The Lutheran Hour

"Suffering For The Savior"

#72-31
Presented on The Lutheran Hour on April 17, 2005
Speaker: Rev. Ken Klaus
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries

Text: 1 Peter 2:20b-21

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! This day, to all who suffer, a living Lord Jesus comes. He arrives bringing forgiveness and hope, help, comfort, and care.

Suffering comes. It’s a fact of life. The woman was sitting in her living room when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted some movement. It was a small black snake. Before she could react, it had slithered across the floor and disappeared under the couch. I say, “before she could react,” but that’s not entirely accurate. As she was deathly afraid of snakes, she jumped up on the easy chair, and from her perch called for her husband. She had to call a number of times because her husband was in the shower. Eventually, the he-man of the household showed up, dripping and dressed only in a towel. She, between worried glances at the couch, told him the cause of her discontent. Like a hunter on safari, he picked his weapon of choice: a broom with which to sweep the unwelcome intruder out from under the couch. He bent down and the hunt had begun.

It was right about then that the family pet, a most curious mutt, decided to do a little investigating of his own. Without being noticed, the dog crept up behind his master and brushed his cold nose against the man’s leg. Now the man, not seeing what was happening, guessed that the snake had snuck up behind him, and had given him a bite, perhaps a poisonous bite. He fainted. The wife, thinking that her husband had overworked himself, believed he had just suffered a heart attack. She jumped from her perch, ran out of the house to a next-door neighbor. From that safe location she called an ambulance, which arrived in short order. The paramedics placed the semi-conscious man on the stretcher and were beginning to pick him up when the snake appeared from underneath the couch. One of the men, surprised by the snake, dropped his end of the stretcher and broke the husband’s leg.

Now I can’t tell you if that story is true. If it isn’t, almost all of us would agree that it could be. It could be true, because suffering comes. It comes in a multitude of ways. Suffering comes. I don’t want it to come. You don’t want it to come. Nobody wants it to come. But I’ve noticed that suffering doesn’t seem to consult with us or make an appointment for its arrival. It doesn’t ask our preferences. It just shows up and messes up our lives, our futures, our dreams, our desires, and our goals. Suffering comes. Suffering doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, young or old, wise or foolish, neat or sloppy. Suffering comes regardless of your race, creed, color, or preference in political parties. There is no question in my mind that if I had the ability to have each of you stop by the studio today and asked you the question, “Tell me, how have you suffered,” there are very few of The Lutheran Hour listeners who would not have a story to tell. And what stories you would tell, of heartbreak and disappointment, discouragement and loss.

Suffering comes. One man I know suggests that along with a birth certificate, we ought to give newborn babies a listing of life’s possible–no, make that probable–happenings. The document would read something like: “Dear baby, welcome to the world. If you lead a relatively normal life, you may expect to find your years filled with hope and happiness, joy and jubilation, excitement and exploration, love and laughter. But you will also encounter suffering, sadness and sorrow, loss and loneliness, discouragement, doubt, and most inevitably, death.” Little wonder that Jesus warned His followers: “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Jesus was saying, “Suffering comes.” But what are we to do with it?

Throughout history, humankind has searched for the words which would explain or minimize the presence of suffering. In the ancient world, some considered suffering just a normal and expected part of life; something which had to be endured, an opportunity to show to all those around you what a strong, self-reliant, unshakable, unflappable person you were. Some religions suggest that suffering is a shackle which enslaves humanity to an evil, corruptible world.

These religions propose a regimen of living which will distance minds, and divorce hearts from the world. The impossible hope was, if you could attain this perfect separation, it would be impossible for suffering to touch you. Other religions said that suffering was an opportunity to work off your sins, to purify yourself, and at the same time, placate and pacify whatever god happened to be displeased with you. You’ve cringed at movies which show the adherents of these religions being encouraged to pierce their bodies with needles; cut them with knives; whip their backs to bloody ribbons so that they might appease an irate, irritated, and incensed deity of deception.

