MPC 11th September 2005.Genesis 3 - "Suffering"
Garnet Swann MPC 11th September 2005.
I once had a guy in my bible study group named Harrison. Harrison was a friendly guy, but what made him slightly unusual for our group was that Harrison was Buddhist. Now I don't mean Richard Gere - Hollywood trendy sort of Buddhism. I mean - from Taiwan, yellow robe, shaved head sort of Buddhist. The real deal. He'd come along to our bible study group and sit there politely - we would have discussions about Christianity and Buddhism.
But one of the things I learnt at that time, was that for Buddhists - suffering is an illusion. It's just a consequence of our desires. Because of this, suffering is something we can... just meditate way.
Now this morning we're going to to look at this topic of suffering and what we can say upfront is that for Christian people - we don't treat it as an illusion. We treat it as real.
It's real when we watch the world events around us like hurricanes and wars. And it's real when we ourselves experience anguish and pain in our lives.
You know, the bible doesn't deny it either. In the bible we find people with an open and honest cry, asking why is this pain so bad, why is this happening to me. The man who wrote Psalm 6 (Ps 6:3-6) said:
O LORD, My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?... I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
No, in Christianity - suffering's not an illusion - it's real.
Now before we go any further, one thing I want to say - I hope I do not come across as some sort of expert on suffering. Because I'm not. And I don't think what I am telling you will make everything OK if you are suffering. In fact if you are in the midst of the fire, of suffering, I don't think what I have to say will calm the flames. Sometimes all we can do is put our arm around a friend and show them that we care.
So what I'm saying today is not so much a soothing ointment for your pain, but more 'preventative'. My desire is to give you a thoroughly Christian/biblical perspective so that when suffering next strikes - not that you'll have all the answers. Not that the pain will be any less. But by having a framework in place, you might be able to keep your trust in God.
This morning I want to look at the topic of suffering under 4 headings. They are:
I don't know if you ever saw that movie Outbreak. But in the movie a virus was running rampant and so to treat it the scientists are desperate to discover who was the first carrier. It was important to trace things back to find the origin.
Well, it's the same with suffering. We need to understand our experiences of suffering in the context of the big picture of where it all came from. And thankfully the bible clearly teaches us about where suffering all began.
For this we need to turn to the first few of chapters of Genesis. The first book in the bible.
As God creates the world, we read his repeating verdict: 'it was good', 'it was good', 'it was good'. In fact, after making the first man and woman, God doesn't hold back and says 'it was very good!' In this wonderful place God's made there is no suffering or pain. There is perfect relationship between people and God, a perfect relationship between people themselves. And a perfect relationship between people and the environment. In that first Garden things were perfect.
Last year Kirsty and I went for a picnic in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. It was glorious sunny day. It was beautiful. We had a really nice time. But in that garden things were still far from perfect.
Our day in the Garden was really nice. But far from perfect.
Well, in the first Garden that God placed man and woman there was nothing to spoil it.
But if the refrain in chapter 1 was "it was good", "it was good", "it was good", by the time we get to chapter 5, in a list of generations, we read these ominous words: "then he died", "then he died", "then he died".
What's brought this about? Why pain and death where there was once perfection and life? The answer is because of human's rebellion against God. God gave them instruction but Adam and Eve wilfully thought they knew better. Adam and Even wanted to be their own gods and so they disobeyed him.
In chapter 3 we read of the Lord pronouncing punishment because of their rebellion. It's the passage we had read earlier. From v16 of Genesis 3 we read,
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life... until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
We need to get a handle on this. This passage is saying - that the hardships we experience and ultimately death, are God's limits upon all of us - whose sin is just like the first man and woman - living as if we can deny God's authority. God's shock news - "for dust you are, and to dust you will return" is his justice upon every person.
You and I need to understand this. This means I am the reason for my own death. Death is not simply something that happens to me. It's all our futures because we're all sinners. I myself attract this just wrath of God. Death is the price for my sin.
