The Fellowship of His Suffering

Hello.

It’s been awhile since my last post, and a lot has happened between then and now, including the release of Daddy Set The Church On Fire. I want to thank you for supporting the book’s release. I hope it’s made an impact on those of you who have read it. For now, I’d like to shift attention to the week at hand. This entry is called The Fellowship of His Suffering.

The more I think about the desire Paul expressed in his letter to the Philippians, the more striking it becomes. Who signs up for becoming like Jesus in his death?

Paul who, if honest with himself, would have to admit there was a point in time in his former life when he leveraged the God of Israel for his own political and social furtherance was a changed man when he wrote the words:

^“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11 NIV)

Somewhere along the line Paul’s desire supernaturally shifted. He no longer wanted to be known for his status within the religious community--for whatever achievements he had gained. Instead of being known he wanted to know. More specifically, he wanted to know Christ.

There’s something deep within all of us that wants so much to do the same thing Paul did before he was a changed man. We live with God in our debt. We want to use Him for our own personal happiness and gain. In our pride we figure he owes it to us. It’s absolutely upside down to what’s really real, but in our fallenness it’s what we’re wired to believe.

What’s amazing is the way God responds.

It’s Holy week. Good Friday is right around the corner. The church at large will again be forced to grapple with the historical fact that God’s sovereignty played out in the brutal murder of Jesus of Nazareth at the hands of cruel and power-hungry men. Some of these men were very close to him. Jesus...God himself…was betrayed, isolated, beaten, and hung like a scarecrow, naked and bleeding on the side of a Jerusalem road while people created in his image mocked and jeered at him. We need to stop and look at Jesus as he hangs there. To pause and take stock in how he suffered. We should be stunned anew at the reality that as he hung there he was the means by which God redeemed creation back to Himself.

Seemingly, Paul didn’t want to ignore his suffering or brush it off as if it was some small inconvenience along the path to glory. As I read his Philippian letter it appears that he wanted to embrace and understand it. He wanted to look his suffering dead in the eye to discover that it’s ultimate purpose was to be found in the story of Jesus himself. Why the thorn in the flesh? Why the stoning? Why the shipwreck? Because Christ suffered on the road to redemption, and part of following him is to do the same. Not to earn right standing before him, but to become like him.

If I’m honest, I hate suffering. I want to ignore it and pretend it never happened. I hate betrayal, isolation, and humiliation. They feel unjust. I hate when my ego takes a hit and I’m brought to a place of perceived loss. As I sit here and type these words, I can rightly say things like these are not what I desire. As of this moment I’m no Paul in a Philippian dungeon. But as I experience betrayal in light of the reality that Jesus was betrayed…or when I experience isolation and realize that the son of God was isolated…when I feel humiliated and realize that Christ hung on a cross naked…I participate in his suffering, and hopefully become like him. Why? I think Paul gives us the correct and final answer:

“That I may know him and the power of his resurrection…”

“…that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

In the journey of following Jesus, you and I will suffer. We very well may be suffering at this very moment. We don’t have to ignore it, or rationalize that it’s a cosmic accident. Jesus going first as one who suffered on the road to resurrection affords us the opportunity to see our suffering on that same road. We are following. We are participating.

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5 ESV)

God, draw us near to Christ in our suffering this Holy Week so that we may know the power of your resurrection.

In Jesus Name,

Amen.