The Lutheran Hour
-
"Oh, God, I Hurt!"
- No Sermon MP3 No bonus material MP3
-
Text: Hebrews 12:5-12
-
Prayer: Merciful Lord, You sent Your Son to be our peace. Help all who suffer pain or grief, to find in Him strength and peace so their trust in Your promises may be renewed through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
My subject today is pain, physical pain. Now if you are not presently suffering from any physical pain, I hope what I have to say can encourage you as you suffer with the other pain that comes our way, emotional and interpersonal pain or suffering for your convictions, and so on. You cannot go through life without some kind of pain and suffering.
Several years ago The Yale Review published an essay by Barbara Hurd. It’s titled “The Country Below.” “I heard a story once,” wrote Ms. Hurd, “of a husband and wife hopelessly lost in a cave. After days had passed and they had given up hope of rescue, they began to confide in each other as they had never done. They revealed extramarital affairs, the disdain each felt for the other’s naivete, impatience with the way one left tea bags on the counter, how the other liked the left foot to stick out of the covers at night. On and on they went, unwrapping secrets, lifting layers off their life together, until they lay weak and spent on the damp cave floor in an intimacy they had never known.
Of course, they were rescued. Hauled out of the labyrinth and returned to their kitchen, they could no longer stand the sight of each other. Knowing more than they could bear, they divorced and went their separate ways.” (The Best American Essays 1999, Boston, Houghton-Mifflin; p. 142).
When I first read that story, I had expected to hear they lived happily ever after, enjoying a most wonderful relationship. However, I was disappointed. The brutal honesty didn’t renew their love but ended in divorce. I think pain puts you in a cave-like situation with God. Pain makes you feel isolated from other people. It can lead you to despair that you’ll never again lead a normal life. Pain forces you to re-examine what you’ve always thought about God. God, You call this love that I suffer the way I do? Pain leads you to talk honestly with Him. The talk can be brutal. It can be angry. “Oh, God, I hurt! I’m angry at You for letting me hurt this way.” Like the couple lost in the cave, being lost in pain can lead to you divorce God.
In 1995 Dr. Paul Raabe wrote a short article in the Concordia Journal, the theological journal of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. His article, “God, Bad Things, and Good People” made two observations about how the Bible treats various expressions of bad things, including pain and suffering. “First, he wrote things like sickness, pestilence, and death are, per se, “bad”; they are things to be delivered from alien intrusions into the created order. The Old Testament calls them “curses” (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28), while the New Testament refers to death as the last “enemy” (1 Corinthians 15). We should not deny their reality and their “badness.”
That prompts a comment about the growing opinion in favor of assisted suicide. Pain and suffering that come from illness should be fought, not surrendered to. My own sister knows chronic pain. Because of a rare disease, Pam has had over 50 operations. Thank God for the miracle of modern medicine! It combats the disease and eases her pain, which has been considerable over the years. The pain and suffering from disease, from that alien intrusion into the good world God made, needs to be fought and not surrendered to through assisted suicide. As Dr. Raabe reminds us, the Bible says death is the enemy. We are not going to solve the problem of pain by surrendering to our enemy.
Dr. Raabe continues, “Secondly, the Biblical writers generally assume the one who ultimately lies behind these kinds of events is God. There is only one God and He rules over all things.” Dr. Raabe goes on to note that we Christians make distinctions when it comes to the causes of bad things in our lives. We say the evil we experience in life comes from our sin. That’s true. In Romans 7, St. Paul called himself a “wretched man” because of the sin within him. Sometimes we say evil comes from the devil. That also is true. Jesus said the devil is the father of lies.
In his first epistle, St. Peter says we should be vigilant because the devil prowls about like a lion seeking to devour us. That said, we know that God must somehow relate to bad things in our lives. So sometimes we try to nuance that by saying God does not cause evil but allows it. That’s fine, suggests Dr. Raabe, but then he writes: “. . .the Biblical writers usually do not say it that way. They simply say “God does” these things.” Next, he cites several Bible verses. Amos 3:6 is one. It says, “When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?” In some way that certainly is beyond our ability to know and understand. In some strange way God is involved in the pain and suffering we experience. He really is with us in the brutal cave.
