Tawa Baptist

Brothers

Scripture: Genesis 4:1-16

Title: Brothers

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s grace for Cain
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Yesterday was ANZAC Day – NZ’s national day of remembrance for war veterans

  • 2015 also marks 100 years since Australian and NZ troops landed at Gallipoli during the First World War
  • Gallipoli is something of a sacred memory in the hearts & minds of New Zealanders and Australians
  • Some say it is where we forged our identity
  • In reality though Gallipoli was a military disaster for both sides, with over 100,000 men killed in total and many more wounded

A lot is made of Gallipoli, in NZ & Australia at least, but we don’t hear much about the Armenian genocide which happened around the same time

The Armenian Genocide was the Ottoman Empire’s systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects from their historic homeland within the territory of present-day Turkey.

  • The starting date of the genocide is conventionally held to be the 24th of April 1915, the day before the ANZAC’s landed at Gallipoli
  • Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as the Assyrians and Ottoman Greeks were also targeted for extermination [1]
  • It is thought that more than 3.5 million people (Armenians, Assyrians & Greeks) were killed over a 30 year period. [2]  That is a lot of death
  • One can’t help wondering if the genocide might have been less extensive had the ANZAC troops succeeded at Gallipoli

Why am I telling you this?

  • Well this morning, in view of the ANZAC’s and the Armenians, our message looks back to the first known murder in Genesis 4
  • On the surface this story appears to be about Cain killing his brother Abel
  • But looking a little deeper we see it also has something to say about God’s grace. From Genesis chapter 4, verse 1 we read…

4 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.’ 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’ 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ 10 The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.’ 13 Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’ 15 But the Lord said to him, ‘Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.’ Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

God’s grace for Cain

About 17 or 18 years ago now, when we lived in Tauranga, I was at the hair dressers getting my hair cut

  • In the course of the conversation it came out that I was a Christian – at which point the hairdresser went very quiet for a few moments before telling me she couldn’t believe in God because so many wars had been caused by religion
  • Perhaps she really believed what she was saying or perhaps it was just an excuse to avoid the inconvenience God creates – I don’t know
  • But there is a perception among many people that religion is responsible for war

To my mind this is not a very accurate way to think about it

  • Saying that ‘religion is responsible for war’ is like saying ‘wood is responsible for forest fires’
  • Yes, the wood of religion can fuel the fire of war but it isn’t the tree which strikes the match
  • Sadly some people hijack religion for evil ends

Although Cain doesn’t exactly hijack religion in Genesis 4, the context of his murder of Abel is religious

  • Abel kept flocks and Cain grew crops
  • Cain brought some of his crops as an offering to the Lord
  • And Abel brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock
  • These offerings were not for the forgiveness of sins
  • They were an act of worship – an acknowledgement that God was their boss, the one in charge, the one responsible for their crops and flocks

Verses 4 & 5 tell us that the Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour.

It is unclear what the text means exactly by “God’s favour”

  • What is clear is that Cain was upset to miss out on it
  • As most people know, if you have a group of children and you don’t treat them all the same then there will be protest…
  • “That’s not fair – why did he get two scoops of ice-cream when I only got one?”

So why did God show favour to Abel and not to Cain?

  • Was it because there was something wrong with Cain’s offering?
  • Some people over the centuries have suggested that God favoured Abel’s sacrifice because it involved the shedding of blood, while Cain’s didn’t
  • But that idea doesn’t really wash – later in the Bible God condones and even prescribes grain offerings, so it can’t have anything to do with blood
  • Others point out that Abel’s sacrifice included the fat portions of some of the first born of the flock while Cain’s offering gets no special mention, which might suggest that Cain’s grain was substandard
  • Possibly, but the text of Genesis 4 doesn’t actually criticise Cain’s offering

It seems to me a mistake to make God’s favour dependent on Cain’s (or Abel’s) sacrifice – after all, God’s favour is not earned, it is given

  • Neither Cain’s (nor Abel’s) offerings were adequate in themselves to earn God’s favour
  • As the song goes, were the whole realm of nature mine, would be an offering far too small [3]

 

Jesus told a parable about some workers who were hired by a land owner at different stages of the day

  • When it came to the end of the day the land owner paid everyone the same amount, whether they had worked all day or just the last hour
  • When those who had worked all day realised this they grumbled against the land owner, but he answered them…

‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for what I paid you? Take your wages and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’    [4]

God is free to show favour to whoever he wants

  • That doesn’t make God unfair – it just makes him generous
  • And if Cain is to become angry & envious due to God’s generosity then that tells us pretty clearly, the problem is with Cain, not with God

 

