Embrace Suffering - it's the Road to Glory

I arrived at Checkpoint 4 at Alston just after sundown. It was a stroke of good fortune as I could use the hours of darkness to get some sleep in the Youth Hostel and be out again before sunrise on day four of the Summer Spine Race 2023. After a few portions of lasagne, a cup of tea, and lots of squash, I cautiously asked to chat to a medic. As the only runner in the checkpoint I had the attention of the whole room, which was lovely until I had to ask the two enthusiastic doctors about how to best deal with severe chafing in a rather personal place. Cue people looking down at their phones. After being told it was best to “air it”, I was relieved to find that I had been allocated a room to myself.

Arriving in Alston - Summer Spine Race 2023

During this epic adventure of a race, the chafing had become a real problem to the point where every step was agonisingly painful. The respite at Alston helped a bit, but over the next 27 hours I would experience discomfort like I’d never experienced before.

We might reasonably define endurance simply as the capacity to withstand suffering. Those who endure to the end of a race are often not those who have best avoided suffering - because suffering is inevitable when taking on such gargantuan challenges - but those who have accepted the reality of suffering and taken steps to manage it. Whilst nobody actively enjoys pain, embracing suffering is essential to endurance success.

As I’ve shared in previous blogs, I finished this race on the podium and far exceeded my expectations of what I was capable of. Suffering was a necessary part of this success. As the philosopher Michael Rosen in his seminal work We’re Going on a Bear Hunt said:

We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!

Becoming a Christian is not a good tactic for avoiding suffering. It’s a common misconception that people turn to faith as a way of making life easier but that’s not the Christian life that Christ himself presents. Jesus said:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Matthew 16:24-25

When you become a disciple of Christ you do so knowing that the journey will not always be comfortable.

The way of Christ is the way of the cross.

The way of the cross is the way of suffering.

Hebrews 12 tells us Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame, for the joy set before him. I often wonder what exactly that joy was? Was it relief from pain? Possibly. Was it reunion with the Father? Probably, in part. However, Jesus primary motivation was not his own reprieve, but the freedom it would win for you and me. Jesus’ joy was in knowing that his suffering would secure our eternal glory. Astounding.

Essentially Jesus suffered in order that we might not.

“But wait!” I hear you cry, “we are suffering”. So why is that?

Suffering is a consequence of the fall and the introduction of sin into the world (Gen 3). The perfect Eden that God made for us is corrupted. As a result, we are in a spiritual battle where the enemy seeks to wreak havoc on the world (Eph 6:12). Jesus’ death on the cross has defeated death, securing an eternity where where there will be no pain, no tears, so death (Rev 21). But for now we live in the in between times where we see that coming kingdom, but only in part. An inaugurated eschatology. *

When we see our present suffering in this greater context, we are able to see why participation in suffering as active. There is purpose. When we suffer with Christ, enduring discomfort for his sake and the sake of others, it is as act of spiritual resistance.

One of my great heroes of the faith is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As a wealthy man, Pastor Bonhoeffer had all the resources at his disposal to flee WWII Germany during Hitler’s escalation of violence. Compelled by his faith in Christ, and his assertion that discipleship requires taking responsible action, Bonhoeffer stayed in Germany and became an active part of the resistance against the Nazis. He was particularly outspoken about the capitulation of the German Lutheran church and endeavoured to lay the foundations of a post-war Christian Germany. It was a dangerous business. Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and was executed by hanging on 4th April 1945, just weeks before Hitler took his own life. Bonhoeffer had embraced suffering, for the sake of others and for the sake of a hopeful future.

Bonhoeffer took a route straight through suffering. He understood that his only choice was to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, despite how difficult that would be. Fortunately for Dietrich, and for us, God does not abandon us in our strife:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles” 2 Cor 1:3

Com-passion literally means to "suffer with". When we suffer with Christ - he suffers with us! Through the bond of suffering, we are united with Christ in common purpose against the work of the enemy and the corruption of sin. We do this for the hope of future glory. It's reported that Bonhoeffer’s final words were:

“This is the end – for me the beginning of life.” D. Bonhoeffer

The way of Christ is the way of the cross.

The way of the cross is the way of suffering.

The way of suffering is the way of glory.

Just like the Vaseline-smothered Summer Spine Race, our route to glory is not by avoiding suffering but journeying through it. Our patient resilience is partnership with God is in preparation for the glory ahead of us. Through suffering we play our part in ushering the Kingdom of God and work towards the renewal of all things that we long to see. Not only this, but your own desitiny is secure in Christ as we are “receiving the end result of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls.” 1 Pet 1:9

So the invitation today it to embrace suffering. To see its eternal utility. To remember that endurance is about being patiently resilient in the face of resistance. To remain faithful, to the one who suffered for us. To lean on his compassion and kindness. That we might find true life in Christ.

*This is the briefest attempt at summarising the problem of suffering in a paragraph.

For a slightly fuller exploration you can watch my sermon here.

This post is part of a series of short blogs titled Faith Endurance, based on a sermon series preached at St Peter’s Morley in Spring 2024. If you enjoyed this, subscribe (above on the left) to get notifications each time a new blog is released.