Growing up, I looked forward to Sundays with all of my young heart. Mornings were for church, and afternoons were for hanging out with my bestie, Deborah. We alternated between going to her house after church or mine. On this particular Sunday, it was my turn to host, and Deborah and I changed out of our church clothes and luxuriated in the freedom of a whole afternoon to do whatever we wanted.
We were pre-teens at the time, and our latest obsession was starting our own club. The purpose of this very exclusive club was to share secrets. I’m not sure how this was any different than what we did anyway, but the designation of “club” made it seem much more sophisticated, somehow.
So after enjoying lunch with my family, Deborah and I made our way to my bedroom, where we locked the door and began our somber duties as club members. We were in the depths of baring our souls when all of a sudden, Deborah’s eyes widened as she stared at my bedspread.
“Courtnie, your comforter’s moving!” she exclaimed.
The realization hit me immediately. My brother must be hiding under my bed, getting an earful of our very important secrets.
“CASEY!” I screamed with the wrath only a sister can muster. Sure enough, out from under the bed popped my little brother’s face, a mischievous grin splitting it wide. I marched Casey upstairs and passionately implored my parents to mete out the appropriate consequences for so nefarious an act.
It was a betrayal. A security breach of our most beloved secrets. An act not soon forgotten. Our club was disbanded. Our afternoon ruined. To point out the obvious: this was not a good surprise.
I feel like Peter could relate to not-so-good surprises. I’ve been reading through Mark this month, and his account of Jesus rebuking Peter brought this to my mind. In Mark 8:31, Jesus tells His disciples that He is going to suffer, be killed, and rise again.
We read in verses 32-33: And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Ouch! That rebuke must have silenced Peter for a while, as well as the other disciples. In fact, we read in chapter 9:32 that after Jesus again tells His disciples that He will be killed and will rise again, but they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
Jesus’ claim that He would suffer and die didn’t fit with what so many people were expecting of Him. They expected a Savior, and that He was. But they wanted Him to save them from their worldly oppressors. They wanted Him to be an earthly king. They wanted Jesus to set things right immediately, to fix what they felt was wrong in their society.
Jesus, however, was there to save their souls. Jesus was there to teach them about a heavenly kingdom. What Jesus was offering was infinitely greater than what they were looking for, but it would mean sacrifice and suffering. It would mean that they would suffer more in the moment, not less.
It must have seemed like a bad surprise. An unwelcome revelation. So Peter, loving Jesus and only being able to see as far as he could humanly see, rebuked Jesus. He didn’t want Jesus to suffer. Surely suffering and death couldn’t be on the agenda. And yet it was. It had to be.
Looking back on some of the bad surprises we’ve lived through this past year, we may wish to go back and erase them all. We may want to escape into our fantasy worlds in books or movies. We may wish to go back to the people we were before we walked through suffering.
Maybe this past year has nothing to do with your personal suffering, your worst hardships. Perhaps your chronic pain or heartache has been present for years. How can we find purpose in the pain? How can we not be afraid of suffering or resentful of it?
Paul, who was no stranger to suffering, shares these insightful words in Romans 8:18-39. This is a bit lengthy, but it’s so good because Paul takes us through suffering to the other side, to victory. But we have to walk through the suffering sometimes in order to reach the victory.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We can hear the victory in these last verses, can’t we? But in order to get to this victory, suffering is often necessary. Bad surprises do come to us. But they aren’t the last word. God uses them to further His purposes. And He walks through them with us. Simply put, we have hope.
I want to share more of Paul’s words, this time from Ephesians 1:18, which reads:
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Peter and the other disciples may have been surprised and confused about Jesus’ words, about His mission. But Jesus was never surprised or confused. He knew exactly what His purpose was. There is comfort in knowing that although our world seems rocked by life’s ups and downs, we have a God who is not surprised or confused. We can trust in Him. We can rest in Him.
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