Now I have not factored into this - the kind of death - you know - young or old - that will all properly impact the way we should respond to someone's death. But what I'm doing is focusing our minds on the origin of death. I'm wanting us to think theologically about this and to face up to the way we're all responsible.
Now don't hear me saying - that for someone who is sick or dying - we can point to a sin in their life and say this is what caused it. You did this - therefore this awful thing is happening to you. That would be a horrendous abuse to say that.
But what I am saying is that in our lives we are all living in the effluent of the original rebellion. We all suffer the consequence of our guilt.
My desire in going through this first point with you is that when suffering comes upon you - you'll be less quick to blame God. That you will have some understanding that God's sentence of death rightly hangs over all of us. It's just a matter of time. And that you might be able to face your own time of anguish still able to recognise God's rightness in all his ways.
Well, I have spoken about the origin of suffering and of the importance of seeing our suffering in the framework of the beginning. But we also need to go to the flip-side and see suffering in the light of the end. On this point, I want to look with you at the issues of justice and hope.
I think a reaction that many people have when they see the atrocities in this world - Cambodian Killing Fields, Rwanda, September 11, is "Why didn't God do something? Why won't he step in and make things right?"
Well, the Bible's answer is that He will step in and do something. The bible speaks of that future time, at the end of this world's history when God's full justice will be demonstrated.
Revelation 20:11-12 says,
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.
God will come and he will judge all according to what they've done. He will lay all their life open and nothing will be hidden from him. God will bring his just punishment upon the murderer. God will bring punishment upon the child abuser who attacks a defenceless kid. God will bring punishment upon the pack of rapists who think they have got away with it.
Though awful, vile things are done behind closed doors, in darkened streets, away from camera's and witnesses. Though some atrocities will never see the inside of a courtroom, every perpetrator will come before the Lord.
Now I am not saying we shouldn't seek justice in this world. We should seek justice. But what I'm saying is that the bible insists, what ever happens in this world, ultimately, justice before God will be done.
If we hold onto the fact that one day - everyone will be accountable for their crimes.
If we can accept that God is just and his justice will come upon all, then I think there is comfort for us . There can be some comfort because you can know that all things will be put right. Not now, but in the future. Now - this requires trust. This requires that we cling to the fact that God is in control and he's working things out.
Suffering and the End. We need to have a focus upon God's Justice. If we are Christian people. We also need to have a focus upon the hope.
This is especially important at times of bereavement. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says:
We do not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
You know, with funerals for Christian people, where the person had a personal faith in Jesus - for Christian people that are there - the tears flow just as quickly. The grief is no less painful. The sense of personal loss is devastating. But somehow - there is not that hollow, aching despair. Our hope is in our eternal destination.
Revelation 21:3-4 says:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
When Christian people who have been saved by God through faith in Christ, die, we rightly grieve and are full of sorrow. But it is a sorrow that turns on our loss. Not their's. They've not lost - they've gained. They're now in a place where those enemies of suffering and death have been done away with.
Let me tell you about famous Christian. He's German and he lived in the 1500s and his name was Martin Luther. He had a daughter named Magdalene and she was dying. As Martin Luther was crying by her side, he asked her, "Magdalene, by dear little daughter, would you like to stay here with your father, or would you willingly go to your Father beyond?" Magdalene answered, "Darling father, as God wills." Luther held his daughter in his arms, praying that God might heal her, but she died. As she was laid in the coffin, Martin Luther said this, "Darling Lena, you will rise and shine like a star... I am happy in spirit, but the flesh is sorrowful and will not be content, the parting grieves me beyond measure... I have sent a saint to heaven."
We can see that death and suffering at the very least forces us to think heavenward. And that bring us to the next aspect of Suffering, and that is - Lessons from God. God can and does use suffering and hardship to teach us.
Hebrews 12: 5-12 says:
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves..." Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons... No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Perhaps this is a bitter pill to swallow but here we can see that hardship and suffering are used by God to teach and discipline those who belong to him. That last section - it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Suffering and hardship are used by God to grow us.
