March 8, 2009 ~ Lent 2
Mark 8:27-37
“For God did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted”

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Affliction. Suffering. Hardship. Pain. Trouble. Misery. Misfortune. Rejection. Burdens. Heartache.

“Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus said.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.” “I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.” (1)

“Take up your cross and follow me,” Jesus said.

Does Jesus glorify suffering? Does God ordain affliction?

As I prayed and meditated on the theme of suffering, so central to the season of Lent and so profoundly lifted up in today’s scripture lessons, I found myself lulled into a kind of familiar mantra, reiterated again and again by church tradition, popular theology and the desperation of people in pain: Suffering can be redemptive. Affliction is necessary to be faithful. Suffering can be redemptive. Affliction is necessary to be faithful.

But in the midst of this comfortable settling in, I was listening to one of my favorite musicians, rock star Melissa Ethridge. In her song, Open Your Mind, she boldly questions the comfortable explanation for the suffering in our lives when she asks,
     How come there's so many people willing to suffer
     So they get up and suffer every day
     They think they were put on this Earth to suffer
     And, by God, they're going to suffer
     Until they suffer their lives away. (2)

This shocked me back into my senses. What? How can the wretched suffering of human beings somehow be spit shined and given the sheen of acceptability? How can the wonton imposition of affliction somehow be cast in terms of divine inevitability?

Well, I know how. Through thousands of years of trying to come to grips with the reality of human pain and oppression, built on some key treatises by powerful Christian theologians and the day-in and day-out attempts of ordinary Christians to make sense of the world. Many good and faithful folk have taken Jesus’ suffering and made it there own, to give them some sense of purpose in an otherwise seemingly unbearable life. I am certainly aware that as our economy continues to spiral downward, and unemployment rates rise beyond ten, twenty, thirty, and forty year levels, as adequate – or any – health care becomes scarce as hen’s teeth, and neighborhood shootings make us lock our deadbolts even tighter… the need to make sense of pain and suffering is as acute as ever.

But above and beyond the everyday struggles with life, the religious interpretations of Jesus’ death on the cross has resulted in some horrible perceptions by persons who began to think that it was not only their lot in life to be poor, hungry, oppressed, and even abused and beaten, but that God somehow wanted them to be that way. Such a twisted understanding of the place of what is called “redemptive suffering” in our world has all-too-often been based on this one text, in which Jesus insists on his followers to “deny themselves” and “take up his cross.” Slaves have been kept in their place with this perverse take on Jesus’ words. Wives have been beaten into submission with this misshapen theology. Children have cowered in their bedrooms with this warped theology. Whole populations of people have put up with intolerable conditions and oppressive tyrants when these texts were forced upon them. Surely this isn’t the meaning of the Passion of Christ, to keep people miserable and afraid?

Let me say clearly up front: whether as faithful as these attempts are or as malicious as they are, they are just plain wrong and do not reflect the story of Christ as it should be understood. Suffering, in and of itself, is not redemptive and affliction is never divinely established.

Having said those bold things, then let me offer a different way to witness to the passion, crucifixion, death, and burial of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that I believe gives a deeper and more sustainable sense of hope for our lives.

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to an article I read, meditated over, lived with all week, "Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross": a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world” from the Biblical Theology Bulletin , Fall, 2004 by Joanna Dewey.(3)   In it she makes several powerful observations that help us in our daily lives find a healthier, more tolerable, and even more faithful place for suffering and affliction. She helps us see:
 

~ Suffering in the first century was a very different thing than it is today, and it was a normal, if unpleasant, part of life rather than an inconvenience or exception as most of us in the developed, industrial world see it today. Therefore the people Jesus was preaching saw suffering as neither good nor redemptive, but simply a part of the human lot. Suffering just simply was what it was: suffering.
 

~ The gospel-writer, Mark, does not lump all human suffering together, but distinguishes between general human suffering and the suffering that comes from those in power who wish to resist the work of God. General human suffering is that which comes at the hands of no one specific person or political entity. Disease, hunger, loneliness, natural disasters, and the like. This is very different from suffering that comes at the hand, or behest, of someone with power over you: a partner that beats his or her lover or children, an employer who seeks to get rich at the expense of her or his employees, a dictator whose policies and policing brings widespread starvation and warfare to the land.
 

~ General human suffering would be, and in fact, was being relieved by the healing, teaching, loving presence of Jesus as he walked the earth. For Mark, who had an intensely apocalyptic mindset, this was a sign that the present age was coming to a close. In chapters 1-8 Jesus is shown repeatedly alleviating suffering, exorcising demons, healing illnesses, feeding people, stilling storms, and then sending out the disciples to do the same.
 

