Suffering Servant

I heard a story recently where a woman, who was talking to a nonbeliever, said that she was ready for Jesus to come back and take them all up. Then she realized who she was talking to, and without shifting her perspective, told him that he wouldn't be coming. 

Christians have good reason for wanting Jesus to come back. We see all the brokenness in this world, and we're promised that one day the whole of the earth will be restored. That all suffering in the world will come to an end. That the world will be utterly redeemed. 

That is a hope that we joyfully look forward to. That sustains our weary souls until the day we find full and complete rest in a perfect God and His perfect design.

And yet sometimes we hold this desire in opposition to the call to the world that God has given us.

Once we are in Christ, we have no need to cling to the world, and yet we have value in remaining in the world and enduring its suffering. 

As Paul says in Philippians 1 verses 23 and 24, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account."

This is the truth that must ground our desire. We have work to do. God is using us as vessels. We get to be the image of Christ, the One who came down out of perfection into a broken world as a suffering servant, in the world. The world despised Him, as He knew it would, and yet He never wished Himself away. Because the work He was doing--reconciling humanity to God--was worth the suffering to Him.

But in our suffering, we are so quick to wish ourselves into heaven. To wish not only the brokenness but the broken away. We're tired of this world of hardships, and we want to go home to be with Christ. 

And yet this very suffering is our crown. It is the glory we get to participate in.

2 Peter 3:9 tells us that "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

God is patient, and He gives us the gift of being patient with Him. Of taking our eyes off ourselves and the brokenness we're experiencing and onto those who are perishing. Those who are not yet eternally lost. Those whom He is working to reconcile to Himself and whom He is giving us the gift of being reconcilers unto Him in this world.  

This world is not just for us. Christianity is not just for those who as of yet believe. God is pursuing the lost with a Father's heart, and He's asking us to join Him.

And yet so many of us are calling for His judgement. Because that judgement is our restoration. 

The time will come. The promise stands. Our hope is secure. But for many that time will be one of complete separation from God. Instead of wishing away the suffering of this present age, let it be our source of inspiration. Let the suffering we feel mobilize us to be a light to the suffering.

Christianity in the United States is changing.

For too long we've been fed a gospel of prosperity. Even when it wasn't explicitly preached, the church has existed in a culture of favor. We've been the majority. We've had the privilege of power. And we see that slipping away. We see our voice being criticized. We see our God being denied. So many of us are scared of what that means. And we've let that fear callous our hearts. When we see our comfort slipping away, we too often seek to hold it even at a cost to others. But I believe that we are experiencing a rebirth of Christianity in the United States.

We are being given the gift of letting go. Of stripping down. Of holding onto our faith when it costs us something. Of choosing suffering when it means walking with another as Christ would. 

This faith that would rather the lost be sentenced to eternal damnation than for us to survive another day in the suffering of a broken world is not faith in God. It's faith in power, prosperity, and comfort.

We should long for the day that the world is restored, but let us fight for the present moment so that no one should perish when that day comes. Let us drop the gifts of comfort which have become our chains and step into suffering if it can relieve another's burden and uplift the cross.

The Church is persecuted in so many places around the world. Believers suffer with Christ. And they count it as joy.

Let us find that joy. Let us forget our fear. Let us learn how to take up the cross, how to be a suffering servant to this world, how to live as Christ did live and would live if He were in our shoes. 

Our hope is in heaven, but for now our call is to this earth. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. Let us not wish away the honor of that position. And let us go further, not only staying present in the world but sacrificing in it that we might build others up and display God's character.

Jonathan Edwards writes in "The Duty of Charity to the Poor," "We in many cases may, by the role of the gospel, be obliged to give to others when we can't without suffering ourselves . . . If our neighbor's difficulties and necessities are much greater than ours and we see that they are not like to be relieved, we should be willing to suffer with them and to take part of their burden upon ourselves. Or else how is that rule fulfilled of bearing one another's burdens? If we are never obliged to relieve others' burdens but only when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor's burdens, when we bear no burden at all?" (emphasis mine).

Too long we've been satisfied as a Christian culture with pouring out of our excess. With giving generously and relieving others' burdens but all the while keeping our comfort. And comfort is not a bad thing...until it prevents service to a better thing. It's time to feel the lack in this world and to not fear its effects because our well is ever living and breathing and our hope is unwavering. His promise will stand.

Let us discover the joy enduring a broken world for His glory and of willingly leaving our comfort and stepping into suffering that the gospel might be known all the more throughout the world. We don't need comfort from what the world can give because we have the One who became suffering that He might be our Comforter. We don't need societal power because we are the vessels of the All-powerful One. We don't need freedom from our present suffering because our ultimate freedom with Christ is guaranteed.

We are called to more than the final chapter. We are called to more than the end of suffering. We are called to the present age. To the moment God has placed us in. We are called to bring His unbroken, eternal Kingdom into this broken world which can never hold it fully. And we are called to live out the gospel, to love the broken, to pursue the lost. And when Jesus comes again, we will rejoice all the more for all of those who were lost but are now brothers and sisters, partaking in His victory.

He is not slow to fulfill His promises. He is patient. Let us be patient too. Let us die to ourselves, take up the suffering of the cross, and pursue the broken (even when it means enduring the brokenness of a broken world) that all should reach repentance. 

This is our gift. Let us not waste it. Let us not wish it away. Let us look eagerly towards the future and praise God that suffering is never in vain when it is held in His hands.