The Problem of Suffering, Answered by Christ

A Sermon on Mark 11:1-11 for the first Sunday in Advent, Series B, 2023

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One of the secular world’s favorite arguments against God is called, “The Problem with Evil.” And by evil, they mean that suffering exists. They take three things we confess to be true, and ask how they can possibly all exist together. We say that God is good. We say that God is all powerful. Everyone can see that suffering exists. How can all three of those things be true at the same time? 

Christians throughout the years have tried to make a rational argument for the Problem of Evil. Such a defense is called a Theodicy. It is an attempt to vindicate God in response to the Problem of Evil. Unfortunately, much of the time in these attempts is spent to explain away one of those three truths. Maybe God isn’t as good as we thought. Maybe God isn’t as powerful as we thought. Maybe there’s not as much suffering as we thought. Remember, most Christians who take up this question aren’t necessarily the most faithful, or the most studious. Which is why secular philosophers love to ask it. 

But it turns out that God doesn’t need a defender. He doesn’t need someone to get him off the hook for these three truths. And the explanation as to why is found in the season of Advent. The explanation as to why is found in our Gospel reading, in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The explanation as to why is found in the answer to another question: Can undergoing suffering be good? 

We sure don’t live our lives as though suffering could be good. Because suffering comes in so many different forms. Muscle pain, nerve pain, anxiety, grief, betrayal, loss of control, loss in general. There are a lot of different ways to hurt. And we work hard to avoid them all. 

In fact, we work so hard at avoiding suffering, that we can actually hurt ourselves in the process. The drunk drinks to escape suffering something, only to land in a worse place. Same with the drug addict. And the gambler. But you don’t have to fall into a crippling addiction to find yourself here. We run away from all kinds of suffering in all kinds of ways. We find ways to avoid it as much as possible, or we try to drown it out with something more pleasant, for as long as that works. Our community, our society is no longer built on enduring tough times to get to better ones. It is built on avoiding at all times anything unpleasant. The only two solutions our government can currently come up with is to either kick the can down the road, or turn the money hose on it, and hope it goes away. 

And there’s a reason why. Nobody likes to suffer. It hurts. We hate it. We want it to never be in our lives. And when it comes, we want it to leave as fast as possible. And there is enough suffering in our world that you cannot avoid it forever. It will come to you sooner or later. But won’t look ahead that far. We refuse. So we legalize drugs, we legalize suicide, we set up disastrous options to chose from, all in the name of ending suffering. All the while, exasperating suffering for all. 

And it’s not just them out there. We do it just as badly as they. We spend an extreme amount of energy avoiding even the smallest of things we suffer. We will cut short our praise of God, we will forego His gifts, just to get out of the pew a few minutes earlier. This is how bad we hate to suffer. Even the minor inconveniences are a reason to take action against them. At least as long as those actions don’t cause us any inconveniences themselves. 

And then along comes Jesus. 

This is the season of Advent. The season of Jesus coming to us. And for what reason did Jesus come to us? He came in order to suffer. Think about that for just a second. He came in order to suffer. The only reason anyone willingly undergoes suffering is to escape a different kind of suffering. And yet Jesus leaves his suffering-free place in heaven, and begins suffering down here immediately. As Christmas draws near, we will see all the ways that happens. But all the while, the cross is approaching. 

And it’s not like His suffering is any easier from ours. Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane that if there is another way, that it please happen. “But not My will, but Your will be done,” Jesus says. Even here, in our Gospel lesson, entering into Jerusalem, Jesus Christ is facing suffering. He makes a public spectacle of Himself, entering hailed as the Son of David. And Jesus knows full well that their expectations of Him are all wrong. And that those expectations are going to cause them to turn on Him. They will hate Him for what He didn’t do, and will cry out, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” 

If we knew that was waiting for us, would we have gone in to Jerusalem as publicly as Jesus did? Would we have let those expectations go unmet? Would we have set up the very reason people wanted us to die? Even if there was a greater point to be made? Wouldn’t knowing make each palm branch weigh heavy upon us? Wouldn’t knowing make each “Hosanna!” hurt? The praise will all be turned to anger. And the anger will be turned upon Jesus. But Jesus still goes. Jesus still goes. 

