Christian Suffering and the Overturning of a Broken World
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMI9ou8v2aI
Today, we get one of those passages that is a little scary. It’s scary because it presents a lot of doom and gloom. And yet we must remember that somehow these words are also Good News. Mark begins the whole gospel by telling us that this is the good news about Jesus Christ, the messiah, the Son of God, so this has to include this passage as much as everything else. Through all of the debates and questions we have we don’t often realize that struggle and even suffering is natural to being Christian and that it can actually be good. It doesn’t mean it will be easy, but in Christ suffering can lead to way more than we ever lose. So let's dig deeper.
This whole section begins with the disciples praising the buildings around the temple for their beauty and splendour and they would have been spectacular. Yet Jesus’ comment must have thrown them for a loop. “All of these buildings will be torn down, not one stone will be left in place”. This would have been a shock for any jewish person and probably worse. It would be like saying that soon every church will be torn down soon. This was the centre of their faith. Jewish people from all over the world would come here multiple times a year to gather and at this time in the gospel people were gathering once again for the passover.
We could relate this to the gospel of John when Jesus is talking about the temple that is His body or we could relate this to the actual moment in history in 70AD when this very temple was torn down by Rome not long before this, the emperor put an idol up in its sanctuary; possibly “the abomination” referred to later.
I believe Jesus was referring to this and more. You see Jesus is talking about an utterly reshaping of the world's powers and authorities. Look at what Jesus predicts, wars against nations and rumors of war, earthquakes, starvation, then skip to verse 24 because then we see the sun and moon go dark, the stars will fall and the powers in the sky will be shaken. This sounds apocalyptic, because it is. We have already seen and heard that God through Jesus wants to overturn and reshape everything, even our hearts. We have seen that everything and everyone owes this to God and last week we saw how Jesus is showing us who truly has strength and leadership. Now what we are being pointed to is a realization of that massive shift that God wants. It is all encompassing. Nations will be overthrown, the very earth will shift, what we depend on and even the powers in the skies will be changed. God’s purpose to reshape for good is all encompassing and if things are really going to change in the drastic ways that are needed there is going to be rebellion and struggle, but these are just the birth pains of God’s Kingdom. You know the world, if nations realize that they are losing control or power, won’t many fight back rather than give in. If the world is shifted, even a single plate, doesn’t that often lead to earthquakes. If people are being taught and asked to find sustenance in God alone, won’t many starve rather than seek God. This is the obstinance of our species in its pride and unwillingness to humbly trust God. People will refuse God and will fight it.
The same things happen in us. We have a long way to come before we are worthy of God’s Kingdom and new world. There are a lot of things in us that need to be shifted. That will be a struggle. We will fight back. We will resist. Yet if we know where it is all leading then it can only be our greatest hope. There are tons of passages that talk about how suffering can be for our good. How it produces perseverance and character and hope. Or how suffering for Christ prepares us for our reward in heaven. Or how God punishes His children because He cares for them. Only when suffering is lead and done for God can it be purposeful to mean a growing connection and preparation for God. Otherwise suffering is just the natural due result of rebellion and pride. None of us like suffering, so this is hard to come to terms with. It is hard to imagine that a loving God would make this a necessity, because he didn’t, we made suffering a necessity by our distance, rejection, rebellion from the one who is life. It is still hard to imagine why sometimes, but the truth is that we all suffer and we will suffer more. The question becomes will we suffer for the wrongs we have done, or will we suffer for the wrongs we are trying to set right. Will we suffer for the distance we have created between ourselves and our life-giving God or will we suffer for the relationships that we are trying to rebuild with God.
The difficult reality is that it is quite natural for Christians to suffer. If the world, its people, cultures, structures and more are in rebellion and resisting God’s reshaping for good then they will naturally oppose and try to overthrow us as well. Just to repeat and be clear about from last week, we are not the ones doing the violent upheaval, but we through sharing and being the gospel are promoting, sharing and building a different, countercultural Kingdom to the one that is out there right now. It is the sad reality that Christians for too long have been a product of the culture and selfish pride. This has led many in the church to embrace racism, sexism, injustice, isolation, secularism and so much more, when we were meant to oppose it. We are called to a different way that challenges the modern order in ourselves and society. That way that leads us to a new way, by necessity, has to be God’s way otherwise our influences are corrupted by the very brokenness we are trying to resist and rebuild.
We see our Christian struggle with society played out in our reading as Christians are beaten, arrested and put on trial, as family members turn against them, as they have to flee, as people try to create false messiahs or idols, as hatred and persecution comes because we believe in a loving God that calls us into account. We are called continuously to faithfulness, to continue to do this work of sharing the good news, of bearing it and speaking in every context, even when we are on trial. We are called to trust the Holy Spirit to give us the words we need to express the hope we know. We are called not to look back, but to rest in the rock, the mountain of God.
Though suffering and struggle will come as is a natural part of living in a broken world and is even more natural when we resist it, we know if we remain faithful to our loving God, the source of life, we will be saved. We will see restoration and the new creation where the world and its leaders are set right and where the light of God shines brightly for all to see, so much so that we will not need the sun. There will be leaves from the tree of life that will be for the healing of all the nations. There will be a stream that runs through feeding everything and everyone. There will be no more death or pain. For this, we can endure. For God, we can endure. For the loving Father who created all, the loving brother who gave His life for us, and the loving Spirit who dwells in us, we can bear the struggles of this world and share his Kingdom.
We don’t know when this will come. Some of us may never have to suffer as the result of political powers, but a lot of Christians do. Instead, some of us may suffer socially or physically or emotionally because we are Christians who know and share a different Kingdom that comes from God, who try to open people’s eyes to the brokenness inside of them and this world. Sometimes we suffer physically so that we might pray and understand others, or so that we can show the hope that gives purpose to our suffering. Or sometimes we suffer to make us stronger in faith. There are so many reasons that we often resist.
We don’t know when this suffering will come. We don’t always know God’s purpose and redemption through it, but we must be ready, because as life has shown us, suffering will come, but so will God. If we persist in hope and faith in God while we suffer and struggle through, this can mean our salvation, but also others too. The apostles went through much of this and we can read through the whole book of acts and see how their faithfulness through imprisonment, torture, ridicule, abandonment and so much more meant the changing of people and societies. We can be this too. We are called to bear witness, sharing Christ’s good news with all the nations. We are called to struggle as we call into account people and cultures. We are called to be ready to live out our hope and faithfulness through the suffering. We know that God is already building the Kingdom we long for and through this we can be building it too as we experience in our midst.
