Breaking through the Betrayal Barrier

       The man accepted every event in his life without complaint. “I should not question the workings of divine providence," he always said.
      He got married, and his wife ran away with the hired man. He had a daughter, and the daughter was deceived by a traveling salesman. He had a son, and the son was lynched. A fire burned down his barn, and a cyclone blew away his home. A hail storm destroyed his crops, and the banker foreclosed on his mortgage. Yet, at each stroke of misfortune, he knelt and gave thanks to God for his unchangeable mercy
       After a time, penniless but still submissive to the decrees of on high, he landed in the county poor house.  One day the overseer sent him out to plow a barley field. A thunder storm came up, and without warning, a bolt of lightening descended from the sky. It melted the blade, stripped the man of most of his clothes, singed off his beard, branded his naked back with the initials of a neighboring cattleman, and hurled him through a barbed wire fence.
       When the man recovered consciousness, he got up slowly to his knees, clasped his hands, raised his eyes toward heaven and said. "Lord. This is getting plum ridiculous.”
       Haven't we all sometimes felt that we've had more than our fair share?
       We would sometimes like to believe that, as Christians, we are shielded from trouble. But we aren't. In fact, right after Paul writes in Romans 5:2 that we rejoice in hope of sharing God's glory, he immediately continues on to say - "not only this, we also exult in our tribulations."
        What do tribulations look like? 
         Well I remember my Mom’s last two years.  She was doing well but then she fell and hit her head.  Following surgery she went into instant late-stage dementia.  She lived in a world of silent torment.  When death finally came it came as a blessing.   
         You have your stories too.  In the school of life suffering is not an elective course.  Every person on earth could contribute illustrations of pain of his or her own.  I have my stories and experiences and you do too. Wars famines and natural disasters are never easy to understand.  But large-scale pain of this nature is sometimes less troubling to the individual than the circumstances that confront each of us personally -- cancer, kidney failure, heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, divorce, rape, loneliness, rejection, failure, infertility, widowhood!   
       These and a million other sources of human suffering produce inevitable questions that trouble the soul.  “Why would God let this to happen to me?"   It is a question all believers, and many non-believers, have struggled to answer.  And contrary to Christian teachings in some circles, the Lord typically does not rush in to explain what He is doing.  
       This is probably my biggest area of frustration as a pastor. I sometimes feel like the field rep for a God who doesn't explain himself. People ask me the questions but the head office is silent.
“Where is God? Does he know what is happening? Is he concerned? What have I done to deserve this?  What must I do to regain His favor?"
      A boy named Chris had had his face burned in a fire. He sent this note to his psychotherapist:  "Dear Dr. Gardner. Some big person, it was a boy about 13, he called me a turtle. And I know he said this because of my plastic surgery. And I think God hates me because of my lip. And when I die, he'll probably send me to hell.  Love, Chris."
      Chris concluded that his pain was evidence of God's rejection.  It is a logical deduction in the eyes of a child: "If God is all-powerful and He knows everything, then why would he let such a terrible thing happen to me? He must hate me."
      Dr. R. T. Kendall, senior minister of Westminster Chapel in London, writes of the “betrayal barrier." In his opinion, 100 percent of believers eventually go through a period when God seems to let them down.
       It may occur shortly after becoming a Christian.  The new convert loses his or her job, or his or her child becomes ill, or business reverses occur.  Or maybe after serving God faithfully for many years, life suddenly starts to unravel.  It makes no sense. It seems so unfair. The natural reaction is to say, "Lord is this the way you treat your own? I thought you cared for me, but I was wrong.
        Another writer calls this "awesome why". Sooner or later, most of us will come to the point where it appears that God has lost control or interest in our lives.  It is only an illusion but it is an illusion with dangerous implications for our spiritual and mental health. Interestingly enough, pain and suffering do not cause the greatest damage.  Confusion is the factor that shreds faith.
       James Dobson observes: "Unfortunately, many young believers - - and some older ones too - do not know that there will be times in every person's life when circumstances don't add up -- when God doesn't appear to make sense.  This aspect of the Christian faith is not well advertised. We tend to teach new Christians the portions of our theology that are attractive to a secular mind.   