Jesus is willingly betrayed, abandoned, falsely accused, beaten, dirtied, shamed, scourged, given a cross that He could no longer carry by Himself, was nailed to it and lifted up, and endured the wrath of God over all sin. That’s more suffering that we can even imagine. But He suffered it all for your sake. He did it to save you. To forgive you. To defeat sin, death, and the devil for you. To give you life forever in the resurrection. And to give you the hope right now which powers your endurance as you go through what you suffer. 

Turns out that our faith calls us to suffer with Christ. I know you don’t like it. I don’t either. But Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” St. Paul also says, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.” Or as the verse from Revelation that Pastor Paul Hilgendorf gave me thirty-three years ago on my Confirmation day says, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer… Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” 

We suffer in this life. We also suffer on account of our faith in Christ. But it is better to go through it than to avoid it. It is better to learn endurance than to run away. There is far more joy at the end of suffering than can ever be had by escaping suffering. And we have a promise from Christ that our suffering will one day end. It may not be now, or today. But at the right time, the pain does stop, whether when we heal, or when we die. Christ gives us the endurance we need to make it to when He relieves it all. 

Now, granted, Jesus did take rest from His suffering. He went out to the wilderness to pray. He moved on from towns. He retreated to the Mount of Olives. And He took His three day rest in the Tomb. And it is okay to rest from our sufferings as we need to. Medicine, used appropriately, is a gift from God. Vacations and rest days are necessary. Finding joy in this world helps. There is a difference between rest and running away. And our Lord even commands us to rest. So do not forget to rest. And take your rest in Him. Read His Word, join His people when they gather, have your sins forgiven, receive His promises in His Baptism and His Supper. The Lord of the Sabbath is there for you in these things. Go to Him when you are in need. 

Jesus Christ suffered for you. You and I will also suffer in this life. This turns that secular question we started with completely on its head. You see, when we see Jesus suffer for us, there is no longer a “Problem with Evil,” that is, a problem with suffering. For God is indeed all good. God is indeed all powerful. And God has indeed entered suffering for our sake. That’s what the season of Advent is all about. That’s what His triumphal entry is ultimately all about. 

He joins us in suffering. He undergoes suffering Himself. And running away from it, or making it disappear is not the good our sinful hearts think it should be. Because there is something better on the other side of suffering which we only receive by going through it. Jesus is there. So we should not be surprised to find ourselves who follow Jesus there as well. He gives us the endurance we need to make it through. So pray for that endurance. He will surely give it. And He will bring you through the valley of the shadow of death and into eternal life. Thanks be to God. 

Being Ready for the Last Day

A Sermon on Matthew 25:1-13 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Series A, 2023.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The end of the church year is here. Come Advent, we will be starting another, moving from mostly Matthew’s Gospel to mostly Mark’s Gospel. But as the church year comes to a close, our Sunday readings bring our focus to the end of this world. This week, Amos tells us that the day of the Lord is terrifying. Paul tells the Thessalonians that at the sound of the trumpet and the cry of command, the dead will rise. And Jesus tells us that it is very important that we watch, for we do not know the day nor the hour. And to make that point, Jesus gives us the parable of the ten virgins. 

Five virgins were wise, five were foolish. The wise brought extra oil. And when the bridegroom arrived late, the foolish asked the wise for extra oil. They did not give them any, and they were forced to go buy some. In the meantime the bridegroom was ready, the wise entered into the feast, and the door was shut, leaving the five who had to go get oil outside, and they were not let in. And that leaves us with a few questions: What is the oil supposed to be? Why didn’t the wise share with the foolish? And why weren’t the five who were late get let in? They’re good questions to ask, because if the point is to be ready, as Jesus says it is, then being ready for the ten virgins in the parable is having oil. 

But what do they need it for? To light their lamps when it gets dark. However, there’s a wedding procession coming. Surely such a procession will have an abundance of lights for people to see with, especially if they’re arriving at night. But that’s the thing. The ten virgins are in the procession. The bridegroom is counting on them to light the way. Five have enough oil to do it. And enough in reserve in case there’s a delay. 

The other five failed to have lamps ready to lead the wedding processional. Even though that was their job. The full lamps is supposed to be the very reason they’re all there. When they ask the others to split up their oil, they are refused, not because the wise are selfish. But because if they share, they will all run out before arriving, and the bridegroom’s wedding procession will end in darkness and be ruined. Better half a party full of light than a whole party without any light at all. 

We might compare it to being asked to let go of some of God’s Word in order to appeal to more people. Just lay off of God’s Law. Don’t get so wrapped up in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Outsiders don’t want to hear that. And we want to be nice, right? We want more people to come into the kingdom. So let’s move some roadblocks out of their way. But just as losing the light ends the wedding processional, if we lose God’s Word, what are we even doing here? So even in an attempt to be kind, we cannot give up anything of Christ.

