First the suffering

Then Jesus said to them, ‘How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?’ And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets. (verses 25-27)

Read Luke 24:13-49

If we were to sing, ‘To God be the suffering, great things he has done’, instead of ‘To God be the glory’, it wouldn’t sound quite right. We are good at praise, celebration and glory. We are not so good at suffering. These days many Christians like to quickly and privately bury their loved one’s body and then come back to the church for the main event: the celebration of her life! In worship, praise choruses are popular, but laments and ‘dreary sad songs’, such as ‘O sacred head sore wounded’, make us as uncomfortable as the presence of a coffin in church.

Yet in God’s order of things there is no glory without suffering. Glory is entered into through suffering. Christ entered into his glory after enduring ‘God’s necessity’ of the cross.

Life is not one endless celebration. When we suffer all the sad realities of life—from illness to rejection, from disappointment to death—our celebration is enhanced by recognising how God rescues us from our suffering through the presence of his suffering and risen Son, our Saviour. Many who have known Christ in suffering would have it no other way. With Jesus beside them, their suffering gives them a wonderfully heightened sense of the preciousness and beauty of life.

Lord, do not let me hide from suffering, but show me how life can be born again through suffering. If you allow me the cross, please ensure me the glory of the resurrection too. Amen.

by Aub Podlich, in ‘God’s Peace for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2005)

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