“Mommy! Timmy’s being a pest again! He’s lying down on our game board so we can’t play!”
I don’t always get up and do something about it when my kids tattle. Sometimes, I merely explain to the offended party that it’s normal for boys to make noises like that and not something she can tattle about; or that that’s the response the child should expect when he or she starts something and therefore can’t complain; or that sometimes in life, you just have to let things go (which, depending on how I phrase it, might cause one or more children to burst into song).
This time, however, 4-year-old Timmy had been pestering his sisters for quite awhile. He’d been warned that he’d better be good or else. Now, it was time to make good on my promise.
I got up and headed for the living room. Timmy saw me coming, and he quickly scrambled to his feet. “I’m just going to my room,” he said, edging past me.
Obviously, Timmy wanted to avoid the consequences he feared were coming.
I can’t really blame him for that. Nobody likes unpleasant consequences. We do everything we can to avoid them, even when we know we deserve them.
But today, and especially this week, I’d like us to consider Someone Who didn’t try to avoid some horrific consequences, despite the fact that He was totally innocent.
I’m talking, of course, about Jesus. But I may be making a different point than you’ve ever heard before (I hadn’t heard it before, either, until this Sunday’s sermon), so stick with me.
We all know that through most of His sham of a trial, Jesus said nothing to defend Himself. Perhaps, like me, you’ve always assumed that Jesus said nothing because He knew it wouldn’t do any good, or because He had decided to demonstrate amazing self-control, or because He was “better than that.” All of those things are true, of course. But there was another reason Jesus remained silent that we would do well to consider.
One of the (I believe) primary reasons Jesus remained silent and refused to defend Himself was that He wanted the consequences to happen.
Though He was sinless and deserved no punishment, He was well aware of two things: first, that one consequence of His trial would be crucifixion; and second, that the crucifixion had to happen. So He kept silent precisely to bring about the consequences He never deserved, but which God the Father had decreed must take place.
He embraced what had already begun to happen to Him because He wanted it to happen. It’s not that He thought it would be fun. Quite the opposite, in fact—He knew it would be agonizing. But He wanted the results of His crucifixion more than He wanted to avoid the pain of it.
He wanted to gain His Father’s approval and the salvation of the world more than He wanted to maintain His physical comfort.
How does this pertain to you and me? Simply this: We sometimes need to desire the consequences of what is happening more than we desire to avoid the pain of it.
It all comes down to what we want most. Would we rather have a pain-free life, or would we rather experience the intimacy with Jesus that comes from walking through pain?
I’m not suggesting that we should desire pain. That’s just…no. What I’m saying is, that when we do experience unavoidable pain, instead of running from it or trying to eliminate it as soon as possible, we’d do far better to embrace it and let it guide us to spiritual depth, growth, and intimacy that wouldn’t have been possible without it.
But to do that, we have to feel pain. We have to be willing to face it, not turn our backs on it. And that’s scary. Nobody likes to be hurt. Nobody wants to feel pain one second longer than she has to. So we try to make it go away, because we think we have the option of either feeling the pain and being miserable, or feeling no pain and being happier.
In reality, the choice is not allowing pain to make us miserable vs. being happy. The choice is between letting God guide us through the pain so that we heal in some deeper way than we ever knew possible, and gain a closeness to God that we never would have had otherwise; or stuffing the pain down deep and never being truly happy again.
Again, I’m neither saying that we should seek or desire pain, nor that we shouldn’t seek comfort and counsel when we suffer. I’m saying that when pain comes, as it surely will in every single person’s life, we should let it do its work in us, let it bring us to a deeper and more joy-filled place than we would have been by trying to avoid it.
Trying to avoid pain doesn’t really work, anyway. So let’s not deny ourselves the good things God can bring out of it. Let’s follow the example of our Lord, who embraced the pain of what was happening, knowing that glory and joy awaited Him on the other side.
Romans 8:18—I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (NIV)
Hebrews 12:2b—For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (NIV)