So, when the five foolish arrive at the door of the wedding banquet, having gone and purchased oil for their lamps, they’re not let in. What they needed the lamps for has already passed. And even though they were asked, even though they were counted on to be part of the wedding party, they left the bridegroom the moment he had needed them to be ready most. They aren’t kept out because they were late. They are kept out because they have betrayed the bridegroom’s trust. And done so on the day of His wedding of all days. 

How are we then to be ready? We haven’t yet answered what the oil in the parable means. And that’s because What the oil is exactly is less important as what it is that prepares you to wait for Jesus. Faith is an obvious answer. We need faith to be ready for the last day. Without faith, we will not enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb which has no end. Faith is how the light of Jesus shines in our lives. It fits the oil pretty well. 

But faith the only preparation that our Lord calls us to make? It is not. This is why in the early church, there are a lot of different opinions on what the oil is, and almost none of them are faith. Gregory the Great calls the oil good works. Caesareus of Arles calls it a good conscience. Augustine calls it charity in one place, joy in another. Victorinus of Poetovio calls it mercy. Jerome calls it the attention towards heavenly things. John Chrysostom calls it giving alms to the poor. Origen of Alexandria calls it the Word of teaching by which we are filled. And has the Lord told us to do these things? Yes, yes He has.

What you need today might not be exactly the same thing you need tomorrow. Do you need to serve your neighbor now? Serve your neighbor then, and be ready. Do you need to study God’s Word more for the days ahead? Then study God’s Word. Do you need to repent? Then repent. Do you need humility? Do you need to learn how to deny yourself? Do you need courage to face the world and the days ahead? Then look to Christ. We need all those things. But when we lack one, then we hear Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins. The oil could be a lot of different things. But which one it is today for you depends on what you need. That’s why Jesus tells it the way He did.

The virgins in the parable knew there was going to be some waiting. How much waiting was not known. When the bridegroom arrived, they needed to be ready, so they couldn’t just make themselves comfortable. But likewise, the time might be a long ways off, so they needed to provide for both now and the moment. This is what we as Christians need as we await either the last day of the world, or the last day of our lives. We do not know when either of those will be. Are we ready to meet our Lord at a moment’s notice? Are we ready to face a long wait until that day comes? Christ calls us to be prepared for those things. 

And how do we prepare? Faith? Yes. Good works? Yes. Always learning from God’s Word? Yes. Repentance? Yes. A readiness to face the world? Yes. This parable calls us to lead a full Christian life. Not part of one. Not one where we pick and choose which aspects we like, and keep only those. But a life built around our faith in Jesus Christ. 

Why should we work on all those things? Why should we spend so much effort in getting ready? Why should we take on a task as imposing as this? Because the bridegroom has made a place for you in his wedding procession. And that procession comes, as our Epistle lessons says, “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Paul’s description in his first letter to the Thessalonians matches up with Jesus’ parable. When Jesus returns, we will join Him in the wedding processional, on the way to feast of the Lamb which has no end. 

And we will join Him, because He first joined us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus took our sins away, kept them for Himself, and brought them to His cross, so that He could pay their price once and for all. He went to die in order to make a place for us on His triumphant day. We have a place of honor in the great celebration, because Jesus made sure of it. The bridegroom wants us there. And He has secured that place with His own blood. That’s how important you are to Him. He wants you there of His special day.

Therefore be ready and watch. You do not know the day, nor the hour. But you do know for a fact that you have a place. One paid for with the life of God Himself. Be prepared for that day, no matter what it takes now. No matter what we need, we look to Christ to give it to us. To provide the faith we need to carry out what is set before us. To prepare us to face any delay, no matter how large or small. Be ready and watch. Not by looking out there at the state of the world, but by looking to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. For He is coming soon, either for you or for all. And when that day arrives, we will enter into eternity with our Lord to celebrate forever. Thanks be to God.

The Language of Suffering is the Gospel

A Sermon on Matthew 5:1-11 and Revelation 7:9-17 for All Saints Day, Observed, Series A, 2023

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today we remember the lives of Gwen Jacobsen, DeVerne Jacobsen, John Lang, Charlotte Johnson, Vida Walker, and Eunice Olson. We remember their deaths. For Christ Jesus has joined them in death in order that they will join Him in His resurrection. Christ’s rod and staff comfort them, and they now fear no evil, as they traverse the valley of the shadow of death. They currently rest with Christ in heaven, awaiting the final day when all will be raised, and the faithful enter into eternal life with God. 

