When you pray…
The prayer of suffering
Romans 8:18-27
Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at various forms of prayer. Can I just remind you that prayer is simply a means by which we communicate with God and God communicates with us. When we communicate with each other, we do so in a number of ways. By written word, by spoken word, by tone of voice, by a look, by a facial expression, by our body posture – all sorts of will things communicate to another person what we think, what we feel, and what we want to say. And it’s the same with prayer. Prayer isn’t only just about words spoken out to God.
Of course, there are wordy prayers, adoration, confession, thanksgiving… But we’ve also looked at some of the more unusual prayers – for example we’ve looked at praying the ordinary where the work of our hands, the things that we do, are offered up to God as a prayer. We’ve looked at the prayer of rest – Jesus said ‘Come unto me all you who are heavy laiden and I will give you rest. We’ve looked at the prayer of tears – remember the Psalmist says ‘You have put my tears in your bottle’. And today we’re going to be looking at something that is closely related to the prayer of tears, that is the prayer of suffering. Paul writes, ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’
I’m sure many of you are very familiar with the picture behind me of the ‘praying hands’. But there is a story that goes along with them. I don’t think it’s a true story, and I’m not sure how much fact, if any, it contains, but I’m going to tell you it anyway.
The praying hands
Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table, the father, who was a goldsmith by profession, had to work almost eighteen hours a day and he took on any other paying work he could find in the neighborhood.
Despite the families poverty, two of the children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
And so after many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a plan. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, and with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother had completed his studies, in four years, he would return and support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, by also going down the mines.
So they tossed a coin and Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg while his brother
Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. They say that Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, his oil paintings were far better than even those of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was earning considerable money from selling his work.
And when this young artist returned to home, the Durer family held a festive dinner to celebrate. After the meal, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled him to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, "And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you."
All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, there were tears streaming down his face. He rose to his feet and walked over to his brother and he said, "No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look ... what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, let alone hold a paintbrush with which to paint. No, brother ... for me it is too late."
Over 500 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s has hundreds of works of art hanging in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of his works.
One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had suffered, Albrecht drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. A picture which has become known all around the world as "The Praying Hands."
Now as I said, I don’t know how true that story is, but I wanted to use it because I think it draws together and connects quite well, the topics of prayer and suffering. They need not be exclusive of one another – but as one connects with the other – as our suffering connects with our prayer – then a cry goes out to the heavenly realms which God cannot ignored. When God calls out to Moses from the burning bush he says, ‘The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you, to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt’.
God says, ‘I have seen their pain, I have seen their turmoil, and I have seen their suffering. Their cries of desperation have reached my ears and now I am going to respond’. I want to say this morning that when our suffering life connects with our prayer life – it sends a cry out to the heavenly realms which God cannot ignore. And I want to say three things this morning:
1. Suffering is a fact of the Christian life
The first thing I want to say is that suffering is a fact of the Christian life. You know, all too often we are taught that if we become Christians everything will be fluffy and all our troubles will simply go away? We all know that song - "Jesus, we celebrate you victory" with its line "And in his presence our problems disappear." Do they? Really?
Jesus said to His disciples: “In this world you will have trouble.” You will have to suffer, not only the same things that unbelievers have to suffer. But you’ll also have to suffer at the hands of unbelievers who will persecute for my sake. Peter writes to Christians who were being persecuted because they believed in Jesus. He writes to them: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”
Jesus said, ‘Take up your cross daily, and follow me’ – and you know that the way of the cross is the way of suffering. Suffering is a fact of the Christian life. Most of the Psalms were born in difficulty. Most of the Epistles were written in prisons. Christians suffer in many ways. Now if we are honest many of our troubles we bring on ourselves. We are simply facing the consequences of evil choices that we’ve made.
But often we suffer because we live in an evil world. We get caught up in injustice, and illness, and bereavement . We suffer because wicked people do wicked things that hurt other people. And we may suffer for our faith. Christianity costs. Siding with Jesus costs something. If you are true to your faith, if your are true to your calling. If you stand up for truth and justice and are living the gospel life that we are called to lead – you will suffer.
And it’s important to understand that, it’s important to grasp that, because in many of our pulpits
all you hear about is faith and confidence and victory. Preachers declaring that Christians should be victorious, christians are conquerers, christians live triumphant lives in all circumstances.
But for 99.9% of christians that’s not true, that’s not how life is, for most of the time they feel anything but triumphant! Attacked, beaten, defeated, perhaps – triumphant – No! And they go out of our churches feeling even worse failures than when they came in. Because they’re not experiencing the victory that’s being preached from our pulpits. But you know the truth is that we have a saviour who was ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’. We are told that Jesus offered up prayers with ‘loud cries and tears’.
There is a triumph that can be found in Christ, but it goes through suffering, not around it. When the apostle Paul declares that we are ‘more than conquerors’ it comes on the other side of hardship and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword. There’s that old adage – ‘no cross, no crown’. For those who follow Jesus suffering comes with the territory. But here is the mystery, here’s the wonder. The suffering is not for nothing. God, somehow, takes it and uses it for something beautiful, something far beyond anything we can imagine.
So suffering is a fact of the Christian life.
2. Suffering is a language God understands – and to which he responds.
The second thing I want to say is that suffering is a language that God understands – and to which he responds. And so in a very real way, we can take our suffering and offer it up to God as a prayer. As a cry of help from the depths of our despair.
