Why must we suffer?
Matthew 9:36-10:42
When Jesus calls us to follow him, he promises us that we will suffer. In fact,
for followers of Jesus suffering is not an accidental byproduct of our mission;
rather suffering is part and parcel of the mission itself. Here's why: When we joyfully
and willingly accept loss and suffering in order to follow Jesus, we clearly proclaim
to all the world that He is of supreme worth:
1. worth more than possessions (vss. 9-10)
2. worth more than comfort and safety (vss. 11-33)
3. worth more than human love (vss. 34-37)
4. worth more than life itself (vs. 39)
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Periodically our kitchen is the scene of intense suffering. It's really quite horrifying.
On certain nights if you were to sneak to the back of our house and peek in the
kitchen window at about 6:30 -- And please realize, I'm not suggesting that you actually do this -- But if you did, you would (on occasion) observe children writhing
in their chairs in agony. Letting loose great sobs and moans. Tears of pain in
their eyes -- loud cries for mercy escaping from their lips. And across from them
you would see the iron-faced, steely-eyed executioner -- that's me -- not a hint of pity
in his eyes, gazing coldly at them and saying, in a voice full of cruelty, "Yes,
of course you can have dessert -- after you have finished your green beans."
And you know it gets even worse. Sometimes I actually say, "And you had better eat
them willingly and happily, because if you complain there will be no dessert."
Not only do I require my children to suffer -- I actually tell them that they must
accept that suffering willingly -- even joyfully. "But why, Dad, why should we have to
eat this horrible green stuff? Why must we suffer?"
Sound familiar? Our heavenly faither also calls those who seek him to suffer. Over
and over again in the New Testament we're told to expect suffering, not to be surprised
by suffering, to suffer willingly, to suffer joyously, to bless those who cause us suffering.
Mt 5:10 -- Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake
Ac 5:41
Ro 5:3
Ro 8:17
Ro 12:14 -- Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse
Php 3:10
2Ti 1:8
2 Ti 3:12
1 Pe 4:12-13
So this much is certain: If we become followers of Jesus, we will certainly be called
to suffer. The path of discipleship IS a path of suffering. But why? Why must
disciples of Jesus suffer? Why can't we go straight to the icecream without having
to suffer through the evil-looking green stuff first?
Text
Let me leave you with that intriguing question dangling in your minds, and turn to
Matthew ch. 10 -- p. 964. I'll actually begin at 9:35. I'm not going to read
the whole passage, but just selected parts:
Read 9:35-38 -- These verses provide our context, and the context here is simple:
A labor shortage. In ch. 8 & 9 Jesus has launched this great ministry of compassion
and healing. We come to the end of ch. 9 and he looks around, sees enormous needs,
sees that there's just not enough workers and tells his disciples to pray for some.
At the beginning of ch. 10, we see the prayer answered through (surprise!) the twelve
disciples (shows you how dangerous prayer can be -- God may very well use you to
answer the prayer) -- So Jesus calls the twelve together, gives them authority and
then launches into a long set of instructions and warnings that takes up the rest of ch.
10.
And what he says, in essence, is that they had better be prepared for alot of hardship,
suffering and loss. They will have to face poverty -- they will have no money or
belongings. They will be completely dependent on other people for food and lodging.
They will have enemies wherever they go. They'll be arrested and taken off to court.
They'll face insults, general hatred and occasional police brutality. A fairly
high pain tolerance would be helpful. Even family members will reject them. And
they'll be Fleeing alot. But don't be afraid, he says, the worst anyone can do is
kill you.
Let's read that part, picking it up in verse 28 -- Read 28-39
Main point:
Now Jesus' main point in this chapter is very simple: When you follow me, he says
to his disciples, you are going to face suffering. Suffering is simply a built
in part of being a disciple. Suffering, for the Christian is not accidental
-- it is at the very heart, part of the very essence of discipleship. You cannot be Jesus
Disciple without facing suffering.
Jesus says this all quite matter of factly -- this is just the way it is. And he
says it in order to prepare his disciples for the hardships they will face and to
instill in them the courage to stand firm.
But for us this creates problems. Most of us probably do not feel that we have suffered
much to follow Christ. We know that people elsewhere in the world do face tremendous
suffering -- and we pray for them on occasion. But in our hearts we don't really want that to happen to us. Do ALL of Jesus disciples really have to suffer?
And if so, what does that mean for us who seem to face so little suffering?
