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1 Corinthians 1:18-31 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. 26 Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Philippians 1:27-30 27 Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, 28 and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. 29 For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well– 30 since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
Philippians 2:1-11 1If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Having the Mind of Christ: Faithful Suffering: The Foolishness of the Cross
This morning in our sermon series on “Having the Mind of Christ” we come to faithful suffering. Oftentimes when we think of suffering we think of Christ entering our suffering, sharing it with us, sustaining us through all of life’s trials and woes. What Jesus can do for us when we suffer. There is pain and suffering in life, usually far more than we would like and Jesus does walk with us through anything that comes to us, no matter how horrible or painful. He enters into our suffering with us and helps us to bear it. But this is not the suffering we are talking about today.
As Christians we need to be aware that we may be called upon to suffer for our faith just as Paul suffered and countless others throughout the centuries have suffered. I will tell some of their stories today. Suffering is not highly regarded in our society. It is not something we are raised to expect; in fact, we are raised to avoid it at all costs. Yet, the first chapter of Philippians ends with “God has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.” To live with the mindset of Christ means following Jesus in the way that leads to the cross. We are given the privilege of sharing in the suffering love of Christ for this world.
Since it was St. Patrick’s Day last week I thought we would start with Saint Patrick today. There are many myths about him. I doubt he really chased all the snakes out of Ireland but when we go beneath all the stories we find a man who gave his life for the gospel. He is someone who demonstrated a willingness to endure faithful suffering to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to Ireland. He was born in 387 AD of Christian Roman parents living in Scotland. At the age of fourteen he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and lived the next six years of his life as a slave in Ireland, tending sheep. During his captivity he turned to God in prayer. While in Ireland he learned the language and customs of the people. At the age of twenty he escaped after having a dream in which God told him to go to the coast. There he found sailors who returned him to his parents where he could have remained the rest of his life, living safely and richly. But he had another dream in which the people of Ireland were calling out to him “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.” He felt led by God to study for the priesthood. After completing his studies he returned to Ireland where he had been a slave and spent the next forty years preaching and converting thousands of Irish to Christianity. Patrick left his safe and comfortable life behind and dedicated himself to bringing salvation to the Irish people who had enslaved him. His life is an example of what it means to have the mindset of Jesus when it comes to faithful suffering.
Jesus suffered on the cross, crucifixion is an extremely painful death, perhaps the worst ever devised. Yet, Jesus was only one among thousands who suffered such a death. At times the roads in Judea were lined with crosses bearing the bodies of those who dared to rebel against the Romans. What was different about Jesus’ suffering was that in addition to the physical suffering of the crucifixion, Jesus also suffered the unimaginable spiritual pain of the weight of the sin of the world. We can imagine the physical suffering but I think we have no concept of what it cost to pay the price for the sins of the world. That is something beyond our comprehension, pain upon pain upon pain, untold agony, something we cannot wrap our minds around. I say this not to make us feel guilty; God does not want our guilt. God wants our love. It was out of God’s great love for us that Jesus went to the cross. I want us to look at Jesus on that cross, bearing all our sin and shame and respond in love. An awe-inspired love that is deeper than any other love we have, a love which overflows and spills out onto others in our world.
The point of this is not to be impressed with Jesus’ suffering but to share in his suffering for others; not just to know that he died for us but to discover what it will mean for us to die to the controlling power of our own self-interest and take up the interest of the world he came to save. We are to become like Christ, to have the mindset Jesus had when he went to the cross. Jesus died for us and we need to discover what it means to die to ourselves and live for others. We are talking about when we put aside our own lives and follow Jesus even if that way involves suffering. Think of Mother Theresa working in Calcutta among the poor. I know a dentist who each year takes time out of his busy practice and goes abroad to countries where there is little dental care. I have a friend whose daughter works in North Africa to bring Jesus to the Muslims there. In that country, being a missionary is very dangerous but that doesn’t stop her. Think of all the other missionaries around the world, working, in sometimes dangerous situations to bring Christ to those who don’t know Him.
