Meditating on Suffering

Mark 15:29~39 (2021.3.28)

May your grace and peace be with us. It is very meaningful and grateful to me that I am given an opportunity to share the Word on Palm Sunday worship service.

There is only one week left in the season of Lent. How did you guys spend last Lent? During the season of Lent, faithful believers fast, reduce external stimuli, meditate on the passion of Jesus Christ and strive to participate in that suffering. During Passion Week starting today, we will more actively embrace and meditate on the suffering and death of Christ. Why do we Christians set a feast and meditate on suffering repeatedly every year? Today, I would like to share with you with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit what suffering is and how we must accept it, and that it will be a time to experience the grace of suffering.

I am a pastor and a professional psychological counselor who provides psychological counseling. I hear many people come and complain of the pain of life. Through acceptance and empathy, clients may experience wound healing and less pain, but in some cases, they may not be able to handle the pain and make unfortunate choices. Being a Christian doesn't spare your suffering. Just because you have faith doesn't mean you can easily overcome suffering. Sometimes, it seems that God has allowed suffering, so we struggle with God even more. Like the saying that we reap what we sow, we will not accept the suffering that has a cause, but it becomes more difficult to bear it if we face unexplained suffering and calamities like Job.

Suffering is a Mystery

Why does suffering happen in our lives? To begin with, suffering is a mystery. Many people, including theologians and philosophers, question, explore, and meditate on suffering. The reason is that in reality many are experiencing pain and suffering that cannot be resolved and understood. Suffering is inevitable in human life, so exploring and meditating on suffering is an effort to interpret life. As I was preparing this sermon, I searched the Internet for suffering. There are all sorts of data about the suffering of pastors and theologians. Starting with the dictionary definition of suffering, how each religion understands religion, and what the biblical and theological meaning of suffering is, is well organized academically. It's a helpful resource for preparing a sermon, but for those who are actually suffering, those articles won't be very helpful. It is because suffering is not an area to be understood and passed on. Asking and asking God why this pain is happening to me or to us, he does not give a convincing answer. Just as it is impossible to fully know God, so is suffering.

Job’s Suffering

So how are we to deal with this suffering? There are many ways people deal with suffering, but there are two main ways. Avoid or accept. Most people turn away from suffering until they can turn it away, and they want to deny it until they can be denied. People who suffer sudden losses usually react that way. When you lose a loved one, lose your health, lose honor, money, or things you've been attached to, most of them deny the situation and, in severe cases, hold on to your fantasies, letting go of reality. Sometimes you have no choice but to accept it, but accepting loss is a tremendous pain.

The book of Job is the story of a man struggling through the calamities and tremendous loss experienced by an innocent person. Job, the protagonist, believes that he has no reason to suffer such excessive suffering, so he considers God to be afflicting him and protests in anger. Job's name symbolically means 'Where is the Father?' That is, where is God? If there is a God, how can you allow such great calamities and sufferings on an innocent person? But this question remains an unanswered mystery. Many people ask, question, and protest in suffering, but they only experience God without an answer. What is really painful is when you feel the absence of God. Is there a God, how can he be so silent? If God torment me like this, why should I believe? They struggle in pain and then leave God. In the book of Job, suffering and calamity are used as Satan's temptation to deny and turn away from God. Surprisingly, however, Job faced a “new God” in his struggle. You meet the real God, not God who is trapped in the human wisdom of causal retribution. God appears before Job like a storm. It's a really dramatic development. Job now shuts his mouth and sits on the ashes and repents. ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge? My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.’ Job could not understand the plagues and sufferings that came unexpectedly, so he never escaped from God even though he might become a quarrel with God. This is Job's amazing faith. Eventually, Job enters into a new relationship with God. Job's new life began.

Jesus’ Suffering

We look at the suffering of Jesus. When I read the Gospels, especially the Gospel of John, I think Jesus is amazing. It feels as if Jesus is walking without hesitation into His suffering, His path to death. He speaks and acts without hesitation and provokes Jewish religious leaders. It makes me feel that Jesus really decided to die. Jesus did not avoid, knowing that after he realized that the time had come, those who opposed him would try to harm him. Jesus' ministry was thoroughly aimed at building the kingdom of God. “Repent! The kingdom of God is near!” Repentance means being worthy of God's kingdom and living a life of obedience to God's rule. This is the good news, the Gospel, but for some it is also a reason to kill Jesus. They are people who believe that they can control and govern themselves, not God.They are people who accept the world's values and governance system. For them, Jesus deserved removal. But I really can't understand. The subject to die and disappear is the world's governing system and those who follow it. Why should Jesus suffer and die? Even Jesus' disciples did not understand the Master's suffering and death. He foretold many times that the Son of Man would suffer and die, but his disciples did not understand it until they saw the risen Lord. How do you make sense of it? What does Jesus' suffering and death mean?

