Life with Jesus
Life with Jesus Part 4: When Darkness Falls
I once heard the story of a young preacher who was asked by the town’s funeral director to conduct a gravesite service. Being new to the community, the pastor headed out to the cemetery but made several wrong turns and found himself lost. Consequently, he arrived half an hour late to the service. Pulling into the cemetery, the funeral director was nowhere to be found. However, the pastor saw a two workmen sitting nearby a hole in the ground eating lunch. The pastor walked over to the hole and saw what he assumed was a burial vault that had already been closed. Taking out his Bible, the pastor read Scripture, prayed, and offered a blessing of committal. When the pastor finished, he returned to his car when he overheard one of the workmen say to his partner, “Do you think we should tell the poor guy it’s a septic tank?”
The moral of the story is that death stinks. (My wife claims that so, too, does this joke.) Yes, I realize there are times when death is welcomed, particularly when a person is suffering. Death can be a friend in such instances. Yet more often than not, death comes as an uninvited guest. Death is a specter that creates nightmares and unsettles the human soul.
Our collective fear of death prompted David to write the words: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” (Psalm 23:4, KJV). For David, death holds over us little power. Death is no more a threat to us than a shadow. Death, however, can cast an enormous cloud over our emotions.
What’s more is that death comes in many different forms. Consider divorce. Divorce is really the death of a relationship. What about failure? Failure often leads to the death of a dream. Ask someone who deals with depression. Depression kills one’s sense of joy. How about rejection? Rejection can destroy a person’s sense of self-worth. Death is a pall of many shades.
Yet, David offers five of the most powerful words in Scripture: For you are with me. I fear no evil will come to me, in divorce, through failure, when depressed and rejected, for I am not alone. David believed there is extraordinary power in God’s presence with us.
However, note what David didn’t say. David didn’t say, “I will fear no evil because there is no such thing as evil.” Nor did David say, “I fear no evil because I’m a good person and bad things aren’t supposed to happen to good people” (which, of course, is a lie). Even Jesus claimed that God “sends rain on the just and the unjust” alike (Matthew 5:45, NLT). Besides, expecting the world to treat you fairly because you’re a good person is like expecting a bull not to run you over just because you’re a vegetarian.
The promise God does make is that when you inevitably come face-to-face with pain and injustice you do not have to face these adversaries alone. Personally, I never recognized just how powerful God’s presence can be until I came across this scientific study out of a university in California. Years ago, researchers invited several dozen students to measure just how long they could keep their bare feet immersed in a bucket of ice water. One of the findings of this study reported that when there was another person in the room, individuals could keep their feet in the bucket nearly twice as long as those who had to endure the pain alone. The “ah-ha” moment came when it was learned that the presence of one person could literally double the amount of suffering another person can endure. Now, if the presence of a human being can double the resolve of another human being, how much more can the presence of a Superhuman Being exponentially increase your capacity to perseveres no matter what life throws your way!
Paul the Apostle claimed to have suffered severe physical beatings, armed robbery, physical hunger, nakedness, homelessness, and loneliness. Yet, Paul could look at death by these thousands of cuts and ask, ”Who shall separate [me] from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…No, in all these things [I] am more than a conqueror through him who loved us (Romans 8:35&37, NIV).
When David said that he could handle whatever evils may come his way, David was essentially saying, “God is with me. God is on my side, not the side of my failure. God is in my corner, not the corner of illness. God has my back, not the back of my misfortune.” The great author, Rabbi Abraham Herschel, once wrote, “The world would be a dark place for me if not for the knowledge that God listens when I cry.” God may not choose to change your circumstances or eliminate evil or make the problem go away. But, God is the One who will strengthen you for the challenge, grant you wisdom in the face of dilemma, and offer you courage to back down your foe.
What I am sharing with you is an essential message of the cross. In no uncertain terms, the cross is the greatest reminder that Jesus is present with you, as well as participates with you, in your suffering. When you are cut, Jesus bleeds with you. When you cry, He captures your tears in a bottle (see Psalm 56:8, NLT). When you shudder, He stiffens your spine. The prophet, Isaiah claims that as the Messiah Jesus “has bourne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). On the cross, Jesus carried the world’s suffering. On the cross, the Giver of the Law was dealt an injustice. On the cross, the Living Water became thirsty. On the cross, the Lion of Judah was slaughtered like a lamb.
Those of you who have watched Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of Christ, can attest to the brutal treatment Jesus no doubt received. Astonishingly, Jesus chose to feel every measure of torture inflicted upon him. In Mark’s gospel, the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus offered him a cup of wine mixed with myrrh (see 15:23). This was a drink commonly given to dull the excruciating pain when the nails were driven through the hands and feet. Yet the Scripture claims that Jesus refused any narcotic relief the drugged wine may have offered him. Instead, Jesus chose to feel all the pain.
Why? Why would Jesus choose to suffer so? It’s simple. So, that he could fully identify with your suffering. The writer of Hebrews claimed that because Jesus “was touched with the feeling of our infirmities” he is now able to empathize with us in our struggles (Hebrews 4:15). To empathize doesn’t just mean that Jesus understands our pain. The promise is that Jesus participates with us in our pain. The mystery of the cross is that not only were our sins placed upon Jesus, so too, were our sufferings. At Calvary, Jesus bore both our transgressions and our trials.
Fifteen years ago, a young father was killed in a single vehicle crash. The accident occurred across the road from an old farm house. When the farmer heard the horrific sound of crunching metal, he rushed out to the damaged car. The young father was still alive, barely. In a frail tone, the accident victim asked the farmer, “Did you see him? Did you see Jesus sitting next to me?” The farmer replied, “The passenger seat is empty.” “But, he was just here,” the father whispered. “Jesus was in the accident with me.”
The farmer substantiated this story with me prior to the funeral for the young dad. When I first heard what happened, l will admit to you that I was skeptical. Then a thought rose to my mind. Jesus delegates many tasks to his church. He delegates the responsibilities of evangelism, mission, and discipleship. Yet the one task Jesus reserves for himself is to meet his people at death’s doorstep and lead them to their heavenly home. Given such knowledge, no follower of Christ must ever fear dying alone.
And, given the struggles of today’s world, you no doubt have been or are presently bearing the death of rejection, the death of sorrow, the death of guilt, the death of grief, or a thousand other deaths, too many to name. Yet as you gaze upon the cross today, I pray you will hear the voice of Jesus saying, “Give it all to me. Give me your brokenness. Give me your burning memories. Give me your distress. Allow my wounds to touch and heal yours.”