Suffering comes, but what are we to do with it? Even Christians sometimes have a tough time with suffering. Yes, no matter what you might hear, being a Christian doesn’t make you immune from the arrival of suffering. Indeed, Jesus said that His followers would suffer. Why? God knows us. He knows that if He took suffering away from people who followed Him, more and more people would give Him verbal allegiance because they were striving for comfort and convenience, not because they had a true love of the Savior or wished to express devotion to the Heavenly Father. No, along with the rest of humanity, suffering comes to God’s Christian people. Because that is so, we end up saying things like, “The Lord is in control.” That is most certainly true. There is nothing in this universe that is beyond the scope or vision of the all-knowing God. Still, when they are in the midst of suffering, many people conclude that the Lord might use His control to make things better.

Suffering comes to God’s people–and when it arrives, many will try to encourage and support the sufferer with words like, “You will only be given as much suffering as your faith can deal with.” That is also true, but I’ve known people who quietly muttered, “If that’s so, I think I’m going to ask for a weaker faith, and then I won’t have to suffer so much.” Suffering comes to God’s people, and when it comes knocking, we’re told, “I think that God is trying to speak to you.” That may be so. C. S. Lewis said that, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, and shouts to us in our pain. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” But after the first bout of suffering, most of us would be more than glad to echo Samuel and say, “Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening. You’ve got my attention. What do You want to say?”

Suffering comes to God’s people. When it does, I’ve heard the suggestion, “Suffering is never God’s will or wish. You’ve got to get on a spiritual muscle building program so your faith will be strong enough and then when it’s strong enough, your pain will disappear.” I have some trouble with that one. The Bible does, too. If faith is the way to banish suffering, how come the apostles, with their great faiths, are all dead? How come most of history’s spiritual heroes of faith have passed away? If a strong faith conquers suffering, I want to know just what kind of faith you have to have if you’re going to be healthy, hearty, and free from suffering for eternity? No, God doesn’t promise His people freedom from suffering. He does say His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

Suffering comes to the family of faith. When it does, some will suggest, like Job’s friends, that the sufferer has done something terribly wrong, and God is punishing him for his transgression. Now, it is true that Scripture does record examples of an individual receiving a special punishment because he had committed a special sin. But it is equally true that general and universal suffering comes into our lives, because general and universal sin has come into, and corrupted, every corner of our world. When Adam and Eve first transgressed and ate the forbidden fruit, when they disobeyed the Lord, death and damnation, sin and suffering became part and parcel of everyone’s life.

I know that among street philosophers it is a commonly held concept to think of God as being some sort of celestial Santa Claus. You know what I mean: people think God is making a list, checking it twice, going to find out who’s naughty or nice. And then when the Lord checks that list and finds someone who is naughty, who has committed a sin, they believe God gleefully doles out some divine punishment from His great big bag of suffering. A little bit of misery follows a little bitty sin; a giant transgression will generate a sea of suffering.

That is why, when a tornado touches a town, those whose houses have been reduced to kindling quickly run over their list of sins that would cause God to be displeased with them, and hurl such cataclysmic and catastrophic sufferings upon them. At the same time, those who have been spared give thanks that God has found them worthy of being ignored, at least this time around. When an illness comes, the patient wants to know, “Why me?” When one of our children goes wrong, parents ask, “What did we do?” A flat tire? God must have discovered something dark in your past. Bad weather on vacation? You must have stolen some paper clips from the office. Did you drop your toast upon the newly waxed kitchen floor, and it landed jelly side down? Obviously, God is displeased.

It is normal and logical for us to believe that the world makes sense. It is reasonable for us to expect that bad people will be punished and good folks will be rewarded. Tragically, our own experience says that is not always the case. South American drug lords live out their lives quite comfortably, while the judges and police that try to catch them are murdered. The mother of three is killed in an auto accident, while the drunk who caused the accident walks away without a scratch. What possible sense can we make of life, if the bad seem to be immune from punishment, and the innocent are condemned to suffer for their goodness? It would make no sense.

