Sharing in His Suffering

This morning I read a chapter in John Eldredge’s book “Moving Mountains.” He talked about the value of total openness with God in our prayers. His examples were David’s laments in the Psalms as well as his spontaneous words of praise. This is being transparent in conversation with God.

Today’s devotional reading from “My Utmost for His Highest” adds to that thought by linking transparency to my relationship with Christ and how that is important in my witness to others. It begins with words from this passage . . .

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. (Colossians 1:24–26)

In our identification with Jesus Christ what He suffered in His body is shared by His body the church. That is, He was mocked and rejected; we are mocked and rejected. He was beaten and put to death; some of us are beaten and put to death. He was beloved by many and we too share relationships of deep love and caring.

This bond with God to live our lives as Christ lived His is a mystery once hidden but now revealed — just as the Word of God was a mystery hidden for a long time, but is now revealed to those who believe in and belong to Him.

Chambers says that not only do we suffer with Him, we also are vessels through which God is “creating life” because the reality of Jesus comes through our lives into the lives of others. By sharing His life and death and resurrection, God uses us to create a deeper relationship with God in those who listen to us.

Of course I cannot create the new birth or regeneration that is essential for those who walk with God through faith. But I can be a vessel He uses to pour out His grace, blessing, revelation, and whatever is needed to speak and change those who already have His life. I can also “be Jesus” for those who do not know of Him through any other means.

Wisely, Chambers also warns against the praise of people. We easily glory in those who are God-gifted by praising their personality or skills or insights — as if they come from the person instead of from Jesus. I am to lift up the Lord and glorify Him, not the bodies through which He speaks. This includes my own life. If someone sees Jesus in me, it is not my doing, but His marvelous grace.

Perhaps that is one reason we must also share in His suffering. It brings each of us down to earth in the sense that we understand how sharing the fullness of Jesus Christ means both glory and suffering. Yes, He lives for me, but He also died for me. I am His to use in the revealing of His glory to others, but also in the revealing of His agony and sorrow.

Yesterday the Lord showed me I am a temple for the Holy Spirit that He uses for prayer. Today He brings me down to earth with the reality that I am also part of His body through which He suffers.

Suffering because of His Story

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. (Colossians 1:24–26)

The New Testament says that Paul sometimes says things “hard to be understood” and this is one of them. One commentary says there are at least nine different interpretations of what he means by filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

As I read them, I picked one, discovering that the author of that commentary also focused on the same understanding. Here is a simple interpretation . . .

Jesus’ work is finished. He told His disciples that they would suffer the same things as He suffered, but in our case, we are not doing what Jesus did — as in dying to redeem lost souls. We suffer because many people do not like hearing the gospel. Paul was suffering because he preached the gospel, and because many thought the good news was not good news if they had to admit themselves as sinners.

However, not every Christian suffers as Paul did. Most of us hide in our safe places rather than risk the suffering that happens to those who are determined to make the Word of God fully known. Instead of revealing the mystery that has been made known to us, we are afraid of the hits we will take because of it.

Chambers uses the metaphor of wine-making to explain what God must do to squeeze the best out of us. He uses this passage to describe the necessity of being crushed before we are willing to fully serve God. However, I don’t think that is the suffering Paul is talking about. He had been crushed and was serving as a minister of the gospel. Instead, he suffered in order that the body of Christ, which is the church, might experience the benefits of more fully knowing the Word of God.

In my studies, I’m becoming more aware of the big picture of God’s plan. His story is remarkable. It begins with creation, then sin, then redemption, and will culminate in the return of Jesus Christ. Our part is to tell the story, to make known what God is doing in history. However, humanity has come up with theories and conclusions that run contrary to God’s story — it does not appeal to them or they are blinded by sin to its truth.

In that darkness, God’s light is uncomfortable to say the least. Many will try to shut it out or at least silence those who tell the story. For Paul, this meant suffering. All God’s messengers will suffer. It is part of the story. We suffer something like Jesus did, but it not fully like it. He suffered for our sin, but Christians suffer for the sake of the story.

Yet Paul also says “for your sake” and to “fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body.” I understand that to mean that not all Christians were on the same trajectory as Paul. The ‘what is lacking’ likely points to the failure of some to ‘get with the program.’ However, he was glad to suffer for their sake and in their place. What he did would make up for what they had failed to do. In this way, his suffering was like that of Jesus because Jesus also suffered to make up for what we could not do — be holy people.

Paul suffered out of a great love for the people of God. He was willing to experience all sorts of painful things if the Body of Christ could be made more fully aware of the riches of the glory of God and the marvelous good news of His story.

How can I make this practical? Obviously to have that same mind and love for God’s people, a love for God and for other Christians that goes beyond Sunday morning hugs. To follow Paul, I must be willing to take with joy any negative reactions from others in order to make the story and the glory of Jesus Christ more clearly known.

Grief that brings intense joy

Today my children and I travel to join my husband for his mother’s funeral. We know she believed in Jesus so she is with the Lord. The Bible says that we grieve, but not as others who are without this assurance.

