Surprised by Suffering

An old friend of mine recently suffered a debilitating medical condition which required extensive surgery. Until then, she had enjoyed generally good health, so the whole ordeal caught her off-guard. “I never expected to have to go through anything like this,” she sheepishly confessed to me. “I assumed that the Lord would always protect me from this kind of suffering.” She quoted a verse from Psalm 121, which had been her mantra for many years: “He will not let your foot slip-he who watches over you will not slumber… the Lord will keep you from all harm-he will watch over your life.”

In our country, where comfort and convenience is the norm, we balk at the idea of suffering. My friend had it half-right. We enjoy the presence and care of a God who misses no detail. Nothing happens to us without his permission. Nothing can separate us from his love or the salvation we received through his mercy and grace. But to expect a life devoid of suffering would necessitate ignoring a large portion of Scripture.

Whether we like it or not, suffering is part of God’s plan for his people.

In the pivotal point of Mark’s gospel, Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was. Peter jumped in with a breakthrough revelation: “You are the Messiah.” Jesus quickly cautioned him: don’t tell anyone.

Jesus knew the disciples were not ready to relate the news, for their understanding of the nature of his messiahship was inaccurate. The common Jewish messianic expectation of that day was based on Old Testament Scriptures that promised a conquering hero. He would come to liberate Israel from her oppressors, set up a kingdom, and reign from Jerusalem. The disciples were excited about this. As his inner circle of trusted associates, they would have an important part in the Messiah’s new order. So they anxiously awaited the day Jesus would come into his own.

There were scores of prophecies about the Messiah. Many do reveal him as a conquering hero and ruling king. Yet still others portray him as a suffering servant, facing rejection by men and even by God. Isaiah wrote, “It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer… He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed.”

Suffering would be part of the messianic plan. In fact, it was The Plan.

Peter reacted strongly to this. He actually took the Lord aside and rebuked him for talking that way. Jesus recognized Peter’s emotional reaction for what it was: personal disillusionment. The life of ease and power the disciples anticipated was quickly fading away as Jesus revealed what the future had in store for Him.

Peter needed to adjust his messianic expectations. “You do not have in mind the things of God,” Jesus told him, “but the things of men.”

Jesus then took the disciples a step further. If they were to follow him, they would follow him in his suffering as well. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” he told them. Being his disciples was no pain-free proposition. Suffering would be part of the plan for them also.

We will experience suffering on many levels. Physical pain, disease, and the affects of old age will intrude on our lives. Grief will drive us to our knees as we struggle to survive great losses. All of us will experience hurts and offenses that are difficult to forgive. But as believers, suffering is not without purpose. God has plans to use our suffering for good. It is a perspective-changing crucible. While in the throes of suffering, reality becomes apparent. The unimportant details that would have distracted us in our walk with Him become trivial. With everything stripped away, we find that God is all that matters.

Peter eventually understood the purifying opportunity suffering presents. In his later years, he penned these words: “He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”

Paul pointed out that suffering was key to knowing Christ. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” Paul understood that experiencing suffering was a path to gaining intimate knowledge of the Savior as well as learning how to tap into the resurrection power available to us. It is a means to an end, and well worth the pain it takes to get there.

Some day suffering will no longer exist for us. John describes Heaven as a place where there are no more tears. We will no longer need suffering in our lives, because we will finally be complete. But until that time, count on suffering to be a part of your life. Embrace it as best you can, for it is evidence of a loving God at work in you.

“I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:7-10, NASB