Yet that is the way it seems to be. We express that unfairness in expressions like, “The good die young,” or “No good deed ever goes unpunished.” Some five hundred years before Christ, the great Persian king, Xerxes, decided to go to war with the rebellious Greeks. None was more loyal to that cause than was Xerxes’ dear friend, Pythius of Lydia. Pythius was a very rich man. He offered to pay out of his own pocket, all the costs of the war. Even more, Pythius was willing to have four of his five sons drafted into the Persian army. It was a noble offer. The only request the aging Pythius made was that his oldest son be allowed to remain home and take care of him. It was a small thing for one friend to ask of another. Xerxes, hearing the request, ordered his men to get the oldest son, cut him in half and place the two halves on each side of the road. Then, to show the commitment he expected from his army and nation, Xerxes ordered his army to march between those two halves. It is madness, a madness repeated again and again in every generation, in every land.

Suffering comes, sometimes with purpose, sometimes without a purpose visible to our mortal eyes. But suffering comes. You know it. You experience it. It may be there with you right now. Is there anything, anyone can say which will help? There is. Thanks be to God, there is. God’s Word says this: even as sin has come, even as suffering comes, so the Savior has also come. When Adam and Eve could see only a lifetime and an eternity of suffering, the Father gave promise of the Savior’s coming. For centuries the promise of the Savior was foretold by prophets, who by divine inspiration, shared the signs by which the Savior might be known. They said He would be born in the Judean town of Bethlehem. They said He would be rejected by those He had come to save. They said that He would preach comfort and hope. They said that He would help the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and raise the dead back to life.

But they also said more. They said that suffering would come to God’s Son, the world’s Savior. This is what the prophet Isaiah wrote, hundreds of years before Jesus was born: “He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” Did you hear that? The Savior would know sorrow. He is one of us. Isaiah continued: “Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed … the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth … He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was stricken … it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer.” There it is again, God’s will to make Him suffer for us: “and … the Lord makes his life a guilt offering …” (Isaiah 53:3-10 excerpts).

Sin has come, suffering as well. But the Savior has also come. His entire life was filled with suffering — suffering that He bore for us. Suffering that made Him one of us. Suffering that He endured so that the punishment which we deserved might be erased. Suffering that would help us carry, or conquer, or endure the pains and problems of this world and guarantee to all who believe in His resurrection, in His Saviorhood, eternal life.

In the early part of the 1900s, outside a brick tenement in New York City, a boy dressed in ragged clothes was seen with a small piece of broken mirror in his hand. Holding it high above his head, he moved it slowly back and forth, so it reflected on the building above. A policeman slowly approached, watched for a while and finally said, “Lad, what are you doing with that mirror?” A bystander suggested, “Like most boys in the neighborhood, he’s probably up to no good.” The boy gave a dirty glance to the man who had made the comment, and then answered the officer: “Do ya see that window up there? Well, I have a liddle brudder who’s in that room on that floor. He’s crippled and doesn’t get to move around. The only sunlight he ever sees is what I shines up ta him with this mirror.”

That, my friends, is what Jesus has done for us in our suffering. Our divine Brother came into this world to live for us, to die for us, to rise for us. Now He who is light, shines that light into our lives. He brings light to us who have been crippled by sin and suffering. Why has suffering come to you? I cannot say. I do know this, that Jesus Christ, the Light of the World will help you carry it, conquer it, cast it aside, or endure it. Jesus, the Light of the world comes to you this day. If you need to know more about this Light which comes to you in the room of your suffering, call us at The Lutheran Hour. We will be glad to help show you the Savior Who suffered to help you in your suffering. Amen.

LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for April 17, 2005
Topic: Suffering

ANNOUNCER: Stay with us for the next few minutes as we talk about questions and answers with Pastor Ken Klaus; I’m Mark Eischer.