Sometimes God doesn’t seem very kind to us or to our loved ones. So you might think we should divorce Him. Shouldn’t He be kinder? The Bible says repeatedly that God is full of kindness, full of mercies to put it in a more traditional religious way. He generously dispenses His mercies to everyone everywhere. To people of every race and nation and creed God gives His kindness. But God doesn’t always give us the specific kindness we desire. What a wonderful mercy it would be if He would remove pain and suffering. But obviously He doesn’t.
C. S. Lewis makes an interesting point about kindness. In his book “The Problem of Pain,” he observes that kindness is not demanding. Kindness is not demanding. Think about that. You might walk on the streets of a large city and see a homeless man. You decide to be kind and give him five bucks. Then you go your way. That was kind, but you didn’t demand anything of that homeless man. Lewis points out that love is different than kindness. Love does make demands. If you showed love to that man, you’d stop and get involved. If he lost everything, you wouldn’t give him $5 but would take him someplace to get back on his feet. If you smelled liquor on his breath, love would talk tough. “Drink yourself to death or let’s go to the detox center right now.” Acts of random kindness are fine, but they are not demanding. Love is demanding.
While God has given you many mercies, many demonstrations of kindness, the main thing for you to know about your God is that He is love (1 John 4:8). God has loved you from eternity. Before He created the world, He loved you. Before sin and Satan ruined God’s perfect world, God loved you. Before we wandered into our caves of pain and suffering, God the Father decided and His Son most willingly agreed to come into the world. Today marks the beginning of Holy Week when we remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. That was determined before the creation of the world. So great is the love of God for you.
How can I bring home to you how much God loves you? I think it’s like the love of a parent. If you are a parent, you know what it means to love your child. Words cannot describe the immensity of a parent’s love. One of my daughters has a medical condition that often causes her pain. I’d walk out of the studio right now and go to the hospital if there was a medical way to transfer her condition to me. I love her that much. Parents, you know what I mean. God your Father loves you that much and more.
Parental love is also demanding. It is not content with the status quo. Do you leave your child in diapers forever because potty-training can be unpleasant for your little darling? Do you leave your child on a tricycle forever because your little cutie might fall and get hurt learning how to ride a two-wheeler? Do you keep your grown up dependent at home when your child should be independent and out of the nest? You see, parental love is demanding. It pushes the beloved to change, to grow into someone more mature, someone better.
That’s the way our Father is with us in our pain and suffering. He forgives your sins. To those who believe in His Son Jesus Christ, He promises the glory of heaven, a place where the former things have passed away-no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears. But on this side of eternity, God stands behind all the events of life, the good and the bad, training us up so you and I will grow more and more to be the mature Christians His love envisions.
We are shifting now to a faith-based outlook on life. We don’t know or understand why God seems so hard on us, but in faith we trust our Father. God isn’t God because He looks at everything the way we do. Our Father knows best. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord in Isaiah. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Another word from God. Hebrews 12 describes the Father’s love in our sufferings. “My children, pay attention when the Lord disciplines you. Don’t give up when He corrects you. The Lord disciplines everyone He loves. He severely disciplines everyone He accepts as a child.”
“Endure your discipline. God corrects you as a father corrects his children. All children are disciplined by their fathers. If you aren’t disciplined like the other children, you aren’t part of the family. On earth we have fathers who disciplined us, and we respect them. Shouldn’t we place ourselves under the authority of God, the Father of spirits, so we will live? For a short time our fathers disciplined us as they thought best. Yet, God disciplines us for our own good so that we can become holy like Him. We don’t enjoy being disciplined. It always seems to cause more pain than joy. But later on, those who learn from that discipline have peace that comes from doing what is right” (Hebrews 12:5-11).
