Not
to long ago a baby girl, in the care of her mother and her mother’s boy friend,
was tragically and viciously killed. The little girl would not stop crying so
the boyfriend picked her up and beat her. He slammed her head against the wall
several time, them punched her in the stomach. After that he shook her
violently, all while the mother looked on “to afraid to stop him.” After the savage
beating the little girl lay quietly on the couples bed room floor for 2 days in
and out of consciousness. The mother said she could hear her moan from time to
time, but still she did nothing. On the 3rd day the little girl’s
grandfather came over to see her while the boyfriend was at work. He asked
where his granddaughter was and at first the mother, his daughter, danced
around the question, but she could not dance around the moaning and groaning
coming from their bedroom. The grandfather rushed into the room to find his
4-year-old granddaughter severally and viciously beaten laying on the ground.
He picked her up and rushed her to the hospital where she later died from her
wounds. The mother and boyfriend, of course, where arrested and later convicted
of child abuse, neglect and 2nd degree murder.
At
my first appointment in Oklahoma a man, a husband, father, grandfather and
friend died a long and very painful death from colon cancer his name was Bill.
Bill had three adult children and 3 grand children. He was married to his wife
for 40 years, was a popular teacher and the one football coach to ever won a
State Championship for the high school football team. He taught drivers
education and drove a school bus. He was a well-known and well-loved man in our
community and he went to our church. One day he was mowing the church lawn…for
free; yes in some places people actually do things at and for their church for
free. That day Bill didn’t finish the lawn. He came to the parsonage, which was
located on the church grounds and knocked on my door and told me he didn’t feel
well and would come back another day to finish. 8 days later he still had not
returned because Bill had been admitted to the hospital and it had been
discovered that he had stage-four colon cancer. Over the next 6 months I watched Bill suffer physically in ways
I would not wish upon my worst enemy. I watched his wife rive in emotional pain
as she faced the reality that her friend, lover and partner of 40 years would
soon be gone. I watched as his adult children sat silently, hurting, dying
inside because their daddy, who was fine at Xmas, dressing up like Santa as he
did every year, was no longer the strong, confident man that had guided their
lives for so many years, so much suffering in so many places for what seemed
like and eternity. Unfortunately Bill passed away and a whole new way of
suffering identified itself and the suffering went on.
In
the book of Matthew during all the joy and anticipation of the nativity a
terrible suffering like the world has not often seen was taking place. The
jealous, selfish and ruthless King Herod, fearing for his throne, orders the
slaughter of baby boys 2 years and under, and in response to this event Matthew
writes, “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lament, Rachel weeping
for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they were no more.” This is suffering like most of us have
ever known, a suffering so deep, so primordial, that those who suffered refused
any comfort, a suffering so unique perhaps only the parents of the Newtown
massacre understand it. Truth is
we all have suffered in one way or another. Maybe you are suffering in some way
now, maybe you are aware of someone who is suffering now. We turn on the TV and
witness suffering, we go on-line and Yahoo greets us with a new story of some
ones suffering, we read the news and we read about suffering…suffering is all
around us, it effects our lives in ways and more often than any other human
experience….it’s a good thing we have a God who knows suffering too.
As
it is Maundy Thursday church tradition would lead us to discuss and reflect on the
Lords Supper, which is a good and noble thing, but this year instead of going
with tradition, siding with expectation and just talking about the Lords supper
I want us to consider something else. This night is the night before Christ
most terrific suffering. So instead of a meal, instead of intrigue, instead of
foot washing (which is a certain amount of suffering in it’s self…yuck!) lets
reflect on Christ suffering. Our passage tonight is one that many of you are
familiar with, it is a text that biblical maximalist say is a foretelling of
Jesus suffering and a text that biblical minimalist claim has nothing to do
with Jesus at all. I for one see the connection between the Jesus and what
Isaiah 53 calls the “Suffering Servant”, but not just as a foretelling, but as
prophetic.
Isaiah
53 speaks of the man of suffering, Jesus that is, as one who is acquainted with
suffering, one which was through oppression wrongfully executed. He was
oppressed and afflicted…he suffered…. acquainted with suffering, familiar with
suffering, like you and I are familiar with baseball or pie, he knew suffering.
A few hours from now Jesus will endure suffering like most of us have never. I
remember a peer while at United who often spoke of the suffering she endured in
the form of sexual, emotional and physical abuse as a child. She said they were
things should could hardly speak of even with her closes friends. She said the
thing that offered her the most comfort was knowing that she did not suffer
alone. All those years someone suffered with her and that some one was Jesus,
the suffering servant. Jesus did not just suffer for us so that we did not have
to; Jesus suffered with us so that we didn’t suffer alone. This Easter season
the gospel wants you to know that if you are suffering, you are not alone.
Think of Jesus who was wrongfully accused, tortured and executed. Think of
Mary. A mother who watched her son bleeding and broken, dying and she could do
knowing to help him. Think of the 99% of people in Jesus day, much like our
day, who suffer 90% of the time. Those who hunger, those who are homeless,
those who are oppressed, those who suffer abuse, who are addicted to drugs,
alcohol, food or sex…. and you will see, you do not suffer alone. Tonight the
good news is simple…we suffer together and God suffers with us!
Blessed Lent,
Pastor Josh
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