Disciplines of the Father 6

Reading

Rom 8:16-39               [] below = omitted from presentation

The Discipline of Suffering   https://youtu.be/o56_HRMF4-g

Introduction

The seeming inevitability of suffering has given birth to some of the world’s greatest religions[1], with the advance of modern medical technologies and legislation designed to terminate “pointless” life, the Church has increasingly submitted to a worldview where pain is primarily something to avoid[2]. Because we no longer look at all things through the death-and-resurrection of Jesus, we have lost  an all-inclusive perspective on existence, precipitating a discipleship crisis in all the churches, for discipleship is how to live and die before the Lord (coram deo[3])[4],[5].  The importance of dying   a “good death”[6] first entered my mind when in reviewing an older Anglican priests’ mission statement about ministry, he ranked this as one of his most important goals. The manner in which people die, in terror/futility/anger/regret or in wondrous peace with God, is the final fruit of discipleship, these are things about which we will be regularly moved to pray[7].

Death has been defined as the coming of “[she/]visitor/guest to whom no one willingly opens the door”[8], but Jesus said, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (John 3:20), the entry of Christ into our lives brings into us him who is more than a conqueror, even over death, (Rom 8:37). One of the worst things anyone ever said about Donna and me is that we are “survivors”. A follower of Jesus can no more be a “survivor” than the Lord was a “victim”. [There’s no gospel in such trivial talk.]

Have you ever prayed about the way your death might bring glory to God (John 21:19)? Charles Wesley died praying “Lord-my heart-my God” and the death of his famous brother John was just as ennobling[9]. In my lifetime I have seen such a phenomenal relapse of Western society back into pagan unbelief as to death and dying, that we need to be reminded of the sort of world into which the gospel came. The ancient idol-worshippers mournfully spoke of death like this, “’While there’s life there’s hope, and only the dead have none.’” (Theocritus), “the sun can set and rise again But once our brief light sets There is one unending night to be slept through” (Catullus), “I sorrowed and wept over your dear departed one…but really there is nothing one can do in the face of such things” (anonymous papyrus). Paul however boldly testifies of the radical difference the death-and-resurrection of Jesus makes to everything, “we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13). Though in recent times teachers/theologians speak of the suffering of God, this seems to have weakened rather than intensified Christian commitment to walk with Jesus. Given this is the exact opposite of what we should expect if God does suffer, we must focus on the life and death of Jesus more closely.

Does God Suffer?

Once upon a time most theologians would agree that God is essentially apathetic[10] (without emotions), let me quote from the first of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions”[11]. As a young believer I became deeply embedded in this way of thinking about the Lord, [so that I became increasingly lost in a sort of fantasy world hovering around the teachings of famous men like St Augustine, John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards, which happened to be no more than fancy form of idolatry.] so that to pull me out of my mental idolatries he applied increasing suffering to my personal life forcing me to return to the memorability of the words of Jesus. ““The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (Luke 9:22). Suffering with Christ is not so much inevitable as indispensable, for, to quote, “God is christlike and in him there is no unchristlikeness at all.” (Archbishop A.M. Ramsey). Everything must pass the “Jesus test”,  and the “Jesus test” embraces the story of Israel, the apostles and the Early Church as a testimony of Jesus’ own life.

Suffering in Creation

Since Jesus is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev 22:13), and what God first intended is clearest in the visions at the end of Revelation, it is only in “reading the Bible backwards”[12] can we grasped by the meaning of God’s purpose in all things. In going into these super sensitive matters I want to distinguish pain from suffering. If pain is a physical sensation or signal indicating an event within the body, suffering is our interpretation [via thoughts, beliefs, or judgments] in response to the experience of pain[13]. Whilst the New Testament does associate pain with divine judgment (Rev 16:2, 10-11), it never connects “suffering” with God’s judgement on the believer but promises a better and more glorious outcome[14]. Hebrews 12:11 is especially helpful when it says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later[15] it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”[16] A great spiritual commentator[17] remarks “To the flesh which judges by what is present and by sense, it [discipline] is distinctly, often terribly, grievous. Faith which lives in the future and unseen [cf. Heb 12:1-2 of Jesus], rejoices not only of deliverance, but of the heavenly blessing it brings. ‘For the moment…yet afterward’…These two expressions contain the great contrast between time and eternity…the visible and the invisible sorrow…joy, sense…faith, backsliding…progress to perfection.” What seems to be only painful to sight, becomes seen as a blessing to faith in the Spirit (2 Cor 5:7).  This is how the mature believer in Christ can bear witness to the value through Christ of their suffering to the world in a way that must appear to the faithless as shocking, ridiculous and supernatural (2 Cor 5:16-17)[18].

Our radically different worldview flows from the fact that we share in the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). As Jesus understood the world as made for himself[19], so we believe that this world was made for us in him.[20] We are not speaking about the world as it presents itself to natural sense or reason, but as seen through faith in the death-and-resurrection of Jesus. In the eternal purpose and all -surpassing [inscrutable] wisdom of God (Rom 11:33-36), creation is designed for the formation of the character[21] shaped through the suffering-and-glorified humanity of the Son of God[22]. Only through Jesus can we understand God’s final purpose in allowing suffering in his original “very good” creation (Gen 1:31). [Whilst it is true that sin intensifies pain as a judgment (Rom 1:24, 26, 28), something far more profound is at work here. When the Lord said to Eve, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” (Gen 3:16), he was speaking of all coming useless and meaningless suffering.]

Until we reach the time when “He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”” (Rev 21:4), the only way to give adequate glory to the Lord in this present “vale of tears”[23] (cf. Luke 19:41-44) is to keep growing in the mind of Christ.

The Suffering of Jesus

As the one to whom the Spirit fully expounded the scripture, Jesus carried in himself two seemingly opposite testimonies. The repeated biblical teaching that it is only through divinely afflicted suffering that personal righteousness can grows in faith[24], and the biblical revelation that God who is grieved to the heart by human evil,[25] takes no pleasure in bringing pain to us through judgement*[26]. Through the whole course of life Jesus was surrounded by evil, suffering and pain[27],because although personally  sinless, he lived as though a fallen person subject to the trials of life as we know them*[28].

Christ completes in himself all the diverse strands of biblical revelation through bearing divine and human anguish over the punishment of the wicked [by the power of the Spirit].  The darkness that covers the earth for three hours when he is on the cross is the darkness of all past, present and future judgement as experienced by lost souls*[29]. The Saviour must be immersed in the environment of[ evil] hopelessness and wrath[30] that has flowed  through history since the Fall of Adam[31]. The will of Jesus exerted in his loud cry, “My God, my God, why…” (Mark 15:34) is a holy covenant plea exerted in the fulness of his sinless nature[32] powerful enough to reverse [in himself] the anti-God direction of the minds of fallen people in their pain, and one which creates the possibility of the glory of obeying a Father in heaven. By his perfect suffering as a Son (Heb 5:8-9), Christ has established his Lordship over all human pain and darkness[33].  In Christ there is no space for confusion[34] (1 Cor 14:33), all things, especially suffering, now have a clear goal, the goal which is Jesus himself (Heb 11:3-12:2).

Conclusion

Martin Luther profoundly said, “The cross tests everything (Crux probat omnia).” The attitude [and disposition] of the dying Jesus tests every [created and fallen] human mind because it reverses the natural end of everything[35] as hopelessness and despair[36]. The direction in which Christ leads us, especially through great suffering, is more and more into his inextinguishable “love, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). This is why Paul can define his life in a completely Christ-centred way, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead 12 Not that I have already obtained this or mam already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Phil 3:8, 10-11)[37]