Advent and Suffering

Our family observes the Season of Advent, a time carved out in the Christian year leading to Christmas. Whether at home lighting the candles on the advent wreath, or at church singing songs like O Come, O Come Emmanuel, we experience the meaning of advent, expectation and anticipation of the Christ.

Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought deliverance!

It is that hope, however faint at times, and that God, however distant He sometimes seems, which brings to the world the anticipation of a King who will rule with truth and justice and righteousness over His people and in His creation. It is that hope that once anticipated, and now anticipates anew, the reign of an Anointed One, a Messiah, who will bring peace and justice and righteousness to the world.

A couple of years ago, Alex wrote a series of Advent meditations for our church. I have returned to these works through the years, and thought I would share his writing on suffering today.

Isaiah 4:2-6 and Matthew 8:5-11

Thanks be to God for answering the call of the distressed. Isaiah is writing to a people who are in exile. God promises to be a pavilion for his people, to protect them from the elements.  The centurion comes to Jesus seeking the health of his servant and Jesus is willing to heal. The centurion seeks help for a servant who is suffering. All of us ask questions about why people suffer. Maybe suffering is the way we learn to trust and hope in God.

I do not really enjoy suffering, not that I have suffered like someone being in exile, but I do not enjoy it. I am not sure how many people like suffering. The Apostle Paul comes to mind when he says he finds joy in his suffering (Romans 5). But I am pretty sure Paul is an outlier. Ironically, most of my suffering have been from my own decisions. I had large medical bills after knee surgery and found myself pulled over for rolling through a stop sign (California tickets are not cheap). Another time, prompting those large medical bills, I thought I could do what I saw someone else do on skis and found myself suffering from a torn ACL (it was a 12 year old girl, she was awesome). However, there have also been times when I have suffered because suffering is part of life. When my grandma died right before Thanksgiving my family suffered. When I was picked on in junior high, I suffered.

Yet these passages tell us something about God. God cares about those who are suffering. When we are suffering because of our parents’ decisions, or someone is bullying us, or someone in our family is sick, we can rest in God. God gives us hope that he has done and is doing something on our behalf. At the same time, suffering is teaching us the type of hope we should have in Jesus’ return. Jesus says “I will come and cure him.” God says he will be our pavilion from the elements.

If you are reading this I challenge you to give your sufferings to God and hope in Isaiah’s words about God’s work. “On that day...”