Gospel-Fuelled Suffering
You are not wrong in longing for peace. Your lament is justifiable, even necessary; we long for the suffering to end. We are searching for Selah even as we cry out to God in harmony with the psalmist, “How long?”
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long? (Psalms 6:2-3 ESV)
How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? (Psalms 89:46 ESV)
Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants! (Psalms 90:13 ESV)
What we want, of course, what we are imagining and hoping, pleading even for the Lord to do, is to ride in on the white horse to vanquish our enemies and set all that is wrong to right. It’s not wrong to long for that day. He is coming. Do not confuse his delay with indifference; the delay of our God is a measure of his grace, an extension of his kindness, an invitation toward repentance. So we wait with hope.
Yet the question remains, while we wait with an eye on the horizon—looking for some sign of the rising sun to chase away the shadows—is the gospel still good news in our present suffering?
Rejoicing In Suffering
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:24-29 ESV)
Until now, Paul has had his thoughts and language all pointed squarely toward the work of God through Christ for our salvation. Without a shadow of doubt, Paul has begun his letter with an emphatic and resounding call for the supremacy of Christ in all things. This is all about Jesus.
But Paul isn’t some pie-in-the-sky theologian who is all theory and no sweat-and-blood; he has skin in this game. Paul knows that the Colossians are under the hammer—things are tough for them—and we’ll soon see that Paul knows that it isn’t just about tough circumstances—there’s a spiritual war unfolding all about this church. So Paul wants to comfort these dear friends, and in his comfort, he intends to root it in the only secure place he knows—Jesus.
Yet the Jesus he lifts up now, isn’t some filtered image of a white-washed saviour condescendingly stooping to the refuse of the world. No, the Jesus that Paul holds up is a suffering Jesus. Yet even more than this, Paul holds out his own suffering as a means for our comfort. He doesn’t say that he rejoices despite his suffering, as though his stoic enlightened Christianity places him above such lowly things. No, he says he rejoices in his suffering. Paul sings in the midst of pain. Paul allows the pain and harrowing horror of this world to fill him up and pour out of him in an echo of the same blood stained path our Saviour walked for us.
This isn’t about a suffering that saves, only the suffering of Jesus can do that. The finished work of Christ is everything you need for salvation, nothing more is required. But Jesus didn’t only suffer for your salvation, he also suffered for your comfort. That is the suffering we can rejoice in, even as we suffer for the comfort of others.
Not all suffering is pointless, there is a gospel-fuelled suffering worth pursuing. As we watch cities burn, tears of the down-trodden fall, and grief over senseless killing and brutality; as we fall into silence as our feeds distribute anguish and pain—let your cries bring the comfort that only shared tears can. Let your struggle embrace the struggling. Let your lament add strength to the lament of others. Let your pain point people to Jesus.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7 ESV)
