DFC Weekly

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” 39And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” 40And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41″Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  – Matt. 26:36-41

Have you ever suffered so much that you were willing to do anything to escape the pain? And in the midst of your pain, all those who loved you were helpless to console, to comfort you? And worse, when you prayed to God for help, for relief, there was no answer. If God loves you, why doesn’t He just stop the pain?

One of the strongest arguments against the existence of God is something called theodicy, the problem of evil and suffering. The case goes something like this, “If there is a good, loving, all powerful God, how can He allow pain and suffering in the world?”

–God is all-powerful but not all-good—thus evil can exist.

–God is all-good but not all-powerful—thus evil can exist.

–God is all-powerful and all-good—thus evil cannot exist.

For some of you in the midst of mid terms or finals- you wonder the same, when will the madness end, why is there pain and suffering and more importantly, when will it all pass?

Jesus asked the same question. He went to the garden to pray to His Father for He knew what lied just ahead of Him, the cross. The pain and suffering of Christ was not just experienced on the cross but one of the most painful, human experiences ever recorded is here in Matthew 26:38, “He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.’”

“Grieved” in the Greek means, “afflicted beyond measure.” Jesus was experiencing a pain to the point of death. When the scriptures speaks of Jesus’ pain, I don’t believe anyone has endured a pain to the degree of His own suffering. And what does a person do when he is stricken with such grief? He prays. “He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” (v. 39)

But notice the answer to His prayer from His Father, silence. There was no voice from heaven applauding His righteousness or His perfect obedience like at His baptism or Transfiguration, no dove descending from heaven. There were no angels to come to minister to His needs like after His temptation, Matt. 4. Just silence.

In His humanness He cried out to His Father to ask for mercy to escape His pain, “let this cup pass from Me.” He was met with silence. Then when He turned to His disciples for comfort , what was He met with?  They fell asleep. After rebuking them twice, they kept falling asleep. And after each rebuke, He was met with silence for they had nothing to say to Him. Jesus was all alone, alone in silence for His suffering.

Why was there silence? Why didn’t His Father offer words to encourage Him? To give Him strength? Why the silence from His disciples? It is interesting the parallel that Jesus prayed three times just as Paul prayed three times to have the thorn removed and what was God’s answer to Paul? “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9). The answer as to why there was no answer from God was because Jesus already knew the answer to His prayer, He even prayed it Himself, “let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” (v. 39)

As much suffering Jesus endured, as much as He wanted the cup to pass, as much as He wanted an answer from His father, He did not complain, He did not gripe, He simply was “obedient to the point of death, death even on the cross” (Phil. 2:8).

We know why God did not allow the cup to pass. They say hind sight is always 20/20. As a result of Christ’s death, God was not glorified in Jesus’ suffering, it was not His will for His Son to suffer, but it was His will that He die on the cross so that the sins of the world may be redeemed. And the same is true for us when we encounter pain, it is not God’s will for us to suffer, but there is another purpose- what? Only God knows. But we do know that He is just, He is perfect and He will not abandon us nor forsake us in our suffering.

The question is when we are suffering and want the cup to pass, can we trust God in the same manner as our Lord? Shall we then also have “this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

I believe what Jesus was thinking about to help Him endure the pain as He bore the burden of the cross on the “trail of tears” making His way to Calvary was that He was thinking of Lazarus, He was thinking of the two blind men He healed before He entered Jerusalem, the woman at the well, He was thinking of you and me. I encourage you do the same, when you are in the midst of the suffering, when the tempest seems to never end, “fixing our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Heb. 12:2) and remember what He had endured for you and me. There are no simple answers to one’s suffering, but we are left with the example for us to follow. Let us always be obedient to give our faithful God His glory. May God bless each of you.

Pastor Sung

“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.” Jeremiah 18:2-6

Throughout my childhood, I was told that I was quite artistic. I remember in fifth grade, our teacher divided the class into many groups made up of five to six students. Our assignment was a group art project in world history class. Everyone wanted to be in my group and after the groups were assigned, I could hear other students complaining that it wasn’t fair that they were not included in my group. We started the project but quickly ran into difficulty. The teacher would come by and the mural I was drawing, she would comment that it was too small. So I would start over again but then she would come again and comment that it was still too small. The group began to get frustrated and asked me to get a whole new sheet for our project, but in my stubbornness, I was determined to fix it my way. Once again the teacher made another negative comment and this time as I erased my mistake- a huge rip occurred in the middle of our project. By this time, it was too late to start all over and we received a rather below average grade for the assignment- I let the entire group down, so much for my reputation.

No one likes to be examined, to be the object of criticism. Sure, there may be a few of us that are “mature,” those who have “wisdom” to know what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. But honestly who are they? No one and I mean no one likes to be called out. And why is that? Because we don’t like what we see in ourselves. Truth, in this case, is extremely painful.

Our lives, tragically, is a make up of compounded problems. Like that kid in the fifth grade who kept trying to fix his own mistakes until finally the big rip. We all know we are making bad decisions and when the inevitable occurs, we put our heads down and are determined to fix our way out of the mess. And what do we end up with? A masterpiece? A Michelangelo? No, for most of us it looks like a Picasso.

There is another way… “Therefore, (since God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble) humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6).

Don’t be fooled, God’s way is not painless, in fact it maybe more painful- but you know the finished product- “we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:13). This is God’s masterpiece. But there is only one way to this finished product- His way, “he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.” (Jer. 18:4).

In our own making, we are “spoiled clay.” But the potter will not toss us away, He will patiently work out all the kinks and build us up again until we are useful vessels for His purpose. But for this to happen, He must first tear down, to purify the “spoiled” material, He must recycle us over and over again. And although we may not enjoy the process, we allow the Potter to do His work knowing that He loves us, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) In doing so, we will find pleasure in the finished product.

Beloved, don’t fight God. Humble yourselves, see with honesty your sins, confess them, let God break you down so that He can gently build us up again into the full stature of His beautiful Son. May the Lord continue to recycle you over and over again. God bless.

Pastor Sung