Romans 15: 14-33
Theme: Suffering
WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?
Over the last few weeks, we have had six of our children in various medical conditions that make us wonder what is going on. Serious illnesses and diagnoses that we don’t want to hear. Their parents worn out in waiting and caring for their children. Grand parents hurting for their children as well as grandchildren.
We ask a lot of questions in times like these. Why is all this happening to our Church? In all honesty, ever since we finished our new building and set our sights on reaching our community, we have had troubles of some kind. As weird as it sounds, I think we are under some kind of satanic attack. Our potential for reaching the lost and changing our world is so great that Satan seeks to keep us low. Still, we ask questions. Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t have a good answer for that. It boils down to the fact that we are fallen living in a fallen world, but that does not comfort us. And maybe we can live with the bad answers to that question if we can find an answer to this question: What is God when it hurts? That one I think I can answer. We can find it in the biography of Paul.
As I read this passage, I was struck by the irony of the life of Paul and his fate. For quite sometime, Paul longed to go to Rome to minister to the church there, but had been hindered. Why did he want to go there? Was it so he could show off his preaching skills? Was it so that he could exert authority over the Romans? Was it his ego, did he have to have his ego stroked by someone new? I don't think that Paul wanted to go to Rome for any of those reasons. I think that he knew some of the Christians there and wanted fellowship with them. He as much admitted that he wanted their support for another mission journey. He wrote to them because he was the apostle to the gentiles and they were under his care and in God's sovereignty, he was lead to minister to them in word and perhaps deed.
On several occasions, he said that he had desired to visit them. He had preached from Jerusalem to Illyricum on the very edge of the Adriatic Sea. I imagine that he stood there on that shore and dreamed of what was across the water. He dreamed of preaching in Rome, perhaps to Caesar himself. But that was not his grandest dream. Paul had said that he did not want to preach where others had already been, he did not want to build on another man's foundation. He desired to go where the name of Christ has not been preached. So as he stood there looking out over the Adriatic, he dreamed of far distant lands, he dreamed of Spain. He wanted to carry the gospel to Spain.
"Whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while." He had preached his way across Asia Minor and half way across Europe and now he desired to go to the end of the continent, Spain.
That is where the irony comes in, for we know the fate of Paul. He even tells them that he first must go to Jerusalem to take the special offering that the Macedonians and the Achaians collected for the saints in Jerusalem. Paul does not seem to care that danger awaits him.
I do not think that Paul wanted to suffer any more than we do. But I think that he discovered that God was glorified in his suffering and that was enough for Paul. Paul did not make it to Rome in the terms that he desired. He went to Rome in chains and shackles and he went there to die. But he went to Rome.
God, in His sovereignty has chosen to glorify Himself through signs and wonders. Paul himself said that. From time to time we see the miraculous among us, we see the signs and wonders of God and it is always done that God might be glorified. If someone is sick and we pray and they are healed, it is not to our glory or because of our power or mighty faith, but it is to the glory of God and it should point to God.
But more often than not, God has chosen to glorify himself through our suffering. He chose to use Paul in the mightiest way in Paul's suffering. In our suffering we are totally dependent upon God, in our suffering we MUST depend upon God.
Whether it is by miracle or through suffering God will be glorified. For Paul, God seemed to shine the brightest in his suffering. He desired to go to Rome. He went, but as a prisoner in chains. Yet in 2 Cor. he was able to call his suffering momentary light affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory he would receive in Christ. He suffered with such faith and such surety that he was able to write with no reservations, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come; I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness . . . " He knew that God was with him in his suffering.
One writer said that suffering is a physical manifestation of the unseen cosmic battle that is going on between God and Satan. It is like the curtain has been pulled back. But it is more than that, we are players in that battle. That may not be a very comforting thought but consider this quote for Philip Yancy;
Very often, disappointment with God begins in Job-like circumstances. The death of a child, a tragic accident, or the loss of a job may bring on the same questions Job asked. Why me? What does God have against me? Why does he seem so distant? As the readers of Job's story, we can see behind the curtain to a contest being waged in the invisible world. But in our own trials we will not have such insight. When tragedy strikes, we will live in shadow, unaware of what is transpiring in the unseen world. The drama that Job lived through will then replicate itself in our individual lives. Once again God will let his reputation ride on the response of unpredictable human beings. (Yancy, 172)
So the question that should be raised when we suffer is not where is God when it hurts, because He is with us, but, where are we when it hurts? Are we faithful?
It is in our suffering that we hear anew the very first question God asked man, will humans choose for me or against me? In ordinary circumstances that is just a pretty question to argue about in church training class. But in times of suffering we see the question in stark nakedness; will you choose me or will you turn away? This is why we often give God greater glory in our suffering. That is why in a most profound way, our suffering draws us closer to God.
Paul fully expected his life to go on as he planned. He would go to Jerusalem, make preparations and then leave for Rome and onto Spain. It was an innocent suffering that he was to endure, but it is often the innocent who suffer, who teach us so much about life and how to love our God.
Our lives are full of expectations. We think that we know how it is going to end. In the mean time we think that things should be pretty normal; loving home, healthy kids, loving spouse, good health. Life comes as such a shock when we find ourselves sitting in the dust of life asking the question why? Why did my marriage fail? Why did my spouse die? Why did my son take drugs? Why did my family just drift away, why did I go bankrupt, why did life turn out like this?
We cannot always answer those questions. But the battle of the cosmos rages and our lives becomes the battle field. When it comes our turn to suffer, God once again lets his reputation ride on the response of unpredictable humanity. My Child, will you be against me or will you be for me?
Where is God when it hurts we might ask? In the midst of our suffering, there hangs Jesus on the cross. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is with us in our Suffering, we never suffer alone.