Recent events have underscored the urgency of a Gospel-shaped perspective on suffering.
I am not talking about suffering like the flu, but suffering that is deep, life-threatening, and possibly life altering. I am talking about diseases and accidents and unchosen suffering that leads to vast loss and prolonged heartache.
Here is what I have seen: When people suffer deeply, advice is given and positions are argued, advice and positions regarding suffering. I have been surprised that some advocate a position that suffering is a mark of unbelief, that suffering is unnecessary for the Christian, that vigorous Christianity is suffering free.
Well, I have not been surprised per se. I have always known such views were held. But the extent to which they are held is surprising. And I have seen the extent to which I have a functional doctrine of suffering that considers suffering to be an intrusion, an aberration.
It just so happens that I am meditating my way through 2 Corinthians this month. And it just so happens that the false teachers in Corinth attacked Paul because of the measure of suffering he endured. "Surely," they said, "an apostle would not face such suffering. There must be something wrong with him."
Before I condemn their position, I have to admit that it is my default attitude. When suffering occurs, when cancer strikes, when a life is taken, I am predisposed to ask, "Is it something I did?" My default position is that God measures our blessing and suffering according to the merits or demerits of the individual.
Julie Andrews sang this conviction in The Sound of Music. Taken into the arms of the Baron VonTrapp, she (Maria) is amazed at this blessing of love, and sings that "nothing comes from nothing" so consequently this blessing must be because "she must have done something good." She does not know what that something is, but it must be or she would not enjoy the gift of falling in love.
Let me be very clear here -- that is not Christianity, that is karma. And it is just as much karma when people who suffer are told that if they would just believe enough the suffering would go away.
My default position is to believe in karma. It gives me hope that I may do something to end this agony. Sort of. Actually, it gives me no hope, because if I have any clarity about myself and my heart and my behavior, I know I will never do what it takes or believe seriously enough to reverse the suffering.
The Gospel gives me better hope. My hope is that just as I experience the sufferings of Christ so I will know his comfort -- and be able to serve others in their suffering.
You see, Paul advocates that suffering is of the essence of being in Christ. He argues that our lives are a constant reenactment of the Gospel -- desperate need calls us to trust the power and supply of God -- deep weakness and necessity becomes a display of his strength. In other words, God designs our lives so that we experience our emptiness and his fullness, our hopelessness in ourselves and confidence in him, our necessity and his sufficiency. We believe the Gospel and we live a life that is Gospel shaped. The Gospel is death and resurrection. DEATH and resurrection.
And Jesus is our pattern. His life, though sinless, was one of constant opposition and adversity. He was shaped by every form of suffering. He walked through his betrayal, his trial, his torture, and his crucifixion and they were all the very center of God's will. He did not come down from the cross and he did not call for legions of angels to rescue him. He cried out to God when he was forsaken by God. He died. He entered fully into death and suffering. And then he was raised. We experience resurrection power when we endure suffering and, in the end, are rescued from suffering. Observers see the power of the resurrection, not when they see problem free lives, but when they see joyful endurance in the sufferings he brings.
I have today received a wonderful perspective on suffering from someone who lives outside the comfort zone of the USA. Ajith Fernando writes of suffering here. He is a Christian leader in Sri Lanka, a country torn by war and outright hostility to the Gospel. He challenges my view of suffering as well.
Suffering -- less than God's best? Not at all, he brings us to suffering and mini-deaths so we will be driven to his fullness for life. In knowing him and walking joyfully through suffering, the Gospel is proclaimed.
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