{"id":141,"date":"2014-03-03T11:54:41","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T16:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=141"},"modified":"2016-11-11T11:55:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T16:55:44","slug":"on-suffering-what-would-jesus-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/03\/on-suffering-what-would-jesus-do\/","title":{"rendered":"On Suffering: What Would Jesus Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n<\/p>

What is the Christian response to suffering? We can take the question from any number of angles, and in time I\u2019m hoping to hit most of them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thorny \u2014 meaning, \u201cOuch!\u201d \u2014 topic, and as Joe Paprocki observed, it\u00a0always comes up<\/em><\/a>. Sooner or later everyone passes by way of the Cross.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s topic: What do you do when it\u2019s your turn to hang?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m going with the straight-up What Did Jesus Actually Do?<\/strong> answer on this one:<\/p>\n

1. Sweat blood.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus lived a sinless, perfect life.\u00a0 It turns out the sinless, perfect response to the prospect of unspeakable suffering isn\u2019t some kind of happy-clappy, \u201cIt\u2019ll be fine!\u00a0 I love this!\u201d song and dance. By the grace of God, maybe it will be fine.\u00a0 Maybe you will love it.\u00a0 But maybe you won\u2019t.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019ll sweat blood.\u00a0 Par for the course.\u00a0 Not a sign that you\u2019re lacking in faith.<\/p>\n

2. Try to get out of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me.<\/em>\u00a0 Complete abandonment to the will of God does not prelude prayer for deliverance.\u00a0 So long as not my will but yours be done<\/em> is tacked on the end, we\u2019re good. And see \u201csweating blood\u201d above: We can give ourselves over to complete trust in God, and still not think of it all as one big party.\u00a0 If it\u2019s one big party, it\u2019s not suffering.<\/p>\n

3. Fall down.\u00a0 Repeatedly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will God give you more than you can handle?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 He just won\u2019t give you more than He can handle.\u00a0 Sometimes you\u2019ll be laid out so flat the only way you\u2019ll get up is if some Roman comes along and commandeers helpers for you.<\/p>\n

4. Die.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Author of Life is not stuck in the here-and-now. Life on earth as we know it is not our ultimate end.<\/p>\n

Is death good? No.\u00a0 Does it happen to every one of us? Yes.\u00a0 Being Christian, having faith, doing everything right . . . none of that is a free pass out of mortality.<\/p>\n

God can and does frequently intervene to heal, revive, and restore us in our earthly lives.\u00a0 The life of our Lord was one long series of deliverances after another . . . until, one day, it wasn\u2019t anymore.\u00a0 At the end of all things, we pass into eternal life by way of death.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t die because you lack faith.\u00a0 You rise to eternal life because you\u2019ve got it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the Christian response to suffering? We can take the question from any number of angles, and in time I\u2019m hoping to hit most of them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thorny \u2014 meaning, \u201cOuch!\u201d \u2014 topic, and as Joe Paprocki observed, it\u00a0always comes up. Sooner or later everyone passes by way of the Cross. Today\u2019s topic: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,29],"tags":[31,30,33,32],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stick-that-corner","category-suffering","tag-frank-weathers","tag-suffering-2","tag-sweating-blood","tag-what-would-jesus-do"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Suffering: What Would Jesus Do?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the Christian response to suffering? 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