       For example, Campus Crusade for Christ has distributed millions of booklets called "The Four Spiritual Laws."  Now they’re available online accompanied by flashy graphics.  But the content has been the same sine the 1960’s. 
       The first law states, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life."   Now that statement is certainly true. However, it implies that a believer will always understand the "wonderful plan" and that he or she will approve of it. That may not be true.
      For some people, such as Joni Erickson Tada who lives over in Agoura, the "wonderful plan" means life in a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. For others it means early death, poverty, or the scorn of society.  For the prophet Jeremiah, it meant being cast into a dark dungeon.  For other people meant execution.  Wee just finished a Sunday morning adult class on Dietrich Bonhoeffer who died for his faith in 1945. 
      Even in the most terrible of circumstances, however, God's plan is wonderful because, as Paul writes in Romans 8 anything in harmony with God's will ultimately "works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."
       And we know that’s true.  But pain still hurts.  And the Bible alerts us to the fact that every one of us suffers in one way or another.
        There was a little Christian chorus years ago that I’m glad has disappeared.  I’m not talking about Kumbaya.   That one is unfortunately still with us.  The one I’m talking about offered a sunny thought, "Something good is going to happen today. Happen today, happen today. Something good is going to happen today, Jesus of Nazareth is passing this way."   
       I understand the how the lyrics are intended to be interpreted, but they imply that Christianity guarantees a person only "good things." It is not true. Let’s be honest. As the world interprets it, something terrible could happen to you today.  Christians do get sick and die, just like the rest of the world. They do lose their jobs like other people, and they do have car wrecks and dental problems and sick kids. And believing otherwise is a trap from which many young believers, and some old ones, never escape.
      We need to accept that trials are going to happen. Here's why I think this is important. Because as Americans I think we deep down have this belief that we have an inalienable right to a pain free life, and that being a Christian is like a Teflon coating, so the messes that stick to other people should just glide right off of us. I think that makes our suffering even worse, because if we face trials, we start to feel that we've been ripped off, or something isn't working right, or we've been singled out somehow.
       But where did we get the notion that the Christian life is a piece of cake? Where is the biblical evidence for the theology that promises that God will skip along in front of us with His great cosmic broom, sweeping aside each trial and every troubling uncertainty?  It’s not there.
      On the contrary, Jesus told his disciples that they should anticipate suffering.   He said, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." 
       Paul wrote, "In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds. For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn -- conflicts on the outside, fears within." 
       Peter left no doubt about difficulties in this Christian life when he wrote, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.'  Note in each of these references the coexistence of both joy and pain.
       The Apostle Paul acknowledges suffering as he describes his own struggles in 1 Corinthians 11.  Everything he describes, the beatings, the shipwrecks, the hunger, is not because Paul is walking out of God's will but because he is walking in God's will.
      So the Christian life is ruggedly realistic in that is offers no easy escape from suffering. Talk about statements of reality. Could you have any more candor than Paul’s? He's not trying to sell us me on the idea that if we come to Jesus all our problems will go away.   He echoes the constant testimony of all of the biblical writers that both believers and nonbelievers will have trouble in this world, and that sometimes those who are believers in Jesus Christ will have more immediate sufferings than those who are taking the easy way, living pleasure oriented lives.
       Now I am sure that every Christian who struggles with his or her own pain and the hurts of others wants to fit the pieces together in a way that makes sense.  I sure do.
      For example, I often hear people say things like, “God must be trying to teach me a lesson and I’m suffering because I haven’t learned the lesson.” 
      That’s dangerous because it gives the belief that suffering is our own fault and therefore something we can control.  “If I just get the lesson through my thick head, I won’t suffer anymore.” 
       But in our most honest moments, we admit the edges are rough, that there are some really big empty spaces in the middle, and that we'll only understand when we are made perfect as we enter into the presence of the one who is perfect.        
