2014 Convention Essay: “Engaging Others with Jesus — In Times of Trial”

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Just 100 years ago, Europe was filled with optimism at the progress of human culture. But this month [June] marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. Faith in human reason is a baseless confidence because human reason cannot fathom the immensity of sin. Thus, times of personal trial come as a shock. All generations of people are subject to trials in their lives. The more people try to avoid suffering, the greater its burden is when trials arrive.
The Problem of Trials
A time of trial shows one’s status as vulnerable to accident, disease, and death. It forces people to see what protection may exist and what resources or “gods” might be called on for help. For whatever we trust in to help is our “god.” And if Christians suffer just like unbelievers, what advantage is it to follow Christ? The basic answer is: trust God, a tension that is a clash of faith and sight.
Dealing with times of trial is one of the most important ways that Christians confess their faith in God, when all human resources cannot help.
There are three basic answers to suffering. First, the stoic approaches suffering with patient endurance, trusting that life will get better. The problem is that stoicism does not address the question, “Why me?” A second answer is “theodicy,” the human attempt to justify God’s action or inaction. If God is almighty, why did He allow suffering? Or if God is not almighty, why believe in Him? Job’s friends declared that Job suffered because he had sinned, for God would not allow such great suffering to happen unless Job deserved it. Humans cannot justify God’s actions, because His ways are higher than theirs (see Isaiah 55:8, 9).
The third answer to suffering is the cross and revelation. This answer requires that one recognize two distinctions: the hidden versus the revealed will of God, and the theology of the cross versus the theology of glory. Human reason loves the theology of glory and seeks to know the hidden will of God. Faith in Christ lives in the theology of the cross and trusts in the revealed word of God.
Human nature desires to look behind what God has revealed to understand suffering. The sinful nature seeks freedom from revealed constraints, resents dependence in trials, and believes it deserves to know God’s ways. Faith trusts that God knows what is right and is content with what He reveals. Therefore, forgiveness of sins is not found in running to the cross, or in remembering Christ’s suffering, but where God has placed forgiveness—in the Gospel and Sacraments.
In the same way, salvation was accomplished under the form of defeat and death on the cross, from which came victory. The theology of the cross points the human sufferer to the God who suffered for the sins of the world. This theology of the cross affects how the Church presents itself to the world in its liturgy, hymns, prayers, and the very architecture of the sanctuary.
Engaging Others in Trials
Engaging others with Jesus in times of trial through the theology of the cross brought changes to pastoral care during the Reformation times. All trials are to be received as times to live in repentance and faith. Since not every trial is a consequence of some sin, pastoral care for the sufferer is an art that determines how to rightly apply Law and Gospel. Repentance is both contrition (sorrow over sin) and faith (trust in Jesus’ work of salvation). Why some become sorry but without faith, and others are contrite and trust in Jesus is a divine mystery that God has not revealed.
Trials and suffering may seem as if God is acting against His people and may lead Christians to struggle with their faith. God’s promises of forgiveness and eternal life are seemingly opposed by experiences of suffering, terrors of conscience, and death. The Psalms contain many examples of lament, the anguish of spirit that asks God, “Why?” (see Psalms 69, 17, 10, 38, 25, 51, 55, 88, 41, 6). These psalms express the tension between God’s promises of mercy and kindness in contrast with the current burden of suffering and sorrow. Christ Himself lamented from the cross by quoting Psalm 22—the paradoxical theology of the cross.
While the Christian wrestles with this paradox between God’s promises and suffering, the unbeliever is confronted with his own mortality and must rely on “gods,” denial of eternity, or stoicism to see him through. The task of the Christian Church is to proclaim God’s Word and be ready to give a defense (1 Peter 3:15). To the sufferer, the Church preaches repentance and remission of sins, as Christ commanded. God will accomplish what He wills through the Word.
Thus, worship services can provide consolation to sufferers through offering Word and Sacraments. Teaching can be done through the hymns, the Psalms, sermons, and prayers, so that the people learn to see suffering, trial, doubt, pain, and death not as extraordinary events, but as part of what it means to live as God’s child here in this world.
Engaging others with Jesus means to show others that Jesus came into the world to address the totality of human life. From conception, to life in this world, to death and resurrection—Jesus has gone through all that people endure. Jesus was bruised for our iniquities and God laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4–6). The hope Jesus gives tempers our sorrow and grief and causes us to cry out to God, pleading that He remembers His promises.
Engaging others means pointing people to the ways that God has provided the Gospel to be given to them—His Word, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the power of the keys in absolution.
Conclusion
While we might find trials to be burdensome, Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). In 2 Corinthians 4:17, St. Paul makes a similar comparison: light affliction versus a weight of glory. Through faith in Jesus, trial helps us see that what is heavy is in reality a “light affliction.” We still suffer pain, but we call on the One who promises never to leave us and who promises to answer our prayers.
A study of the theology of the cross is where our trials meet with God’s hidden ways. A study of vocation, where God calls us to interact with people in the world, provides opportunities to show compassion, to be merciful, to assist those who need help, and to present the Gospel about Jesus and the eternal reality He has given us.
The convention essay by the Rev. Thomas Rank, Scarville, Iowa, was redacted by the editor.