"Come And Die With Us!"

When things go wrong, our life is in shambles, and God seems distant, where do we turn? Often we turn to the encouragement of others, hoping a kind, caring word might give us the added strength needed to overcome our pain. Yet too often, attempts by others to be sympathetic and caring prove vain and fruitless at best or counterproductive at worst. Think about it; when you’ve gone through a time of sorrow and struggle, what is some of the cold comfort that has been offered to you? Maybe it’s been “things could be worse,” or the vainest of all encouragements: “Keep your chin up!” Perhaps others’ attempts at comfort have had a more spiritual bent: “I’ll pray for you,” or, “God has a wonderful plan for your life, and things will turn around!” But when we’ve prayed and prayed for that new job, to be able to finally leave the homeless shelter we’re living in, or for our illness to be healed and there is still no response from heaven, such trite cliches leave us even more frustrated than before. At some point, as the promises of a better day ahead slip from the grasp of our hope, where do we turn?

God’s solution for our suffering is a simple one: it is none other than Jesus himself. He offers us not tactics and strategies to cope with the sorrows of this world, but a Person: His only begotten Son. In our pain, our God does not provide mere vain, empty words but a tangible, visible solution to these trials: the cross of Jesus. Not only is our Savior a “man of sorrows and one well acquainted with suffering” (Is. 53), but He in fact bore, felt, and experienced our very personal sufferings as He suffered on the cross. Through His bearing of not only our sin at Calvary but our misery and sorrow there as well, when we suffer, He suffers; and when we mourn, He mourns. Yet the reverse must also be true for such divine comfort to be realized; as Christ died, so we must die. It is only when we bring our trials to the foot of the cross, and let our demands for their resolution die a slow, painful death that we can truly experience the resurrection power of Jesus (Phil 4). These demands the cross make upon us leave no room for bitterness, envy, or anger over our trials, but call us to “rejoice, as we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” ( I Peter 4:12). Yet for us to truly “count it all joy” (Jas 1:2) in this fashion when we are faced with trials, a bloody and painful struggle must ensue as we choose to embrace the cross and bear daily the sufferings of Jesus.

But when this anguish and struggle has finally brought about our own death, the resurrection power of Jesus will truly be manifested in our lives (Phil. 4). When we have chosen to forfeit our own rights and claims in the pursuit of Someone greater, Christ promises that we will find that elusive joy, peace, and comfort in the midst of our suffering and pain. It is this process of submission to the cross alone and the resultant experience of His resurrection life that promises to bring about the encouragement that so many vain words, positive thinking and empty strategies cannot. May those of us at COAH so embrace the cross of Jesus in our trials today, and by God’s grace, may we die just a little bit more before this day is through. As Christ has invited us, so we invite you: come and die with us!