Not "If" - But "How"?
Sermon
A 'NEW AND IMPROVED' JESUS?
Sermons For Lent And Easter
There is no use in worrying needlessly. Some things you absolutely cannot change. And some things are too ridiculous for us to be concerned about. A Peanuts column shows Charlie Brown saying, "I couldn't sleep last night. I kept worrying about school, and about life, and about everything." Snoopy, the dog, walks away thinking, "I didn't sleep well either. All night long I kept worrying that the moon was going to fall on my head."
Some issues are already settled, and there is no point in useless anxiety, for we do not always have choices and options. For instance, it is not "if" you will have a master in this life, you will have one, but "who" will it be? It is not "if" you will die, for unless the Lord returns during your lifetime, you will die, but your option is "where" you will spend eternity. And it is not "if" you will know suffering in this world, you will, but your choice is "how" will you react to it?
The verses of this text are from the servant songs that played such a pivotal role in the early church's understanding of who Jesus was. Here we see Israel, collectively, called the servant of the Lord. Then the transition is made to a personal servant, whose office is "to bring Jacob to him." And then all of this is finally fulfilled in history in the person of Jesus, the Suffering Servant with the capital "S." Even in the face of suffering, physical abuse, and degradation, the servant does not shrink from his calling. He knows that God will not abandon him in his suffering, so he is obedient to his calling to serve God's people. Unless we would go to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, we likely cannot find a better picture of Christ the Suffering Servant whom we know as Jesus.
This is Palm/Passion Sunday in the church year, and since passion means suffering, what better time to examine his suffering and ours; his reaction and our own? We, the servants of Jesus, follow in his train. We are not better than our Lord and he knew terrible suffering. John (13:16) reminds us; "... no slave is greater than his Master, and no messenger is greater than the one who sent him." And John warned us again (15:20), "Remember what I told you: 'No slave is greater than his Master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too.' " Jesus endured all kinds of physical suffering when he lived among us, even to his death on a cross. Along with the agonizing physical torment, there was also the shame, disgrace, humiliation, rejection, loneliness, abandonment, the broken heart. So, how can we even begin to think we will completely avoid suffering? As sure as we live and try to emulate Christ as our Master, we, too, will know pain. There is no escape. It is not a matter of "if" we will suffer, but "how" we will react to it.
But let us not despair. This does not mean that life will be all grief, and hurt, and pain, and sorrow. There are six times more mention of the word "joy" than the word "sorrow" in the Bible. "Glad" is used 10 times more than the word "sad."
As we look at the Suffering Servant, we get some good lessons as to "how" we face our pain.
Christ Learned From His Suffering - And So Can We
Jesus felt that there were lessons to be learned. The Servant said, "The Sovereign Lord has taught me what to say, so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning he makes me eager to hear what he is going to teach me."
I don't like to admit it, but the most of what I have learned about God has been, not in the bright sunlight hours of my life, but in the dark midnight hours of pain. Even Jesus learned this way. "Though he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things he suffered (Hebrews 5:8)."
A small child often learns best and quickest from being hurt. We say to our children, wanting to spare them any pain, "Don't touch the stove, it's hot. It will burn the baby." But when we turn our back, baby touches it anyway, and learns from that painful encounter that it is better to obey.
Disobedience has always caused us suffering. We, too, have learned that the hard way. God said to Adam and Eve in Eden, "Don't eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden." But they disobeyed, took that terrible fall, and that rebellion has caused suffering for the human race ever since.
Sometimes we become angry and resentful at God for telling us what to do. We would like to live our own lives, do our own thing, be independent. We are a bit like the account of the father who said to his son as he left the house on a date with his girl, "Have a good time, son." The boy angrily and belligerently retorted, "Don't tell me what to do!"
Ernest Hemingway wrote, "The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong in the broken places." So let us learn from our pain, and become wiser and stronger. Often I have said to God, when the lesson of suffering caused pain so acute it was nearly unbearable, "Lord, whatever you are trying to teach me in all of this, help me to learn it well so that you don't have to do this lesson over again!"
Christ Accepted Suffering Without Rebellion and Resentment - And So Can We
The Suffering Servant witnesses, "I have not rebelled or turned away from him. I bared my back to those who beat me. I didn't stop them when they insulted me, when they pulled out the hairs of my beard and spit in my face."
That must have been hard to do! It is very difficult to accept suffering without complaining, without resentment, without questioning, without anger, without rebellion, without running from it. Yet, Christ our great Example, did not rebel, but humbly, and with total acceptance, endured the pain. The writer of Hebrews describes it, "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross (2:8)." And again, "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2)."
