When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Seven Last Words from the Cross Part 5 * John 19:28-29
Listen to the words of Ray Pritchard as we use our holy imagination to set the scene. He writes, “It was going to be another hot day. You could tell it early in the morning. It was not yet 9:00 and already the temperature was pushing 80 degrees. Here and there the city merchants were stirring and rushing around and opening their stalls to make ready for another busy day. This was the beginning of Passover. Lots of things going on. Lots of talk in the city. Outside the city walls they were making ready for another round of crucifixions. Three this time. Two criminals and some fellow named Jesus of Nazareth. The sun was beating down on their heads as the soldiers dug the holes in the ground and made ready with the stakes, with the hammer, with the nails. Made ready with the ropes.
“At length out came the crowd from the city. The two criminals and this man Jesus. 9:00 came. Crucifixion time. Hammers and nails. Screams of pain. Gasps. Men stripped naked. Bugs and flies everywhere. The heat beating down. Sweat rolling off the bodies. Blood everywhere. The stench and smell of death. And talking, laughing. “Here he is. King of the Jews.” 12:00. Darkness. Confusion. The sound of panic. People shouting. Then silence. Thick oppressive silence upon the land. Three hours pass, an eternity of darkness.
“Suddenly the light shines. There on the center cross was Jesus. Clearly about to die. Every breath now is huge effort. Heaving, gasping, fighting for oxygen. Resting upon the nail holes while he inhales. Sweat pouring off of him. Making some strange guttural noises. The experienced soldiers had heard it before—the death rattle. With a gasp a sound comes out. You can barely hear it more than two or three feet away. More like a moan. It is one word in Greek—dipso— ‘I Thirst.’” [https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/i-thirst/]
Thank you, Dr. Pritchard. Do you feel like you’re there? Can you visualize it? Today I’m going to preach a sermon based on a single word, one solitary word in the Greek: “dipso,” “I thirst.” When it comes to suffering, Jesus gives us three important lessons from the cross. First,
1. God can relate to our suffering
As the Son of God, deity in the flesh, Jesus knows firsthand what it is like to suffer. We can’t describe in detail the last twelve hours of his life, because it would literally gross you out: the crown of thorns, the scourging, the slapping and hitting and ridiculing and false charges, nails through his hands and feet, left to die in the heat on a cross. Now he is just moments from death, severely dehydrated. The blood loss, the heat, the stress: it has all had the effect the Romans intended, to slowly torture to death. And in his fifth of seven statements from the cross, Jesus points to his physical pain, the only time he does so. Jesus knows what it is like to suffer. God knows what it is like to suffer.
When you suffer, please know that Jesus suffered before you. Jesus suffered more than you. Jesus suffered not only the physical challenges of the cross, but also the spiritual, as—for the first time—he felt cut off from his Heavenly Father. We talked about this schism in the Holy Trinity last week. Jesus suffered spiritually and he suffered physically. God can relate firsthand to your suffering.
Secondly, Jesus’ statement reminds us,
2. God can redeem our suffering
You see, God can not only relate to your suffering, he can even use it for his purposes if you allow him to. Consider Jesus on the cross. Earlier in the series we talked about how he fulfilled prophecies found in Psalm 22, David’s psalm, concerning the piercing of his hands and feet and the gambling for his clothes. In today’s saying, he fulfills another verse from that psalm, verse 15, which says, “My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth” (Psalm 22:15). And he also fulfills Psalm 69:21, which says, “They ... gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Everything that happened on the cross was for a reason. It’s not like the events of Good Friday caught God by surprise: “Whoa, I never thought it would get this bad! Sorry, Son, I didn’t see this coming!” No, everything lined up perfectly with ancient prophecy. Revelation 13:8 describes Jesus symbolically as the lamb who was “slain from the creation of the world.” From the very beginning, God knew that his son would suffer on a cross. It was all part of God’s plan to buy us back, to redeem us for himself. An innocent one had to pay for the sins of the guilty.
