Isaiah 53: 3-6

My husband came back from Haiti last Saturday, just in time for us to celebrate the New Year together. I am smiling while writing this because rolling in the New Year together is not much of a tradition for us. We usually cuddle up on the couch and then quickly turn the channel to watch the ball drop - if we are still awake. And we also do not usually make resolutions, but we somewhat did the next morning. There was a newness to this New Year. Maybe there was more of a newness to our family. This New Year's Eve, my husband and I cuddled up on the couch and looked at pictures from his trip to Haiti while he told me stories about his trip. He told me how exhausting it was to work as long and as hard as they did, but how proud he was that they completed their goals. He also told me about the people he met. There was a guy who acted as a guard at night and then helped to build the community center during the day. Jon wasn't sure if or when he slept. He told me about meeting our sweet Maceline, the girl who we've been sponsoring. He said she was quiet and shy and so sweet. He thinks that she does not have 10 other siblings like we originally thought, but maybe other relatives living with them, which makes me even more amazed at her mama. He also told me about this kid he met, who looked around 13 but is actually 18. He could not finish school because he did not pass a test and did not have the money to retake it. He was always there to help work and was never looking for a hand out. Jon decided that we would sponsor his education as well. He told me how the women and some of the children would walk 4 miles down a mountain to get water and then bring it back on their heads - for them! He told me how easy it was to feel loved and accepted by the team and the people in the Chaufford community. They all worked together so well and appreciated each other so much. There were so many more stories that would take way too long to type now, but all of them were so heartwarming. We still turned on the tv to watch the ball drop and then gave each other our midnight kiss. However, the next morning, things were a little different. After breakfast, Jon talked to the kids about his trip a little. He read some scripture and then we talked about what we could do to grow closer to Christ this year. We agreed to read the bible more, pray more, be more loving and patient with each other, and to try to find ways to minister to others outside of our home. Our 10 year old came up with most of those.What a beautiful start to the new year!

 We then listened to a sermon. It was on Isaiah 53: 3-6.
³ 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.

What a passage. That really puts things into perspective a week after Christmas. The pastor went on to explain how Jesus' suffering brought healing to the whole world and that Jesus asks us to suffer like Him and to serve like Him. Yes, that is the whole meaning of Christmas, isn't it? The manger points us to the cross. Jesus took on our sin and our transgressions so that we may be healed. He then calls us to be servants like Him, who are willing to suffer for His causes. The pastor goes on to say that we are invited to become a people of God and to suffer for Christ in ways that we've never thought of before. I was a little tired at this point in the sermon after our late night of pictures and stories, but I fought to pay attention and to listen to the ways that God is calling me to be more like Him. I know how desperately I want and need to be like Him. So, the ways the pastor says we might suffer are to use our ten year old car for another year so that we can save money and give to the poor or visit a sick friend, but if we don't have time to visit, then email or text or something to let them know that we are thinking of them. Another way we are told to suffer is to invite a divorced friend over for wine or to a show instead of always doing things with other couples. Smiling at the cashier at the store might be another way to be more Christlike. Hmm, I don't know that I would call these things suffering. The pastor went on to say that these things are not spectacular, nothing like what was required for the Jews in Babylon or the Bonhoeffers in Germany, but that is not where God has placed us. God has us where He has us and we should be healers to the people in our lives. I have to say, I was a little disappointed at this take on what it means to suffer for Christ. I wonder if maybe God has placed us in similar places as the Jews in Babylon and the Bonhoeffers in Germany, but maybe we don't acknowledge it. Maybe if we just look past our day to day, we can see the suffering that so many people are feeling and that we are called to step into.

Now, I do not want to come across judgmental, it's just that when I read those verses about how Christ was pierced for my transgressions and crushed for my iniquities, I felt stirred to do more than simply keep my old car for another year. Aren't we called to do more? And aren't we promised more? Matthew 5: 46 - 48 says, "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." It doesn't take knowing Christ or understanding the cross to be nice or generous. Even the pagans and tax collectors do that. There is more to being a Christian than that. Look at verse 48. It says to be perfect. What? How? That cannot possibly be the difference in how a Christian acts. I for one am nowhere close to being perfect. But in Luke 11: 11-13, Christ says,  “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” That is how we reach perfection (or get as close as is earthly possible). We accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. See, Christ does not call us to be servants and to suffer because He would like to burden us. He is not sitting in heaven laughing at how miserably we fail at perfection. He invites us to experience His presence in fullness by calling on the Holy Spirit! He has given us the gift that keeps giving, the well that never runs dry! When we look at the cross and all He did for us and then respond to that with a deep desire to serve Him, then He pours out His blessings. 

But the thing is, we probably don't even realize what the cross is all about. I'm not sure that I fully grasp it. He wasn't just physically crushed for our transgressions. He was not sweating blood in the garden of Gethsemane because of the physical pain that He was going to incur. No, it was much more than that. He was spiritually crushed for our transgressions. He took on the wrath of God that we (as in all humankind for all eternity) deserve for our sins. The only way that I can stand justified before God is because of Christ. So why is it that we are content to take that knowledge and to just try to be a good person? Isn't that short sighted? If we truly accept what Christ has done for us and understand how much we need Him and how much He wants to bless us, why do we settle? I don't think we take the time to stop and think of what our lives could be. I think we get sucked into our routines and so often slip into survival mode and don't realize how much more there could be to this life.

We are invited to become a people of God. Throughout the bible and all of history, God takes the weak and the lowly and the unlikely and He uses them to reveal His glory. When we die to ourselves, we give ourselves the opportunity to be a part of God's glory being revealed. This sounds like cliche' Christian talk, but it's so much more than that. We can partner with Christ in the work that He is doing. That doesn't mean that we have to go to Haiti or quit our jobs. But it does mean that we have to die to ourselves. When Christ called people to follow him, he told them to do so wholeheartedly. He told one person not to go back and bury his dad. He told another not to go and say good bye to his family. He wants our undivided devotion. He wants all of us. We are only healed when we die to ourselves and cling to Christ. See, God does have us in the same place as He had the Jews in Babylon and in the same place as he had Bonhoeffer in Germany. He has us in the place of utter dependence on Him. And through that dependence, we will see ways to heal others. As I work my way through the bible, I am realizing that to partner with God means to let God use you to do the impossible. It means that when our cushy but tiring, American life feels too full to do something radical, God will open the doors for you to do His will if you seek Him. Let me give some different examples of how we might suffer for Christ. You might see a homeless guy trying to stay warm on a bench and feel prompted to take your last $20 before payday and buy him a blanket and dinner. Suffering might look like taking your only week vacation and using it to go minister to a single mom by doing some home repairs for her. Suffering might look like losing a night or two of sleep to make some meals for a family who has lost a family member - or gained one. Suffering for Christ requires seeking God and doing the things that are impossible in our own strength. And really these things are not "suffering" either, not when you put them next to the example of suffering and serving that Christ gave us. If we look outside of our normal day to day existence that is not spectacular, we will see how dire our world is and what God is calling us to do, and that will be spectacular. We will have the amazing privilege of bringing others healing and peace. I'm going to leave you with a few sentences from David Platt's book, Radical, because he has a better way with words than I do. Enjoy!
 
"Would you say that your life is marked right now by desperation for the Spirit of God? . . . The power of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us and as a result we have no need to muster up our own might. Our great need is to fall before an almighty Father day and night and to plead for him to show his radical power in and through us, enabling us to accomplish for his glory what we could never imagine in our own strength. And when we do this, we will discover that we were created for a purpose much greater than ourselves, the kind of purpose that can only be accomplished in the power of his Spirit."