Life Beyond Pain

April 9, 2000 - Lent 5 Year B

Psalm 51:1-12; John 12:20-33

One thing we hear in the lessons this morning we may not particularly want to hear. That thing, that word is pain. Two weeks from today is Easter. Easter is the happiest, brightest day on the Christian calendar. Resurrection. Light. Life. But before Easter is Good Friday. Before the resurrection there is a cross. The hard lesson for today is: sooner or later every one of us faces real pain. But along with that lesson comes a mirror, and a challenge.

I. DAVID'S PAIN IS A MIRROR

David was in an agony of guilt. He had done some terrible things. No mistake about that. He had betrayed another man who trusted him. He had seduced his neighbor's wife. He had compounded his sin by scheming to have the man (Uriah) killed to cover his guilt. And he had gotten away with it. Or so he thought. David had swept his guilt under the carpet of activity and forgetting. Out of sight; out of mind. But no one ever gets away with sin. No one. Ever.

God sent a prophet, Nathan, to confront the king. King David. David had the power of life and death, so Nathan was brave to face him. But Nathan was also wise. He told an intriguing story. David became enraged about someone else's selfishness and sin and injustice. Then Nathan said: "Thou art the man!"

When David came face to face with his own sin–it HURT! Psalm 51 is a record of what happened next.

David's pain was deserved. In his case, the pain was the pain of GUILT. Do you think pain is bad? Evil? Is guilt a bad thing?

Actually guilt and pain are not themselves always evil; guilt and pain are the RESULT of something wrong. Pain is necessary, even healthy! (Lepers cannot feel pain.) Like pain, guilt is not something to be ignored or covered up or stuffed back in the recesses of the mind.

But God does not want his people to live with guilt, either! I'm certainly not saying your sins or mine were as gross as David's, although that is possible. I am saying that every one of us has sinned. Every one of us knows what it feels like to be caught in the wrong. And that is the mirror! Psalm 51 holds up a mirror of confession: we do not have to live with the pain of guilt and sin.

The good news is: GOD FORGIVES SIN! I John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We don't have to live with guilt. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin we try to hide away from the light.

David prayed that the JOY would be restored. He prayed that God's PRESENCE would not be taken away– he wanted to be near to God. And that prayer was answered. Your prayer and mine, like that of David, will be answered as well WHEN WE CRY FROM OUR HEARTS GOD HEARS US. The power and penalty of sin has been broken forever.

But there is another sort of pain in our scripture lessons for this morning: it is the pain of the Lord Jesus Himself.

II. THE PAIN OF JESUS - A CHALLENGE

John 12:27 "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour?' But for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy name!"

This was a very different sort of pain from what David knew. This was NOT guilt. This was NOT deserved. This pain was the price of an unselfish love for you and for me. I do not pretend to understand such love. But I think I know this much: Jesus would not take the easy way out for himself because he loved the Father, and because he loved me, and loved you. He was willing to take our place, to bear our sins.

I heard a story last week about an incident that happened during WW II, when some people were about to be shot in a concentration camp. I wish I had names and details, but the heart of the story stays with me: a prisoner who was also a pastor offered to take the place of a man about to be shot because the man had family and the pastor did not. The officer roughly ordered the switch to be made. But then one of the soldiers on the firing squad spoke up and said "I can't shoot a pastor!" And the officer in command ordered the soldier to stand with the condemned and he, too, was shot and killed with the prisoners for disobeying orders in wartime. Seemingly a useless waste of life. He died rather than be silent.

Love costs. Love will demand sacrifices. Love cost Jesus. And yet Jesus something in you and me that he believed was worth dying for! The writer of Hebrews even says that Jesus saw A JOY set before him as he endured the cross: and that JOY was when you and I confess our sins and find eternal LIFE because of what Jesus did for us.

This pain of Jesus is NOT a mirror for me. I don't see myself in His part of the story. I am not pure and holy as He was. I am not a hero or martyr. I am not able to save anyone. I CAN identify with David and HIS pain. I CAN ask forgiveness for my sins. But I cannot identify with Jesus. No one is so good and so holy as He.

THE PAIN OF JESUS IS A CHALLENGE TO ME!

I cannot see that he suffered for me and not want to receive the gift that cost Him so much. Somehow Jesus asks me to follow Him. Jesus asks YOU to give him your guilt and your sins and let HIM bear them. Leave your own selfish way and come to the sin bearer.

To accept this challenge to follow Jesus is worth whatever it costs! HOW? This is something we each much answer for ourselves, but I think I know this much:

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.)
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!"

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.

#UMH 382 - Have Thine Own Way, Lord