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Give thanks? In times of suffering in health. 27th Sunday after Pentecost, November 16, 2008
We’re continuing in our series, Give thanks?, today by talking about yet another thing most people would not want to give thanks for. We started this series by talking about being persecuted for being a Christian, and our guest speaker talked about how thankful people in other countries are for the opportunity to be persecuted for the cause of Christ. Last week we talked about giving thanks in time of financial difficulties, because we saw that God does not leave us, but allows the struggle to bring us back to Him. This week we’re focusing on giving thanks in times of struggling with health. Would you please open up your Bibles with me to the book of Mark? Mark is the second book in the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke and then John. We are going to Mark chapter 1, verses 29-39. Mark was a young man who came to know the Apostles Peter and Paul. He, at first, was a run-away from the Christian faith, but came back to it later. Mark became friends with Peter, and many scholars believe that the book of Mark is this man writing Peter’s memoirs. We’ve actually looked at these verses before – back in March to be specific when we asked the question in our message from March 2, 2008, “What do you do with Jesus when He disappoints you?” Let’s take a look at these verses again, because they help to provide the framing for our discussion today: As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So He went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but He would not let the demons speak because they knew who He was. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for Him, and when they found Him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. I love this section of Jesus’ ministry. I think one of the reasons I love it is because if you’re not careful you miss a major thing when you read these verses, and for us today, that major thing ties right into our series. Here’s the scene: Jesus and His disciples were at ‘church’ in the morning, and in the afternoon they went to Peter’s house to rest. Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, and then they enjoyed a quiet afternoon together. That evening, people brought the sick to Jesus to have Him heal them, and He did. The next morning Jesus got up early and went off to pray by Himself, but there was a ‘problem’ – the people came back looking for Him with more of their sick for Him to heal. And did you catch what Jesus said? Did you catch what Jesus did? Peter told Jesus, “They are all back at my house waiting for You to come and heal them!” And Jesus said, “Yes, I know, Peter. I know there are people back there waiting for me to come and lay my healing hand on them, but I’m not going to. We’re not going back to your house Peter, we’re going on to the next place.” And He left. And the people were still waiting outside Peter’s front door. They were still waiting in their pain; in their sickness; in their anxiousness of heart, of mind, for Jesus to come and heal them. And Jesus said, “No.” Doesn’t quite meet with our expectations of Jesus does it? In these verses He’s not the soft, gentle healer we like to think about is He? He gives an answer we may not like, something we may not understand. You know why I think we struggle with this? Because everyone of us, to some extent, can identify with those left standing outside Peter’s front door. We’ve been ‘good.’ We go to church, we give our offerings, we volunteer our time. Ok, we’re not perfect, but at least we’re not as bad as that person over there. At least we didn’t do the thing this person did, or think the thoughts, or do the deed this other person committed. Why can’t we catch a break? Why do we suffer in this life, especially with sickness? Won’t you heal me, Jesus? And sometimes Jesus simply says, “no.” Sometimes the disease stays. Sometimes the cancers grow. Sometimes loved ones die. This flies in the face, by the way, of many of the popular preachers today who say if only you would have enough faith, then you could be healed of anything. If you’re sick, it must be because you don’t have enough faith to be healed. If you are experiencing financial problems, it’s because you’ve never named and claimed your place as a son or daughter of the King of Kings and received all the worldly riches He wants you to have. If you’re being persecuted for being a Christian, it’s because you’ve never put on the armor of God and gone on the offensive. And these teachings are offensive to Jesus who says, “No, Peter, I’m not going back. I’m going to the next village to preach and teach the good news – that’s why I have come.” That’s why I have come. Next to these verses in Mark, you can write the reference Matthew 1:20-21: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” “Jesus” means, “YHWH saves.” Why did Jesus come? To save His people – that’s all who call on Jesus as their only Lord and Savior – from their sins. You can also write Romans 6:23 in the margins of your Bibles – “The wages {or cost} of sin is death {that is, eternal death in hell}. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is why He came – to save us from our sins, the cost of which is hell: eternal damnation, eternal separation from God the Father. Whoever said the healing of a broken limb was anymore miraculous than the healing of a broken heart? Whoever said that is wrong. Not ‘bad’, just wrong. Jesus didn’t come to heal our broken bodies, but to heal our broken hearts. He came out of an empty tomb to fill our empty hearts, and that’s something to give thanks for. Does that make it easier when we are struggling in times of sickness? Let’s be honest: not always. There’s still the discomfort of the sickness itself. What do we give thanks for when we’re dealing with a sickness? We give thanks that Jesus is more than just a quick-fix God; a genie in the lamp that we can call on to make our present lives more comfortable. Of course we pray and ask for His healing hand to rest on us, trusting that He will do what He knows is the right thing to do, even if it’s not what we would have done. There’s this misnomer out there that says, “If God doesn’t give me the answer I want to my prayer, that means He didn’t answer it.” Another way of saying this is, “God didn’t answer my prayer!” “How do you know?” “Because I didn’t get what I wanted!” That’s not quite correct. God always answers every prayer. You heard me correctly – God always answers every prayer. He answers them with either “Yes”, “No”, or “Not now.” We all like the ‘yes’s’, and no one likes hearing ‘no.’ ‘Not now’ is one of those answers we don’t like because it leaves us in limbo – it’s not a ‘yes’ and it’s not a ‘no’, it’s an “I’ll answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ later”, answer. We’ve talked about this once before, but it may be good to review again from what we talked about last March: why does God allow suffering in the lives of His children, especially in terms of our health? First, sometimes God allows suffering to happen to draw people to Christ. Sometimes it’s through the sickness, through the pain, that people turn to Christ and finally fall on Him with all the brokenness and pain, and receive the healing of their heart that had been so desperately needed. Second, in the margins of your Bibles you can write the reference Hebrews 12:26-29, At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire. Everything that can be shaken, will be shaken. All that will remain is all we’ve ever really had. What will remain is our God who never leaves us, and because of that, suffering can also be used to mature and deepen our faith. A third reason why God allows suffering is to make our lives more fruitful. In John 15:1-2 Jesus says this, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." It hurts to be pruned, just ask the plant! It hurts to have portions of our lives touched in ways we don’t want them to be touched. It can be even more painful if we can’t understand why we’re being pruned. But, just like a branch that has been pruned produces more fruit, we – having gone through a period of suffering that has resulted in a deeper more mature faith – can produce more ‘fruit’ too: the fruits of mercy for others who are suffering; being able to better understand and reach out to others in their pain; having better insight and ideas for helping others. These ‘fruits’ may not have existed had the pruning not taken place.[1] Finally, God can use suffering to bring about His good purpose and plan. I think the story that illustrates this best in the Bible is the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. While in Egypt he was falsely accused of attempted rape, was thrown into a dungeon for a couple of years, and was completely forgotten about by one whom he thought to be a friend. But, through a series of God-ordained circumstances, Joseph was released from the dungeon and overnight became the second most powerful person in all of Egypt. The only person with more power than Joseph was the Pharaoh, or the King of Egypt. In Joseph’s new position, he was responsible for gathering grain together for seven consecutive years to prepare for a horrible famine that God had revealed to him was coming. When the famine came, all the people in that part of the world ended up coming to Egypt for food – including Joseph’s brothers who sold him into slavery in the first place. The significant thing about this, is that God’s plan for you and me being here today, are tied up in that young man being sold as a slave. Because of Joseph’s actions in Egypt, he was able to save the life of his brother, Judah. Why is that important to you and me? Judah is an ancestor of Jesus. If Judah had died in that famine, the line to Jesus would have been wiped out. I am almost positive that at no time after he was sold into slavery and ended up forgotten in the pit of a dungeon, did Joseph ever say, “Thank You, God, for allowing this suffering in my life.” And yet, because of what Joseph went through, Judah lived and the line to Jesus continued, and to a certain extent, continues today in you and me. In a way, Judah is our ancestor too – a spiritual ancestor, anyway.[2] It wasn’t pleasant for Joseph to experience all he did, but it turned out to be exactly what was needed to fulfill God’s plan. It strikes me that Joseph died without ever fully realizing what his life met to those who would come after him. We know that he came to understand that what happened to him was for the best in what he thought the long-run was – saving people in the famine[3], but he never understood the even greater impact of his life of suffering on the world; on you and me. So what do we do in the times of struggling with health related issues? First, we do give thanks that though our physical bodies may not be healed, our souls have been. Because of that, we will one day be in Heaven with a perfect body Second, we continue to pray. We pray for restoration of health, but we also pray with sincerity the petition in the Lord’s prayer that says, “Thy will be done.” Thy will be done, even if it’s not what I want. Thy will be done, even if it means I have to ‘suffer’ in my sickness. Thy will be done, no matter what the cost is to me. Third, we don’t give up the faith. We live in a world where things that don’t satisfy us immediately are thrown away in exchange for something else. I have one last scripture reference I invite you to write in the margins of your Bibles next to these verses in Mark. It is Romans 5:3-5: … we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. What’s the hope we have? The hope of seeing nail scared hands reaching out to us on the last day and hearing, “Welcome Home. I’ve been waiting a long time for this day. I know you will like the place I’ve prepared for you.” The hope of finally being freed from all our sufferings and the pains of this life. And it’s the knowledge that God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. The most important healing has already taken place – the hearts of those who call on Jesus as their Savior have been healed. Healed hearts in broken bodies. Sinful hearts in sinful bodies, to be sure; but healed none-the-less. The healing of the heart, the strengthening of faith, and the mighty love of our Triune God that will not let us go. That’s something to give thanks for, even in the middle of suffering. Amen. |
