"Finding Meaning when Life Hurts"
Ephesians 3:1-21 May 18/03
Hanging On when Life "sucks"
There are times in most people's lives when we hurt badly; in the contemporary vernacular, a younger person might say they feel like life "sucks". Suffering seems to be part of the human condition, whether as a result of our own mistakes, the actions of others, or just through the general accidents and pain that come our way. Today we'll see that God's Word holds out hope for those who suffer; when we belong to Jesus, He helps us accept the suffering that we must, and gives us strength to find meaning through it all.
But before anyone here concludes their life "sucks" so to speak, consider the unhappy plight of passengers on a cargo plane in the Congo May 8. After 45 minutes of flying from Kinshasa towards another city, at an altitude of 10,000 metres the rear door came open and up to 129 people crowded into the bay were sucked out of the plane to their deaths (officials say the actual toll may be half that as the airplane's manifest was incomplete). That's a tragic accident. Somehow the crew managed to turn the plane around and land safely back at the capital. And wondrously, 9 people survived, after treatment for minor injuries and psychological trauma. What a shock that must have been! Compared to something like that, our problems must seem small.
Some time ago on a commuter flight from Maine to Boston, something similar happened. Pilot Henry Dempsey heard an unusual noise near the rear of the small aircraft. He turned the controls over to his co-pilot and went back to investigate. As he reached the tail section, the plane hit an air pocket, and Dempsey was tossed against the rear door. He quickly discovered the source of the mysterious noise. The rear door had not been properly latched prior to takeoff, and it flew open. He was instantly sucked out of the jet.
The co-pilot, seeing the red light that indicated an open door, radioed the nearest airport, requesting permission to make an emergency landing. He reported that the pilot had fallen out of the plane, and requested a helicopter search of that area of the ocean. After the plane landed, they found Henry Dempsey -- holding onto the outdoor ladder of the aircraft! Somehow he had caught the ladder, held on for 10 minutes as the plane flew 200 mph at an altitude of 4,000 feet, and then, at landing, kept his head from hitting the runway. It took airport personnel several minutes to pry Dempsey's fingers from the ladder.
Greg Asimakoupoulos who relates this story concludes, "Things in life may feel turbulent, and you may not feel like holding on. But have you considered the alternative?" Thankfully, as we'll see, those who believe in Jesus have additional resources to hang on when life "sucks".
Suffering BECAUSE
This morning as we continue to look at the letter to the Ephesians, we can classify suffering under three broad headings: Suffering Because, Suffering For, and Suffering Through. The first category, Suffering Because, involves suffering that we bring on ourselves as a consequence of our actions, and suffering people bring on others through evil desires. Sometimes the suffering we experience is a direct response to our own actions. Here, a question we can ask is, "Am I reaping what I have sown?" Paul warns in Gal.6(8) that "The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction..." I was talking to a man in hospital who was having breathing problems, and his wife said what he was coughing up looked terrible. I asked if he was a farmer, because we often get cases of "farmer's lung" due to all the chaff and dust farmers inhale over the years. The man said, no, he was in construction. I wondered if there'd been a lot of sawdust. It was then he admitted he'd been a smoker. We decided it would be nice to be able to turn the clock back and change our actions if we could only keep the wisdom we gain later in life.
Our choices matter. Passing pleasure now may bring persistent pain down the road. To a large extent, we reap what we sow; we may be suffering BECAUSE of poor decisions earlier. FB Meyer wrote: "This is the bitterest of all -- to know that suffering need not have been; that it has resulted from indiscretion and inconsistency; that it is the harvest of one's own sowing; that the vulture which feeds on the vitals is a nestling of one's own rearing. Ah me! this is pain!"
But not all suffering is our own doing. People do hurt other people, for a whole variety of evil reasons. Here the question would be, "Am I a victim of someone else's wickedness?" Jesus sternly warned people against injuring others, even by tempting them, saying, "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!" (Mt.18:6f)
Sadly this week the news carried the story of a Toronto girl named Holly Jones whose body parts were found in separate bags by the shore of Lake Ontario. Such crimes are particularly disturbing because they are so violent, and carried out against those who are comparatively helpless. It shows the dark, sinister side of evil. But who of us has not been guilty of some cutting word, some abusive remark or wounding action? Jesus implied that anger and verbal abuse were just as much evil as was murder (Mt.5:21f).
How should we respond when we suffer because of someone else's wickedness? Jesus taught us to forgive those who trespass against us, so we too might be forgiven (Mt.6:12,14f). On the individual level, Paul urged us not to take our own revenge, but to leave room for God's wrath; "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (Rom.12:19) Yet the Bible teaches that rulers of society have an important role to bear the sword for God and punish wrongdoers (Rom.13:4). It was heartening to hear of police officers in the Toronto area volunteering some of their time off to join in the hunt for Holly's killer.
