Jeremiah 15: 15-21(page 643 in our pew Bibles) An intense and
personal dialogue between God and Jeremiah. Following God has brought Joy but
also intense pain and anguish and led to isolation and suffering. Being caught
up in the mystery of human redemption involves pain.
Romans 12: 9 - 21 (page 948 in our pew Bibles) Short pithy
sayings concerning how Christians should deal with each other even in times of
suffering and how best to respond to persecution.
Matthew 16:21 - 28 (page 822 in our pew Bibles) Jesus rebukes
Peter for trying to shield Jesus from suffering and death, saying that he has
set his mind on the things of man and not the things of God.The mystery of
divine suffering spoken of by Jeremiah reaches its climax on the cross.
In John 16:33 Jesus says “In
this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world”
Pain and suffering and
opposition and trouble incurred in the process of following God are revealed to
be a certainty.
And this is certainly the
case for Jeremiah who we heard complaining in our first reading this morning.
For Jeremiah the joy of
following and prophesying the will of God was offset by great pain and suffering
and lead to his social isolation. He berates God for misleading him and leading
him down a blind alley, though caught up in the mystery of God he has no option
but to carry on.
The knowledge that he has
to go on preaching imminent judgement to a largely deaf audience is like a pain
that cannot be dulled.
And in Jesus, the
redemption of the whole world was achieved through the suffering and death of
Jesus Christ. So central is this to our belief system that we forget how scandalous
this sounds.
To Muslims for example,
part of their rejection of Jesus on the cross is their refusal to countenance
the fact that God could suffer in any kind of way.
In modern society, pain
and suffering and of course death are seen as entirely negative things to be
stopped by any means and in a general sense that is true. The only place where
attitude is modified is in sport where the adage “No pain no gain” has general
consent.
We are speaking here of
the pain directly incurred as a result of doing God’s will of course and
probably the most emotive liturgical service in the Christian calendar is Good
Friday – the clue is in the title – that we elevate the personal suffering of
Jesus to the level of
“Good.”
Good in the sense that
without the suffering the salvation and forgiveness that was
wouldn’t have been
achieved without it because He was involved in the eternal spiritual war
between good and evil.
.
We might not like it, but
it is the fact of the matter.
But then Jesus says
something much more challenging than that.
He speaks to us all
directly through his conversation with Peter in the Bible;
For merely supposing that Jesus could or should be
shielded from pain and death, Jesus calls Peter Satan. Can you imagine how hurt
and confused Peter would have been to be told that?
The Christian way is a
hard way, not free from opposition or far from trouble or being isolated or
shunned because of what you believe and proclaim. This is normal and while we
have been blessed in this country for a long time, those days perhaps may be
returning.
And the killer blow comes
when Jesus says that if anyone wants to follow Jesus he must take up his cross
and follow him.
And it is Important to
realise here that the cross was not a shorthand for generalised suffering as in
“we all have our cross to bear” in 1st century Palestine. It had a
very specific meaning. The cross was a punishment reserved for sedition, for
opposition to the state, opposition to the worldly power structures of the day.
If we are to take up our
cross it means not being afraid to confront injustice, ungodliness and corruption
which undermines dehumanises and controls whether it is wielded by the state or
non-governmental bodies, like the church for example…..
We are called to join in
that spiritual struggle for right against wrong wherever that may take us. It
may lead us to be ridiculed or sidelined, made fun of perhaps or worse, but
Jesus commands us to go on regardless
Our loyalty, my loyalty,
is first to God and his gospel as recorded in the Bible. His will and truth
come first.
For anyone who does and
preaches God’s will and runs up against sanction and retribution we are only
feeling a fraction of what Jesus did and we are blessed in the doing.
The Christ event is
primarily a clash of kingdoms – the kingdoms of this world versus the kingdom
of God which met on a cross on a hillside outside Jerusalem.
On Good Friday it appeared
that the worldly powers had won – but that supposed victory was turned around
on Easter Sunday
Jesus commands us to
embody and pursue the kingdom of God against all worldly systems.
When you do that, Jesus
promises that you will provoke opposition often leading to pain, sorrow and
death. It is natural that this will happen when we directly oppose the powers
of our enemies, because as Paul reminded us in a many chapters on this subject
we are in a spiritual war. And we need to be armed.
The Spiritual armour that
comforts me most from Paul’s words this morning… is that we don’t go looking
for trouble. As long as it has anything to do with you,(he says) live peaceably
with all but we should at the same time be zealous, be fervent in spirit,
rejoice in hope and be patient when trouble comes and most of all be constant
in prayer.
In prayer we are joined to
the Source, the Spirit that promised through Jesus that yes, you will have
trouble in this world, but take heart and be strengthened by the fact that I
have overcome the world.
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