Love Found A Way To Heal Our Pain
Luke 1:5-15
Intro: (video clip from “Bruce Almighty”)
Do you ever feel like that? “God could fix my life in five minutes if He wanted to…”; “the only one around here not doing his job is YOU!”
If you haven’t seen the rest of Bruce Almighty, it is God paging him, and the plot unfolds from there.
Feeling the pain:
We’ve encouraged you this morning to allow yourself to acknowledge the areas of hurt and pain in your life. To not suppress them, to not pretend that everything is hap-happy if it isn’t. The reason for that is simple: because love found a way to heal that pain. This is not a cliché, as Bruce’s wife, Grace, was accused of. Instead, it is an invitation to an encounter. I want to invite you to see God this morning, and allow Him into your pain.
The Pain of Elisabeth and Zechariah (Lk 1:5-7):
Let me introduce you to a married couple. Their story is from the book of Luke. “In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.”
A pastor named Paul Decker describes it like this: “Zechariah and Elizabeth knew disappointment. Zechariah and Elizabeth knew the pain of infertility. Here was a couple that was well into their sixties. And for years, they went crazy hearing all the lines… “Just relax.” “Don’t try so hard.” “Take an extended vacation.” “Why don’t you adopt a child?” “Have faith.” “Just trust God.” “There isn’t any unconfessed sin in your life, is there?”
He continues, “I am sure that they went through all the stages that infertile couples go through. At first, they deny that it is happening to them. But, then it becomes evident that children aren’t coming and so they attempt to avoid children altogether. Then, there is the anger. At this point, all they really want to do is hide. Because they are just plain mad. It just seems so unfair. Then, somewhere along the line, acceptance sets in. They come to the conclusion that this is their lot in life.”
Scripture doesn’t tell us at what point they gave up their hope of having a child. I think most women in their culture 2000 years ago would have been finished childbearing by 35 or so, so let’s guess Elisabeth and Zechariah came to that point of acceptance by about age 40, after trying to conceive for probably 20 years. We do know that they had not become bitter, angry, resentful people, as Luke tells us that they were upright in God’s sight; he even uses the word “blameless.” They had accepted their pain, and loved and served God anyway.
We also know that by the time of this story, they are both “well along in years.” We don’t know exactly how old, but the next time Luke uses that exact phrase is in chapter 2, when he is talking about a woman named Anna who, he tells us, is 84 years old. For the sake of argument, let’s put Elisabeth and Zechariah in their 60s, and do the math. If they gave up the hope of children in their 40s, that dream had been dead for 20 years. They had lived through 40 years of birthdays and feast days and family gatherings, without a family of their own. Some of you can relate to their pain, because you have felt that also. Others haven’t felt the pain of infertility, but have felt the pain of children who have rejected and hurt and said terrible, painful things. Others of us have different sources, but can identify with the hurt. Maybe even for 20 years or more. Sometimes the pain runs very, very deep.
Umm, which prayer? (vss 8-13a):
The story continues in Scripture: “Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.”
As I read this story in preparation for this Christmas season, this jumped off the page at me. I was picturing this scene in my mind, Zechariah the old man, chosen for this incredible privilege, offering the prayers of all the people in the temple of the Lord. And this angel shows up, terrifies him, and says “your prayer has been heard.” I sometimes try to imagine myself in Scripture scenes, to try and see what it must have been like, and when I do that with this story I see Zechariah thinking, through the surprise and terror, “ummm, which prayer is that??” Some people imagine Zechariah here in the temple, offering the incense, and praying for a child for himself and Elisabeth. I HIGHLY doubt it. As a matter of fact, I think it was probably the furthest thing from his mind at the time. He wasn’t thinking about a 20 year old scar, he was focused on his duties as a priest. I hear him thinking, “ummm, what prayer would that be?” And then he hears the next words out of the angel’s mouth: “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,” I hear him thinking, “OH! THAT prayer!!!”
Your Prayer Has Been Heard:
Here is the point I’ve been building up to: God says the same thing to you this morning. I recognize I’m not an angel, and I hope you aren’t terrified when you see me… but I have the exact same message to deliver to you. “Your prayer has been heard.”
Whatever the source of pain, whatever the cause of the hurt that you carry, I want to tell you that “Your prayer has been heard.”
Your answer might not be the same as that of Zechariah and Elisabeth. God healed their pain by providing them with a child, and God did that as part of His grand purpose in preparing the way for the coming of Jesus into our world. That was part of His Kingdom plan. And while you may or may not experience God healing your pain the same way He healed their pain, I can promise you that your prayer has been heard. God has heard you.
Love Found A Way To Heal Our Pain:
I can say that with great confidence because that is why Jesus was born. That is why Jesus became human, so that our pain might be healed. Whatever the pain, the healing is found only in Jesus. It begins at His birth, it comes to fullness in His death and resurrection, and it is available right now through His Holy Spirit. That healing is here this morning, and it is for you.
So how does it work?
If this is true, then why do so many of us find ourselves resonating with the words in the video clip? If Jesus came to heal, why are we still so full of hurt? Let me suggest 4 possibilities:
1. We haven’t let God heal:
Have you let God into your pain? Have you truly let go of the hurt, and left it with God? Let me illustrate with a personal story, after showing you this: (comic)
Every once in a while, something that Thomas (my 3yr old) is playing with will break or fall apart a little or get messed up, and he’ll call me or bring it to me and ask me to fix it. Sometimes, he refuses to let go – he insists on holding it in his hands. For some reason, he just can’t bear the thought of releasing that particular toy to me, and trusting me to fix it. As you can imagine, it is pretty hard to put the tracks back on a tractor with four hands holding it. It is pretty hard to change a battery with a 3yr old gripping tightly to the train.