I think it will be different for all of us - I take it when suffering comes it will reveal all sorts of weaknesses in our character that we can work on and that God would want to change in us. But I reckon in a very simple way as well, when suffering comes, God uses it so that we might re-check our priorities.
See, isn't it true that in our foolishness we live in a very selfish way, always seeking immediate pleasure, seeking to acquire things that will give us some sense of safety and security. We're like people sitting at the banquet table of the Titanic - stuffing our faces even when the water is at our feet. And yet when hardship comes - it's God's megaphone to us: "You're not immortal. Why are you building up treasures on earth."
God's discipline can bring us to that humble and grateful point of refocusing our vision on what our life should be really about.
Now, there's something mysterious about this isn't there?! All suffering and death is a vile consequence of sin in the world. Some forms of suffering can come as the direct result of an evil action, done by someone, with evil motives in their heart. And yet, God is at work for the good of those who belong to him, his children.
Like a black murky tile that all my itself is ugly, but when part of the whole is used to make a beautiful mosaic.
God is at work in all circumstances to bring growth in us. All we can do sometimes is place our trust in our Father.
Well, let me move to my last point. And that is Suffering and the Wounds of God.
You know, in the religion of Islam - God is seen as the 'Cause of all Causes' - the one who causes and moves everything, but he himself is not moved by anything. In the Koran - God is an unapproachable, unaffected being. That is very different to the Bible's presentation. In the bible - we discover that God is the one who's deeply moved. God is the one who he himself is caused pain and suffering. God has wounds.
And we need to look no further than the cross.
As we read through the accounts of Jesus' life - we discover he's a man, but he is more than a man - he's God in the flesh. To know Jesus, is to know God.
And so that one who we cry to when the pain is too unbearable, the one who we place our trust in - that he's in control even in the darkest times - he knows what suffering's like.
As Jesus hung on the cross, Mark tells us this:
At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus' cry is not a cry of self-doubt. He is not questioning his identity or his mission, but he is crying out to God, "Why?" There on the cross, the bible insists, God enters our pain and our misery. He gets his hands dirty and bloody. Here we see God vulnerable and exposed.
As we pray to God in tears - God is able to sympathise with us - not just because he is "all-knowing", but because he has experienced pain first hand.
The glorious thing though is that Jesus' suffering and death is more than just identification with us - being like us. On the cross he achieves something for us.
Before, when I spoke about that final judgement day - it's easy to sort of think that it's for the real nasty people in the world - the leaders of Rwandan death squads. But the bible teaches us - on the final day - God will peel back the veneer of our lives and see what we're really like. God will judge even the respectable Brisbanite for his and her greed and hypocrisy and apathy towards others and lust and selfishness. On the judgement day God's book will be opened and God's just wrath will fall upon all persons who have lived in rejection of God's authority over them.
But Christ's death - His suffering on the cross - can be our substitute. Christ's calls out My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? because upon him falls all the judgement for sin that should rightly fall upon us. Because of what Christ has done, my guilt is transformed into hope. Because of what Christ has done - condemnation is transformed into forgiveness and mercy.
To receive God's forgiveness and mercy - your response to him needs to be trust. A response of "thank you Jesus - I accept you died for me". And I invite you to talk to a Christian friend you trust - to talk about this further.
Lastly - real suffering, real trust, real comfort.
Again I want to say - what I have said this morning is not some magic medicine for tears. And my fear is that I can come across as too trite. Humanly - who can understand your pain? - only perhaps those who have suffered something similar to you.
My desire is that this would be a framework of Christian thinking that you could draw on for when suffering next strikes. And even so - it's not about taking away your tears. It is not about diminishing your pain.
My desire is that you would have a profound and personal trust in God. A trust that would be in the midst of the tears and pain. I believe this sort of trust will only come as you grow in your knowledge of God. For Christian people, you and I - we need to spend time reading God's word, really thinking about it. Growing closer to God as you realise more and more how much God loves you and is committed to your good.
And this will be the comfort that we will find. Not a stony faced stoicism - "God knows best" But in the midst of real pain, having a real trust in God, and drawing real comfort from knowing God's care and wisdom and love.