A number of years ago I took home communion to someone in the hospital. In his room he had a roommate, Bill, whose wife, when she realized we were serving communion, asked if she and her husband could join us. We got to talking and learned that they were Bill and Holly Campbell and had spent their lives in the mission field. They started in Morocco in 1955 and worked there until they were expelled from the country for preaching the gospel. They moved to Tunisia and did missionary work there. They also spent time in France working with Arabic-speaking people there, and in the Arab Emirates. What an amazing couple! They spent all their lives working to bring the gospel to Muslim people.
Knowing Christ, growing to have the mind of Christ is not a call to self-protection. The call of Jesus in the gospels is a clear contradiction of this. In Luke 14:27 Jesus says to the crowds following him, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” In Mark’s gospel it says Jesus called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35) And after His resurrection to the two walking on the road to Emmaus Jesus said, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26)
We will know the love of God that sent Jesus to suffer on the cross, not when we escape suffering, but when we embrace the suffering of others. Jesus expects us to take up the cross of nonviolent, suffering love and follow him.
Jesus didn’t attract fans; He called disciples. Back in 2013 Kyle Idleman wrote a book titled “Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus”. In it he asks the question, “Am I really carrying a cross if there is no suffering and sacrifice?” He asks the reader to consider when is the last time that following Jesus cost you something? A relationship, a promotion, a vacation? When is the last time you were mocked for your faith? Then he poses an even more troubling question, “Can you really say you are carrying your cross if it hasn’t cost you anything?” His point is that fans don’t carry crosses, followers of Jesus do. We are to be followers of Jesus, not fans.
Consider the utter foolishness of the cross. It makes no sense to an unbeliever. It is a place of complete humiliation and powerlessness. Yet from this lowly position Christ was raised to the highest place possible. He was exalted and given the name that is above every name. Again we see the upside down kingdom of God. Paul says the Jews demanded signs and the Greeks desire wisdom. Our world today requires proof. Christ crucified was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles two thousand years ago. He is still a stumbling block to those who require proof. Ah, but to those who believe, those who are called, in Paul’s day and our own, Jesus Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Jesus suffered, died and rose again not so we could live happy, perfect lives with no problems or troubles. Jesus went to the cross to reconcile us to God the Father, to provide a way back to relationship with God. He paid the price we could never pay. From the earliest days of his life with Christ, Paul knew that following God’s call would mean personal identification with the suffering of his Lord. Paul wrote about this a little later in his letter to the Philippians when in chapter 3, verses 10 and 11 he says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Let me tell you a final story about Peter Storey, a former South African Methodist bishop. He was a white South African who argued against apartheid, was the prison chaplain to Nelson Mandela, and had a major role in the construction of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In his book “With God in the Crucible”, Peter challenges every form of comfortable discipleship. Out of his experience in the struggle against apartheid, he writes, “There is power in faithful suffering! Where most religions offer escape from suffering and increases in comfort, the Christian faith makes this astounding claim…If you want to know whether God is alive, you must go, not to where all is well, but into places of brokenness and suffering…There are depths of reality, dimensions of God, releases of healing energy, that flow into this world only through the power of faithful suffering.”
Christ calls each of us to different walks in life. Not all of us are called to the mission field as some of those mentioned today have been. Not all are called to be martyrs. But all of us are called to suffer for the gospel. Everyone who gives to the church is suffering to some extent in that they are giving up some of their money. Everyone who serves in the church is giving some of their time. Everyone who visits or sends cards to those who are sick, injured or grieving is giving some of themselves for others. I have never heard anyone say, “I wish I’d never gone on that mission trip” or “I never should have spent my life overseas.” Never heard anyone say, “I should have kept my money for myself.” Usually what I hear instead is that people wish they had done more for God because most of us who do God’s work find, that despite any suffering involved, there is a joy that comes with the giving that far outweighs the cost. In Hebrews 12:2 it speaks of Jesus and says, “who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” I invite you to spend some time this week pondering the love of Jesus that would go to the cross for us and asking God if He has a mission for you in this world for God is able to take ordinary people and do extraordinary things in the world through them. Who knows what God might have for you?