OUR LORD’S HIDDEN LOVE IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH

 

 

We need to be abased before we can be exalted. Consequently, the greatest blessings are often preceded by intense suffering.

 

It was this way with Joseph and Mary. The angel had informed Mary that she would honored by giving birth to the Savior of the world. However, her betrothed had initially rejected her, convinced that she had been adulterous. However, she was vindicated after an angel had revealed to Joseph in a dream that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18-25).

 

Mary had no alternative but to give birth in a smelly, fly-infested animal cave and to wrap her newborn in cloths reserved for the dead. However, Mary’s agony was followed shepherds honoring her and adoring her Child.

 

They had to endure a hasty and dangerous flight to Egypt, where the new family were forced to live for several years as strangers in a strange land (Matthew 2:13-15).

 

They then had to endure returning to Nazareth with a son who must have appeared to have been born out of wedlock.

 

While generations would call her blessed, Mary had to endure the sight of her son tormented by the most excruciatingly torture and death. The mother of God then became a humiliated social reject as the mother of a “deceiver” who had led Israel astray.

 

It was the same for His Apostles who suffered, even martyrdom, to receive the glory of an eternal life with their master. Paul was shown how much he would have to suffer for His Master. He recounted:

 

·       Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:24-28)

 

Even this wasn’t enough. God allowed Satan to afflict Paul, and God refused to heal him, lest Paul would become proud (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). On top of this, history informs us that Paul and most of the Apostles (perhaps even all) had to suffer martyrdom to prove that Christ was more important to them than life itself, for which I am eternally grateful.

 

We should never underestimate what they had suffered for us so that we might be reassured of the truth of the Gospel (Colossians 1:24).

 

Jesus didn’t want to suffer crucifixion (Matthew 26:39), but nothing was able to demonstrate His love for us as was His death on the Cross Romans 5:8-10). Consequently, this was the moment of His greatest glory:

 

·       And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:23-24)

 

His glory was the hour of His greatest humiliation, but of our exaltation. Somehow, they both go together, even in our own lives, where our Lord makes room for blessing by first emptying us through suffering.

 

Surprisingly, even Jesus needed the training of suffering:

 

·       Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect [in His humanity], he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:8-9)

 

This life is filled with groaning:

 

·       For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?…Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:22-24, 26)

 

For now, everything and everyone is groaning. It comforts me to know that our Lord is not robotic. The Spirit is groaning along with us. Even Jesus:

 

·       For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

 

Meanwhile, we are encouraged by Jesus’ example to look beyond the suffering of this life:

 

·       …let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

 

I have found that this journey can only be endured as we proceed in confidence that the Lord is holding our hand, a lesson we must continually relearn, as Paul too had confessed:

 

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

 

These lessons teach us to die to self-trust so that we can live unto God-trust. However, my feelings often do not comply. Amid suffering, I still cry, “Where are you God? You seem to be so far from helping me.” Yet, I can remember how He has, on so many occasions, rescued me from the fires and, therefore, recommit to trust in Him as the fires promise to completely consume me.