The Problem of Pain
Mark 5:21-43
August 30, 2009
Morning Service
Introduction
Driving through Texas, a New Yorker collided with a truck carrying a horse. A few months later he tried to collect damages for his injuries. "How can you now claim to have all these injuries?" asked the insurance company’s lawyer. "According to the police report, at the time you said you were not hurt." "Look," replied the New Yorker. "I was lying on the road in a lot of pain, and I heard someone say the horse had a broken leg. The net thing I know this Texas Ranger pulls out his gun and shoots the horse. Then he turns to me and asks, ’Are you okay?’"
Reader’s Digest, July, 1994, p. 64.
Everyone experiences difficult days. Days when there seems to be more pain than relief, more hardship than help and more suffering than support. My brother used to share a bit of wisdom with me: if it doesn’t kill you, it only makes you stronger. Then he would hit me and tell me he was making me stronger.
Pain does not work this way. Pain has a tendency to ebb away our strength. Pain slowly eats away at our physical and emotional defenses until it breaks through to erode aspects of our lives. Pain saps away our strength.
Recently I spoke with a friend who suffers from migraine headaches. The pain was so great that they were physically sick, nausea overtook them and they wanted to be left alone. Pain makes us feel sick, isolated and alone.
Everyone deals with three different types of pain.
Physical Pain:
Emotional Pain:
Spiritual Pain:
Maybe you have felt like the Psalmist who wrote these words: How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Pain can make us feel alone but nothing could be farther from the truth. The bad news is that we all experience pain but the good news is that we never have to bear it alone.
Last week we spoke about Peter and how he was stuck in his old life and his old manner of living. This morning I want to examine two people whose lives were stuck in the midst of pain and suffering. If you have your Bibles this morning, please open them to Mark 5:21-43.
Where is God when life hurts?
Pain is not part of God’s plan
We often find ourselves asking questions during times of difficulty and pain. There are times when we are hurting that life just doesn’t make sense. When God created the world several times he called it good and when it was finished he called it very good. There are times when I look at the world around me and good is the least thing I would call it.
Life is not fair - watch the news
• Children are horrible abused
• People are shot and killed for no reason
• Drug dealers continue to peddle their poison
• People across the globe are starving
• Hurricanes destroy homes and take lives
• Children are kidnaped
• Young men and women are fighting for our freedom while political activists absue their rights to criticize the military
Suffering fills the pages of the Bible - look at the Bible
• Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers
• Job lost everything in a single day
• John the Baptist was executed for no good reason
• The apostles were beaten and tortured for preaching the gospel
Pain and suffering are a direct result of sin. Let me clarify what I mean. If God declared creation very good something must have changed. The change came when sin entered the world. We suffer because this world is no longer good but corrupted by sin. The promise of new heaven and new earth is that there will be no more pain, no suffering, no sickness, no sorrow. Why is that the case? The world will be cleansed of the power and corruption of sin.
Suffering should cause us to seek Jesus
We see two different and unique situations with remarkable similarities. The first person to come to Jesus was Jairus. Jairus was a ruler of a local synagogue and had a position of authority. We do not know what his position was but it was clear he was a person of great importance. Jairus comes to Jesus seeking help for his daughter.
Jairus comes out of sheer desperation. There was no where else to turn and no one would help him. The only reason that Jairus leaves the side of his dying daughter is because no one else would go for him. There are times in life when we come to the end of ourselves. Jairus was humbled before Jesus and fell on his face at the feet of Jesus.
Pain often humbles us like nothing else can. Pain makes us admit our weaknesses. Pain makes us admit our dependence on God. Pain forces us to approach God in a manner that is selfless. Sometimes we allow our pride to keep us from being humble. Sometimes we allow our anger or bitterness about our situation keep us from approaching God. Other times we refuse to surrender, to let go and trust God.
The second person to come to Jesus that day was an unnamed woman with a serious health issue. The woman had a continuous problem with bleeding. We do not know what the cause was but may have been a series of wound that would not heal. Whatever the issue was the woman’s need was absolute.
The woman was literally hopeless without Christ. Jesus was the woman’s last resort. The woman had this bleeding condition for 12 years. The situation had caused her to be declared unclean. This meant that she could have no contact with other people. She would not be able to participate in the religious life of Israel. The woman was an outcast.
It is likely that she had been divorced and no was with nothing. She had gone to every possible doctor and tried every possible treatment but nothing worked. She spent everything and actually her condition got worse not better. Jesus was her last chance at a normal life.
The woman came to Jesus with an attitude that she was far from being worthy of anything that He could do for her. The woman did not want to draw any attention to herself and her situation. There are times when we have personal pains we want to keep hidden. Situations that we do not want to admit. No matter what pain you have, no matter what you are going through, Jesus knows already and wants to cover you in his love.
Suffering draws us to a deeper faith
Both Jairus and the woman were led to a deeper faith because of their suffering. The woman approaches Jesus believing that if she just touches the hem of His robe she would be healed. The woman believed in the gospel and in the power of Jesus.
Jesus brought healing to the woman when no one else could help her. Jesus brought hope when the situation was hopeless. Jesus offers more than we could ever hope or imagine in the midst of pain and suffering.
Jairus is told that his daughter has died and he must be crushed. Look at what Jesus says to him in verse 36: "Don’t be afraid; just believe." The answer to fear is faith. Jairus believed in Jesus and Jesus did the impossible. Jesus raises his daughter from the dead.
Three things to remember about suffering
Jesus offers us hope in the midst of our pain
Jesus never leaves us and is ready to answer when we call on Him. Jesus wants to reach into your life to assist you in the problems and pains that you deal with. Nothing has changed about His power from that day until now. Jesus has the power to heal and to transform lives.
Our problem is that we fail to lean on Him for strength. We do not experience His presence and power because we do not ask. We do not experience His healing because we do not seek it. There is no possible way for Jesus to heal our pains and relieve our suffering until we ask.
Jesus offers us healing from our pain
“Christ did not come to do away with suffering; He did not come to explain it; He came to fill it with His presence” – Paul Claudel
Jesus has the ability to heal any form of pain; physical, emotional and spiritual. The deepest needs of people is relief from their personal pain. Too often we allow those pains to take root in our lives and dig into us. The healing process begins when we realize just how much Jesus loves us. Jesus made a habit of loving those who many considered unlovable. Jesus reached out to the hurting people that society ignored.
There is nothing about you that Jesus does not already know. Jesus knows your successes and failures. Jesus knows your strengths and weaknesses. Jesus also knows every one of your needs. He knows the pain you hold in your heart, He knows the pain in your body, and he knows the hurt within your spirit.
There is no hurt, there is no care and there is no heartache hidden from Jesus. There is no pain, no weakness, and no difficulty that Jesus cannot change. We need to let go of our pains and give them over to Christ.
Jesus brings wholeness through our pain
Jesus brings full healing to the body, the mind and the spirit. Jesus has the desire to restore your life. Suffering and pain are a result of sin. Jesus breaks the power of sin in the lives of those who believe. Jesus also has the ability to break the power of pain and release us from suffering. Pain steals part of our lives but Jesus offers us wholeness in its place.
Wholeness begins with God.
The father created you – Wholeness is part of who you were created to be
Jesus restores you – Wholeness can be regained
The Holy Spirit empowers you – Wholeness can be a way of living