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” On Gethsemane, Jesus suddenly recognized human fear as he prayed while struggling for sweat to fall into blood, but soon he laid down his will and desires and accepted the will of God. After that, Jesus is gently caught, accepts the unrighteous judgment and punishment without any resistance or self-defense, and dies for the cross. Jesus willingly accept all suffering.

Jesus' suffering and death on the cross, described in Mark 14:15, are considered to be the condensation of all human suffering. Jesus is completely isolated and neglected by those he loved. The trusted disciple betrays the teacher and sells it, the other disciples run away to live on their own, curse and swear even the favorite disciple, denying that they do not know Jesus. Not so long ago, the crowd that praised Hosanna quickly turned and shouted for death and crucifixion. Jesus is sentenced to death by overwriting a sin he has not committed. He doesn't defend anyone. He is dragged back and forth all night, being whipped, ridiculed, and all sorts of contempt. Eventually, he walks up to the death penalty, hand-crafting the molds for which he will run and die. And finally, he died with the crucifixion, the cruelest means of execution at the time.

Suffering and Experiencing God

I had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in Israel about 5 years ago. It was also the period of Lent in March, so I was filled with anticipation of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Way of the Cross. I wanted to experience the suffering of Jesus more closely. I could not carry the cross myself, but I wanted to meditate deeply and walk the path with a reverent heart. However, the path was different from what I expected. It was a place filled with shopping streets like Myeongdong Street or a market, and it was very busy and crowded with merchants, people who went to the market, tourists, and pilgrims mixed together. It was far from a place where you could calmly pray and meditate. It was disappointing, but I tried to imagine the time of Jesus as much as possible. Suddenly, I thought it was similar to this situation when Jesus took the cross and walked this path. It may not be as crowded as it is now, but those who do not even pay attention to the cruel procession of the cross, who do not care what unfair things are being done, and for what reasons are dying so cruelly, immerse themselves in their own lives, and just do business and accidents. It must have been sold. When I thought about it, Jesus' death came even more lonely and painfully. Perhaps the fear of being neglected and abandoned rather than the suffering of the body made Jesus more sad. Jesus screams for the cross. “Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In addition to all physical and mental suffering, Jesus also suffered spiritual suffering, like being abandoned by God. And by dying completely, he experienced God's absence or God's incompetence. But he did not lose his trust in God.

People passing by under the cross said, "you who wanted to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross." He mocked the incompetence of Jesus, and this is, after all, mocking the inability of God. Can you love and trust God even when he is incompetent? In the book of Job, Satan asks if Job will fear God for no reason. Because God blesses and overflows with his possessions, I wonder if it's not to fear and acknowledge God. Then he took everything he had and tried it. Can you fear and love God without cause or condition? Can we believe even if God is not almighty, even if God does not respond to our cry? Suffering tests our relationship with God in this way.

Learning from Jesus

We believe that Jesus suffered and even gave his life to save us. What does this mean? Does this mean that Jesus paid for our lives? Does it mean that since Jesus suffered and died, we don't have to suffer? Rather, I believe that Jesus himself set an example by suffering and dying in how we can live with suffering and death. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two widths from top to bottom. And at the sight, the centurion testifies. “Truly this was the Son of God.” Even in the moment of suffering and death, Jesus did not lose the dignity of the Son of God. It means that he did not let go of a relationship with God. How Jesus dealt with suffering and death, what his relationship with God before suffering and death, he hopes to learn and follow Jesus' trust in God. That is the way of life.

Suffering requires me to acknowledge my incompetence, helplessness, and let go of my own control of my life. It teaches you to be by your side without being able to do anything in front of suffering family and friends, to look at the pain without turning away, and to listen carefully. Could it be described as experiencing presence in the absence of God? It's not easy. So it's painful. But I believe that this is the way to live.

What enlightenment does suffering give you? What kind of God do you meet in suffering? May suffering invite you to a deeper place. I sincerely hope that you will deeply meditate and become aware of this Holy Week.