Title: Transparent Pain and Suffering
Text: Hebrews 5:7-10
Thesis: We can be honest in expressing our feelings in pain and suffering.
The Series:
This is the fifth message in a Lenten Series: Knowing Christ through Pain and Suffering.
The Apostle Paul wrote, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:10-11
This morning we will explore the honesty with which Jesus expressed himself during times of suffering and pain… and we will find that Jesus was a transparent sufferer who could express both his struggle with suffering and his willingness to submit to said suffering, if God willed it.
Introduction
Life is a precious gift… a good long life is especially so. Perhaps you’ve heard that 114 year old Edna Parker of Shelbyville, Indiana is no longer the oldest person in the world. When Mariam Amash applied for a new identity card, the Israeli Interior Ministry confirmed that the population registry records verify that she was born in 1888, which would make her 120 years old.
She is described as a “healthy, active woman. She walks each day and makes sure she drinks at least one glass of olive oil.” (http://.msnbc.com/id/23173016/
When I try to imagine what it would have been like to have been born in 1888 in what is today an Israeli Arab village but then under Turkish rule, and to have racked up 120 years of life experience, it is mind-boggling. Imagine what she has witnessed in terms of world history. We were reminded this past week that Fidel Castro’s regime saw nine U.S. presidents come and go… think of the world leaders who have risen and fallen in the last 120 years. Imagine the technilogical advances in the last 120 years. Imagine birthing 11 children the eldest now in her late 80s, and celebrating the births of 120 grandchildren, 250 great-grandchildren, and 20 great-great grandchildren. Imagine all the wonderful things she has seen… imagine all the saddness she has seen having lived in one of most conflicted places on earth.
However, in an interview with the BBC, with her family crowding around her, she said, “Yes, I am the oldest person in the world. I eat, I drink, I take showers. I hope to keep going for another 10 years.” She wants to live.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=515351&in_page_id=1770)
Jesus wanted to live as well. Our text states that while here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. Jesus wanted to live. Pain, suffering, and death were not on Jesus’ “Bucket List.”
It is important and biblical that we acknowledge the legitimacy of our feelings in the face of pain and suffering.
I. People who experience pain and suffering have and express legitimate feelings.
• The Psalmist prayed, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief.” Psalm 22:1-2
The first two verses of Psalm 22 are often cited as having been quoted by Jesus Christ, just before he died on the cross. These verses bear witness to the fact that people who are in pain and suffering, have and express legitimate feelings:
• People in pain and suffering feel like God is distant.
• People in pain and suffering wonder if their prayers are heard.
• People in pain and suffering long for relief.
Christian Wiman wrote in Gazing into the Abyss, “I got the news that I was sick on the afternoon of my 39th birthday. It took a bit of time, travel, and a series of wretched tests to get the specific diagnosis, but by then the main blow had been delivered, and that main blow is what matters. I have an incurable cancer in my blood. The disease is as rare as it is mysterious, killing some people quickly and sparing others for decades, afflicting some with all manner of miseries and disabilities and leaving others relatively healthy until the end. Of all the doctors I have seen, not one has been willing to venture even a vague prognosis.
“Then one morning we found ourselves going to church. Found ourselves. That’s exactly what it felt like, in both senses of the phrase, as if some impulse in each of us had finally been catalyzed into action, so that we were casting aside the Sunday paper and moving toward the door with barely a word between us; and as if, once inside the church, we were discovering exactly where and who we were meant to be. That first service was excruciating, in that it seemed to tear all wounds wide open, and it was profoundly comforting, in that it seemed to offer the only possible balm.
“So now I bow my head and try to pray in the mornings…because to once feel the presence of God is to feel His absence all the more acutely…” (Source: Christian Wiman, "Gazing into the Abyss," The American Scholar (Summer 2007); submitted by Kevin Miller, executive vice president of Christianity Today International)
No one can deny the legitimacy of the expressed pain and suffering of another person… no one can deny the legitimacy of expressed feelings of being abandoned by God.
Jesus never hid his feelings… Jesus was a transparent person.
II. Jesus was transparent in showing his anguish in pain and suffering.
• While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. Hebrews 5:7
The biblical account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal tells us:
• ...he began to be filled with anguish and deep distress. He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.” He went on a little farther and fell on his face down on the ground praying, “If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.” Matthew 26:36-42
He admitted to those around him that he felt crushed with grief and felt like he would die. He fell on the ground. He prayed and pleaded. He cried out and shed tears of anguish. He felt like God was unresponsive.
We are uncomfortable with transparency… we aren’t sure we want to see and hear everything. We certainly are careful to not show or say everything, because we fear what others might think of us if they could see right through us.
