The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 8:4,
"A large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town..."
This comment was made by Luke as he sets the stage for his account of Jesus' Parable of the Sower. Why were people coming to Jesus from town after town? In Luke 5:15 we are told, "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses." People were suffering from sickness. They suffered from demon possession. Jesus spoke to their poverty and hunger in Luke 6:20-21. Lepers, paralytics, Peter's mother-in-law with a high fever, folks were suffering and looking for relief. As news of Jesus Christ spread, people flocked to him for that relief. Even dead people were raised back to life, providing relief for the grieving, as in the case of the raising of the dead son of a widow in Luke 7:11-17. To be sure, there were must have been many who came simply to hear of the hope Jesus Christ offered, to hear someone from speak from God, as say, Nicodemus in John 3. But many came to seek relief from the things they struggled with.
What misery! The gospels are full of accounts of misery folks lived in. A common thread throughout is the relief folks sought for their frustrations, their misery. We likewise see it today as nothing has changed. We may have technological advances available to us. We may have much improved heath care. We may have a much higher standard of living than the folks we read of in the gospels. But one thing that has not changed is that we all face our frustrations, our miseries, whether real or imagined, whether life-threatening or simply inconveniences. And as the folks in Jesus' day, we seek relief from them.
A guaranteed best-seller for any author down at the Christian book store is a convincing volume on how to find relief from the things that break our hearts, the frustrations, the failures, the misery - in other words, how to have a happy and fulfilled life. The greatest scam in our day are the religious broadcasters who promise relief from our miseries if we simply send in our "faith-promise pledge" of so and so dollars. Many have gotten rich in our day by preying on the misery of others. Folks in the worst poverty, sending in what little they have with a promise they will receive tenfold. Why would they do such a thing? Desperation to find relief from poverty, misery or illness.
Why does such misery abound? Surely much of it is caused by our own poor choices. The account of man's fall in the garden of Eden begins the story of the misery mankind has brought on himself. Life comes with misery built in. We all get sick and eventually die. We all suffer the grief that the death of a loved one brings. Misery in this life is inescapable. If God loves us why doesn't he just remove those things from us that we struggle with? Even Paul spoke of something he suffered that the Lord would not bring relief for. He tells us of "a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." 2 Corinthians 12:7. There he speaks of his prayers that the Lord would bring him relief, prayers that were answered in a way other then removing the torment. He was told the Lord had a purpose for what Paul suffered.
So, is there a purpose for all the misery and suffering that afflict us all, at one time or another? If so, what is the Lord's purpose in it? I can't help but notice that in Luke's gospel, the very things that folks suffered from provided them the motivation to seek relief from the Lord. As then, often it is the frustrations we struggle with today that drive us to the Lord. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8:20-21, "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 glorious freedom of the children of God."
As in Jesus' day, our frustrations, our sufferings drive us to the Lord. How often I have prayed to God for relief from one thing or another to the One who took pains to bring it into my life for my own good in the first place! I have labored under the false notion that it is God's job to answer my prayers so that I can lead a successful and fulfilling life, a life filled with happiness and the absences of frustration, suffering and pain. After all, isn't life all about my happiness in this life?
It turns out this life is not all about me. God is building his kingdom. God loves me and I have my part in it as we all do, and a part of that involves God drawing us to himself, even if some desperation, frustration and misery may be required. As Paul goes on to quote Psalm 44:22, "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
I wonder how many books this message might sell... I suspect not many...
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
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