Mid-Week Lent 5Psalm 72:1-14; Micah 7:2-8; Hebrews 10:28-39; John 16:20-33
At first
glance we may see affliction and oppression as the same thing, but there is a
significant difference between them. Oppression is something that affects many,
but not all, people. Afflictions are
part and parcel of every human life.
Even when we are free from oppression, we must deal with
afflictions. Since affliction is not a
word that we use everyday, it helps to understand what afflictions are by using
a word that is more familiar to us: troubles.
Are lives are filled with troubles.
From the little inconveniences of red lights when we're in a hurry to
the significant, life-altering problems of serious health issues, troubles not
only interrupt our daily routines, they tend to drive them. Like it or not (and we often don't), troubles
are part of our lives.
There
are some circles of Christianity that take issue with troubles being
unavoidable, at least for believers.
They teach that being a faithful follower of Jesus is a way out of the
afflictions that are common to humans.
Given enough faith on our parts, they insist that Christians should be
free of financial difficulties, enjoy harmonious relationships, and escape
devastating diseases. In other words,
because we have God's favor we should be able to live our lives free of
afflictions. That sounds very
appealing. But it goes against God's
Word.
Psalm
34:17 states our reality plainly: "Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all." Not only should believers expect to deal with
the everyday problems of life, we should expect even greater afflictions than the
people of the world. Our afflictions are
many because we belong to Christ and we are strangers in this world. As strangers we live our lives in a radically
different way that highlights the foolishness of the world and its impending
judgment. Because of who we are, how we
live, and the message we proclaim, the world hates us. Because the world hates us, it adds to our
afflictions. Jesus recognized this and
encourages us with the words He first shared with the Disciples, "In this
world you will have trouble. But take
heart! I have overcome the world"
(John 16:33).
Rather
than spare us from affliction, God uses troubles in our lives to remind us of
two very important things. First,
the afflictions we endure are not signs of God's displeasure. "Many are the afflictions of the
righteous" affirms that we are righteous by God's decree because the blood
of Jesus has atoned for our sins. Our
sins have been taken away, but not our afflictions. In those afflictions we turn to the
Lord. When we pray to Him in the midst
of our troubles He answers us with the second important thing of which He reminds us through affliction: hope. "The Lord delivers him out of them
all" is His promise to deliver us from our afflictions. It happens in His way and in His time, but we
are assured that all of our troubles will come to an end because we belong to Jesus and He has
overcome this afflicted world.
Audio file of the sermon based on this reflection
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