Christians have nothing to fear from death. Our Lord has turned it from a monster which takes away all we have into a portal to heaven and rest before God. Death has no sting. Death has no power to hold us long. Death is a beaten and conquered foe. Death can do nothing. 

Dying? That’s a different story. There’s a reason people want to die in their sleep. There’s a reason people, when they die, want to die quickly. We fear not death. But we fear the process of dying a whole lot. Why? Because it hurts. As a pastor, I have been to many deathbeds. I have been there when people are in so much pain that they can’t even talk. They can hardly even breathe. Dying quickly is the exception, not the rule. And that scares us terribly. 

When we see someone in pain, we do not know what to say. When we are in pain, and can’t get it to stop, we don’t have any words to express what we feel. Why is that? We have words for every human emotion and experience that exists. Words for love, words for tears. Words for joy, words for anger. Words for surprise, words for calming rest. The words are there. They’re in our poetry, in our literature, even in pop culture. But the pain of dying has no language. The world does not permit pain to have anything to say. The only acceptable way to alleviate pain is to make it stop. And when it can’t, we never allow that pain to have a purpose, a story. 

This is why walking into many care facilities feels so different. This is why hospitals can feel so cold. These are the places where pain has no story, no words, no reason, no meaning. And the only answer to it is to silence the one hurting, one way or another. Don’t you see? We must hide our pain. We must silence it. It must go unseen. And if it cannot be hidden, it must not be able to speak, or have anything to say. Because when our pain is seen, it tells the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with our own bodies as the very stage upon which it is played out for the world to see. 

Jesus Christ gives pain a language. The Son of God on the cross puts words to what we suffer. Our Lord gives even dying a purpose, a story, a reason. Because when we see that pain in others, we see what Jesus endured for our salvation. When we feel that pain ourselves, we experience what Jesus experienced in order to forgive all our sins. The language we have as Christians expresses the story of Christ. The one who grieves, grieves like Christ grieved in tears at the death of His friend Lazarus. The one who is abandoned is abandoned as Christ was at Gethsemane. The one who suffers, suffers like Christ suffered on the cross for our sake. It is as St. Paul writes in Romans, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” 

If when we live we are shaped into the body of Christ, then even moreso when we die, are we shaped into the body of Christ. We do not need to do so silently. We have the Word of God to use as our language.We can express our grief, our lament, our sorrow, our pain, our suffering, and still share the Gospel. What the world will not see in history, it will see in us. This is why Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” 

And if we see Jesus in those who are hurting, then as Christians, what should our response be? Mary, His mother, clothed Jesus and gave Him a place to rest. The woman in Bethany anointed Jesus’ head and wiped His feet with her tears. Joseph of Arimathea gave Jesus His own grave, and prepared His body for burial with Nicodemus. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went to His tomb on the morning after the Sabbath in order to care for His body after death. Cleopas and another disciple showed Jesus hospitality as a stranger after traveling with Him to Emmaus. Just as we would care for Jesus, we care for those whose pain speaks of Jesus’ work on our behalf. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” 

And when the world will not hear the Gospel as it is shown in the very bodies of those who are hurting, we continue to proclaim that good news. Even when those words bring the same pain to us. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” 

We know the end of the story when Jesus who died on the cross. We know the end of the story for those who have died in the faith. We know the end of the story for us, even when we suffer, are hurting, or are dying. It is resurrection. We suffer as Jesus suffered. We die as Jesus died. In only follows then that we will rise as Jesus rose. I can tell you for a fact that our Lord has promised resurrection for Gwen and DeVerne, for John and Charlotte, for Vida and Eunice. And while they wait for that resurrection day, they rest with our Lord, clothed with white robes, for they have come out of the great tribulation, the great suffering that is our world. 

“[T]hey are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” They now rest from the proclamation of Christ’s work, shown through their own bodies. Just as Jesus rested by going out to the wilderness, going to the garden, or going to the tomb. But the end is not yet. Resurrection is coming. Jesus has conquered death for our sake. And our suffering is never in vain. It has a language. And that language is the Gospel. Christ died for you. Christ rose for you. Christ forgives your sins. And Christ gives you rest. Thanks be to God.