Jesus endured all of this patiently. This called for a lot of humility and obedience from our Lord. And now he calls us to "take up the cross, deny self, and follow him" - else we cannot be his disciples. That means submission, self-denial, surrender, and servitude to Christ. Samuel Shoemaker said, "Sooner or later, every Christian must choose between two pains; the pain of a divided mind or the pain of a crucified self."
The kind of obedience that Jesus offered the Father was unhesitatingly given. In the deserts of the Middle East the training of Arabian horses is a grueling process. The trainer requires absolute obedience from the horses. After weeks of putting them through their paces, he gives them a final test. He forces the horses to do without water for a couple of days, then turns them loose within sight of water. Just as they get to the water's edge, ready to plunge in and quench their thirst, he blows the whistle. The horses that come to a complete halt are considered trained and ready for service. They stand their quivering, wanting water desperately, but absolutely obedient. Obedience to the absolute will of God may cause you and me a great deal of pain. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I don't recommend Christianity."
Of this we can be certain: suffering is a fact of life. We will, as surely as we live, know pain: pain of broken relationships, pain of physical hurt, emotional pain, pain of parting by death, pain of misunderstandings, pain of guilt for sin - and we will react to it in some way. We can kick and scream, we can feel sorry for ourselves, we can be angry at God, we can question "Why?" or we can follow Christ with confident trust and endure patiently and obediently.
Christ Trusted In God's Deliverance - So Can We
Isaiah's suffering servant and our Savior believed in ultimate triumph. "But their insults cannot hurt me because the Sovereign Lord gives me help. I brace myself to endure them. I know that I will not be disgraced. For God is near, and he will prove me innocent. Does anyone dare bring charges against me? Let us go to court together! Let him bring his accusations! The Sovereign Lord himself defends me - who then can prove me guilty?" He knows that deliverance is certain, triumph is sure, victory is ahead - because God is his advocate, as he is also ours.
Dr. Reynolds Greene told of a time when Dr. E. Stanley Jones was preaching for him. He was then 83 years old. He said, "The next 10 years are going to be the greatest I have ever had!" Then, as the congregation looked at the feeble old man standing before them, he continued, with a twinkle in his eye, "I didn't say 'where' they were going to be - but here or there - they will be the greatest with Christ!" That's the way the future can always look to the Christian. The Word says, "The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day." Because of whose we are, the future is bright with promise and hope.
Many of us mortals worry ourselves almost to death about things that never happen. We borrow trouble even when we have no trouble. We tend to think negatively. Oz Fitzgerald, a rural mail carrier, once told of the worries of a near relative of his. The old lady said to him, "We got enough meat in the smokehouse to last this year. We got enough hogs in the pen for another year. We got enough shoats running in the pasture for another year. We got enough little pigs coming on for another year. But only the Good Lord knows what we're going to do then!" Jesus had an unshakable confidence in God, for he knew that God would not abandon him to his suffering, so he was obedient to his calling. Nor will God abandon you and me in our hour of trial, pain, and hurt. Christ goes down into the very shadow of death with us. As he is with us on the mountain, so in our low places, the Death Valley of the soul, he is there! Often our suffering and our triumph, our joy and our sorrow, are very close together. The highest point in the United States and the lowest are only a little way apart. Mount Whitney in California, almost 14,500 feet high, is very near Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level. Both are only a few minutes from each other by plane.
A man tells of living and working on Guam. While he was there, it was necessary for him to call Maryland from his office occasionally. Because of the time difference, when he placed a call on Friday at 7 a.m. Guam time, it was still 4 p.m. on Thursday in Maryland. He said that once he was just beginning what promised to be a very trying day at work, when his mood instantly changed for the better when he heard a cheerful voice from Maryland exclaim, "Thanks for calling. I always like talking to someone on Guam. It lets me know that there will be a tomorrow." That's what the Christian can realize during the suffering times - there will be a tomorrow, there will be a sunrise, there will be a triumph. God is always working things out for our good, our victory is just around the corner. Oswald Chambers wrote in one of his devotionals, "Nothing touches our lives but it is God himself speaking." Isn't that a wondrous reminder?
Thomas Ken was a bishop in the Anglican Church, but is not remembered for that. He was once chaplain to Princess Mary at The Hague, but he is not remembered for that. He was once imprisoned in the Tower of London, but he is not remembered for that. He is remembered for four simple, great lines he wrote. They formed the last verse of his Morning Hymn. Later, they were in his Evening Hymn. Then he composed Midnight Hymn, and they are in that, as well. They are familiar to every Christian in the English speaking world. We sing them at nearly every worship service:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Our Suffering Servant, our Savior, died in horrible, terrible pain on the cross. But his was the ultimate triumph when God raised him from the dead on Easter Day! We may not know when or how God will deliver us, but we do know that he will. The Psalmist reminds us, "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning." You can count on it!