The problem is that all too often – in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trouble, in the midst of despair, rather than draw closer to God in prayer, we lose sight of him altogether. All too often we lose the conscious sense of God’s presence during the darkest moments of life. We wonder where God is when we are walking through the pain of divorce, or the crushing burden of having our friends turn on us, or the heartbreak of watching a loved one die. Even Jesus cried out from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
But can I just say that God sees you even though you may not be able to see him. I’ve already mentioned the story of Moses when God says to him, ‘The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go…’. To the Church in Smyrna in Revelation 2 God says, ‘I know your affliction’. This was a church that was undergoing some horrific persecution. They were suffering terribly for their faith. And God says, I know all about it. I know what you are going through. I know the things you are suffering. I know the persecution you have seen. I know the trials that you have faced. I know the hardships you endure. I have seen everything that you have been put through, and nothing has escaped me.
In the suffering, in the trials, in the persecutions, in the dark valleys of life – even if you lose sight of God – he never loses sight of you. He knows everything this church has suffered. He knows everything that you have suffered. He does not miss a thing.
And when we gather our suffering, when we gather our hurts, when we gather our pain, and present them before God – they become a prayer – the prayer of suffering which God cannot ignore. And when we present them to him – God will respond.
I think of Elijah – overcome with fear and depression, in the midst of having a nervous breakdown – and he prays, ‘God I have had enough, take my life’. And God sent him an angel to minister to him, and help him, and restore him.
I think of the leper that came to Jesus – the suffering that this poor man must have endured not just from the desease itself, but being ostracised by the people, an outcast from the neighbourhood. And he comes to Jesus and says, ‘Lord if you choose – you can make me clean’. And Jesus could see this mans pain, he could see his suffering – and it says that he was moved to pity – and healed him.
I think of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane – and it says ‘being in anguish he prayed and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground’ – and God sent an angel to minister to him and strengthen him.
Suffering is a language that God understands – and when it is offered up to him as a prayer – he responds.
I came across this quote which I think is helpful. It’s from a man called Launderville (not sure what his first name is) he wrote, "The vine clings to the oak during the fiercest of storms. If the vine is on the side opposite the wind, the great oak is its protection; if it is on the exposed side, the storm only presses it closer to the trunk. In some of the storms of life, God intervenes and shelters us; while in others He allows us to be exposed, so that we will be pressed more closely to Him."
3. Pray the prayer of suffering on behalf of others
The final thing I want to say is that we need to learn to pray the prayer of suffering on behalf of others. What do I mean by that? The prayer of suffering involves us voluntarily taking on the pain and suffering of those around us. It’s a time when we shoulder their griefs and their sorrows in order to set them free.
How do we do that? Well, we do what Moses did. After he lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, they thank him by rebelling, by making a golden calf and worshipping it. Yet Moses refuses to give up on them, saying, ‘I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin’ (Ex 32:30b). And thats what he does, standing between God and the people, arguing with God to withhold his hand of judgement. But listen to the next words that Moses speaks: ’‘But now, if you will only forgive their sin – but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written’. What a prayer, what a reckless, selfless, suffering prayer. And its exactly the kind of suffering prayer that we are called to.
We can do the kind of thing Daniel did. Daniel had lived all his adult life in the Babylonian courts, but he reads in the writings of Jeremiah that the days of Jerusalem’s devastion are complete. This leads to his prayer of repentance: ‘I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession’ – he says (Dan 9:4). But Daniel is not confessing his sins; he is confessing the sins of his people, Israel. And he refuses to stand off at a safe, self-righteous distance. He doesn’t stand there and say ‘O God, look at the sins of those wicked people. O God, I pray that you would forgive those sinners of their rebellious ways. O God, I pray that you would wash those dirty people, and make them clean and pure again’.
He doesn’t do that, instead he includes himself in the prayer, even though he himself has done nothing wrong, he identifies himself in their sin. He says, ‘We have sinned and done wrong… we have not listened… we have sinned against you’ (Dan 9:5). Daniel standing with his people; Daniel repenting on behalf of his people. And he closes his prayer, ‘We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord listen! O Lord, forgive’. What a prayer! And that’s what we are to do. In the prayer of suffering, we enter in, we identify with the needs, the hurts, the shortcomings of others and we pray as if they are our own.
This isn’t suffering for suffering sake. This is a conscious shouldering of the sins and sorrows of others in order that they may be healed and given new life.
Richard Foster tells the story of a woman who came to visit his wife for prayer counselling. This woman’s outward problem of depression was easy enough to see. But within a short time the cause of depression came to the surface as well – a sudden and tragic loss of her child. And he says that as his wife began praying, she ‘took on’ this woman’s grief vicariously (in her place). And wave after wave of deep sobs, and wailing came over her as she began to grieve the loss of this woman’s child. She prayed that God would take away the emotional pain and redeem it through the cross of Christ. And when she did, the sobbing began to subside and was replaced with a sense of inner peace. A few days later, she received a letter from the woman describing the new life that had been breathed into her during that prayer session.
That’s the prayer of suffering on behalf of others - taking on the pain and suffering of those around us. Standing between them and God, like Moses did, like Daniel did. It’s a time when we shoulder their griefs and their sorrows in order to set them free.
The prayer of suffering - Richard Foster says this – ‘We can be assured of this: God, who knows all and sees all, will set all things straight in the end. Even better he will dry every tear. In the meantime he mysteriously takes our sorrows and uses them to heal the world’. And just let me finish with the words of Jean Nicholas Grou, who was a Jesuit priest in the 1700s. He wrote, ‘Let your suffering be borne for God; suffer with submission and patience and suffer in union with Jesus Christ and you will be offering a most excellent prayer’.
