POSTED 26 OCTOBER, 2009

Suffering Pain

by Mark Huey
mark@outreachisrael.net

reproduced from the McHuey Blog

When it comes to the vagaries of cancer and the treatment thereof, it is difficult to deal with physical pain and mental suffering—no matter what one believes. If one has faith in God, then he or she can turn to the trials of Job and knowingly repeat, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him” (Job 13:15). But did you notice the caveat that indicates how an ongoing argument or defense of oneself, will ensue? Recently, due to my sister’s struggle with a recurrence of breast cancer, the opportunity to dig into the difference between suffering and pain presented itself. In fact, as a result of conducting some due diligence on one of the many oncologists recommended, a website quotation from a patient dying of ovarian cancer (who inspired the Dr. Salem quoted below to become a cancer specialist), was imbedded in my thoughts, as I ministered to my ailing sibling:

At that time, there was no treatment for ovarian cancer and physicians did not discuss openly and frankly with patients those issues relating to diagnosis and therapy; much less, issues relating to life and death. That woman was left in solitude to suffer alone with her pain. Physicians came to see her rarely, and when they did, they rushed out quickly before she had a chance to ask questions. They had no answers for her questions. Because cancer was a taboo, she was left alone. She made me read Tolstoy’s, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and many times she enjoyed repeating this quotation: “Why hast Thou done all this? Why hast Thou brought me to this?” Why does Thou Torture me so? For what? He did not expect an answer, and he cried because there was no answer, and there could be none.”

A few days before she died, she squeezed my hand and said: “Very soon, I will be here no more. This whole ordeal will be over. Would you, however, promise me that you will do something about this disease in the future so others will not have the pain that I have had? And should you ever become a cancer physician, would you remember that the real agony is not the physical pain, it is the non-physical”. I promised, and I remembered. (emphasis mine)

“An Adventure With Cancer: The Joy and the Pain”
Dr. P.A. Salem, Houston, TX

For whatever reasons, when I read this testimony within a few of days of learning of my sister’s condition, I was struck by the final request of the inquiring woman who undoubtedly spent considerable time asking God “Why?” and perhaps dialoguing with Him like Job did. However, when her death was fast approaching, she requested one thing of the young physician considering a career serving cancer patients. She placed in his mind the indelible thought that it is the relentless mental reminder that one has cancer, which is more agonizing than the physical pain. For this woman of faith, understanding at least Scripturally where she was ultimately destined, was one thing—but what about my sister who is still fighting off her illness? For weeks I pondered how mentally and emotionally excruciating it must be for someone to contemplate the possibility of physical death.

What came to mind was the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray, and the comparable incessant reality that every morning when my sister wakes up, she has the dreadful realization that some debilitating cancer cells are rapidly reproducing in her body. Just where they were in the body was a relative unknown. But the daily fact remained that unless one of the many cancer treatments or the healing result of many prayers succeeded, this disease was going to be present until the day she expires. Nevertheless, while the physical pain is being treated with a variety of pharmaceutical concoctions to ease the physical discomfort, the gnawing agony of knowing that the cancer is continuing to spread never leaves the conscious mind.

For weeks on end that I spent in Colorado, as I prayed for my sister’s physical healing, I was amazed how she was resolutely and courageously handling her physical and mental trial. I patiently waited on the promptings of the Holy Spirit on how to communicate properly with not only her, but also my parents, brother-in-law, brother, and others. When one is sensitive to the Lord, one is able to say the right things at the right time, but also will enable one to be quiet at the right time. You are there simply to serve the needs of others, and do what the situation requires you to do.

Upon returning to Florida, my wife Margaret and I spent a previously scheduled weekend visiting family and attending a friend’s birthday celebration up in Jacksonville. Naturally, after weeks of attending to my sister’s needs, the subject of a few conversations during the visit was my sister’s physical condition. However, it was not until I mentioned the contradistinction between the physical and mental pain to a former college roommate (who happens to be a clinical psychotherapist), that I heard him respond with some illuminating comments:

“Those two aspects of dealing with illness are the difference between suffering and pain. Suffering or agony was the mental side of traumatic illness, while the physical side was just a matter of temporal pain or hurt.”

Almost immediately upon hearing these statements, my mind focused beyond the current situation with my sister, and instead thought about the Messiah Yeshua and the long suffering and pain He endured for all of humanity. For unknown reasons, despite my sister’s current challenges, the dying thoughts of an ovarian cancer patient, or even the suffering of Job, my thoughts instead went to what the Lord endured for us. The Messiah must have known for years how He was to receive not only the punishment for the transgressions of fallen humanity, but perhaps even more excruciating, a short separation from His own Father because of having to one day bear our sins. For a few moments, I wondered about the moment when He realized that He was going to be the substitution sacrifice to receive the righteous wrath of God. Was it as an infant child (Luke 2:40), when He was twelve discoursing at the Temple (Luke 2:42-52), or perhaps when He was approaching John the Baptizer who declared from the Jordan that He was the Lamb of God (John 1:28-36)?

