Blessed Sufferings
I Peter 4:12-19; Matthew 2:13-23
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… In today’s Epistle we heard, “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” But we do think it is strange; we are shocked and surprised when we have to go through trials and afflictions and sufferings because we generally live in denial of the way things are with us and with this world. We deny the truth of our original sin and the curse on this creation, and we pretend that we can be Christians in this world without having to suffer the consequences of following Christ. Today’s readings set us straight
Truth be told, very often we suffer as a result of our own foolishness. 1 Peter 4:15 says, “Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.” But we do. We murder by daydreaming about payback for those who have hurt us; we steal by getting things under false pretenses; we commit sexual sins in heart and mind if not also in body; we gossip about others and stick our nose where it doesn’t belong. We commit all manner of sins that have all manner of spiritual and physical consequences.
Much of the suffering we deal with in our lives is self-inflicted, whether it is in our health or in our finances or in our relationships. We like to rationalize our behavior and make excuses to deflect blame. And very often, God gets the blame for the consequences of our own sin. But the biblical saying holds true as it is written in Galatians 6:8, “He who sows to His flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.”
Of course, some of what we suffer isn’t our fault. Sometimes we experience collateral damage for other people’s foolishness. It’s not just that people make “mistakes” or “bad choices”; they sin. And sin always has collateral damage. Sometimes we get caught in that wave which sometimes feels more like a tsunami.
But here is where Jesus enters into the picture; here is where our suffering is redeemed by the Son of God who shared fully in our humanity and bore our infirmities and sins and carried all of our afflictions. Peter’s main point in the Epistle is not about suffering because of sin; it is suffering because of Christ who has taken away our sin and has saved us. He says, “Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings. . . If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.”
Holding to the words and the ways of Christ means we are in direct conflict with the words and ways of this world which hates Him and hates us. We should not think it strange nor should we be shocked when we suffer as followers of Jesus, for it is precisely through suffering that He redeemed us. Not only should we not be surprised at suffering for Jesus’ name; we should, in fact, rejoice that we have been given that privilege and have been granted a portion in Christ’s cross and its blessings.
In the early days of the church, the apostles were beaten for preaching the name of Jesus. Afterwards, it is written, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:41-42). To be a disciple of Jesus is to take up the cross daily and follow Him, holding to the faith in spite of the cost.
From the very earliest moments of His life, we see that the way of Christ is the way of the cross. Not only was He born under extremely humble circumstances, as we heard at Christmas; but from the very start, the infant Son of God was vulnerable and under assault.
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There is, however, some comfort to be taken in this. Looking at Jesus’ childhood, things appeared rather out of control; Joseph and Mary may well have wondered just what was going on. Simeon had spoken of how Jesus would be a sign that would be spoken against. But I’m sure they still expected that the Messianic promises regarding Jesus might have meant something more glorious than living as refugees in Egypt and shuffling around from place to place. Even though they couldn’t see the whole picture at the time, all of this took place in fulfillment of Holy Scripture and served to carry out God’s eternal plan of salvation. What seemed out of control was still totally and absolutely under God’s gracious direction. And that is exactly the way it is for all who are baptized into Christ. No matter what is going on in our life, we can still be confident that our times are in His hands, and that nothing happens without God’s knowledge or permission.
For Jesus, that detour to Egypt fulfilled God’s plan in Hosea 11:1, where He said, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Hosea’s prophecy was originally spoken concerning the entire nation of Israel which had been slaves in Egypt. That is why it was important that Jesus also would be called from Egypt, for it was His task to be the embodiment of God’s people, to do perfectly and without sin what Israel had failed to do.
Even after being delivered from their slavery, the children of Israel grumbled and rebelled against God. They did not live as His holy people, nor did they glorify His name among the nations. But now the Child of Israel, Jesus, has come to do that perfectly, accomplishing God’s will completely on behalf of Israel and all people. So, in the seemingly minor detail of the calling of Jesus out of Egypt, we see that He was fulfilling the Law for us, actively doing all that was necessary to rescue us. Jesus is the new Jacob, the new Israel, going down to Egypt and coming up again to be our Redeemer, to bring us into the Promised Land of life with God.
So it is also in the prophecy that Jesus would be a Nazarene. It was more than just political circumstances that were at play in Jesus living in Nazareth. In the Old Testament we learn that the Messiah would be humble and ultimately even despised. And if there was ever a lowly and despised town in Israel – one that you didn’t want to admit you were from – it was Nazareth, near Gentile territory. Even one of Jesus’ own disciples, Nathaniel, once said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (Jn 1:46) That is why Jesus was a Nazarene – so that He would bear affliction and rejection and the horrific sufferings of the cross to cleanse us from all sin.
This, dear fellow redeemed, is our comfort in our own suffering. Through such suffering our lives are being conformed to Christ. In Him we trust that even when everything seems to be spinning out of control, He is at work for our eternal good and our salvation. Our suffering serves to humbles us and empty us of our self-righteous foolishness, and it teaches us to look to the Lord for help. And it reminds us of how He suffered for us. The cross becomes all the more precious to us, that we have a God who loved us to that extent, who shed His blood for us, who has promised never to leave us or forsake us in our afflictions. We learn to see that He is our only Help and our only Hope.
The baby boys of Bethlehem suffered and died because they were under wicked Herod’s authority. But their suffering was redeemed because even more so their suffering was for the sake of Christ who became a weak baby boy for them to rescue them. Though it certainly didn’t seem so at the time, the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem were given to share in Christ’s glory as the first martyrs for His name. Though their lives were violently cut short, they are blessed in Jesus, having been delivered so quickly from the burdens of this fallen world. Being close to Christ indeed means sharing in His sufferings, but through them, He brings us to glory.
So in the midst of your afflictions, especially those trials you undergo for believing God’s Word – like insisting that only a man and a woman make for a godly and right marriage; like shouting from the rooftops that abortion at any stage of pregnancy is outright murder; like insisting that parents and not the government know what is best for their children regarding education and health care – and all other instances of doing what is right in God’s sight, take to heart the words of God to you in Romans 8: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Not only back in bible times but also still today, God is active in human history working out His good and perfect will for the sake of His church. Despite any and all appearances to the contrary, God is with us and graciously at work in our lives. He chose us in Holy Baptism; He made us be forgiven children of God. Even in the midst of our human vulnerability, God is carrying out His almighty will for our benefit.
And in those times when things just don’t make any sense, when we feel like the parents of Bethlehem whose infant children were slaughtered before their eyes, when there seems to be no valid purpose or meaning to what’s going on in our lives, God points our eyes again to the cross. For there in that greatest display of God’s all-powerful weakness, there in that senseless and yet most meaningful death of Jesus, we are certain that God’s love is limitless and unshakable. There is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
Come, then, to the altar of the Lord’s love where we partake of Christ’s sufferings in a most blessed way. Since the almighty Lord went so far as to take on our vulnerable human flesh, to die in the flesh and shed His blood, and then give us His resurrected flesh and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, we can certainly trust Him in every life circumstance. Here Jesus comes to us in the flesh, and this is our strength for living in the new year. And if we must suffer according to the will of God, we commit our souls to Him.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