The writer to the Hebrews (in the New Testament) says…

  • By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did… [5]
  • This indicates that faith is the key issue, more than the offering itself
  • Abel made his offering in good faith (trusting God) and God credited his faith as righteousness
  • Whereas Cain made his offering in a way that somehow lacked faith

In verses 6 & 7 the Lord says to Cain…

  • ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’

God’s message to Cain seems to be…

  • You have a choice between reconciliation and alienation
  • Between peace and anger – choose reconciliation, choose peace
  • Face the problem and put things right before it is too late
  • We often think of God’s grace as the ambulance at the bottom of a cliff (fixing us up after we have crashed)
  • But here God’s grace (for Cain) is a warning sign at the top of the cliff

We are reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5…

  • Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. 

Sadly Cain ‘yields to the waiting rage’ [6]

  • As Derek Kidner points out, ‘…while Eve had been talked into her sin [by the serpent], Cain will not have even God talk him out of it…’ [7]

Verse 8 tells us how Cain responded to God – by inviting his brother (Abel) out into the field and killing him

  • There is no wrestling with his conscience – just cold blooded, premeditated murder
  • Cain is angry because God has not accepted his offering so he destroys one made in God’s image
  • This murder reveals Cain’s lack of faith

Fortunately the way of Cain is not the only option available to us when it seems that God has rejected our offering

  • Let me tell you the true story of a man who offered himself for missionary service only to be turned down, twice

Paul Brand was the son of a missionary couple

  • Like his parents he also aspired to mission work and trained as a carpenter in the hope of travelling overseas to build schools and hospitals in the name of Jesus (as his father had done before him)
  • After completing his apprenticeship Paul approached J.B. Collin, the president of the mission council, and asked to be accepted for service in India
  • But despite being a ‘missionary kid’ and despite having carpentry skills Paul was judged unready for the kind of work the mission required
  • He was told he needed more preparation
  • Paul Brand writes, “I was crushed. God’s will had seemed so clear to me and now this key person was standing in my way.” [8]

Cain would have killed the mission director but not Paul Brand

  • After a short period of figuring things out he enrolled in medical school, counting his four years in the building industry a waste of time
  • Then, on completing his general medical training, Dr Paul Brand presented himself once again to the mission board
  • And once again he was turned down
  • This time the interference came from the Central Medical War Committee of Great Britain
  • They rejected his application to work in a mission hospital on the border of Nepal and instead ordered him into the bomb casualty clearing services in London (this was during the Blitz of World War 2)
  • Dr Brand continues his own story…

“Impatiently biding my time during the forced delay, I studied for higher qualifications in the field of surgery. Twice my good plans had been stymied, once by a wise and godly mission administrator and once by a secular committee of bureaucrats. Each time I had felt shaken and confused. Had I somehow misread God’s will for my life?”  [9]

As it turned out, those rejections and set backs were God’s hand directing Dr Brand’s life

  • Eventually Dr Bob Cochrane in India convinced the Central Medical War Committee to assign Paul Brand to a new medical college in Vellore, India, where Dr Brand received a call from God to work with leprosy patients
  • His carpentry skills became invaluable both as an orthopaedic surgeon and in setting up a carpentry workshop for his patients
  • God doesn’t waste anything

Just because God doesn’t accept your offering the first time, doesn’t mean he is finished with you

  • If Cain had had the faith to keep trusting God, when his offering had not been accepted, imagine the good God might have brought from it

It’s striking, isn’t it, that God doesn’t stop Cain

  • While God does warn Cain, he doesn’t control Cain
  • God does not interfere with human free will, even when the choices we make are destructive
  • By the same token God also holds us to account for the choices we make
  • Freedom always comes with responsibility

As Walter Brueggemann writes…

  • “The story would have Cain discover that life with the brother is not lived in a void but in relation to God…
  • …whoever violates the brother must face God”  [10]

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’

  • ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’

 

Cain lies to God – denying any responsibility – he is without remorse

  • God’s response, from verse 10, makes it clear that, yes, we are supposed to be our brother’s (and sister’s) keeper
  • Looking out for each other is part of what it means to be human

 

10 The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.’

 

Abel’s death affects God – it moves Him

  • God is concerned for justice for Abel, so there is a consequence for Cain
  • But the punishment is not ‘an eye for an eye’ or ‘a life for a life’
  • God does not kill Cain here
  • The punishment is somewhat less than the crime deserves
  • The Sensible Sentencing Trust would not be pleased
  • God shows mercy to Cain as well as to Adam & Eve who would have lost two sons if God had chosen to kill Cain

