On Suffering
I’ve been thinking for a while about suffering and how it relates to the Christian life. It is intriguing to me that Christ’s whole life on earth was one of suffering. I imagine the incarnation itself was a type of suffering - a self-emptying as Philippians 2 puts it. It’s something we can’t even begin to get our heads around. The second person of the Trinity humbled himself by becoming a man, a conglomeration of cells that grew into a wee baby in Mary’s womb. He was born, learned to walk, talk, read, play, and use human language to express the language of the Kingdom. That degree of accommodation to our human state is nearly unimaginable and we can only begin to understand it on this side of grace. But he was born to suffer and die, to provide a substitution, to make atonement for our sin - for something so big, so much a part of each of one of us, that we could never get beyond it, never make sin ‘right’. And so Christmas becomes more than just nativity sets and a baby in a manger ‘who no crying he makes’, but becomes the first sign of hope, the first step of the God-Man into human flesh and into the human situation and, into a life of suffering.
And so I wonder what our response to the incarnation is this Christmas. Is it just another year where we read the story from Luke? Is it full of images of cherub-looking Jesus with Mary and Joseph surrounding him, serene and in awe and completely aware (by the expressions on their nativity set faces) of whom this baby really is? Is your image of Jesus’ birth static or do you begin to see the awe of God emptying himself to utterly accommodate himself to a depraved human race?
And what is our practical response? There’s been some talk around the blogosphere about suffering. People are afraid to suffer. People don’t want to suffer. People avoid suffering. People figure suffering is what old people do when they lose their lifetime mate, their hearing or their health. And yet, the gospel of this Christ - who humbled himself to be born and then killed, and resurrected to redeem his people - is one of suffering. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Suffering is a given; it’s part of the package of being a Christian; it isn’t optional. The Christian life is a continual denial of self - of pride, ambition, relationships, status, reputation, and even the good things that aren’t centred on Christ. And it’s a daily thing. It is a living self-sacrificially to our mate, our family, our friends, co-workers, and colleagues. Sure they don’t *deserve* our sacrificial treatment we might say, but how much more do we not deserve Christ’s substitionary death and his perfect righteousness imputed to our account? And remember, it’s not suffering for the sake of suffering, but a mark of belonging to Christ. In our world where everything is tainted by sin, those who seek to live a holy life will inevitably suffer.
Suffering brings us closer to Christ. Paul says that he counts everything a loss except for knowing Christ and desires “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) and Peter says, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13). Suffering helps transform us into looking more like Christ than when we live in comfort and ease. Paul writes in Romans 5:1-5: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” We not only praise God because of the fact that we now (amazingly!) have access to God through his grace, but Paul notes we are to rejoice (and that he did rejoice) in the present suffering because it produces in us more of the character of Christ; moreover, it gives us hope and comfort through the work of the Holy Spirit.
I think we need to examine our lives and add suffering as a criteria to our introspective list. Do we suffer? Frankly, being teased that you’re a Christian is hardly suffering. Most of us in the West have become lazy Christians and have ignored the prominence of suffering in the Bible. So what do we do about it? How can we live our lives sacrificially, where we take up our cross daily? The answer’s going to be different for different people and it may be countless little things rather than one huge decision. For some it may mean sacrificially giving more money than is ‘necessary’ or ‘comfortable’ to the worldwide Church in parts of the world where people are ill-equipped due to their poverty. For some it may mean selling their house and moving to the inner city to be by people who suffer from an utter loss of hope. For others, it may mean researching where one buys their products and ensuring their money is not going to support child labour or deforestation. But whatever form the outworking of living sacrificially takes, it must take some practical form, for the command to ‘take up your cross’ is not a suggestion but a command. And as Christ, the Word who was present and active in creation was made flesh and dwelt among us and who was born to suffer and die, as Christians (”little Christs”) should not our lives too reflect a tiny smidgeon of a life lived for others, of a life seeking to come alongside those who suffer, of a life that seeks to always be vulnerable and teachable rather than simply comfortable?
December 22nd, 2004 at 7:08 pm
Ashley, thoughtful and well-written dialogue on the true meaning of being a Christian. You make a father both proud and introspective at how I often avoid both suffering and sacrifice. Although, I see the secular world around us beginning to denigrate Christianity, within the US the ‘persecution’ is nothing to that experienced in the world of Islam or communism. I hope that my servanthood expressed within my family, friends and work brings some a glimpse of Christ within me, but most often I don’t seek out those experiences which take me out of my comfort zone. I found your description of Christ’s emptying himself especially insightful.
Looking forward to these discussion in person within a few days!!
December 24th, 2004 at 5:41 am
Good thoughts, Ashley. Suffering is way too overlooked by too much of Christendom. Joy and suffering are more closely related than I usually am willing to acknowledge.
December 26th, 2004 at 1:24 am
Ah, those are excellent insights, and well-organized, too…does that come naturally to you? I am really bad at organization in writing. Hah, as you can see. Anyway. You’ve helped me begin to answer my question from a few weeks ago - I suppose the completion of the answer is, as you said, discerning the form that suffering will take for different individuals.