~ However, as the present age is coming to a close, the new age of God’s dominion has not yet arrived. Thus, the rulers, the principalities and powers of the present age have begun acting out enraged that their power is being challenged and diminished by God at work in Jesus. It is THIS acting out that causes Jesus to say, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Jesus isn’t idolizing all suffering – or any suffering, really – but, rather, is acknowledging that there will be a backlash to doing good. God’s work, when done well, will result in people being healed, empowered, liberated, inspired… and usually this means more power to the people and less power to those at the top. That scares them.

What does all this mean for you and for me? It means that God does not want us to put up with the general, everyday suffering that confounds our world, but to work to bring healing, education, safety, employment, dignity, and a vigorous sense of community to all the people of the world. As labor organizer, Mother Jones, was famously quoted as saying, “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” (4)

We certainly should not be about the awful task of blessing this everyday suffering, giving it a sense of godliness nor theological justification. There is absolutely no good to come from humanity being hungry, cold, ignorant, nor poor.

What we can say as people of faith most certainly is that God’s expectation is that human suffering should be alleviated, that God has given us the tools and the abilities to end human suffering, and that it is none other than God’s very self that walks and works alongside us as we do the work to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, visit the prisoner, and welcome the children.

So what about “redemptive suffering?” If we take the markan reflection of the passion of Christ seriously, we will be able to say, those that do God’s will (see above) should not expect praise and gratitude from the powers that be. It is here, in the trenches of God’s divine work of bringing justice to God’s people, that affliction, hardship, and suffering occur. It is here, when Jesus is persecuted for his healing, his laughing, his feeding that redemption occurs. The new age of God’s Commonwealth, the Beloved Community, has not yet dawned upon us, and so those who are in power, whose jobs are most at risk if all the people are happy and healthy and wise and flourishing, who are acting out.

Renowned Quaker spiritualist and author, Parker Palmer, was interviewed on the wonderful radio program, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet. He summed up these two understandings of suffering in a most succinct and helpful way. He said,

I think there's a lot, unfortunately, about suffering in Christian tradition that's hogwash, if I can use a technical theological term. It's awfully important to distinguish in life, I think, between true crosses and false crosses. And I know in my growing up as a Christian, I didn't get much help with that. A cross was a cross was a cross, and if you were suffering, it was supposed to be somehow good. But I think that there are false forms of suffering that get imposed upon us, sometimes from without, from injustice and external cruelty, and sometimes from within, that really need to be resisted.

I do not believe that the God who gave me life wants me to live a living death. I believe that the God who gave me life wants me to live life fully and well. Now, is that going to take me to places where I suffer, because I am standing for something or I am committed to something or I am passionate about something that gets resisted and rejected by the society? Absolutely. But anyone who's ever suffered that way knows that it's a life-giving way to suffer, that if it's your truth, you can't not do it. And that knowledge carries you through. But there's another kind of suffering that is simply and purely death. It's death in life, and that is a darkness to be worked through to find the life on the other side. ( 5)

Christ’s suffering remains a central part of God’s incarnation into our lives, and a dynamic and real part of our Christian faith. Let us honor the Passion of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, by not allowing his “redemptive suffering” to keep people, ourselves included, in misery and oppression. Instead, let us see his cross as a condemnation of all human suffering, and an ultimate attempt to inspire, empower, and embolden all of us to work for the justice of all God’s’ children, and end oppression, tyranny, and evil for good!

Amen.
 

(1) Psalm 22 -- selected verses

(2) "Open Your Mind" by Melissa Ethridge, lyrics found at: http://www.melissaetheridge.com/melissa/?album=theawakening (click on "lyrics" next to the song's title)

To hear a portion of this song, go to: http://newmusic.itunes.com/redir/cbx-cgi.do?v=2&a=7%2BezCFsgX8KFFr8zw%2B4HPK7XgG2Vqknt8xGGWiCQOqK6hTtqAfeDMsNMS9lOzrd4NoiVcGM2v48HLV%2FbB%2FRS3tWfVh7%2FEoz9e67YHO57EQx36B%2FpzdIZteWOsWjxw5ta

(3) "'Let Them Renounce Themselves and Take up Their Cross': A Feminist Reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's Social and Narrative World," Joanna Dewey, Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2004.   Found online at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526

(4) For more info on "Mother Jones" go to: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526

( 5) From “The Soul In Depression,” on Speaking Of Faith from Public Radio International, airing on Sunday, March 1, 2009. http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/depression/transcript.shtml
 

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2009 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096