In a word the punishment is exile

  • This was a punishment the Jewish people were all too familiar with
  • To be exiled is to lose almost everything
  • In exile a person loses their family, their home, their land, their work, their routines and consequently their security
  • The prospect of exile is frightening

From verse 13 Cain’s words reveal what is in his heart

  •  ‘My punishment is more than I can bear…’
  • “Cain responds with self-pity instead of repentance…” [11]
  • He talks about God driving him from the land when in fact it is Cain’s own actions which alienate him

Cain has lost touch with the truth and so he adds to what God has said…

  • ‘…whoever finds me will kill me’
  • This  reveals Cain’s fear
  • He is more afraid of other people than he is of God
  • To fear the Lord is to have an accurate perception of reality – to know in your heart of hearts that God is more powerful than anything else
  • To fear the Lord is to be more concerned with what God thinks than with what other people think
  • ‘Faith in God’ and ‘fear of the Lord’ are two sides of the same coin
  • To fear the Lord is to know Him and to trust Him

Despite the fact that Cain shows no remorse for what he has done and no ‘fear of the Lord’, God (in his remarkable grace) still promises to take care of him

  • God puts a mark on Cain so that no one would kill him
  • We don’t know what that mark was, much less whether some people still carry that mark today, but that’s beside the point
  • The point is: God’s concern for justice (for the innocent) is matched by his grace for sinners

We see God’s grace for Cain throughout Genesis 4

  • Firstly, God tried to persuade Cain to reconcile
  • And when Cain ignored God’s warning and murdered Abel, God showed mercy to Cain
  • God did not take Cain’s life but instead protected him and gave him descendants of his own who made all sorts of advancements in technology and industry

When we reflect on the Bible as a whole we notice that Cain is not the only killer that God extended his grace to

  • Moses, Samson, David and the apostle Paul, to name a few
  • All killers at some point in their life and yet used by God, but not without  being broken, humbled and purified in the process
  • God is gracious in a way that fills us with wonder if we pause long enough to think about it

 

Conclusion:

There is so much violence in our world today – the spirit of Cain seems alive and well

  • But it won’t always be that way
  • Listen to what the prophet Isaiah says about the future
  • A note of hope to finish with…

In the last days…

  • The Lord will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
  • Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.  [12]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide

[2] Barnabasaid magazine for March/April 2015, page 8.

[3] Line from the hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’

[4] Matthew 20:13-15

[5] Hebrews 11:4

[6] Refer Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 62.

[7] From Derek Kidner’s commentary on Genesis, page 74.

[8] From Philip Yancey’s book, ‘Stories for the Soul’, pages 69-73.

[9] Ibid

[10] From Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 61.

[11] Refer Bruce Waltke’s commentary on Genesis, page 98.

[12] Isaiah 2:4-5

Tawa Baptist

Pain

Scripture: Psalm 38

Title: Pain

Structure:

  • Introduction – handle the jandle
  • Pain
  • Conclusion

Introduction – handle the jandle:

Good morning everyone

  • So this is different – at least I’m wearing the same shirt

There is a saying in kiwi culture: ‘handle the jandle’

  • It basically means something like, ‘man up and take your medicine’
  • Take the suffering and the pain and the punishment that is coming your way whether it is fair or not

For those who don’t know, a jandle is a piece of footwear worn in summer – sometimes called flip flops or thongs, depending on where you come from

  • They are like a cut down version of a sandle and, because they are made out of rubber, were sometimes used by parents for hitting their children across the back of the legs, if the child had done something wrong
  • These days of course it is illegal to hit children but the saying has stuck and now handle the jandle is kiwi idiom for facing something unpleasant

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter, remembering Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, as well as his resurrection from the dead

  • One of the things that Jesus said to his disciples before he suffered and died was, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it…”   [1]

Jesus is basically saying here – if you want to follow me, then you have to handle the jandle

  • You’ve got to be prepared for some pain, discomfort & misunderstanding

Please turn with me to the back of your newsletter where you will find Psalm 38

  • Psalm 38 is the prayer of a man in a great deal of pain – a man who is having to handle the jandle. From verse 1 we read…

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2 Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. 3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;     there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. 4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.

5 My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. 6 I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. 7 My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. 8 I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.

9 All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. 11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;

my neighbours stay far away. 12 Those who want to kill me set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they scheme and lie.

13 I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; 14 I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply. 15 Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God. 16 For I said, “Do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.”

17 For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. 18 I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. 19 Many have become my enemies without cause;     those who hate me without reason are numerous. 20 Those who repay my good with evil lodge accusations against me,     though I seek only to do what is good.