I'd like you to play an imagination game for a few minutes. I'd like you to imagine
yourselves all prisoners. But this is no ordinary prison. To begin with, it
is rather large -- so large that its really very easy to forget that you are a prisoner. Its very low security so you are quite free to move about as you like. That's
why you are here in the prison chapel right now. It's also quite comfortable.
Tennis courts, hiking trails, swimming pools, restaurants. There's even a theatre
in the prison tower. Cells are very comfortable. Many prisoners get private accommodations.
You can bring your family in to live with you if you like. And you are quite free
to bring in anything that will make your life as a prisoner more comfortable and enjoyable -- you can have books, televisions, your own furniture, even a cell-phone
if you like. The prison even has College level degree programs so that you can keep
your mind active. It's really the ultimate in humane criminal justice. Very
progressive.
Now one day the Governor comes to visit the prison -- most prisoners are too busy
watching the Olympics to come to hear him, but a small group shows up to hear him.
And he offers a deal to any prisoners who will listen. He will give a complete
pardon and complete freedom to any prisoner who asks for it -- on only one condition:
They must leave the prison with nothing. They must leave behind everything that
has to do with the prison and their life as a prisoner.
Would you take the deal? Is freedom worth it? Think about what it would cost.
1. First, it will cost your possessions (vss. 9-10).
You'll have to be willing to part with everything that you have acquired in your comfortable
cell. And some of you have very full and comfortable cells!
This was very literally required of Jesus disciples. In carrying out Jesus command
they were to take nothing with them -- no money, no luggage, no extra clothes.
This was also true of Abraham. And remember the rich young man who came to Jesus
desiring to follow him. But when Jesus said, give everything you have away, he went away
sad. In one sense it would be simpler if God required this of all disciples. And
some followers of Christ are still called to this stark abandonment of possessions
-- and all of us must be willing to do so, when Jesus requires it. But for most of us
putting aside our possessions in order to follow Jesus is much more difficult than
just having a big yardsale.
It's like this. See this fish hook. You know how painful it is when a fish hook
gets embedded in your skin -- how difficult it is to pull it out. I'd like you
to imagine that every material thing you possess is attached to an invisible fishing
line. And each line is attached to a fish hook that is embedded in your heart. So
I have all of these crisscrossing lines stretching out from my heart, like a huge
web, each one attached to some thing that my heart is attached to. Here's one
connected to my computer. Here's a whole network of them attached to my books. And there are
lines for the car, the cd player, the car, the TV, the VCR. Here's a long heavy
duty one attached to my checkbook, and another for my retirement account. And
every single one of these lines is attached to a hook embedded in my heart.
And I fear that any of these things will be taken from me, that line is jerked --
and it pulls at this hook in my heart -- and it hurts, the hook tears at my heart
and it leaves a wound, because I am attached to these things. So I am afraid to
let these things get too far from me, because I don't want to feel the pain of having them
pulled away. I must gather them close about me to protect myself -- I must protect
them with security systems and insurance policies and I must take very good care
of them lest I feel the pain of loss.
But then Jesus comes and says "follow me" -- and I want to get up and follow -- I
want to be his disciple. But when I do, I find myself unable to move. You see
when I try to follow I must turn away from these things -- and it hurts. It really
hurts. Some of the hooks are so deeply embedded in my heart that I can't imagine pulling
them out.
This is the first kind of suffering that Jesus calls his disciples to -- it is the
suffering of breaking our attachment to possessions. I want to emphasize the
word attachment. You see our challenge is not to part with of all our possessions
-- though some of you will be called to that. Our challenge is to remove the hooks that
keep our hearts attached to these things -- so that we will willingly part with them,
willingly share them, willingly see them taken from us.
The author of Hebrews writes to his readers: You joyfully accepted the plundering
of your property, because you know that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
(10:34)
We cannot be disciples of Jesus if we are unwilling to rip out the hooks that bind
our hearts to material things. If we refuse to do this, then we are say to Jesus
(and to a watching world): "I need these more than I need you."
But when we willingly suffer the loss of our possessions for the sake of following
Jesus, we proclaim that he is our supreme source of satisfaction -- that we need
him more than any of these things.
Now I'd like to skip around a bit here -- I'm going to skip over the next point in
my outline, which has to do with the risks to our personal safety and security that
we face when we follow Jesus -- I'll return to that in a minute. But first, I'd
like to skip to the third point:
When we follow Jesus we face not only the loss of material things, but also the loss
of relationships.