Sometimes, we do the same thing. We hold on so tightly that God can’t do what He wants to do, which is heal and restore. Sometimes, we just won’t let go.
This is about surrender. God can’t heal until the situation is surrendered to Him, until He is invited into it and given free reign to do as He desires. Generally, the two things that keep us from surrendering are pride and fear. Pride keeps us from surrender because we think we should be able to handle it on our own – you know, make the best of it, adapt, keep a stiff upper lip, stuff it down deep inside and pretend it doesn’t really hurt; because after all, if other people saw I hurt they would somehow think less of me… they might think I was weak…
Fear also paralyzes us into holding on when we should be letting go. We are really afraid of what God might do if we surrendered the pain to Him, if we let Him into the hurt. We aren’t sure we can trust Him with it – He might ask us to forgive the other person. He might ask us to make a phone call and apologize – again. He might ask us to go out on a limb and risk getting hurt again. He might require us to let go of the anger which we have nurtured for a long, long time. We are afraid, and so we don’t surrender to God and let Him take care of it.
My friends, the pain isn’t worth it. The hurt isn’t worth holding on to. It is so much better to be healed than to cope, it is so much better to be free than to be tangled up. Surrender. Let God heal, let Him in, let Him get past the pride and the fear right into the place where you hurt. I promise the end result will be better than the current situation, even if the road to healing is a little bit rough in spots. The journey is worth it.
The first possibility for our continuing pain is that we haven’t let God heal, and you can change that this morning.
2. We are waiting for God to change the circumstance instead of letting Him change us:
The second possibility is that we are waiting for God to change the circumstance instead of letting Him change us. I’ll illustrate with a personal example.
Recently, there was a relationship in my life that wasn’t going very well. I was upset by it, frustrated by it, even angry about it. Every time I prayed about it, I asked God to change it. To fix it. To heal it. I prayed that God would show this other person how they had hurt me, and that God would change them. I couldn’t change them, so I asked God to. I was praying this again at the Banff Pastor’s conference about a month ago, and the gentle voice of the Spirit of God whispered to me, “Why do you keep asking me to change them, when maybe I want to change you?” Well, I didn’t like that very much, but I recognized it was true. Through my tears I surrendered, asked for forgiveness, and recognized how I needed to change. Funny thing: when I changed, the relationship changed also. The healing that needed to happen, happened.
3. God has a greater plan for our pain:
A third possibility is that God wants to use our pain for a greater purpose. I know that doesn’t sound pleasant, but it is consistent with Scripture and with how God often chooses to work. Think even about the Christmas story – God used the pain of Elizabeth and Zechariah to show His power and His glory. He even caused some pain in Mary and Joseph and in their reputation with Mary’s pregnancy outside of marriage, a pregnancy which we now celebrate as divine, but which certainly would have been a source of gossip and stigma and hurt to Mary, and to Joseph also. It would not have always been easy for them, in fact I suspect it was really quite difficult. But God sometimes has a way of using these things for His Kingdom.
This past week I had the privilege of meeting and getting to know Mrs. Corry Borkent, who has been coming to Laurier for the last couple of months. She shared with me the story of her grandson, Trevor. When Trevor was first born, things seemed fine. But then he started to lose weight, dropping from 14lbs to 8. As they were trying to find out what was wrong, one day his mom licked a drop of liquid that had spilt on his arm, and she tasted salt – one of the likely indicators of Cystic Fibrosis. They confirmed the diagnosis, and treated him accordingly.
Corry was present a little while ago when, at the age of 16, Trevor was being baptized in his church in Calgary. He shared his testimony of faith, and as he stood in front of his church he said: “Sometimes people say ‘Wouldn’t it be so much better if God had healed your CF?’ I can honestly answer, no. Because if God had healed my CF, I wouldn’t have gotten to know one particular lady at the clinic over the years, and I wouldn’t have been able to tell her about Jesus and what a difference He has made in my life, and I wouldn’t have been able to see her surrender her life to Jesus. And the same with another boy I got to know.”
I hear that story, and I don’t feel the need to pray for healing for Trevor – he seems pretty whole to me. I think God has healed him. It might be a strange sort of healing, but that is what happens when we truly surrender – God’s healing surprises us.
4. God wants to heal in His time:
The final possibility is that God has a different timing in mind. This brings me right back to Elizabeth and Zechariah. God healed their pain, but He did it in His timing. He did it many years after they had given up hoping that God could heal that pain, but God did it anyways. For His glory, and in His time. That might be true for you also; and if so, hold to the promise, hold to the truth, that God has heard your prayer. And He will heal your pain.
Conclusion/Communion transition:
A few moments ago, I said that there is healing here this morning. And I believe that. The Spirit of God is here, and He desires to bring healing. The one requirement for us is that we surrender. We invite Him and let Him take control, we give the pain over to Him, and ask and expect that He will heal us. The love of God found a way, in the form of the Christ child, to enter our experience and heal our pain.
That heavenly infant learned what it meant to surrender. He surrendered for us. He surrendered to the soldiers in the garden of Gethsemane, He surrendered to the horror of the cross, He surrendered His body and His blood so that we could be healed.
We meet him around this communion table. As we take the elements, we encounter the incredible love of God for us. We recognize God’s presence with us, and I affirm God’s desire to heal us around this table. I know we might have opened up a door that many of us prefer to keep closed this morning, by asking you to think about the areas in your life that are painful and hurtful. We did so because of our conviction that God promises to heal us and God desires to heal us.
As we prepare for communion, I’m going to ask our elders to slip out to the edge of the pews and prepare to pray with any of you who would like someone to come beside you in your pain this morning, and simply pray for God’s healing touch.
