Intimations
of Hope
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the November 26, 2016 Sabbath School Lesson
“At
that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads,
because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke 21:27-28, NIV
Sometimes, when we see attractive people with plenty of
money, apparently good health and traveling the world to exciting or romantic
locations, it is easy to feel that they are blessed with perfect lives. We may
even envy them their charmed lives, especially if we are experiencing life in a
whole different vein. If we are suffering from chronic illness, financial
challenges or spiritual setbacks, we may be tempted to ask, "Why do we
face challenges others do not face?" But this appearance may be illusory.
Recently I asked the members of a Sabbath School class if they would raise
their hands if they have been living a perfect life, free of suffering. No one
raised their hand, and their expressions became troubled as each one recalled
moments of suffering that had touched their lives. Perhaps this is why Job
speaks so powerfully to us even today.
When we suffer, we can feel ourselves right down there
in the dust with Job. We may even have our own set of “Job’s friends” to add to
our suffering with their accusations and arrogant presumption that we deserve
what we are experiencing. But in spite of the accusations, in spite of the
fecklessness of those friends and family whom Job may have presumed would be his
strength in a time of trouble, he never wavered in his faith in God. Even
though his wife apparently gave up on God, Job rebuked her for it.[i] His unshakable faith in
God presaged the words of Paul, the Apostle, who wrote “For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”[ii]
These are words that many of us quote when things are
going well, but can we recite them when on trial, unjustly accused and
condemned, facing hardship and suffering due to the hardheartedness of others?
Can we, as saints, remain faithful when the sun is no longer shining and the
dark clouds close in about us? It is not in times of ease, but in the crucible,
that our faith is most severely tested. The furnace of affliction can reveal
the dross in our lives and give us priorities in line with heaven instead of
this sin-choked, polluted earth, filled with violence from end to end.
Sometimes it seems that evil people and organizations compete with one another
to see who can sweep the most people into the grave and beyond hope of
salvation. Thousands upon thousands die with little more thought given by their
murderers than if they were slaying sheep or cattle. So how do we maintain the
kind of hope that Job had in such a world?
Perhaps the answer can be found in what many consider to
be one of the most hope-filled chapters in the Bible, the Twenty-third Psalm.[iii] Only six short verses,
it was written by David, the Shepherd King. David found a metaphor for our
relationship to God in the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep, a
metaphor that Jesus drew upon as well. As a good shepherd takes care of his
sheep so well that they lack nothing, so God cares for us. Every need is met. But
how is it possible to say that when suffering? Perhaps it is possible because
of how our needs are met. We are led to green pastures where we are well fed
with forage. We are also led to drink from quiet waters and both water and
pasture refresh us. The Bible teaches us that we can count on this care even if
ravens are the ones who bring us our food beside the brook meant to quench our
thirst, as they did for Elijah.[iv]
David goes on to tell us that if we will let Him, God
will guide us in all our steps. We only need to follow His leading. This does
not mean that we will never pass through dark times of sorrow or suffering, but
if we do, and we are following God, He will be right there with us to see us
through the trial. Not even Jesus could avoid passing through trials and
suffering, but He also found that the Father sustained Him in His time of
challenge and temptation. Even in trial we are told that we will be comforted By
God as His shepherd’s rod leads us safely along the way. Though we are
surrounded by our enemies who eagerly seek our ruin, we feast at God’s banquet
table laded with the hopes of the righteous who have found grace in Jesus. At
that banquet we feast on the body of Christ, and drink of His blood which
overflows our cup.[v]
The anointing of the Holy Spirit pours over our heads, ordaining us to service in
the kingdom of God, and through that anointing we become vessels for God’s love
and goodness wherever we go for the rest of our lives, finally to dwell with
God, the angels and the saints forever.
Some may find the idea of eating Christ’s body and
drinking his blood challenging as many did in His day. However, this simply
means that we are to expect nothing more in this world than to receive the same
meal of suffering that Christ received. In doing so, we seek a better reward
that may only come via that experience.[vi] Like Paul and John the
Baptist, Christians are still beheaded for their faith in several countries around
the world, yet nothing has been able to stop the spread of the gospel, the
death of these many martyrs watering the ground with their blood to bring forth
a fresh crop of saints in the very place where their friends and families fell.
As with Stephen, the deacon, who was stoned for his faith, their gaze
penetrates beyond the stark realities of this life to a better hope that
transcends what mortal eye can see.[vii]
But what is that hope that sustained Job and so many
others down through the ages? What is the hope that can sustain us in the face
of trial, persecution and even death? Job saw it as a coming redemption, a
resurrection from the corruption of death. He worded it like this. “I know that
my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my
skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.”[viii] Jesus promised to
return to claim His saints. He said that until then He would be preparing a
place for us.[ix]
We look forward to that day. It is a hope that sustains us through all manner
of trials. We need not worry about what happens to our bodies in this life, as
that carnal vessel will be left behind anyway, to be replaced by a body that
will never see corruption, a body that will last forever.[x] The great Bible translator
John Wycliffe was violently opposed by those who would suppress the word of
God. In a demonstration of how earthly and carnal their focus was, when they
could not destroy his body in life, they dug up his corpse forty-three years
after his death and burned it to ashes, casting those ashes on the river in a
pique of judgment and vengeance.[xi] Little did they realize the
body they burned would mean nothing to Wycliffe in the resurrection. Their
efforts were futile.
In a sense, Job may be the ultimate denial of the importance
of the body in bearing witness to one’s faith. Though his body was filled with
the corruption of disease, yet his faith was more pure than that of his friends.
Often in this life a twisted, diseased, or pain-wracked body contains a heart
of purest gold. Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of faith is how someone
can endure constant, chronic pain and yet find the capacity to show empathy and
compassion for others. But even Jesus, faced with the excruciating torture of
the cross was able to arrange for His mother’s care[xii] and extend forgiveness
to those who had crucified Him.[xiii] This is what hope in
God makes possible. This is the endurance of the saints. It is the hope of what
is to come that gives us the ability to endure in compassionate obedience even
to the point of death. We know that in spite of all appearances that is not the
end. There is something better, and we wait patiently for it while enduring the
present.