Whatever justice may or may not be meted out in this life, Scripture teaches every person will give account to God for their actions; justice will be served (Rom.14:12). Each person will be judged for what they have done (Rev.20:12f). We saw in Ephesians 1(21) that God has seated Jesus far above all rule and authority, in the present age and the age to come; He's the One who will judge the world, everyone will answer to Him (Ac.17:31).
Suffering FOR
Besides Suffering BECAUSE, there's also what I call Suffering FOR. This is the case with the apostle Paul in Eph.3. Here the question that can be asked goes something like: "Is this hardship to someone else's benefit?" There is a vicarious or redemptive element, the suffering helps someone else. Paul begins this chapter, "For this reason" -- ie the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile to each other and to God through Jesus' cross as he's just talked about in chapter 2 -- "For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus FOR THE SAKE OF you Gentiles..." (and he then digresses for a dozen verses) V.13 picks up the thought: "I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of MY SUFFERINGS FOR YOU, which are your glory." Paul was under house arrest in Rome AD 60 as he wrote this letter. He'd been arrested in Jerusalem because people thought he'd defiled the temple by bringing Trophimus the Ephesian with him to Jerusalem, though he'd actually just been seen with him in town, not the temple. So the immediate issue of Paul's imprisonment had to do with the question whether Gentiles could worship God alongside the Jews.
Besides this, much of Paul's suffering all through his ministry was on account of his message that Gentiles, like Jews, could become acceptable to God through faith in Jesus. All his shipwrecks and stonings and hunger and loss of sleep - all these hardships were for the benefit of Gentiles, he was suffering FOR their good. It was vicarious suffering in that Paul was taking the heat on their behalf, paving the way for their inclusion in the body of Christ as equal members with the Jews. It was redemptive suffering, giving them value through his hardship, just as Jesus suffered to redeem all who believe in Him. Listen to the preposition "for" in 1Peter 3(18): "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." He said in Mk.10(45) that He came to give His life "as a ransom FOR many". Clearly the idea of a substitution or offsetting benefit here, His sacrifice bought my freedom.
Those who bear the name "Christian" are called to suffer for others as Jesus suffered for us; "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps...He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree...by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:21,24) Paul urged the Galatians (6:2), "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." It really catches people's attention when Christians inconvenience themselves on behalf of another. How have you "put yourself out" lately for someone else? When the early church was getting off the ground, it was practical caring actions that showed people their love was real; tradition records that neighbours remarked, "How these Christians love each other!"
Paul put up with the SUFFERING because of the SECRET. There was what he calls a "mystery" that gave meaning to his misery. What's Paul's great secret? V.3, "the mystery made known to me by revelation", as he'd briefly mentioned in chapters 1(9ff) and 2(11ff); v.4, "the mystery of Christ"; v.6, "this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." This is the wonder, the fuel that drove Paul's whole missionary enterprise, God's call to him to preach to non-Jews and let them know they too could become members of God's faith family through trusting in Jesus. The word "together" repeated 3 times in verse 6 is actually a prefix repeated 3 times in the Greek, "syn" meaning "with" as in "synchronize" two watches. The amazing thing to zealously Jewish Paul is that the uncircumcised can now be totally co-heirs, co-body members, co-partakers of the promise in Christ.
At one level this is the grafting in of a whole 'nother group of people. Other verses in this chapter spell this secret out as receiving grace (vv.7-8), Christ's unsearchable riches, His love (18), being able to approach God with freedom and confidence (12). But as I see it, the core of the secret is found in vv.16-17: having God's "Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." This is really radical! Not only can we be "in Him" (v.12), Jesus comes to live in me! And so, somehow, in v.19, Paul prays that we may be filled with all God's "fullness". In Col.1:27 Paul called "this mystery...Christ in you". Not just Christ seated at the Father's right hand, or even Christ "with us always" (Mt.28:20); but as he expressed it earlier to the Galatians (2:20), "Christ lives in me." It's a new spiritual co-existence within us. It's how Richard Wurmbrand, tortured and imprisoned for witnessing, could dance for joy each night in his dingy cell, because of the joy of having Christ within. To hear His voice guiding, feel His love enveloping, know His will directing your outcome. This was the BIG SECRET that made all Paul's suffering worthwhile, the mystery that gave ultimate meaning to his hardships. Computers may run on Intel Inside; Christians run on Jesus inside. As Corrie Ten Boom (who suffered through concentration camp) put it: "There is no pit so deep but He is not deeper still."
Suffering THROUGH
In our first category, suffering BECAUSE, there was an obvious cause for the pain; in the second, suffering FOR, there was an obvious beneficiary. In our last category, suffering THROUGH, the question is not so much "why is this happening?" as "What is the Lord seeking to accomplish through this hardship?" In many instances, the trial may come "out of the blue" so to speak -- no easily seen cause or beneficiary, it "just happens". But even when there's no single immediate factor, we can be assured there is a long-term goal to our suffering -- our own maturity and God's glory.
