.
In our text today, it starts “FOR,” or “Gar” in Greek. Not quite the same as “therefore,” but it’s close – so let’s look back a bit. Paul has been talking about the sinful condition that every single human being finds is born into, and every one of us deserves eternal condemnation because we have sinned and fallen short of the glory that God had for us, but, because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, there is therefore NO condemnation for those who are “in Christ Jesus.” And we receive the Holy Spirit who unites us to Christ, through whom we are adopted as sons and daughters of God, with each of us, all of us, having the rights and privileges of firstborn sons!
So that sounds pretty sweet! How do we get from that to all this stuff in our text today about suffering? Because being united to Christ means sharing in his suffering AND sharing in his resurrection. In that order. Look at verse 16 – “The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs — heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”
There is suffering in this world. And if you believe Victor Frankl, it’s hard to compare suffering from one person to the next. Different people seem to have different pain thresholds, and different people seem to have different thresholds of suffering. But all of us feel it. Now, I’m not talking about the suffering that you feel when you do something dumb and then have to pay the consequences. If you cheat on a test at school and fail the test and have to stay after school to do makeup work, that’s suffering. But it’s not necessarily what Paul is talking about here – that might fall under the category of “everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is you make stupid decisions.”
Whether it’s suffering for the sake of the Gospel or suffering because of the fallen condition of the world, suffering is a very common theme in the New Testament, particularly in the writings of the apostle Paul. As Christians, we are baptised into the death of Christ, and we are called, in a certain sense, to participate in the sufferings of Christ, in the tribulations of the kingdom of God. The purpose of these sufferings is not to show how holy we are, or to build up good credit with God so that he can then bless us later. The purpose of our suffering is to solidify our identification with Jesus and to work out the redemptive purposes of God. Tribulation is to be expected in the Christian life. Paul, however, says that just as we share in Jesus’ sufferings we will also be glorified with him. Just as Jesus has been exalted and been given the promise of the fullness of the kingdom of God, so in the same way, after the sufferings of this life, we will participate in the glory that the Father gives to the Son. Because, for reasons that we might never understand this side of Jesus coming back, often how the mission of God is worked out in his creation is through suffering.
Think about the story of how the early church spread. It was through suffering and through sharing. When Jesus was giving his final instructions to his disciples after his resurrection, he said that they would spread his gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, the surrounding countryside, and to all the ends of the earth. But that they should wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. And so they did, and the Holy Spirit came down, and then massive revival broke out in Jerusalem. People were being saved, the church was growing… until a group of Jewish leaders started persecuting the Christians, forcing them to flee the city… to Samaria and Judea… where the Gospel started spreading again, just like Jesus said it would. And from there, throughout the rest of the book of Acts, the apostles are getting chased around, thrown in prison, shipwrecked, beaten… and all the while, they are meeting new people, forming new relationships, telling them about the story of Jesus and what he has done, and the church is growing. The church almost always grows through suffering.
“But that’s not fair. That’s cruel. God sounds mean.” Yes, but only if you believe that suffering has no point. If the goal of life is contentment and security and stability, then suffering will get in the way of that. If the goal of life is liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then suffering is a huge obstacle toward that goal. But if the goal of this life is to become more and more like Jesus, to focus more and more of our thoughts and our actions on him, then our suffering has a purpose.
Verse 18 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are NOT WORTH COMPARING with the glory that is to going be revealed to us.” This is not a statement of balance, of weighing two things against each other, this is a statement of massive imbalance. Great theologian R.C. Sproul said that “Paul is not saying that there is a level of pain and suffering that is equalled or balanced out by a future promise of reward or blessedness. He is not saying that for every ounce of suffering we patiently endure in this world, we will reap the benefit of an ounce of glory in heaven. Paul says that the ratio is so disproportionate that they are not even worthy of comparison. Our suffering is minute, virtually insignificant, compared to the deposit of glory that is established on our account in heaven.”
Does this mean we should just suck it up? Does this mean we just shut off our feelings, turn off that part of our brain that feels pain and sorrow, and just get on with it? Sometimes I sure act that way.
But no. This is what is known as stoicism. It’s an ancient Greek philosophy which says that the plan for life is ultimately unknowable, and that the best way to achieve The Good Life is to be indifferent to the whims of pleasure and pain, since most of life seems to be random chance of either success or suffering. Stoicism is enjoying a big revival right now through guys like Jonathan Haight and Jordan Peterson. And there is SOME Biblical truth to it, which is why it’s easy to think, “Hey, that sounds like how Jesus says we should live.” But no, because in this worldview, there is no creator, no plan of redemption, no mission of the creator into his creation, there is just suck it up, try not to care, and eventually die whenever Fate has it in store for you.
So maybe the way to alleviate suffering is to become detached. That’s what Buddhism would tell us. And, again, there IS some wisdom in it. A form of Zen Buddhism has been growing for the last 50 years or so. I mean, it’s a really sanitized version, where they strip out the bits about how the poor are only poor because of bad karma, and all the bad things that happen TO you are YOUR fault. But anyway, a sanitized Western version of Buddishm has been growing. You may have heard of authors like Pema Chodron or TICK Nhat Hanh or Jon Kabat-Zinn. And Buddhism teaches four things:
Suffering, pain, and misery exist in life
Suffering arises from attachment to desires
Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path
What’s the eightfold path? Right view, Right intention, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right concentration. Not bad if you want a list of effective behaviors. But what’s the one thing in common with all those eightfold solutions? You. You have to WORK your way out of it. You have to THINK your way out of it. So, good luck to you. But what Buddhism doesn’t address, because it CANNOT address, is WHY is there suffering? Does it have a purpose? And Buddhism can’t address that, because Buddhism doesn’t believe in a personal creator God who has a will and a purpose that he is working out in his creation.