21 Lord, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. 22 Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Saviour

May the Lord bless the reading of his word

Pain:

Over the summer holidays I injured my leg – ripped my calf muscles apart by 14 cm’s

  • It was quite painful – not the worst pain I’ve experienced but bad enough to stop me moving freely for about 3 weeks or so

Although my injury wasn’t all that terrible (compared to what some people go through) I had lots of time to think and consider the effects of pain

  • Pain is a universal human experience
  • In Psalm 38, David has quite a bit to say about the subject

Firstly, pain tells us the truth – that something is wrong

  • If we are hurting, whether it is physical or emotional we need to know why
  • Although the doctor couldn’t do anything much to take my pain away it still helped having a diagnosis

In Psalm 38 David’s conscience diagnosed the cause of his pain as punishment from God for something he had done wrong. In verses 2 – 5 we read…

  • Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. 4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. 5 My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.

If we experience the physical pain of illness or injury, and also happen to believe in God, then it is natural to ask ourselves, is this some sort of punishment or correction from God?

  • After all, pain demands an explanation

In my own situation I certainly asked myself what God’s purpose may have been in lessening my enjoyment on holiday

  • I wasn’t aware of any sins that God might be punishing me for
  • So either I had become blind to my sin and God was wanting to get my attention – to show me there was something wrong in my life
  • Or my injury had nothing to do with God – it was simply the consequence of getting older
  • Then again it could be one of those unpleasant experiences which we don’t necessarily deserve (or understand) but which God uses for good

The point is, whenever we suffer loss or pain we look for some kind of meaning to redeem (or at least explain) the situation

  • It was a busy year last year and I was becoming a bit hurried on the inside
  • Perhaps God used the enforced rest to slow me down a bit – perhaps that’s the positive I take from it?
  • I’m not sure, we don’t know what we don’t know

In David’s case though, he certainly was aware of some moral or spiritual failing and considered his illness a punishment from God

  • In verse 18 David says he is troubled by his sin
  • We may not always be as troubled by our sin as we should be
  • We may excuse ourselves by saying, “Everyone else does it so it’s not that bad”, or we might say, “I was just having a bad day” when in fact our ‘bad days’ have become the norm, rather than the exception

Guilt and shame are often dismissed in our time and culture as unhelpful residues of a by-gone era – something from the dark ages

  • But actually the pain of guilt and shame (when these are appropriately placed) is a good thing

Shame is like a concrete median barrier on a highway – it prevents us from crossing over into the wrong lane and causing an accident

  • Society needs people to feel ashamed about crossing certain lines where those things are wrong – like stealing or bullying or whatever

In a similar vein, guilt can also be a good thing, when it is appropriately placed

  • Guilt is like a stone in the shoe of our conscience – it creates the discomfort needed to move us to repentance
  • David handles the jandle of his guilt by confessing his sin to God and changing his ways

Obviously shame & guilt can be misplaced

  • Nothing is gained by making people feel ashamed simply for being alive
  • That would be like putting the median barrier across the road so the traffic smashed into it
  • Likewise once the stone of guilt has been removed from the shoe of our conscience we throw the stone away – no need to hold on to it
  • Much less reason to look for larger stones of guilt to carry around with us

As I’ve already alluded to, not all pain can be explained as punishment from God

  • Job suffered a great deal of pain although he had done nothing to deserve it – and in his pain he demanded an explanation from God but God did not give him one – although he did restore Job in the end
  • Sometimes we don’t know why it hurts – it just does
  • Even though Job didn’t get an explanation he was changed through the experience – he received a new orientation
  • His faith became better able to cope with the mystery of God

Returning to Psalm 38, as well as the mental pain of guilt and the physical pain of ill health David is also conscious of the social pain of isolation

  • Verse 11: My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbours stay far away.
  • People don’t know how to be around pain – it hurts too much to watch others suffer

Pain is a prison – it separates us from the ones we love and it limits our freedom, but it can also protect us

  • In the case of my leg, pain stopped me from moving and forced me to stay still
  • But this staying still protected me – it prevented me from causing any further damage to myself and gave my muscles time to heal

It was interesting to hear Bernie speak a couple of weeks’ ago about her trip to Nepal with the Leprosy Mission

