Hope and Suffering

Suffering is not a subject that we are apt to bring up in a conversation. Our society doesn’t deal with suffering very well. Some claim that if you’re suffering it is, somehow, your fault. We’ve heard from others that only losers suffer. We are certainly told that you should not suffer and, if you do, it is not normal. Just look at the range of medicines that are offered (for a price) to relieve your suffering. Maybe it’s because of our medical ability that we have come to this expectation of life. Yet there are so many in our society today who suffer and, because of our attempt to cover up suffering, suffer alone. 

Paul was writing in a world of great suffering. Death and illness combined with a social structure that only rewarded the wealthy, combined with an often violent government, made life difficult and suffering inevitable. Being the proponents of a new belief made Christians the focus of governmental persecution and violence. It is to them that Paul wrote about suffering. We also surmise that Paul dwelt on suffering to answer their question of why they were suffering when they had been saved by Christ. His answer may seem inadequate: That suffering brings hope. That is not always true. Suffering can bring despair.

Paul’s answer is to remind us of the presence of God in our lives. That, no matter what happens to us, God will not abandon us. That means when we suffer God is present. That is the comfort of a sure and certain hope that God has given us through Jesus. We also do not suffer alone. We suffer in the presence of Jesus. Jesus broke down boundaries that separate us, making us all children of God.

Think about the Samaritan woman at the well. The disciples were astonished that Jesus was talking to a woman (it was the woman who brought up that she was a Samaritan). Women were second-class citizens. They were not allowed to address a teacher. But Jesus, seeing the woman, knowing her troubled life, offered her salvation. And she then became one of the first missionaries for Jesus. She went and told others about Jesus and many in her community came to believe by her testimony. This woman, who had suffered much losing five husbands, was welcomed by Jesus into the kingdom of God. He did not change her or make her act in a different way, he just made her acceptable to God as she was.

That is what Jesus does for us. In the midst of our troubled lives he makes us whole, acceptable to God. He also gives us strength in our suffering helping us to see that our suffering is not an end.  Knowing that Jesus suffers with us we are able to testify to the world and show God’s love. Look around you. While we are a small part of God’s kingdom we are a very diverse group, all with different histories and paths to this place, and yet we are one in Christ. We are the children of God in this place and we share in the comfort and hope of Jesus. That is why we lift up those around us when they suffer and pray for their needs. That is why we can celebrate and share in this meal – the body and blood of Jesus – together as a people who know, as Paul did, the wonder of God’s love.