3. worth more than human love (vss. 34-37)
Jesus says this very starkly: "Don't imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth!
No, I came to bring a sword . . . . Your enemies will be right in your own household!
If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of
being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy
of being mine."
To explain this let's use the hook metaphor again. We are tied to other people in
a web of relationships. But in this case the lines that connect us have hooks at
BOTH ends. Now I can sever the line that connects me to a television set without
hurting anyone else. But when I yank out a hook that connects with another human being,
it may hurts both of us.
So when I say to a mother or a father or a close friend, I love you, but Jesus is
my first love -- and I must follow him no matter what. When I say that, it hurts
both of us -- it hurts me because I fear losing that love, and it hurts the one I
love because it seems like rejection. So There are two ways that close human relationships
can keep us from following Jesus. First, we fear that following Jesus will bring
suffering to those we love. Second, we fear loss for ourselves -- we fear that following Jesus will pull us away, either geographically or emotionally from the human love
we so desperately desire.
But what is the alternative? The alternative is to idolize human love -- to say
to God, I need this person more than I need you -- and also to say, this person needs
me more than they need you. It hurts too much to follow you if it might harm this
relationship.
We must not let even the closest human bonds keep us from following him. For When we refuse to let human loves turn us away from him, we proclaim that he alone
can satisfy o the hearts deepest longings.
All of our human loves are just a weak trace, a fleeting whiff of the kind of love
our hearts long for. So if we desire fleshly human love at the expense of divine
love, we cheat ourselves and we cheat those we love. My wife, my children cannot
have their soul's deepest needs met by me. They must be ready to release me to follow
Jesus even if that may bring temporary separation or sickness or death. And I must
be ready to let release them. And by releasing each other in this way into the
hands of God we remind ourselves that our deepest love and comfort and longing is for God
alone.
And for those of you who are single and on your own, following Jesus must mean releasing
to him not only real relationships, but also imagined ones -- saying to him over
and over, You alone are my hearts desire, apart from you I have no good thing.
Ok, we've talked about the loss of possessions, the loss of relationships -- Now let
me take you back to that large, comfortable, luxury prison we were in. Here's another
cost of freedom:
2. To have freedom we have to give up the comfort and safety of prison life (vss.
11-33)
And for many of us it feels like a very comfortable and safe prison! It feels safe
to have protective walls around us, even if they do keep us in. We have comfortable
beds to sleep in. We know where our next meal is coming from. Life is predictable.
By contrast, following Jesus does not seem safe at all. What if he calls you to
work with the homeless and you get Tuberculosis. What if he calls you to work in
the inner city and your car is stolen. What if he calls you to work overseas and
you get all sorts of horrible parasites. What if he calls you to maintain integrity in your
job and you get fired. What if he calls you to publicly proclaim your faith and
you get labelled a fanatic. What if your children don't get top notch schooling.
All in all, its much safer --in the short run -- to stay in your comfortable prison.
Freedom has far too many risks.
But we cannot be disciples of Jesus if we want to hold onto a safe, comfortable life.
If we cling to comfort and safety, then we are say to Jesus (and to a watching
world): "I cannot trust you to care for me. I have to protect myself. I need
security and safety more than I need you."
But When we suffer pain and take risks for the sake of of following Jesus, we proclaim
that he alone is our source of security. We say , like Job, you are all I need --
Though you slay me, yet will I trust in you.
4. worth more than life itself (vs. 39)
One final thing. There is something I didn't tell you about the prison that I described.
It is a very humane, very progressive prison. Only one problem -- one very un-progressive
thing about this prison -- everyone inside has been awarded the death penalty. We are all on death row -- very comfortable death row -- so comfortable
that it is easy to forget -- and we try to forget. But though you try to repress
deep down you know the truth, when you are quite and alone you are sometimes gripped
with terror and break out in a cold sweat as you wonder when your sentence will be carried
out.
When we willingly let go of life to follow him, we proclaim the supreme worth of the
true life that He gives.
Conclusions
When we value something -- when we really want something -- we show how much we value
it by our willingness to suffer for it. When we joyfully and willingly accept loss and suffering in order to follow Jesus,
we clearly proclaim to all the world the great worth of knowing Him.
When we suffer the loss of material possessions we proclaim that he is all that we
need
When we give up comfort and safety we declare that he is our only source of security
When we refuse to allow human relationships to pull us from him, we declare that he
alone is the answer to our longing for love
When we lose our life for his sake, we proclaim our hunger for Eternal life.