       Proverbs 3:5 warns us to lean not on our own understanding". Now this does not mean that we are prohibited from trying to understand. But we are specifically told not to lean on our own ability to make the pieces fit.  “Leaning" refers to the panicky demand for answers -- throwing faith to the wind if a satisfactory response cannot be produced. It is pressing God to explain Himself --or else! That is where everything starts to unravel.
        But we aren’t called to fall apart. We are called to exult.  The word exult in our text from Romans 5 is a form of the Greek word "kaukaomai." the literal meaning of this word is "to boast in God.'  In other words, our exultation does not necessarily describe the feelings we have during a time of trouble for those feelings may be far from joyful. Rather, the word describes the sense of anticipation we have that God is with us in the pain and that God is still doing something good through the pain. 
       Our exultation or rejoicing is not centered on our feelings but on our awareness in faith that God is with us and active even if our feelings tell us the opposite.  God has proven Himself faithful in the past and so we can boast that he will be faithful in the future.
      The Prophet Jeremiah knew and expressed the feelings as he spoke on behalf of his fellow Jews. Jerusalem has been devastated by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah is boxed in with gloom. The proud city has been destroyed. His friends have been taken captive. The once beautiful people have been left rotting in the streets. Infants lay with parched tongues cleaving to the roofs of their mouths. Some people are so hungry that they turn to cannibalism.  Jeremiah says of God, "He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; He has put heavy chains on me; though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer, He has blocked my ways with hewn stones, He has made my paths crooked."  Jeremiah stands squarely at the betrayal barrier.
         But then Jeremiah remembers that the grape when crushed turns into wine, the olive when crushed turns into oil.  So he writes these words of rejoicing, "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness."
       Do you remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the third chapter of Daniel?  They earn the wrath of this same King Nebuchadnezzar by refusing to fall down and worship the idol he had set up. He makes it clear that if they again refuse to obey his command, they will be thrown into a "burning fiery furnace."   Their response to this murderous threat is one of the most inspiring passages in scripture: "The God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, 0 King.  But even if He does not, we want you to know, 0 king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image you have set up.',
       "God can save us but if not, if he doesn't intervene for whatever reason, we'll serve Him anyway. That is the biblical prescription in its simplest terms.  He can heal the disease that grips my body --but if not, my faith will survive. He can correct my child's handicap, or save my bankrupt business, or bring my son home safely from the war. But if not, I will continue to trust in Him.            
       We can exult, we can trust, because we know what God has done and what God has promised.
        The great Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon wrote about the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: "When God allows us to be put into the furnace, He goes with us."   That’s true.  Any time you think life is unfair, look at the cross. It wasn't fair for a guiltless 33-year-old man to be nailed to a cross to die.  But three days later, he rose from the grave, and God showed his triumphant power.  He has promised us that if we walk by faith in Him, He will do the same for us.  That's why we can walk and not faint. That's why we can still smile through tears.  That’s why we grieve but we don't grieve like those who have no hope. We believe in Jesus Christ.  
       We also trust because when we suffer we know that God has been there before us.
       One of the reasons I’m a Christian is that every other religion says that if you're suffering, it's your fault, because there's something you did wrong in this life or another, or that it's just random and meaningless. Only Jesus gives us the promise to transform suffering into hope. Mohammed doesn't do that, Buddha didn't even try, but Jesus does. Jesus himself suffered. As God he easily could have avoided that, but instead he chose to suffer with us, so that he would know what we go through.
       Have you been abandoned? So has Jesus. Felt the sting of poverty? So did Jesus. Someone you loved die on you? That happened to Jesus too. We are not alone in our pain.
       And we also know that Jesus doesn't just share our suffering.  He transforms it.
       If you are suffering right now you need to know that God has not abandoned you.  He’s with you on this cross just as He was on Calvary.   And if you are currently living a pain-free life you still need to know something – because life won’t always be pain free.  When the darkness comes remember what you are learning here in the light. 
       For finally, we exult in suffering because of what we know about it. Each of the words in Romans 5:3-5 about suffering is very important.  But the most important word is the word “know” in verse 3. The phrase reads, "Because we know."
       Here is some more suffering.  You have to come back next Sunday – or just read ahead in the ext.  For next Sunday we will look at what we can know.