Title: Miracle of Suffering / Hebrews 5:5-10
Many people died in the Daegu subway accident. There are people who are suffering for no reason, such as a child who was going to kindergarten, a student who met a fire while taking music lessons to go to college, an aunt cleaning a station, and three siblings who lost their parents abruptly and were left with only children.
The war between Iraq and the United States killed so many people, had their legs cut off, and how many people have to live with disabilities for the rest of their lives because of this war? How painful it must be for parents to have to cry and suffer after their beloved son is sent to war.
There are many members of our church who suffer from physical ailments. A healthy person is suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer, and a healthy child suffers from leukemia. The child's church school teachers decided not to accept the birthday present, and collected the money and delivered it as part of the cost of treatment. There is a certain deacon whose husband cannot see. After getting married, having two children, and living happily ever after, his wife suffers from stomach cancer.
It is truly sad to hear such news. Why do you have to go through this pain? Why do we have to go through this pain? While doing so, I have many questions in my mind. A blind man was passing by, and the disciples asked Jesus a question. For whose sin did that man become so blind? Jesus said that it was not to pay for someone's sin, but to glorify God through that person. Paul said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”
There is wisdom that we can realize through Jesus' answer and Paul. How can we glorify God through suffering rather than trying to find the cause of it? You need to think deeply about this. What glory should I give to God through suffering?
God, what have I done to suffer so much? These questions are important, but I hope you have the subject of a prayer, asking God to glorify God through suffering.
So, what kind of change does suffering really bring? How do suffering change us?
Through suffering we learn obedience. Look at the text of the text. “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” The image of Jesus carrying the cross toward Golgotha is like the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. Through suffering, Jesus clearly showed us the appearance of a lamb that obeys us. Through the process of suffering, we have an opportunity to learn obedience to God.
To commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, the people of Israel celebrate the Passover, and eat unleavened bread at that time. This bread is called the bread of suffering. eat bitter herbs It is also a symbol of suffering. It is a symbol of pain. The Israelites went through a period of hardship for 40 years. Why did you do that? There are several reasons, but one of them was through suffering that I learned to obey the Word of God.
Look at Abraham. He goes up to Mount Moriah with his precious son Isaac, whom he had at the age of 100. He suffered the pain of having to sacrifice his son. In the midst of these sufferings, he learned to obey the Word of God.
Before the afflictions of the Psalms I was wrong, but now I keep Your word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. (Psalm 119:67, 71) Before suffering, he lives knowing that everything is in his heart. It goes as planned, and you feel confident about your life. However, after suffering, we realize that our life is not the way we want it to be, and we change into a heart that obeys God's will.
Look at Jonah. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach the gospel. But Jonah disobeyed the command and boarded the boat to Tarshish. meet the storm all died It spends three days in a large fish. what a terrible pain In the end, Jonah obeyed God's word and became a prophet in Nineveh, proclaiming God's judgment. Before suffering, he lived according to his own will, but through suffering he learned to obey God.
Through suffering like this, we learn to obey the word of God, but it does not end here. The text says, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered and was made perfect.” We learn obedience through suffering, and when we obey God, we are reborn as perfect people.
This is the miracle of suffering. It seems to be broken, shattered, broken, scattered, and ended through suffering or pain, but it is not. This is the miracle of suffering. got sick The disease leaves scars and seems incomplete, but on the contrary, the disease makes him a whole person. ruined the business. lost wealth It is painful because the wound remains, but it does not end because of it, but rather it is made whole through suffering. This is the miracle of suffering.
A prayer at the Rehabilitation Center at New York University Affiliated Hospital. “I prayed for strength to accomplish great things, and he gave me weakness to learn humility. I was looking for health capable of doing many things, but he gave me a disease to do more valuable things. He asked for wealth because he wanted to be happy, but he gave him poverty so that he could be wise. I asked for success in order to win the praise of the world, but he gave me failure not to brag. I prayed that I would have everything so that I could enjoy life, and He gave me life itself in which I can enjoy everything. He didn't grant anything I asked for, but he granted all my wishes. It was a life where I could not follow the will, but all the prayers I had not expressed in my heart before were answered. I am the most blessed.”
It seems that my body is ruined through pain and my life is messed up through failure, but rather, through that pain, I have been transformed into a perfect person in the eyes of God. Isn't this the miracle of suffering?
Dear saint! What kind of pain are you experiencing? What kind of pain are you experiencing? We are now in the process of learning obedience. Through this process, we believe that we will be transformed into a whole. Job suffered great suffering. I lost my property, I lost my family, I lost my health. Everywhere I looked, nothing seemed perfect. But Job confesses: “But he knows the way I go, and after he has tried me I will come out as pure gold.” Even if my appearance is not bright, even if my appearance is not beautiful, even if my appearance does not seem plausible, I am confident that in the eyes of God I will be transformed into a complete image.
Dear saint! What are you in pain right now? What are you having a hard time with? I want you to realize that it is the process of being transformed into a perfect image in the sight of God.
A scientist was observing how a moth makes a cocoon and how it transforms into a butterfly in the cocoon. The scientist, however, felt sorry for the caterpillar, struggling to get out of the cocoon, and tore the top of the cocoon with a knife. The strange thing is that the pain ceased for the moth that escaped easily, but the butterfly soon died. Here's what a surprised scientist found when he studied the death of butterflies. When a butterfly struggles to break through the cocoon, oil drips from its wings, and when it comes out of the cocoon and receives sunlight, its wings do not dry out, but spread out and fly in the sky. However, if you artificially remove the pain of coming out of the cocoon because the moths are pitiful, the moths come out easily, but in the end they cannot fly due to their non-oily wings and die in the sun. In order for a moth to turn into a butterfly, there is a pain in the silkworm's narrow gate. If you do not pass through this gate of suffering, you will die, and if you pass through the gate of suffering, you will live. be able to fly in the sky
Suffering is God's way of making us whole. Through suffering we are broken, through suffering we are destroyed, and through suffering everything seems to end, but here the miracle of suffering occurs. Learn obedience through suffering. Through this process, our form is transformed into a perfect form in the sight of God.
A woman who was grieving with a face full of wrinkles beating her breast and saying as if lamenting. “Why am I so full of painful things? Wouldn't it have been better if he hadn't been created as a human? Oh my gosh.” Another woman sitting next to me smiled quietly and said, “You are not yet fully created. Even now, God is making you.”
This single word means a lot to us. Through suffering, God is making us now as perfect people.
Elder Dong-cheol Ko runs a cast iron company. If you put all kinds of iron in an electric furnace, it will melt at a temperature of several thousand degrees. If you pour iron water into the mold you have made, a complete work is created. When iron is melted and turned into molten iron, it is made into a perfect work. It is a great pain to enter the furnace, but through the process, it melts, becomes soft, and through this process, it is transformed into a whole.
This process is the same for pottery made of earth as well as iron. When King George of England visited a pottery factory, he saw two vases on special display. The vases were made of the same raw material, the same tiles, and the same pattern, but one had the shape of a shiny and lively work of art, and the other had a crude and unobtrusive shape. The king asked the janitor why. The manager replied: "Sir, the reason is simple. One is roasted and the other is not. Trials are specially displayed to show that trials make life shiny, lively and above all, beautiful."
Dear saint! Suffering is not the process by which we break down. Learn obedience through suffering. When we go through this process, we are transformed into a perfect image in the sight of God. This is the miracle of suffering. I hope that you will become the protagonist of the miracle of suffering.