Some issues are already settled, and there is no point in useless anxiety, for we do not always have choices and options. For instance, it is not "if" you will have a master in this life, you will have one, but "who" will it be? It is not "if" you will die, for unless the Lord returns during your lifetime, you will die, but your option is "where" you will spend eternity. And it is not "if" you will know suffering in this world, you will, but your choice is "how" will you react to it?
The verses of this text are from the servant songs that played such a pivotal role in the early church's understanding of who Jesus was. Here we see Israel, collectively, called the servant of the Lord. Then the transition is made to a personal servant, whose office is "to bring Jacob to him." And then all of this is finally fulfilled in history in the person of Jesus, the Suffering Servant with the capital "S." Even in the face of suffering, physical abuse, and degradation, the servant does not shrink from his calling. He knows that God will not abandon him in his suffering, so he is obedient to his calling to serve God's people. Unless we would go to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, we likely cannot find a better picture of Christ the Suffering Servant whom we know as Jesus.
This is Palm/Passion Sunday in the church year, and since passion means suffering, what better time to examine his suffering and ours; his reaction and our own? We, the servants of Jesus, follow in his train. We are not better than our Lord and he knew terrible suffering. John (13:16) reminds us; "... no slave is greater than his Master, and no messenger is greater than the one who sent him." And John warned us again (15:20), "Remember what I told you: 'No slave is greater than his Master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too.' " Jesus endured all kinds of physical suffering when he lived among us, even to his death on a cross. Along with the agonizing physical torment, there was also the shame, disgrace, humiliation, rejection, loneliness, abandonment, the broken heart. So, how can we even begin to think we will completely avoid suffering? As sure as we live and try to emulate Christ as our Master, we, too, will know pain. There is no escape. It is not a matter of "if" we will suffer, but "how" we will react to it.
But let us not despair. This does not mean that life will be all grief, and hurt, and pain, and sorrow. There are six times more mention of the word "joy" than the word "sorrow" in the Bible. "Glad" is used 10 times more than the word "sad."
As we look at the Suffering Servant, we get some good lessons as to "how" we face our pain.
Christ Learned From His Suffering - And So Can We
Jesus felt that there were lessons to be learned. The Servant said, "The Sovereign Lord has taught me what to say, so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning he makes me eager to hear what he is going to teach me."
I don't like to admit it, but the most of what I have learned about God has been, not in the bright sunlight hours of my life, but in the dark midnight hours of pain. Even Jesus learned this way. "Though he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things he suffered (Hebrews 5:8)."
A small child often learns best and quickest from being hurt. We say to our children, wanting to spare them any pain, "Don't touch the stove, it's hot. It will burn the baby." But when we turn our back, baby touches it anyway, and learns from that painful encounter that it is better to obey.
Disobedience has always caused us suffering. We, too, have learned that the hard way. God said to Adam and Eve in Eden, "Don't eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden." But they disobeyed, took that terrible fall, and that rebellion has caused suffering for the human race ever since.
Sometimes we become angry and resentful at God for telling us what to do. We would like to live our own lives, do our own thing, be independent. We are a bit like the account of the father who said to his son as he left the house on a date with his girl, "Have a good time, son." The boy angrily and belligerently retorted, "Don't tell me what to do!"
Ernest Hemingway wrote, "The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong in the broken places." So let us learn from our pain, and become wiser and stronger. Often I have said to God, when the lesson of suffering caused pain so acute it was nearly unbearable, "Lord, whatever you are trying to teach me in all of this, help me to learn it well so that you don't have to do this lesson over again!"
Christ Accepted Suffering Without Rebellion and Resentment - And So Can We
The Suffering Servant witnesses, "I have not rebelled or turned away from him. I bared my back to those who beat me. I didn't stop them when they insulted me, when they pulled out the hairs of my beard and spit in my face."
That must have been hard to do! It is very difficult to accept suffering without complaining, without resentment, without questioning, without anger, without rebellion, without running from it. Yet, Christ our great Example, did not rebel, but humbly, and with total acceptance, endured the pain. The writer of Hebrews describes it, "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross (2:8)." And again, "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2)."
Jesus endured all of this patiently. This called for a lot of humility and obedience from our Lord. And now he calls us to "take up the cross, deny self, and follow him" - else we cannot be his disciples. That means submission, self-denial, surrender, and servitude to Christ. Samuel Shoemaker said, "Sooner or later, every Christian must choose between two pains; the pain of a divided mind or the pain of a crucified self."