Two final points now as I move toward the conclusion of today’s message. This message doesn’t remove pain and suffering. You can read the Bible all day long but you may very well still find yourself in that brutal cave. Biblical knowledge is one thing but most important is to know the presence of the One who is both the heart of the Bible and is in the cave with you. That’s Jesus Christ. He says, “I am with you” (Matthew 28:20). He’s not with you as an intellectual concept or as an example of toughing it out. He’s with you as Savior. He has scars on His body that came from His suffering on the cross. He went through that to rescue you from sin and Satan and the grip they have on you. He’s with you as Savior. He hears your prayers. Hebrews 4 calls Jesus a high priest and gives us this encouragement. “Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Finally, remember this. The One who is with you in your pain and suffering, the One with scars on His hands and feet, knows how to get out of caves. That’s what Easter is about. Don’t despair. If not today, if not tomorrow, there are better days coming. Jesus burst forth from the cave that was His tomb and promises to lead you to a better tomorrow. As Psalm 42 says, “Why are you discouraged, my soul? Put your hope in God, because I will still praise Him. He is my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:5). The following prayer was found in the pocket of a man who suffered greatly, a man who was killed in the Civil War.
“I asked God for strength, that I might achieve… I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do great things… I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy… I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men… I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life… I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for… But everything that I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered, I am among all men most richly blessed.”
Pain and suffering make us feel like we’re trapped in a cave. Unlike the couple that couldn’t stay together after their cave experience, God will never divorce you. Nothing “shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39). Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for April 8, 2001
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the question and answer segment of “The Lutheran Hour.” I’m Mark Eischer. Joining me is Dr. Dale Meyer. A listener writes: Dr. Meyer, I’ve been estranged from my family for quite awhile. How can the heart be softened to begin reconciliation?
MEYER: That’s a great question anytime of the year, but especially today, Palm Sunday. This is the time we journey in spirit with Jesus through His suffering, His death for the forgiveness of our sins and then next week His glorious resurrection. I want to point out up front that forgiveness and reconciliation are two different things. Softening the heart is going to give us an opportunity to talk about what repentance truly is. Knowing you have been forgiven does not mean the relationship will be restored.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Meyer, the cross is the source of our forgiveness. How does that lead to reconciliation?
MEYER: Well, the cross becomes the impetus for seeking reconciliation. Because you know you are forgiven you could make a gesture, make a phone call, send a letter, send an Easter card, whatever it happens to be to your family to try and move into this troubled area of the relationship. Hopefully, they will respond in kind. It may be that that movement on your part is going to open a floodgate not only of tears, but of wonderful reunions. So I encourage you to do that this week.
ANNOUNCER: But first, let’s sharpen our focus. Who or what softens the heart and is a softened heart really the issue here?
MEYER: Ultimately, we need more than a softened heart. But I’ll say when the heart gets soft, then God’s work can be done. Let me demonstrate. My friend Joe Berg told me this story: A woman went to the local funeral director and asked if she could pre-arrange her service? He said “yes.” She then asked, “could I be cremated?” He said “yes.” She then said “Could my ashes be spread in front of the entrance of Wal-Mart?” And he said, “Well, yes, we can do that, but why?” And her answer was, “That way my children will finally come and visit me.” Now a little story like that softens the heart and sometimes just that little softening gets us moved in the right direction. But ultimately God does not require a softened heart. He wants a broken heart. The psalmist says, “a broken spirit and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” So now we’re moving into the difficult area for all of us. That is, “I have sinned in this relationship. I need the forgiveness of God.” And that’s more than softening the heart. That’s a real crushing of the heart.
ANNOUNCER: Dr. Meyer, I’m reminded of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
MEYER: The Prodigal Son, as we may remember, went to his father and asked him to divvy up the inheritance. When the young man got his share of that inheritance he went off to a far country and wasted the money on riotous living. The situation got so bad he finally ended up working for a hog farmer and as he was out with the swine, he realized he had done wrong. He had sinned against heaven and against his father. He then decided to go back and ask for forgiveness. That was not a soft heart. That was a crushed heart. That’s the beginning of repentance. But we don’t want to leave it with this focus simply upon what any of us has done wrong. The real focus has to be on what happened on Good Friday. Jesus came into the world at the behest of His Father and willingly died on the Cross so each of us could know our sins are totally forgiven. The parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates that as the boy was going to his father to apologize, the father came rushing out to him, met him on the road, and gave him a big hug. The apology was not even spoken. The father was so glad to embrace him with forgiveness. So, also this week as we meditate upon what we have done wrong, thinking upon our sins, the Father is going to come to us Good Friday and say “those sins are forgiven by the blood of my son Jesus.”
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Dr. Meyer.