Sermon 21st March 2021 – 5th Sunday in Lent
Hebrews 5:5-10 – Suffering’s hidden
mystery
With the AFL football season starting
this week there is a sense of privilege for those who were fortunate enough to
have had a ticket to watch their team play. For 2 of the biggest clubs in the
AFL, Richmond and Carlton, getting a ticket was never going to be easy. The
game usually attracts around 90,000 because of the footy starved public. But
with Covid restrictions limiting the MCG to 50,000, Richmond was given 25,000
and Carlton 2,000 of those tickets. It was always going to be impossible to
make everyone happy. Sometimes life is unfair and there is nothing we can do
about it – it is totally out of our control.
In our Gospel reading today we have
some spectators who are also wanting to see a major event that is happening. There
is a festival happening in Jerusalem for the Passover and a huge crowd was
gathering for the event because they heard that Jesus was going to be
attending. Some Greeks came to Phillip and said that they would love to be able
to see Jesus. Because they were not members of the Jewish race they felt they
were not going to be given that opportunity. They had heard of all the great
things Jesus had been doing – the miracles and teaching with authority and no
doubt wanted to see this first hand. In fact this was just after Jesus had
raised Lazarus from the dead and everyone was talking about it.
Phillip went to Andrew and told him
about their request and together they went and told Jesus. But we’re not
actually told whether or not they got to see Jesus. But it would not be long
before everyone would get to see Jesus but not in the way they would have
thought. They would see Jesus in a way that would shatter their expectations as
they see him in a way that was not very glorious but in absolute shame hanging
lifeless on a cross – crucified in humiliation in a most undignified death. They
would now walk past shaking their heads in disgust – he saved others but could
not even save himself.
But what they would not understand in
all this is that they were witnessing the most glorious display of love and
power by Jesus and his Heavenly Father. And that’s what Jesus explains before
this happens: The hour has come for the
Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat
falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it
produces many seeds. Jesus is about to experience his death on the cross for
our sins. One death that would create new life for many. But his concern is
that his disciples will not understand what this means and reassures them that
death in this situation is not the end of life but the beginning of a new life.
And from here on all death will be the path to eternal life as St Paul says in
Romans 6: Just as Christ was raised from
the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
And Jesus uses the example of a seed
that must die in order for not only the new life that will come from it but
further seeds that will create even more new life and more seeds.
Jesus’ death is not an indication of
defeat – which is what it will look like - but a hidden victory. Notice what
was said in the Hebrews reading about that death to assure us that Satan had
not gotten the upper hand:
Jesus offered up prayers with loud
cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was
heard because of his reverent submission. The writer admits that God was able
to save his own Son from death – and that he heard Jesus’ cry out to him - but
that would mean we would not receive eternal life when we die. So the writer of
Hebrews wants to assure each of us that God also hears our prayers – our cries
and tears – and we are asked to trust him especially during those times when we
feel God has not heard our prayers because of our suffering.
As we have journeyed through these 12
months of Covid I’m sure we all cried out at some time to God wondering what
was going on. Asking to reopen our churches and for a while we wondered if
indeed God was aware of our plight and able to help. In any time of suffering
the question can easily arise – where is God in all this? When the Israelites
were exiled to Babylon they’re captors taunted them also – where is your God?
If there is a loving God why does he
allow us to suffer? These are all valid questions but we can begin to understand
through Jesus’ suffering that our suffering is part of the mystery of God that
we do not understand. It’s not suggesting in any way that God sends suffering.
But who could ever understand what St
Paul says in Romans 5 when he says that he rejoices in his suffering:
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, because God's love
has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us. He rejoices in his suffering??? St Paul saw a mysterious closeness to God
in times of suffering in 2 Corinthians when he wrote: Three times I pleaded
with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will
boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest
on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in
hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am
strong. Paul, again, delights in suffering.
That word “rest on me” is the key
word to understanding. The Greek word is sken-o-ow – which is the same word in
John 1:14 where John says – the Word became flesh and dwelt with us – rest on
me – and dwelt are from the same word used in the Old Testament for the
Tabernacle – which was the tent in which God lived with the Israelites and when
God was present – the glory cloud or the Shekinah cloud (same word – sken-o-ow)
would come an rest on the tabernacle. So what Jesus is teaching us – and what
Paul discovered in suffering – is that there is this mystery hidden of God’s
glory and presence with us in our suffering. Which is what Paul is referring to
in Colossians chapter 3 when he says - For you died, and your life is now
hidden with Christ in God – hidden under a cloud of suffering. When Christ, who
is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. The glory
cloud revealing God’s presence that has been hidden in us in our suffering
No one wants to suffer but suffering
is not a sign that there is something wrong. Well, let me correct that – there
is something wrong in the world – we call that sin.
But our suffering is not a punishment
– it’s not a sign of God’s displeasure – but in our suffering God draws even
closer to us. It’s like a parent who loves their child. But when their child
suffers there comes a deeper love of agony watching your child suffer – to the
point that if you could – you would take that suffering on yourself if you
could free your child from their suffering. And that’s what God did for us. He
took on our sin and punishment for sin and took our place on the cross. God
made him who had no sin to become sin for us so that we would become the
righteousness of God. That’s the mystery of why God, while we were yet sinners,
loved us and sent his son to die for us. And that’s the new covenant that
Jeremiah spoke of when he said - for I will forgive their iniquity, and
remember their sin no more. And now, Jesus, who in the days of his flesh,
offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who
was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent
submission – now cries out to his heavenly Father for you – to the one who can
save you from death and is heard because he is at the right hand of God
interceding for you.
So may that Good News comfort you in
your suffering and now that we know God hears your prayer, let us also cry out
for the world – for those that do not yet know the love and mystery of God –
let us cry out to God who hears us and is able to save the world from death and
ask that his glory is made known to all people that all may come to know God
and be saved.
No comments:
Post a Comment