John included an important clue in today’s scripture: the hyssop plant. The gospels of Matthew and Mark mention a stalk that was used to lift the sponge of wine vinegar to Jesus’ mouth. But John chose a different word, a strange word. Hyssop branches generally are not strong enough to hold a sponge. Yet, in Jesus’ day, the word “hyssop” could be used to describe a variety of plants. I think John chose it deliberately. Do you remember where else it appears in scripture? It is the very plant used by the Israelite families to paint the blood of the Passover Lamb on their doorposts, so that the angel of death would pass over their homes the night every firstborn child in Egypt would die. John graphically brings us to this truth: Jesus is our Passover lamb! He is the lamb without blemish offered up as the ultimate sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
As God did with his only son, God can redeem your suffering as well. He used Jesus’ suffering to overcome the sting of sin and death forever. And he can use our suffering for good, if we will let him. As Rick Warren says, “God never wastes a pain.” Will you bring your pain to God? Instead of asking, “Why?”, try asking, “What?” “What do you want to teach me here, Lord? How can you use my suffering for your glory?” If you’re going to suffer, suffer well! Suffer for a purpose!
God can relate to our suffering, God can redeem our suffering, and lastly,
3. God can carry us through our suffering
When you have had a bad day, have you ever felt sorry for yourself? I know I have. If you read through the psalms of the Bible, you’ll see one consistent theme: “God, why do you allow your own children suffer while your enemies prosper?” Sometimes we wonder. Psychologists call this the “Just World Theory”: that bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people.
Without knowing it, our parents actually train us in Just World Theory. They tell us, “Don’t run into the road without looking both ways.” And if we try, they spank us. They teach us consequences for our behavior, with the idea that if you’re good, good things will happen to you. But if you’re bad, bad things will happen.
Now admittedly, sometimes we bring suffering on our own heads. We make stupid choices, and they ruin relationships. We waste money. We drink too much, we smoke, we hurt with words or actions those we love the most. We bring stuff on ourselves. We suffer at our own hand.
But other times, we feel like Job. We have done nothing to deserve our suffering. You put everything you have into a relationship, and it still ends in divorce. You keep your body healthy, and you still come down with cancer. You work all your life for the company you believe in, and the CEO runs off with your retirement. You serve your nation in combat, and you end up with wounds that never seem to heal. Bad things happen to good people.
Jesus knows firsthand about that. Jesus is the most innocent human being to ever live. He never sinned. Yet, he died a common criminal’s death, treated unfairly by the reigning politicians, scorned by the religious elite, turned on by the crowds. But God saw him through.
As we read of the crucifixion, we know the rest of the story. It must have been terrible for John at the foot of the cross to watch his Master and Lord die a painful death. Even though Jesus clearly tried to prepare his disciples, John nor the rest had a clue that God would bring a glorious resurrection shortly thereafter. Without the cross, there would be no resurrection. Without Good Friday, there would be no Easter. Now we can see how the folly of the cross leads to the power of the resurrection, how death leads to life forever.
Jesus said to his followers, in John 15:20, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” We can expect our own form of persecution when we follow Jesus. After all, ten of his disciples were tortured and killed for their faith, and one was exiled. What I’m trying to say is, you can suffer and still be right in the middle of God’s will. Don’t assume your suffering is your fault. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it’s not. You have been faithfully serving God best you know how, and you still suffer. Stay the course. Never doubt God’s love for you. God never gave up on his Son Jesus, and he will never give up on you. You may be in a Good Friday time of your life, but hold on: Sunday’s coming. As the famous preacher, S.M. Lockridge said, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a coming!”
It may look bleak in your marriage now, but God is not done yet. Your physical health may be poor, but God is not done yet. You may be lonely, depressed, broke, cut off from your loved ones, but God is not done yet. Today may be a Friday in your life, but please know that Sunday’s a coming! Let us pray:
Thank you, Jesus, that you died for us, that our sins could be forgiven once and for all. We think of you today, dehydrated, on the verge of death, and our hearts grow sad. Yet, we know that you died for us, and our hearts grow warm. Help us to live for you. And help us to remember, on the bad days we all have, that God still loves us, and that better times lay ahead. We look forward to that resurrection Sunday for each of us, when we will be with you in heaven forever and ever. We pray in your holy name, amen.
