Life Beyond Pain

March 16, 1997

Psalm 51 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."

John 12 "Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say?" "Where I am, there also will my servant be." "Sir, we would see Jesus!"

Introduction

One of the lessons from the scripture lessons today may be one we don't particularly want to hear. Before the resurrection there is a cross. Good Friday comes before Easter. The hard lesson for today is: sooner or later life will involve us in real pain. With that lesson, the scriptures hold up to us a mirror, and a challenge.

The "mirror" that the scriptures hold up to help us see ourselves is found in Psalm 51. The pain there is David's pain. In some ways it can be like our own.

I. David's pain

David was in an agony of guilt. He had done some terrible things, no mistake about that. He had betrayed another man by seducing his wife. He had multiplied that betrayal by scheming to have the man he had betrayed killed to cover his guilt. And David had gotten away with it for a while.

David had swept his guilt under the carpet of activity, and of forgetting. But God sent a prophet to confront him. Nathan the brave prophet told David an intriguing story. David could be enraged about another person's injustice, even though he had destroyed a home, and had killed an innocent man. But then Nathan said, "Thou art the man!" David came face to face with his own sin and guilt. It hurt! And this Psalm is a record of what happened next.

David's pain was deserved. Guilt is not an evil thing. It is the result of evil. Guilt is like physical pain. It is necessary, even healthy. But like pain, guilt is not to be ignored or covered up or accommodated. God wants his people to find freedom from the pain of guilt. I am in no way saying your sins or mine were as gross as David's, although that is possible. But I am saying that every one of us has sinned. We have known what it feels like to be caught in the wrong. That is the mirror. Psalm 51 holds up to us the mirror of confession: we do not have to live with that kind of pain.

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9) The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin that we refuse to bring to the light. We do not have to live with the pain of guilt.

David prayed that the JOY would be restored. David prayed that he would know the Presence of God. And that prayer was answered. The grace of God has broken the guilt and the power and the eternal penalty of sin forever.

Transition: But there is another sort of pain in our lessons for today. It is the pain of the Lord Jesus Himself.

II. The pain of Jesus

This was a very different sort of pain from what David knew. Looking immediately ahead to the passion, the climax of his earthly ministry, to the cross Jesus said, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?" This was not guilt. This was not deserved. This was pain endured as the price of love. (Gethsemane underscores this pain)

I don't pretend to understand such love, but I think I know this much: Jesus did not swerve aside from His cross because He loved the Father, and because He loved you and me.

Love costs. Love will demand sacrifices. Love cost Jesus— and yet Jesus saw something He believed He could reach in you and me. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus saw a JOY set before him that enabled him to go forward even when it cost him.

This pain of Jesus, this great giving LOVE, is to me not a mirror: I don't see myself in His story. I am not of myself pure and holy. I am not a hero or a martyr. I am not able to save anyone. I can identify with David, and ask for forgiveness for my sins. But I cannot identify with Jesus. No one is good and holy like Jesus.

The pain of Jesus is to me a challenge. I cannot think of myself in the same sentence as Jesus, but somehow Jesus asks me to follow him. He asks you as well: "Deny yourself! Embrace your cross! Follow me!" It cost Jesus his life. It will cost us, too.

What sort of challenge is this? What does it mean to follow Jesus?     

(I still am trying to cope with that challenge we heard again for the first time this Lent:"If anyone will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.")

To embrace the cross may mean in plain language:

Giving up what WE want so that someone else may have what they need. or Forgiving someone who has wronged us even though they don't deserve it. or Giving our service to others even though we have not been served. or Listening to someone else's heartaches even when we have heartaches of our own.

There is a pain that we can and should escape. We do not need to live with the pain of guilt. But there are times when we hear the challenge of Jesus' pain: "My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Get me out of this?" and the answer is "Lord, just let me follow You whatever it costs!"

To accept this challenge to follow Jesus is worth whatever it costs! HOW? Once again, this is something we each much answer for ourselves, but I think I know this much: 1) we can be with the One we love. ("Where I am there also will my servant be." If we can be with Jesus it is worth whatever it costs.) 2) we can share the JOY of Jesus. There is no joy like hearing the Father say, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!" and, that day, when Jesus did not shrink back from the cost of love, the Voice said, "I have glorified (my Name)! ("I AM pleased!") ("I AM glorified in what you are!") and ("I WILL BE glorified again!")

Conclusion:

Life will NOT be pain-free. But life can have its full share of joy.

God's GRACE enables us to deal with the pain of guilt. We can come and confess as sinners, and be born again into the kingdom of God. We can confess our need for grace as Christians, and maintain the necessary course-corrections that keep us in fellowship with God and with one another. The Lord's Prayer reminds us of our need for the grace of forgiveness.

God's LOVE calls us to embrace the cross. We certainly do not seek any way of pain. We pray "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." But also we hear our Lord say, "Follow me!"

PRAYER

Almighty God, You alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of those who come by faith to you. Grant your us your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the dizzying changes of this world, our hearts may surely stand firm where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

#547 - Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone (First Two Verses ONLY)