Responding to the Passion of Jesus (Week 4)
2020 Sermon Series #2:
“Comfort the Suffering!” [Part 1 of 2]
Key Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Passion Narrative: Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-56, 69-75; 27:1-5, 24-26, 32-66
Today, we enter back into our series of messages on the Passion of Jesus Christ. Here is the big point of today’s sermon: Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering! Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
We think of Jesus’ suffering as primarily on the Cross of Calvary, but can you imagine the agony Jesus faced as He was abandoned by all of His closest friends, betrayed by one of them which led to incredible suffering at level of His human experience, and condemned to death by both the religious and political courts of His day. Jesus suffered all this so that, through putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we will never be abandoned, betrayed, or condemned by God. Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
I want you to realize how much God loves you and to what cost He demonstrated His love for you—not as a theoretical idea, but as a visceral reality—and how much security you have in your relationship with God. When we realize this, our faith response is to comfort those who are suffering—to be the hands and feet of Christ in a world that needs the saving love of the God. A world filled with people who are very obviously experiencing our fallen nature and who are living in the effects of a very broken world—death, loneliness, suffering… the list is too long.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th century church martyr who stood up against evil and would not let the gates of hell prevail, said in his most famous of works, Cost of Discipleship,
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “[you] were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.[1]
God is with us through this because He has already poured out His wrath on Jesus as the propitiation for not only our sins, but “of the whole world” (1 John 2:2, 4:10) and He is now working to draw all people to Himself (John 12:32). The Church must seize this moment to lift up Jesus Christ and be the hands and feet of Christ to a world that God is redeeming and will one day make His home with us, in the New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21—22)!
As you read through the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 26-27, you see that Jesus was “social distanced”, too. To the max! As I read through Matthew 26—27 Jesus was:
- Abandoned by people: Matthew 26:69-75;
- Betrayed by people: Matthew 26:14-16, 20-25, 47-56;
- Condemned by people: Matthew 27:1-5; 24-26;
and then Jesus
- Died on the Cross for all people: Matthew 27:32-66.
What love! What grace! Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
I proclaim that “God is with us” because of the Passion of Jesus Christ, His finished work on the Cross, and His resurrection! The author of Hebrews teaches us in Hebrews 4:14-16,
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Because of what Jesus Christ has done and His finished work, you can hang on tightly to the following promises of God:
- In John 10:27-30, Jesus explains, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
- In Romans 8:38-39, Paul declares, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- In 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, Paul proclaims, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
- In Hebrews 13:5-6, the author commands, “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”
Apart from the vicarious suffering and death of Jesus Christ, none of these promises could be yours. Through a faith response to Jesus Christ, all of these promises are yours.
What will you do with all that God has blessed you with through His suffering?
Right now, with the ongoing onslaught of the novel COVID-19 pandemic, people are scared and we are experiencing “social distancing,” which is increasing the enemy’s tactics of isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and fear. States are closing up, travel restrictions are tightening, colleges, schools, and churches have gone on-line, non-essential businesses have closed their buildings, including community gathering places such as churches, local restaurants and businesses, and social organizations like the YMCA. People are rightly taking robust steps of precaution to preserve their lives and the lives of their communities, such as not gathering in groups larger than 10 and keeping social distances over 6 feet.
While this has felt like a military siege operation by an invisible enemy, we as a church are inviting you to seize the moment: We are asking you to pray and to ask God for everyday opportunities to bring faith, hope, and love to our communities and the world. That is what my daily phone calls are attempting to do: To encourage you to seize the moment and to be on mission as more than a congregation who meets in a building once a week, but as the Church.
Our congregational community and our congregational work cannot be closed because WE ARE THE CHURCH! Our building may be closed, but we are not! In fact, I am seeing evidence that says FBC is healthier, more vibrant, and making a larger impact than ever!! We are not only going to survive the COVID-19 crisis, we are going to get healthier as we learn to be the Church in new, unconventional (if not untraditional) ways! Like every living organism, we are changing to survive and to thrive in our new environment!
Are you joining with us in this effort personally or are you just praying for Jesus to return and sticking your head in the sand hoping it can all go back to the way it was soon? I, too, want this to end sooner than later, but things will never go back to the way they used to be; they can’t!
As with so much else in the coronavirus pandemic, the response here will depend on the level of social solidarity we feel, and the degree to which we’re willing to look out for each other. Social isolation and loneliness among older, sicker populations isn’t something caused by the coronavirus, but it will be worsened by it. The question is whether the intensity of the problem will force us to see, and respond, to pain we typically ignore. “A lot of my work is premised on the idea that extreme situations like the one we’re in now allow us to see conditions that are always present but difficult to perceive,” Klinenberg says. “We’re going to learn a lot about who we are and what we value in the next few months.”[2] (emphasis added)
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
We are called to respond in faith! Don’t let people’s fear and rejection get into your heart. Don’t take it personal when people move away from you, whether physically or socially or emotionally. People are scared and when we are scared we make decisions that hurt others. This has more to say about the fallen world we live in, than about you or me and how we feel. There is much to lament in our world situation; that is real and undeniable.
Please don’t give into despair! Hang onto hope because God is with us! Remember the sufferings of Christ and to what end He was willing to go for our salvation. Let us conduct ourselves, in remembrance of Him with a certain hope for the New Heaven and New Earth.
God’s peace and presence, all of His promises, are ours because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, and can’t be shaken by these dark days of suffering or taken away by even death itself.
It is by how we conduct ourselves during this coronavirus pandemic that the world will determine the Truth of the Gospel.
Will the world see the Suffering Servant of humanity, the Crucified Savior of the world, through our practical words and actions of faith, hope, and love?
This is our time to shine, people of God. The darker the night, the brighter the stars shine!
Jesus suffered so that we can be comforted; so, let us comfort those who are suffering!
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship (New York, NY: SCM Press Ltd, 1959), 45.
[2] https://www.vox.com/2020/3/12/21173938/coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-elderly-epidemic-isolation-quarantine [accessed March 12, 2020].