The kind of obedience that Jesus offered the Father was unhesitatingly given. In the deserts of the Middle East the training of Arabian horses is a grueling process. The trainer requires absolute obedience from the horses. After weeks of putting them through their paces, he gives them a final test. He forces the horses to do without water for a couple of days, then turns them loose within sight of water. Just as they get to the water's edge, ready to plunge in and quench their thirst, he blows the whistle. The horses that come to a complete halt are considered trained and ready for service. They stand their quivering, wanting water desperately, but absolutely obedient. Obedience to the absolute will of God may cause you and me a great deal of pain. C.S. Lewis once wrote, "If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I don't recommend Christianity."
Of this we can be certain: suffering is a fact of life. We will, as surely as we live, know pain: pain of broken relationships, pain of physical hurt, emotional pain, pain of parting by death, pain of misunderstandings, pain of guilt for sin - and we will react to it in some way. We can kick and scream, we can feel sorry for ourselves, we can be angry at God, we can question "Why?" or we can follow Christ with confident trust and endure patiently and obediently.
Christ Trusted In God's Deliverance - So Can We
Isaiah's suffering servant and our Savior believed in ultimate triumph. "But their insults cannot hurt me because the Sovereign Lord gives me help. I brace myself to endure them. I know that I will not be disgraced. For God is near, and he will prove me innocent. Does anyone dare bring charges against me? Let us go to court together! Let him bring his accusations! The Sovereign Lord himself defends me - who then can prove me guilty?" He knows that deliverance is certain, triumph is sure, victory is ahead - because God is his advocate, as he is also ours.
Dr. Reynolds Greene told of a time when Dr. E. Stanley Jones was preaching for him. He was then 83 years old. He said, "The next 10 years are going to be the greatest I have ever had!" Then, as the congregation looked at the feeble old man standing before them, he continued, with a twinkle in his eye, "I didn't say 'where' they were going to be - but here or there - they will be the greatest with Christ!" That's the way the future can always look to the Christian. The Word says, "The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day." Because of whose we are, the future is bright with promise and hope.
Many of us mortals worry ourselves almost to death about things that never happen. We borrow trouble even when we have no trouble. We tend to think negatively. Oz Fitzgerald, a rural mail carrier, once told of the worries of a near relative of his. The old lady said to him, "We got enough meat in the smokehouse to last this year. We got enough hogs in the pen for another year. We got enough shoats running in the pasture for another year. We got enough little pigs coming on for another year. But only the Good Lord knows what we're going to do then!" Jesus had an unshakable confidence in God, for he knew that God would not abandon him to his suffering, so he was obedient to his calling. Nor will God abandon you and me in our hour of trial, pain, and hurt. Christ goes down into the very shadow of death with us. As he is with us on the mountain, so in our low places, the Death Valley of the soul, he is there! Often our suffering and our triumph, our joy and our sorrow, are very close together. The highest point in the United States and the lowest are only a little way apart. Mount Whitney in California, almost 14,500 feet high, is very near Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level. Both are only a few minutes from each other by plane.
A man tells of living and working on Guam. While he was there, it was necessary for him to call Maryland from his office occasionally. Because of the time difference, when he placed a call on Friday at 7 a.m. Guam time, it was still 4 p.m. on Thursday in Maryland. He said that once he was just beginning what promised to be a very trying day at work, when his mood instantly changed for the better when he heard a cheerful voice from Maryland exclaim, "Thanks for calling. I always like talking to someone on Guam. It lets me know that there will be a tomorrow." That's what the Christian can realize during the suffering times - there will be a tomorrow, there will be a sunrise, there will be a triumph. God is always working things out for our good, our victory is just around the corner. Oswald Chambers wrote in one of his devotionals, "Nothing touches our lives but it is God himself speaking." Isn't that a wondrous reminder?
Thomas Ken was a bishop in the Anglican Church, but is not remembered for that. He was once chaplain to Princess Mary at The Hague, but he is not remembered for that. He was once imprisoned in the Tower of London, but he is not remembered for that. He is remembered for four simple, great lines he wrote. They formed the last verse of his Morning Hymn. Later, they were in his Evening Hymn. Then he composed Midnight Hymn, and they are in that, as well. They are familiar to every Christian in the English speaking world. We sing them at nearly every worship service:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
Our Suffering Servant, our Savior, died in horrible, terrible pain on the cross. But his was the ultimate triumph when God raised him from the dead on Easter Day! We may not know when or how God will deliver us, but we do know that he will. The Psalmist reminds us, "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning." You can count on it!
