Surprised by Suffering

Embracing our crosses and following Christ

09/26/2020

Luke 9:43B-45 While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

Suffering always surprises us, even us Christians who know we need to carry our cross. The scriptures remind us repeatedly to “pick up your cross and follow me, if you would my disciple be.” But in more practical terms, many people’s personal motto is: “maximize pleasure and minimize pain.” I’ll never forget how forcefully this hit home for me as a seminarian many years ago. I was about 22 years old and having a really hard time in the seminary.

I was plagued by doubts about my vocation. I decided to visit with Msgr. Hebert, my spiritual director at the time, and what he said was so simple and yet so shocking. He said, “John, this is your cross, learn to carry it.” I couldn’t believe it, and yet it was so obvious. I knew Christians had to carry their cross, but I somehow believed that was for others, not for me. Msgr. Hebert gently corrected me that all Christians carry crosses, even the one named John Antony.

Gospel passages like the one from this morning in Luke 9:43-45 make me feel a little better about my incomprehension because I am in good company, namely, the company of the apostles. We read: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men’.” And how did they react to that shocking news of Jesus impending suffering and death, and soon their own? Luke explains: “But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it.”

Maybe the main reason they were following Jesus as Messiah was they felt he was the One who would “maximize their pleasures and minimize their pains.” That was the common conception of the Christ in those days. Could that be the reason we are following Jesus, too? If that is our motivation, that Jesus will maximize pleasure and minimize pain, then no wonder the lesson to carry our cross comes across to us so shockingly.

Two scripture passages provide a little perspective for carrying our Christian crosses. Romans 6:23 says: “The wages of sin is death.” That passage is referring to Gen. 2:17, where God warned Adam and Eve that if they disobeyed his command not to eat of the tree of knowledge, they would die. But because they did eat of the forbidden fruit, and committed the original sin, death entered human history. By the way, what is “suffering” but “death in installments”? Every suffering is a “little death.” So that is the first reason death and suffering surprises us, even though it shouldn’t. Death is a consequence of sin; originally Adam’s sin, and more lately our own.

The second passage is Heb. 2:14-15, which is a little more complex quotation. We read: “Through death, Jesus destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.” In other words, the devil does have the power to hurt us physically, and even kill us. We see a dramatic example of this in the life of Job in the Old Testament. It was the devil who inflicted his injuries.

And what is the devil’s nuclear weapon against us? It is suffering and death, which in turn cause us to become his slaves so that we can avoid the suffering he causes. But Jesus shows us how to be free of his tyranny by the maxim: “take up your cross and follow me, if you would my disciple be.” That is, when we embrace suffering we take the devil’s nuclear warhead out of his hands and blow it up in his face. When we are willing to embrace suffering – our cross – we are no longer slaves to Satan or to sin.

Folks, think about all your aches and pains, all your ailments and problems. All the adolescent anxieties, all the family feuds, all the senior senilities, and so forth. Are you hoping Jesus will just help you “maximize your pleasures and minimize your pains” and relieve you of all those crosses? Well, let me share a little advice I learned back in the seminary from a wise priest: "This is your cross, learn to carry it." But more than that, you will take the devil’s greatest weapon – suffering and death – out of his hands and defeat him with it. Then, as it says in Rom. 8:21, you too will enjoy “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!