Paul's central prayer for the Ephesians is that God would STRENGTHEN them. This relates to maturity, character, Paul's desire to present everyone "complete in Christ" (Col.1:28). When there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to the trouble we're going through, we can find meaning in casting ourselves on God for help and realizing His strengthening through our time of weakness. Paul writes in v.16, "I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being..." And vv.17-19, "I pray that you...may have power...to grasp...the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge..." Strengthened with power to grasp Christ's love, to experience its depth, to be filled with God's fullness. Isn't that just what we need when the hurt seems overwhelming? The Holy Spirit makes Jesus present to us, encouraging us, knowing He identifies with us. As Paul put it, "I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions..." (Col.1:24) So he saw his troubles as no longer his alone, but shared with the Lord Jesus.
God's goal in your life and mine is not for us to be happy, but holy. Remember the list of products from suffering Paul itemizes in Romans 5(3f) that prompts us to rejoice in our sufferings: perseverance, character, and hope. Suffering develops maturity and Christlikeness. Dr.Robert Lightner, a long-time member of the theology department at Dallas Seminary, was involved in a terrible plane crash. He was in a single-engine plane that flipped over during takeoff. He was badly injured and bruised beyond recognition. His wife, Pearl, said when she first saw him, "I looked at this black mass of flesh, and I didn't even know who he was." Thankfully, he did recover, and today he is a living testimony of the grace of God through that ordeal. He has since said, "I learned things I didn't know I needed to learn." His brush with the grave wound up bringing growth.
A little piece of wood once complained bitterly because its owner kept whittling away at it, cutting it, and filling it with holes, but the one who was cutting it so remorselessly paid no attention to its complaining. He was making a flute out of that piece of ebony, and he was too wise to desist from doing so, even though the wood complained bitterly. He seemed to say, "Little piece of wood, without these holes, and all this cutting, you would be a black stick forever - just a useless piece of ebony. What I am doing now may make you think that I am destroying you, but, instead, I will change you into a flute, and your sweet music will charm the souls of men and comfort many a sorrowing heart. My cutting you is the making of you, for only thus can you be a blessing in the world."
Finally, besides our strengthening and maturity, suffering can result in God's glory. As long as we only encounter obstacles in life that we can handle on our own power, there's no room or need for God's help to be manifested. It's when the 20-foot waves threaten to swamp our small boat that we know we're out of our depth, can't do it on our own, and consequently the outcome will demonstrate God's intervention. It's because Paul had survived against impossible odds that he could testify in v.20 that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" - and from that would flow v.21, "to Him be glory and in the church and in Christ Jesus..." It's when the world sees us managing to cope against huge obstacles with God's help, without endlessly whining and complaining, without giving up and throwing in the towel, that they take notice that there's more going on in us than meets the eye. Something special; that something is Jesus inside. And thus God's glory, the display of His mercy and goodness and splendour, is revealed.
Look back at v.10 for a minute. "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms..." "Manifold" may not be the best word to describe God's wisdom in our context: a guy used to dealing with cars pictures a "manifold" such as exhaust or intake manifold as something dull, rusted, and unspectacular. A better translation might be God's "multi-faceted" or "many-splendoured" wisdom, like the many glints of colours from a sparkling diamond, or the millions of twinkles of colour from pure white snow on a sunny winter day. Anyway, Paul's point is that you and I, the church, are in God's shop window, on display in the universe. We're under the scrutiny of cosmic and heavenly spirits: God's intent is to make known His sovereign wisdom through our actions. The "rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms" aren't just the good angels and cherubim etc: 6:12 refers to the rulers, authorities, the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. In short, the faithfulness of believers despite suffering is God's chief answer to Satan's accusations. Recall the book of Job - the sufferer's refusal to curse God brought God glory and shut Satan up. Our faithfulness despite our difficult, stick situation is the duct tape God uses to stop the Accuser's mouth.
Bonhoeffer: Suffering the Badge of True Discipleship
John Stott in the book Christian Counter Culture writes, "Few men of this century have understood better the inevitability of suffering than Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He seems never to have wavered in his Christian antagonism to the Nazi regime, although it meant for him imprisonment, that threat of torture, danger to his own family, and finally death. He was executed by the direct order of Heinrich Himmler in April 1945, in the Flossenburg concentration camp, only a few days before it was liberated. It was the fulfillment of what he had always believed and taught: [here Stott quotes Bonhoeffer who said] 'Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship.The disciple is not above his master.Following Christ means passio passiva - suffering because we have to suffer.That is why Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true Church, and one of the memoranda drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines the Church as the community of those 'who are persecuted and martyred for the gospel's sake'...Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer.'"
Let's pray.