Nevertheless, we grieve. Some of it is for the person who is no longer enjoying life, but as we focus on Mom’s eternal life, that grief cannot grip us very tightly. She is rejoicing with her Savior and we must also rejoice for her.

For many, a major part of grief is the emptiness that comes with loss. That emptiness can be so severe that those with strong wills determine to push it away. But grief cannot be pushed. It will come back stronger each time. The only way to weaken it is to allow it in and let it happen. Then, when it comes back, it has less power to devastate and eventually turns to good memories and, for Christians, the anticipation of seeing our loved ones again.

Spurgeon writes today about a different kind of grief, the grief that people experience when they realize what their sin did to the Son of God. 

But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Spurgeon describes the scourge used by Roman officials. It was made of the sinews from oxen. Sharp bones were inter-twisted here and there among the sinews so that every time the lash came down, these pieces of bone inflicted savage laceration, tearing flesh from the bone.

Today’s devotional reading bids Christians to stand and weep over the body of Jesus that was so abased and abused for our sin. We must grieve His death even as we rejoice in His life, not because we have lost Him, but because He suffered so we might be redeemed from our lost state.

At the end of the morning reading, Spurgeon says, “We would fain go to our chambers and weep; but since our business calls us away, we will first pray our Beloved to print the image of his bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day, and at nightfall we will return to commune with him, and sorrow that our sin should have cost him so dear.”

Putting off this grief seemed strange behavior for this devoted man of God. It must have affected him that way too, for his evening devotional returned to the same topic. He used the example of an Old Testament woman protecting the bodies of her children to illustrate how we ought to feel and act concerning the death of our Lord and Savior. 

Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. (2 Samuel 21:10)

Spurgeon asks if the love of a woman to her slain sons could make her prolong her vigil, how can we become weary of considering the sufferings of Jesus? She drove away birds of prey. We ought to chase from our minds those preying thoughts that keep us from considering His death. She bore the heat of summer, night chills and rain, unsheltered and alone. She could not sleep because her heart was too full of sorrow. She loved her children. Do we love our Savior like that?

This woman endured. Do we quickly change our focus at the first little inconvenience or trial? She had courage to chase off wild beasts. Are we ready to encounter every foe for Jesus’ sake? Her children were slain by other hands, yet she wept and watched. What should we do when we recognize that it was our sin that put Jesus under such great suffering?

Spurgeon goes on to remind me that even though those ghastly corpses were horrible in the sight of Rizpah, there is nothing revolting, but everything compelling about my dying Savior. It is a grief but also an honor to stand at the foot of His Cross — weeping in total awareness of what He has done.

*****

Jesus, I am often guilty of spending a precious few moments with You only to be distracted by the cares of this world. When I do focus, I am usually thinking of the glory of who You are and the wonder of this eternal life You have shared with me. However, Spurgeon reminds me that I also need to gaze at Your suffering too. It was my sin that slashed into Your purity and innocence. It was for me that Your blood flowed in sacrifice that covered all sin.

Human grief when embraced usually ebbs, but this grief when embraced intensifies. Yet that is not a bad thing. Paul said he suffered the loss of all things, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10). He knew this identification with Your suffering was a vital part of his devotion in serving You.

The greatest wonder is that grief for your pain and sorrow works a little like Your shed blood. That is, allowing myself to weep for Your pain becomes a catharsis for mine, and Your suffering becomes a most incredible solace.

To Live is Christ — no pity parties

The most annoying thing about a pity-party is when I’m having one, I cannot go to sleep. Actually, this turns out a good thing. It forces me to take another look at alternatives for feeling sorry for myself.

Another good thing is God’s timing on these verses as part of my devotional reading. This week’s dental appointment had me angry and not wanting to ever see another dentist. It was partly about having to get teeth fixed again after they had already been fixed, but more about the runaround they gave me and being treated like a “case” instead of a person. My reaction was a little like my sister’s line in a grade school skit, “Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me. I’m going out into the garden to eat worms.”

Nevertheless, God kept whispering these verses in my ear, and because I know them so well, and know they are true, I could not help but listen.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:28–29)

I was still complaining. Okay God, how is this situation supposed to make me like Jesus? I don’t get it. What are You trying to tell me or show me?

My first positive thought was that Jesus was also treated unfairly. Maybe I was simply going through this so I could identify with His suffering? This was a goal for Paul, so maybe for me too? The Bible says that Paul considered all the “good stuff” in his life as rubbish, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).

Paul knew the value of dying to self, and he also knew that when he did, he would know Jesus in a deeper way, both His power and His suffering. Was that what I needed to learn?

The next ideas that came to mind were a total surprise and obviously from the Holy Spirit. They were two passages of Scripture that instantly brought an end to my party. The first was a prophecy about Jesus:

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

This verse was God’s polite way of saying, “Shut up.” I did. Then He gave me this one from the New Testament:

For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:20–23).

Jesus may not have needed a dentist, but His Father sent Him to a far worse fate — and He didn’t protest. God had a purpose for what happened to Him and the Son trusted His Father.

I got it. The daughter needs to trust her Father too, even with dentists. As soon as I said, “Yes” my anger and anguish were replaced by a deep, incredible joy and peace that only God can give.

With that, I fell sound asleep.