KLAUS: I see we’re back down to only one question this week, rather than putting a whole bunch of questions into the pot.

ANNOUNCER: That’s true. We’re down to only one question, but I think it’s one with which many of our listeners can identify.

KLAUS: Please continue.

ANNOUNCER: This comes to us from an individual who’s in some distress. She and her husband are disabled. They’ve had to get by on a very meager income for several years now, but it seems the harder they try, the more things go wrong for them. Is this God’s will?

KLAUS: In light of this week’s message on suffering, it really is a most appropriate question.

ANNOUNCER: And I think they probably speak for a lot of people who harbor the same kinds of fears about their future. Does God really want His people to suffer and to do without?

KLAUS: Well, we can say this. Life is hard, Mark, but if they want a very simple answer to that question, does God want them to suffer and do without, the answer is no. No, God doesn’t want His people to constantly do without.

ANNOUNCER: And what about suffering?

KLAUS: Also another “No.” No, God doesn’t want His people to suffer.

ANNOUNCER: But I think there needs to be a lot more explanation here. If God doesn’t want His people to be poor, how come so many people in the world are struggling just to make ends meet? And how come, if God doesn’t want people to be in pain, so many are?

KLAUS: I know you’d like me to amplify and go into maybe a little bit more detail, and I certainly don’t want to seem flip, Mark, but the answer to both of those questions is, “These things are the way they are, because of sin.”

ANNOUNCER: Because we’re living in a fallen world. But you’re not suggesting that this particular couple is being punished because they are really exceptional sinners?

KLAUS: No, I’m not suggesting that at all. In fact, Jesus laid that question to rest when He came across a man who had been born blind. He was asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that this has happened to him, that he was born blind?” Jesus’ reply was, “Neither of them. This man is this way so God can be glorified.”

ANNOUNCER: You’re saying everybody suffers because God wants to be glorified?

KLAUS: That can be the case in some situations. It was true for that man. It was true for Paul who was told that God’s strength was being made perfect in his weakness. It’s been true for a lot of wonderful saints that I’ve met over the years. God transformed these folks with their suffering, into wonderful witnesses to the strength of the Savior. Let’s go back to the Bible. When you read the opening chapters of Genesis, what kind of world did the Lord make?

ANNOUNCER: Well, the Lord made a perfect world with no problems, no pains.

KLAUS: And what kind of commodities were in short supply in the Garden of Eden?

ANNOUNCER: Certainly none. God gave Adam and Eve all they needed, perhaps even more than they needed. I suppose you could say that at least for a little while, they were the richest people that ever lived.

KLAUS: And in regard to suffering, where was the suffering in the Garden of Eden? Did they suffer on Tuesday, or maybe for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon?

ANNOUNCER: No. No time for suffering at all.

KLAUS: Not even for a moment.

ANNOUNCER: Not for a moment.

KLAUS: When did suffering and depravation enter the world?

ANNOUNCER: That came with sin.

KLAUS: Bingo. God wanted us to have all we need, and to enjoy it. On Judgment Day, according to His plan, God will restore that to us.

ANNOUNCER: But you know, all of that doesn’t really help people who are suffering right now, does it?

KLAUS: Well, it can. Jesus said that He came to give us an abundant life. (John 10:10) That doesn’t mean just when we die. He gives it to us right now, with His presence, His strength, His hope, His peace. Where do we find that? In God’s Word.

ANNOUNCER: Even while we’re living in the sinful world.

KLAUS: We are. But the Savior has given us the tools to live in it. And not be overcome by the world. It comes in large part, by relying on Jesus. He suffered and died to forgive our sins, and thereby took care of our biggest problem. In closing, I’d liked to say a word to my fellow Christians who may know of someone in their congregation or circle of friends, or neighborhood who needs help. It’s our privilege and responsibility, as members of Christ’s church, to care for each other, and bear each other’s burdens. We can share God’s love by sharing the blessings God has given us.

ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.