PERSPECTIVES ON SUFFERING January 20, 2008
Series: 2 Corinthians- Strength through Weakness
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Introduction- In his book The Pressure’s Off, psychologist Larry Crabb tells this story from his childhood.
One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone’s help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn’t unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn’t do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boy as the thought went through my head, "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom."
My parents—and likely the neighbors—heard my desperate scream. "Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door she couldn’t open from the outside. "Did you fall? Have you hit your head?" "I can’t unlock the door!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"
I wasn’t aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled it off the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out to play.
That’s how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work… God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire.
Sometimes he does. But now I’m realizing the Christian life doesn’t work that way. And I wonder, are any of us content with God? Do we even like him when he doesn’t open the door we most want opened—when a marriage doesn’t heal, when rebellious kids still rebel, when friends betray, our business fails, when financial reverses threaten our comfortable way of life, when the prospect of terrorism looms, when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when ministries die?
God has climbed through the small window into my dark room. But he doesn’t walk by me to turn the lock that I couldn’t budge. Instead, he sits down on the floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play. I don’t always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!"
We so often have that view of God… when we find ourselves in that locked room He should just come in and open the door… that’s what we want!!... but God has never promised to open every locked door… but we don’t understand that, and we don’t like that… And this is one of the questions that has plagued the people of God from the beginning… Job!!... Why do people suffer??... Can God really be loving and good if He allows so much suffering??... Is He powerless to do anything??
We can’t begin to answer all the questions about this, but in our passage Paul speaks directly to the issue of suffering and affliction, and while he doesn’t and cannot answer all the questions, he provides several clear perspectives and principles about suffering.
To use the illustration of Crabb, Paul says God doesn’t always unlock the doors to our rooms of suffering, but He does join us in the room to comfort us, so that we might be able to help someone else when they are in a room of suffering and the door is locked.
Context- last week we looked at Corinth and Paul’s relationship to the church… he is now beginning his letter to them, and begins by speaking of his experiences of suffering.
1. God is a God who comforts His people, vs. 3-4a.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our affliction…
He begins with a word of praise to God… blessed… Christ- it is a doxology… may God be praised… Paul is praising Him because He is a God who comforts his people… we this first in His character… Father of mercies and God of all comfort- “The compassionate Father and the God who always gives comfort.”… He is characterized by compassion and every kind of comfort… this is the nature of God… this is the way he is… this is how he relates to us… this is different from the gods of Greece and Rome… unlike the Greek pantheon of gods who are unconcerned about human anguish, the God of he Christians cares for them. Pliny the Elder, a first-century Roman naturalist and Stoic, wrote “that [a] supreme being, whatever it be, who pays heed to human affairs is a ridiculous notion.” Pliny also said that suicide was the “supreme gift” that God bestowed on man. (that’s how man is to deal with suffering)… but the God and Father of Jesus Christ is one who sees the misery of His people, hears them crying out, and is concerned about their suffering so that he comes down to comfort them
And this is the second thing we see about God… not only is He a God of comfort in His character, but also in His actions… v.4a- who comforts us in all our afflictions- the word affliction is interesting… root: press down, squash, hem in, to be narrow… so it has come to mean those situations in life in which just press down and bear down on us … the word is used to refer to physical distress, as well as emotional distress… external/internal… but in all kinds of such afflictions, it is God who comforts us- the word comfort is the parakalew word group (paraklhsis, paraclete)… to call along side… one comes to the side of another to encourage, comfort, console, help and assist, to walk with… so, as the God of all comfort, and the One who comforts us in all our afflictions, He comes to our side in the midst of such affliction.
But what is this comfort that God gives??... we often think of it in terms of emotional relief, physical ease, soothing our anxieties, freedom from pain, a warm coddling… and maybe sometimes He does this, just as a parent sometimes just needs to hold their child close… Psalm 103:13- 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 14 For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. … But He doesn’t “come alongside” just to coddle us and to make us feel better… He comes alongside to strengthen us, fortify us in heart, mind, soul… “God’s comfort strengthens weak knees and sustains sagging spirits so that one faces the troubles of life with unbending resolve and unending assurance.”…
Now to be honest with this passage, we must go further… it’s one thing to affirm that God comforts us, but it is another to ask “how??”… how is it that God actually comforts us in our afflictions??... God “comes alongside” in many ways, and not always the same…
He comes alongside:
• In the truth of His Word- His Word is alive and powerful, and speaks to the depth of our being… and the promises and truths of the Word minister deeply to us… “I have loved you with an everlasting love… I have redeemed you and you are mine… I am your Rock and Fortress… Come unto Me all who are weary and heavy and laden, and I will give you rest… the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me”… truths like these and many others strengthen us.
