Does God want us to suffer? There is a strand in the Christian tradition that looks at the suffering Jesus underwent – which he predicted – and suggests that it is in suffering that we draw closest to our Lord. This is not how Peter saw things:
Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. (This Sunday's Gospel passage is here.)
Just before this, Peter has identified Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One of God long foretold, who would come to redeem the people of Israel – redeem, as in buy back a pawned item so it can be restored to its true purpose. It was assumed that the Messiah would bring to an end the suffering and humiliation of God’s chosen people. What good is a Messiah who’s going to suffer and die?
Jesus is firm: But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
Invoking Satan, it appears that Jesus sees in Peter’s words a temptation, a temptation to veer from the mission he is living out, a temptation to doubt his discernment of what is ahead for him. In Jesus’ case, suffering was part of his mission; a humiliating and horrible death was in part how his mission of redeeming humanity would be accomplished.
That is not necessarily true for us. The ways in which God might invite us to make God-Life known in the world may not directly involve suffering. We may be called to write or to feed or to proclaim or to organize, never being persecuted for our faith. But there will be pain, if we’re open to letting our hearts be broken by God’s love for this world. In that sense, every ministry, every life involves suffering.
This morning I attempted to preach this message to a room full of people in wheel chairs in a local nursing home, some of them relatively young. I’m not sure I was convincing when I insisted that God is with us in our suffering, even as God often allows it to unfold in our lives, and that God can work through it. It is through the presence of Christ with us that we gain the Life that overcomes death, the Life we can share with others, no matter what our condition.
I don’t believe God visits suffering upon us so we can draw near to Christ. But I believe with all my heart that Christ draws near to us when we suffer, and helps break it open so new life can emerge from the dark.
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