I went on line this week to see if I could find a vintage 1959 Visible Man. Do you remember the Visible Man and Visible Woman Models by Renwal? I found one on ebay.com. The description read and I quote, “On the box, they say this kit is incredible! Some 50 years later, the phrase could not be more truer. Here is a still brand new 1959 Visible Man Kit! Although the box has been opened, the contents are sealed and everything looks to be in very good condition. The box has aged and the order form for more parts are showing signs of decay, although one probably won’t order parts anymore. Otherwise the introduction to Anatomy booklet and instruction manual are in fine condition.”
The Visible Man was about a foot tall and made of clear plastic. The front half came off so you could assemble and disassemble all the inner parts of the human body… you could see right through the visible man.
But that is not the kind of transparency we speak of today. There was no covering up the stuff that Jesus was feeling. His body language, his posture, his admission of distress to his friends, his tears, the urgency of his prayer all serve to let us look right through him. He hides nothing. He puts it all out there in front of his friends and God.
Among the various kinds of Psalms there is a category we call Psalms of Lament. A lament Psalm is a Psalm in which a real person in a really difficult situation expresses strong and emotional words to God. The person who laments to God knows that God will not be angry, even when we are brutally honest about what we are feeling. One commentator said in effect, God will not be angry even if we scream because a scream is really a scream of faith. (http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/psalm-construction.html)
So the Psalmist is being transparent when he prays, “O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I need you the most?” Psalm 10:1 Or, “O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Answer me, O Lord my God… or I will die.” Psalm 13:1-3
Our feelings during times of pain and suffering are not something we have to hide from each other or from God. We do not always have to put on a brave front… even our screams are understood as screams of faith.
When Jesus suffered, he prayed.
III. God hears the prayers and pleadings of the righteous
During the minister’s prayer one Sunday morning, there was a loud, shrill whistle from one of the back pews in the church. Gary’s mother was mortified and pinched him into silence. After church she asked, “Gary, whatever made you do such a thing?” “Well,” Gary answered, “I asked God to teach me to whistle and that’s when he did.”
However, there was nothing frivolous about the prayer Jesus prayed.
• While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. Hebrews 5:7
God is not deaf to our prayers. In the Old Testament story of the Exodus, God had a conversation with Moses at the burning bush in which he said:
• Moses, “You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heart their cries for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come to rescue them… Exodus 3:7-8
The Psalmist noted in Psalm 139 that there is not escaping the presence and awareness of God:
• I can never escape from your spirit! I can never getaway from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hands will guide me, and you strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me, but even in the darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Psalm 139:7-12
In Romans 8:38-39 we are reminded of the powerful declaration of Paul’s conviction that nothing… absolutely nothing in all the universe can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus:
I believe the sufferer may honestly bring it all to God.
• Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
It is interesting to note that despite Jesus’ intense desire to be free from pain, suffering, and death, he also expressed a willingness to suffer, if it was God’s will. He was willing to suffer for a higher purpose.
IV. Jesus chose to be obedient to the will of God rather than evade pain and suffering.
• So even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered… Hebrews 5:8
The events of December 9 and 10, 2007 are still vivid in our memories. On Saturday night Matthew Murray shot and killed two victims at the Youth With a Mission training center here in Arvada. On Sunday he continued his rampage at New Life Church in Colorado Springs.
YWAM Director Peter Warren reported that Tiffany Johnson was briefly resuscitated after a student performed CPR. He said that as she regained consciousness she asked her friend Holly, “Is it bad?” Holy responded, “Yes, it’s bad.” And then Tiffany said, "We do this for Jesus, right guys? We do this for Jesus." (Sarah Pulliam, "YWAM Director Describes Shooting, Forgiveness," www.christianitytoday.com)
I have most certainly cited a radical example of willingness to suffer and even die for others… even when it is unexplainable and undeniably troubling.
A couple of weeks ago I cited the Philippians 2 passage that describes the self-emptying of Jesus Christ and of how “in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” Philippians 2:8 Mystery that it is, the pain and suffering of Christ was God’s will and way of demonstrating grace, love, and mercy for people who would otherwise be lost for all eternity.
Conclusion:
If Jesus is our model, it is okay to be transparent in the face of pain and suffering. It is okay to hold nothing back in our prayers. Because even prayers of frustration, anguish, and fear are expressions of faith and trust in God…
In one of Jesus’ prayers he prayed,
• “If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want Your will not mine.” Matthew 26:39
When we, with heartfelt willingness can set aside our desperation and desires and pray, “Nevertheless, not my will but yours,” it is the ultimate expression of trust in a loving and sovereign God. When we can pray that prayer, we know what it is to know the suffering of Christ.
