Christ And Human Suffering

Hey lovely people, my name is Christina and I am your plucky missionary serving in the Middle East.

You all have been incredibly faithful in support and prayer so I’d like to reward you with a message on “suffering.”

Let’s start with a story:

This last year, my husband and I have had the privilege of walking with a woman and her three children out of extreme persecution. Marua and her kids fled the Taliban two years ago right into the arms of Jesus to where my husband and I and two kids live.

Here in the Arab world, discipleship begins the moment we meet a person.

We make it clear our family loves Jesus and that following Jesus is no cake walk. In fact, we make it known that Jesus promised suffering to all those who truly decided to follow Him. We want people making a decision to follow Him with their eyes fully open to the cost. We Americans sometimes have trouble understanding this Gospel of suffering. We love the beginning of Revelation 12:11: “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony….” But rarely is the second part of that scripture preached on: “…and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”  

Most people in America come to Jesus for a better life. Maybe at the end of our ropes, trying to walk out of addiction, needing hope, etc. We tend to treat Jesus like a vending machine, kneeling before Him when we need help and expecting His goodness in return.  

Jesus said to the great multitudes something very similar to what He said privately to all His disciples in Luke 9:23 – that being a follower of Jesus is something like bearing a cross.

This probably horrified His listeners.

As Jesus spoke these words, everybody knew what He meant. In the Roman world, before a man died on a cross, he had to carry his cross (or at least the horizontal beam of the cross) to the place of execution. When the Romans crucified a criminal, they didn’t just hang them on a cross. They first hung a cross on him.

Carrying a cross always led to death on a cross. No one carried a cross for fun. The first hearers of Jesus didn’t need an explanation of the cross; they knew it was an unrelenting instrument of torture, death, and humiliation. If someone took up his cross, he never came back. It was a one-way journey.

After baptism, the woman we were recently walking with, Marua, shared and shared some more with people around her about Jesus.

Where we live, converting to Christianity means your family disowns you; your life is considered forfeit. Marua and other Christians here know very well the verse in Luke 14:26 where Jesus says:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple.”

- Luke 14:26

 It's illegal to convert to Christianity here. But Marua felt compelled by what Jesus commanded and, therefore, she kept trying to “make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father, son and holy spirit.”

Recently, a group of men and women from Maura’s local mosque came to her home and attempted to take her life. She was pushed down the stairs, but then was able to stand and flee. She ran to her kids' school to get them and straight to us, leaving everything behind.  

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

- 1 Peter 4:12-14

The Arabic version of the song, I Have Decided To Follow Jesus, is quite different from the one we sing in America. It talks about “though they may take my possessions….” This happened to Marua. “Though my family may leave me….” Marua’s family stole her youngest son and have now disowned her. “Though they may take my life. Still I will follow Jesus. No turning back.”

In this life, if we are doing this Christ-following thing right, we are opening our mouths, we are proclaiming and loving, and we are suffering.

If you are being met with nothing but smooth sailing in your life I would challenge you to examine it:

• What are you not saying in order to keep peace or be seen as the worldly image you want to be seen as?
• What are you not doing in order to live comfortably and not rock the boat?

It’s not enough to live by example and be good – even atheists live good lives. Bill Gates does not believe in Jesus and yet he is one of the biggest charitable donors in the world. It's not enough to just believe, even the demons do that.

Family, the stats say we spend more on animal costumes than on telling people who are perishing that Jesus is for them, too.

The Bible makes it clear this is our job, as uncomfortable as it is. It says in Romans 10:14-15:

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

- Romans 10:14-15

Only 1% of all missions giving goes to unreached people groups – people who have no access to the Bible and have never even heard the name of Jesus. Only 2% of missionaries actually go to these places. Instead, they opt for “feel good” service projects in places where there are already churches. Why? Because it's easier than going to a place and starting from zero. It makes us feel good to build and not have to open our mouths.

May the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering.

- The call of Moravian missions

And for those who are suffering now for Christ, I am reminded of the verse which says, “God is working all things for good.” (Romans 8:28) I know often this is a way for Christians to kind of do a spiritual bypass and put a pretty bow on our suffering.

But if we can honor the reality that life is hard yet hold to the tension of hope – that God is working it for good – and continue to look to the end of days when every tear will be wiped away… we can possibly forgive God for allowing this world to be the way that it is.

In light of eternity, it helps to remember that love has us. That even in the waiting and the ugliness, there is purpose, and in the end it will be okay. And if it's not yet okay… it's not yet the end.

Nathan & Christina Hammerberg | AGWM | Middle East