  • I imagine for people with leprosy the prison of pain is different
  • Because they don’t always have feeling in certain parts of their body they don’t have the sensation of physical pain to protect them
  • And because they are often excluded from main stream society they also experience the social pain of isolation
  • It seems they miss out on the upside of pain   Now in saying that ‘pain is a prison’ there comes a point when you need to break out of the prison
  • Rest is helpful to the healing process, at least initially, but eventually we need some physio to get moving again
  • In my situation physio meant stretching & strengthening exercises which were painful at first but which did bring freedom  We might think of Jesus’ words about picking up our cross and following him as a kind of spiritual physio which leads us to freedom
  • We live in a time and place in history when we are anxious to eliminate all pain – we have a prejudice (or a mind set) against suffering
  • But actually the right kind of pain, at the right time and in the right dose is good for the soul
  • Pain purifies our thinking – it keeps us honest, stripping away all illusion
  • Pain wipes the slate of our mind clean
  • If we look at Psalm 38 as a whole we realise that David is totally absorbed with his pain – he can’t think of anything else
  • When you are in deep pain for a long time your mind finds it difficult to entertain any other thoughts

According to legend, St Benedict of Nursia cast himself into a thorn bush while naked, to escape the wily temptation of a woman.

  • Benedict seemed to understand that the pain of picking out thorns for days on end would occupy his thoughts and thus prevent his mind from going down a path he didn’t want it to go

Now I’m not suggesting you throw yourself into a gorse bush every time you get the hot’s for someone

  • I don’t think it is healthy to inflict pain on ourselves
  • But nor is it healthy to numb all our pain – sometimes we need to feel uncomfortable
  • Taking pain is like eating vegetables – we may not enjoy it but, in the right measure, it can be good for us

So far, in looking at Psalm 38, we have explored…

  • The physical pain of ill health
  • The mental pain of guilt
  • And the social pain of isolation
  • Hand in hand with the physical, mental and social, comes emotional pain
  • In verse 8 David writes …I groan in anguish of heart.
  • And in verse 10 …my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes (sounds to me like David is describing the symptoms of grief – that emotional heart ache combined with a loss of energy and enjoyment)
  • Pain is a thief – it robs us of motivation and pleasure

So how does David handle the jandle of emotional pain?

  • Well, by giving expression to it – Pain requires expression
  • In verse 9 David says, All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.
  • In other words, David gives voice to his hurt in prayer to God
  • He lets God know what he is feeling and what he wants
  • Jesus did this in the Garden of Gethsemane – the night before his crucifixion and death
  • In that situation Jesus found it necessary to deal with the mental & emotional aspects of his pain before confronting the physical & social
  • He made sure the inside of the cup was clean (in private) before facing the public

We must give voice to our pain – if we don’t it will build up inside us creating a pressure which is impossible to contain – like napalm

  • We might play the glad game in public for the sake of others (so we don’t burden them) but we still need to do our groaning and sighing in private
  • Otherwise some poor unsuspecting soul will wear it
  • Hurt people hurt people

It needs to be said that while giving voice to our pain offers some relief – it is not the whole remedy – God is our healer

  • We need God to make things new again
  • Sometimes God heals quickly but more often than not his healing takes time
  • Even after we have healed though pain leaves a scar on our memory
  • Pain increases our sensitivity so we are more careful in future

If the physical, mental, emotional and social pain is not bad enough, to top it all off, David is also in touch with the pain of being misunderstood and having no response for his enemies – we might call this the pain of injustice

  • ­Whatever sins David may have committed against God he has done nothing against those who are out to get him. From verse 12 David says,
  • Those who want to kill me set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they scheme and lie.
  • 13 I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak;
  • And in verses 19 & 20: Many are those who… hate me without reason… who slander me when I pursue good.

Here David is the picture of vulnerability

  • David is like the deaf, in the sense that people are saying all sorts of nasty things about him behind his back
  • And because he is not part of the conversation he is like the mute – he has no opportunity to defend himself – he can offer no reply
  • But even if he could, what good would it do?
  • The more we try to defend ourselves the more guilty we seem to others

Conclusion:

I’m not sure what pain you have experienced in your life

  • The physical pain of illness or injury no doubt
  • The emotional pain of loss
  • The mental pain of guilt & regret
  • Or perhaps the social pain of rejection
  • In some ways we develop a higher tolerance for pain as we get older
  • But in other ways it takes us longer to recover
  • Whatever form our pain may take I believe God feels it with us
  • Our pain leaves a scar on God’s memory too

We don’t ‘handle the jandle’ on our own – we handle it in the knowledge that Christ has gone before us

  • In some mysterious way (which words can’t explain) our suffering connects us to Christ and his suffering connects us to God
  • In fact Jesus suffered our pain in our place
  • As the prophet Isaiah writes…

 

He was despised and rejected by mankind,     a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces     he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

 

 

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, thank you for the gift of pain in right measure

  • By your grace use our suffering to bring us closer to you
  • And when we have suffered enough heal our hurt that we would be free of bitterness and fit for heaven. Amen.

[1] Matthew 16:24-25