• In His mysterious presence- by this I mean that there are times when we just know the presence of God… we can’t measure it, or give concrete evidence for it, or create a formula to produce it… but there are times when we know that God is very present and very real… it is that unexplained peace when we think we would fall apart…
Illus.- Ruth Tucker tell the story of a former student whose daughter was in an accident and in a coma… while she wrestled with the thought of losing her daughter, she says this, “Immediately I thought of the Father giving up His Son for me. I knew. I was being called to open my fist. And I did. I went back to Kate’s room. It was the hardest and easiest thing I have ever done. Everything was the same, and everything was very different. Kate still lay in a coma. I told her, “Honey if God says you can go, you go. And have fun. We’re going to let God call the shots…. But if Jesus says you can come back I would like to have you come back”… and then she says the peace that flooded me is beyond all understanding. As I sat at her bedside I began to sing, one of the songs was ‘Beautiful Savior.” And Kate died.
• In the ministry of others- God uses the members of His body, and brings people into our lives to bring comfort and to help bear the burdens… Paul will speak of this clearly in the next verse… but this is one of the primary means God uses, and this clearly shows the importance of Christian community…
Illus.- Eric "The Swimmer" Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea was an unlikely hero of the Sydney Olympic Games. The 22-year-old African had only learned to swim last January, had only practiced in a 20 meter pool without lane markers, and had never raced more than 50 meters. By special invitation of the International Olympic Committee, under a special program that permits poorer countries to participate even though their athletes don’t meet customary standards, he had been entered in the 100 meter men’s freestyle. When the other two swimmers in his heat were disqualified because of false starts, Moussambani was forced to swim alone. Eric Moussambani was, to use the words of an Associated Press story about his race, "charmingly inept." He never put his head under the water’s surface and flailed wildly to stay afloat. With ten meters left to the wall, he virtually came to a stop. Some spectators thought he might drown! Even though his time was over a minute slower than what qualified for the next level of competition, the capacity crowd at the Olympic Aquatic Center stood to their feet and cheered the swimmer on. After what seemed like an eternity, the African reached the wall and hung on for dear life. When he had caught his breath and regained his composure, the French-speaking Moussambani said through an interpreter, "I want to send hugs and kisses to the crowd. It was their cheering that kept me going."
• In the hope of eternity- knowing that this world is not our home, knowing that as long as we are in this world there will be afflictions… we look forward to and long for that day when all suffering will be over… 2 Corinthians 4:17-18-For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal…. The Message: These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
It is this hope that gives us strength as we keep our eyes on the reality of eternity.
• In the assurance that faithfulness will be rewarded- that if we are faithful now it will be well worth it in eternity…
Illus.- From 1985 to 1987, Rick Hanson, a paraplegic athlete, circled the globe on his wheelchair to raise awareness of and money for spinal cord research.
It was a grueling trip. There are photos of him in all kinds of weather: burning heat, slashing rain, swirling blizzard, howling wind; and in all terrain: desert wastelands, dense forests, patchwork farmlands, craggy mountains.
He strains his head back, his neck fluted with stretched cords, his arms taut with aching muscles, his body a skein of bulging veins and his fists like stones, as he climbs the near impossible steepness of China’s Great Wall. He thrusts his head forward, flint like, his jaw set firm, as he wheels through rain-blackened street of some nondescript city, its inhabitants indifferent to his plight and his cause.
Mile upon mile upon tiresome mile. Hands thick with calluses. Thighs bruised, back blistered. Weariness in him like a rumor of death. But on May 23, 1987, Rick Hanson came home.
When he was still far away, many miles from Vancouver, people gathered to welcome him. As he got nearer, the crowd thickened along both sides of the highway. hundreds of people, then thousands, then thousands on thousands. They roared, clapped, cheered, and wept. They threw flowers. Rick moved with power and grace, effortless. He
And then he headed toward the stadium. A capacity crowd of sixty thousand people—national and international dignitaries, rock stars and movie stars, television crews, family, friends,—waited inside, delirious with anticipation. As Rick got nearer the stadium, the streets grew impossibly dense with people. Helicopters hovered overhead. Police in cars and on motorcycles flanked his sides. Other wheelchair athletes joined him, coming up behind like a legion of charioteers…
He could begin to hear, even above the din of the crowd around him, the roar of voices coming from inside the stadium… Rick Hanson entered B.C Place. He swooped through the wide lower gates and glided out onto the stadium floor—and sixty thousand people went berserk. Leaping, dancing, blowing horns, whirling clackers, the air shrill with wolf whistles, exploding with applause, swelling with shouts of welcome and triumph. Wild, raucous, hypnotic. A roar to deafen, to open the ears of the deaf, to raise the dead. And every time it seemed about to taper off, a fresh wind caught it and carried it higher, louder, brighter, fuller.
All that he had endured was now well worth it… and Peter says that if we are faithful that our entrance into the eternal kingdom will be abundantly supplied.
This is our God… the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies, and the One who comforts us in all our afflictions…
-through His Word
-through His presence
-through the ministry of others
-through the hope of eternity
-through the hope of reward