So why DOES suffering exist? Some nonchristians will say that the biggest thing to overcome in terms of belief in God is “the problem of evil.” We might also call it “The problem of suffering.” How can a God who is all-powerful and yet also supposedly the embodiment of perfect love, how can such a God allow suffering in the world? Either he’s not really all powerful or he’s not really loving.
And this can even trip up a fair number of Christians. How can God allow such suffering in the world? How can he allow so much suffering in our land? How can he allow so much suffering in my city, my church, my house? I mean, I get it when “bad people” suffer. They’re bad. Their actions caused their suffering. But why me? Why my mom, my best friend? Why did I have a miscarriage? Why can’t I find work in the field that I think God is leading me into? Why did that perfect guy just completely ghost me and now I don’t trust anybody? Why is the pastor of our parent church who’s in generally good health and who’s my age, why is he in the ICU from pneumonia brought on by the novel coronavirus? WHY?!
Why does God hit us in the head with a hammer? Does he do it just because it feels so good when he stops?!
But it’s not just us. It’s all of creation. That’s the thing that Paul is getting at here. It’s not just Christians who suffer, and it’s not just human beings who suffer, it’s all of creation that suffers, and has been since sin was introduced into the perfect world in the Garden of Eden. But, the New Eden is coming back. Verse 20 – “For the creation was subjected to futility — not willingly, but because of him who subjected it (that’s ADAM, by the way. Sin came into the world because of Adam) in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.
Paul is not saying that we suffer for a little while and then life is good because we have Jesus. We do people a disservice, I’m quoting here from one of my seminary professors, Peter Lee, we do people a disservice when we comfort believers by telling them that when Paul talks about “this present time,” he’s just talking about this moment, this season. During y time in pastoral ministry it never ceased to amaze me how quickly new crises would arise in the church after old ones were resolved. Even in the life of the individual believer, there is rarely a time of respite from trial and hardship.”
Most of the church throughout history knows this. Most of the church worldwide today knows this. The blessing of being born when we were born and living in the land that God has put us in is that we have, by and large, a safety and stability that much of the world will never know. The challenge of being born when we were born and living in the land that God has put us in is that we tend to believe the story that the culture is telling us – that safety and stability are the default position, and that any deviation FROM that baseline is an aberration and needs to be stamped out.
But the church has always grown through suffering. God’s people have always been matured and shaped into the likeness of Christ through suffering. Part of the mission of each Christian is to be a light that pushes back the darkness, wherever and whenever you find yourself. And that can be hard.
Part of being the Church is to learn and inhabit a liturgy that centers us on God and what he is doing in his creation, in order to push back against the liturgy that the world would have us learn and inhabit, where I am the star of the show, and I have to look at the suffering around me and either suck it up, buttercup, or detach from everything. Being a Christian means being a light that shines into the darkness. And with each and every believer that shines into that darkness, the darkness is pushed back a little more. Verse 19 – For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Who are the sons of God? We are. Each of us – men and women. When we are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit, we have the rights of firstborn sons – we are heirs. We inherit all the privileges and benefits that God’s firstborn son, Jesus, inherits. And if creation has been groaning for the revelation of Christians, than each new believer using their light to push back against the darkness alleviates that suffering a tiny bit.
Verse 23 – And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
We know that in this life there is suffering, but what is our hope that we eagerly await? Resurrection. Heaven comes down to earth, everything is made new, and God’s creation and everything in it are made new and unbreakable.
Aubrey Spears, faithful church planting pastor in Harrisonburg, VA. Oversaw 3 other plants, loved and served his church faithfully for 11 years. Mom dies of coronavirus, Aubrey goes to her funeral, gets coronavirus, now in the ICU. He is suffering, his family is suffering, the church is suffering. So many ripple effects.
Tim Keller, who I quoted in the margin of Prayers of the People today. Tim Keller, Presbyterian pastor in Manhattan and write of a skillion books, probably had more impact on kind of “my generation” of pastors (people who became pastors in the last 15-20 years) than anyone else outside the Bible. Tim Keller, announces at week that he has pancreatic cancer. 5 year survival rate for pancreatic cancer? Nine percent. He is suffering, his family is suffering, the church is suffering. So many ripple effects.
And yet, Aubrey is hopeful. Because his trust is in God and God’s promises to his people fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And Keller is hopeful. Because his trust is in God and God’s promises to his people fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
When you are suffering, remember 3 things – 1) this is not random chance. There is a creator God who is in control. The terrible evil in the world, the things that make absolutely no sense to us – God is using them for his purposes, and we do not always know what those are.
David French: Recall the end of the book of Job, when the righteous, suffering man demands an explanation for his plight from the God of the universe, and the God of the universe responds with an extended soliloquy that essentially declares, “I’m God, and you’re not.” And what is Job’s response? “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.”
As a consequence, while there are many, many things we can know about God – and many things we can learn – we must approach our faith and our world with a sense of existential humility.
2) When all you can do is cry out with groaning and wailing and rage and pain, when you don’t even have words, know that the Holy Spirit prays along with you. That’s what the next verses of Romans say. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts (that’s God the Father) knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” When life is hard, cry out to God, even if it’s just literally a cry. And know that the Holy Spirit cries out along with you.
3) Know that the suffering of this life, no matter how huge it seems, no matter how painful it is, is not even worthy of comparison with the radiant glory that awaits us in the new creation.