Presence Weekly 12/18/2023

[The Devo] The Suffering of Christmas

¹² Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. ¹⁵ But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. ¹⁶ Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. ¹⁷ For it is time for judgmentto begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? ¹⁸ And“If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”  And if the righteous are being saved with difficulty, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?  ¹⁹ Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” 1 Peter 4:12-19 

When we think of Advent, we don’t typically think of suffering.  Many of those around us, and even ourselves, are thinking of upcoming family get-togethers and gift exchanges. We are thinking of the presents we have left to buy and the presents we hope to receive. We are enjoying the Christmas lights, Christmas movies and shows, and, of course, the Christmas music. We are thinking of enjoying a few days off. Of course, we would also say that Advent is a time when we are thinking more and more about the birth of Jesus, the in-breaking of God into the world, the coming of the long-expected Jesus. Hopefully, you are all looking forward to Christmas Eve, where we will all gather together in one final service of jubilant expectation of the birth of the Savior. 

But how many of you are thinking about suffering? Maybe some of you are. Maybe some of you are not looking forward to the holidays because of the emotional turmoil you experience. As much as Advent is a time of expectation and joy, that can only be fully appreciated against the background of what the people were expecting. They were expecting a redeemer. They were expecting to have their exile, isolation, and oppression ended. They were expecting an end to their suffering. Aren’t we all? 

So, a devotional on suffering is completely appropriate during Advent. Peter is writing to people who know that Jesus was born; they know that he lived; they have heard, and some have even seen the miracles of Jesus; how he brought relief to those suffering from leprosy and blindness, and how he even restored some to life. During his life, Jesus seemed to be all about ending suffering. But now he was dead. Peter and those to whom he is writing believe that he has conquered death and risen to take his place at the right hand of God, with a promise to come again. But there is a real problem. There is still suffering. People are still getting sick and dying, his followers even. And now there is a new kind of suffering. Those who are actually committing themselves to following Jesus find themselves suffering for that very reason. If life wasn’t hard enough already, now there is the suffering just for being a Christian. What about that? That doesn’t even make sense.  Some of the people suffering are living their lives doing everything Jesus taught, and still, there is suffering. Perhaps you feel that way. 

Last week, I attended an event at which the key speaker was promoting an upcoming longitudinal study on flourishing. Many see flourishing as inversely related to suffering. The less suffering there is, the more flourishing. Perhaps. Over and over again, the speaker discussed how elected officials and those who implement policy can use this study to promote flourishing and diminish suffering. This makes sense because even our founding documents make clear the American experiment is based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and that the purpose of government is to promote the blessings of liberty, to themselves and their prosperity.  

No one wants to suffer. Suffering is not enjoyable. We fear suffering, work to avoid suffering, and if we are honest, we think that suffering is always about something we have done wrong.  Just like the church of the first century, suffering often surprises us, because we don’t think we should be experiencing it. 

Throughout his letter to the elect exiles, Peter has been unpacking a call for Christians to live differently and to maintain a faithful presence for the gospel to those around them. This call to be different is one that encompasses all of life, including suffering. Peter’s message is in order to suffer differently, Christians must come to understand the role of suffering for the believer.  This is exactly what Peter wants to help his reader to understand. For the Christian, suffering has a purpose, one that actually brings joy! 

As difficult as it may seem, the reality is that we cannot be conformed to the image of Christ without suffering. It is through suffering that our impurities are burned off. You know the impurities I am talking about, the impure desire to repay evil for evil, through gossip and slander. Holding on to a wrong for so long that it becomes a part of your identity. But how does suffering do that? Because unless there is some end game in suffering, it is really hard to see how we can move from shame to rejoining. This is exactly what MiroslavVolf asserts when he writes that through suffering, we “replace the anger of frustration with the joy of expectation.”

This brings us to the point Peter has been seeking to make throughout his letter to the elect exiles: Christian suffering sets our hope in Christ.

When suffering comes it seems as though the entire world is collapsing against you. Our perspective is blurred, and we lose sight of what is actually happening.  In suffering, we often find ourselves fully in that moment and unable to see outside of it. But this is where Peter is so helpful. Peter writes in verse 12 that this suffering “has been brought to test you.” In this we are told that not only is suffering not random, but has in some real sense been brought to us by our God, who we can trust - because he is faithful to his promises.  

Jesus entered a world filled with suffering. People were oppressed, hungry, sick, paralyzed, poor, homeless, and many had lost a child by an order of the king. Jesus left a world that was suffering. People People were oppressed, hungry, sick, paralyzed, poor, homeless, and many had lost a child by an order of the king. But Jesus left them with hope.

Through our suffering we have hope. C.S. Lewis, wrote in his book A Grief Observed, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth of falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” This is what God is doing to us through suffering, burning away everything else that we cling to so that we will come to cling to the only thing that truly will get us through the suffering, now matter how long it lasts.

In our suffering, we have something that those outside of Christ do not have – hope.  This verse is one filled with hope for the believer, and an offer of hope for the unbeliever. 

But, perhaps the most comforting word in this entire passage is the first, “Beloved.” Perhaps that is the most important key to suffering differently – knowing that the God who has ordained this suffering loves us dearly. And it is because of this love that he proposes to use our suffering to identify with His Son, to conform us to His Son, and to fully set our hope in His Son. When we grasp that we are no longer surprised by suffering as something that we should not be experiencing, but we actually come to expect suffering, are able to endure suffering, and in fact, as we come to set our hope fully in Christ, we come to embrace suffering – because we know that ultimately, our suffering leads to joy! 

 That is what we are celebrating during Advent.

Last Things...

We will return January 8th.