The Way of Sorrows

When we are healthy, and feeling well, it seems to us that nothing can stand in our way. Our faith is ablaze and we forage ahead without any hesitation or fear. But when we become infirmed, when these bodies are filled with disease and our spirit aches along with this mortal shell, it can become difficult to listen to those who preach prosperity and that we shall “be raised up from our sick bed.” What if we don’t? What if the weakness grows stronger and our pain does not lift? Are we to cry out to Christ with a howl and shake our fist in anger? Or have rotten teachers placed on Jesus a cloak, an image that is one dimensional? 

Jesus did not promise wealth and health but troubles, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33). He did not teach we could wish away disease and our sorrows with platitudes and blessed shawls. Instead He told us reality, this life is pain, but He awaits us in the next to wipe away those tears, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4). Some Christian brothers and sisters live in denial state, expecting to be coudeled by Christ and love in bliss here and now, when Jesus offers raw reality. These delusional ones make God a magician who with a few special words will sweep away your sufferings; they fail to see that Jesus does not offer us some medicine to avoid pain in this life, but to thrust ourselves upon it as He did, to carry our cross and embrace the reality that this world is full of grief and wounds; and the answer is not to bury our heads in the sand, but to fight through in faith, to carry on as long as we can preaching the Gospel with our very lives, and in words. People want a magic cure for sorrow, but Christ is the cure, not from pain, but how to press through the pain. Our Lord does not wave away the aches or shakes or sores or quakes in our souls; He holds us in His love and goes through it with us every step of the way. Christ does not call us to avoid pain, but to embrace it and face it with Him holding our hand. This world offers unimaginable suffering, and most avoid it like a plague, but the secret is not to run, but to ride towards it holding on to Jesus’s hole filled hands.

Cultic churches make following Christ seem like avoiding suffering and pretend that there is no disease. When the apostles and Jesus acknowledge and foretell there will be pain and suffering that we must weather with His help: 

“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38) 

“For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” (1 Peter 2:19)

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21) 

“strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. "We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said.” (Acts 14:22) 

“Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities,” (2 Corinthians 6:4) 

“More than that, 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.” (Romans 5:3-5) 

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”(Romans 8:18) 

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison..” (2 Corinthians 4:17) 

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10) 

“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin..” (1 Peter 4:1) 

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ” (Romans 8:35)

“In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.” (1 Peter 5:10) 

Jesus does not preach denial of sorrow, but to face it and to realize we are fragile jars of clay, “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.” (2 Corinthians 4:7), and we are weak vessels “So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Christianity is not about avoiding sorrow and suffering, but facing it with our eyes fixed upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Unlike other false religions, we have a God who has suffered physically (John 19:1-60), emotionally (Luke 22:44), and spiritually (Matthew 4:1-11). Our Lord has endured what we have and worse, so He can empathize with our sorrows from experience (Hebrews 2:18). 

May we then  face the trials and sufferings of this life with our Saviour. May we realize that Jesus has saved us eternally by His sacrifice and by His grace through faith in Him alone, but may we also see Him as Savior in this life by helping us face whatever sorrow, pain, disease, and infirmity we may face. Amen