As I momentarily reflected on the length of the suffering thoughts that Yeshua endured, and then mentioned it to Margaret, her succinct reply that only God could handle the magnitude and severity of these things, temporarily satisfied my curiosity. However, when during a sermon the next morning, the gospel passage about becoming a servant and the Lord giving His life as a ransom for many was quoted, I was again reminded of the difference between suffering and pain:

“Calling them to Himself, Yeshua said to them, ‘You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many’” (Mark 10:35-45).

After hearing this quoted and without much hesitation, the thought of the Suffering Servant came to mind, as memories of Isaiah 53 flashed. So I turned in my Bible and reread the following:

“Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (Isaiah 52:13-53:12).

I was reminded how this great passage of Scripture so eloquently describes Messiah Yeshua and all of the suffering He endured for sinful humanity. I then considered another passage that reflects on the ultimate service of Yeshua for us. Even though He pleaded before the Father, He still went through the necessary pain and suffering required to redeem us all from sin. As seen during His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’ Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:41-44).

Apparently, the stress from this suffering agony was so intense that the author states it was like He sweated blood. No doubt, our Savior knew at this point He was the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. He knew how He had to freely offer up His sinless self, as the required ransom for the transgressions of humanity. Obviously, the similarity between someone suffering with the knowledge of an ongoing battle with cancer, is relatively insignificant when compared to the suffering of the Messiah. However, on a personal level, the individual pain could be as excruciating, especially for the one enduring the mental anguish.

As I contemplated the agony of the Messiah as contrasted with the rather limited suffering people today experience, I was reminded of a special passage of Scripture that years ago had a critical impact on my spiritual walk as I was seeking to know Him better. In the midst of some personally excruciating emotional suffering and pain—associated with an unwarranted, unwanted, and unexpected divorce from 1991-1993—the Lord was purging me of some of the fleshly inclinations that were present in my life, despite being a born again Believer. While being broken and vowing to the Lord by offering myself as a holy and living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), I fully embraced the understanding that the Apostle Paul was communicating when he composed these words to the saints at Philippi:

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Messiah, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

Paul explained that whatever suffering he experienced for the Messiah, is not that much compared to what his Lord accomplished via His sacrificial work at Golgotha (Calvary). In fact, it is the fellowship of His sufferings as we are being conformed to His death—or death to our own will—that actually allows us to get to know Him and the indwelling power of living the resurrected life. Of course, the ultimate blessing is being able to complete the circle, somehow participating in the resurrection in a similar manner that He did.

Additionally, as I perused some texts that further described the concept of suffering, I was impressed by the detailed explanation that Paul gave to the Romans. He explained the forgiveness and release from condemnation that come, as a result of one believing in the atoning work of Messiah Yeshua:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua. For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Messiah, he does not belong to Him. If Messiah is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah Yeshua from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Messiah, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:1-18).

Note the distinctions between those whose minds are set on the things of the flesh, versus who are set on the Spirit. Of course, as a result of becoming born from above by the Spirit of God, one actually has the Spirit indwelling these mortal bodies. In fact, according to Paul’s exhortation, those indwelt and being led by the Spirit of God are actually adopted of God with the privilege of crying out to Him with the intimacy of “Abba! Father!” As children of God, who are considered fellow heirs with the Messiah, we understand that whatever we suffer—whether mentally, emotionally, or even physically—that ultimately we will be glorified with Him. Paul concludes with the statement that he considers that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 6:18).

No matter what it is we have to suffer in this mortal life, nothing can compare to what we are going to be experiencing for all of eternity as redeemed children of the Most High. The challenge is embracing this reality and incorporating it into our walk with the Lord, when it comes to the mundane affairs of life. In the case of the ministering that all Believers are expected and required to do, it means being available to the promptings of the Spirit as God positions each one of us to represent Him in diverse circumstances. It means allowing the incomprehensible love of the Messiah to manifest itself in our thoughts, prayers, intercessions, actions, and if necessary, in the encouraging words He gives us to proclaim.

We need to remember that only about ten percent of communication is the spoken word. The body language coupled with inflection, tone, volume, empathy, eye contact, facial expressions, and a multitude of other manifestations communicate much more than simply words. This is not to say that preaching the gospel is not critical because it absolutely is. But when it comes to showing the love of the Messiah for the world or your family and friends, it could be the soft touch of a hand stroking a forehead, or the rubbing of feet and legs with body lotions, or simply holding a hand that communicates far more than all the words one could muster.

Suffering and pain are a part of the human experience. When we get the chance to experience it—whether as a Believer relinquishing our will to the will of the Father, or simply as a vessel to minister to those enduing one or the other—we should take it to heart that the Almighty has uniquely positioned us to handle the situation as His Spirit leads. We need to be mindful that those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8), but rather it is by faith that we please Him:

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Finally, if you are presented with a trial, dealing with difficult diseases like cancer—whether personally or with a loved one or a friend—stand rest assured that the Holy One is using all of those circumstances to get the attention of those involved. God has always used suffering and pain to draw people unto Himself. Whether it is the ancient example of Job who chose to never curse God, or Abraham as he contemplated offering up Isaac, or David as he dealt with the sins of adultery and murder, or Paul remembering his persecution of the early saints—God eventually used each of these circumstances and a multitude of others to glorify Himself. Of course, the ultimate example of God using suffering and pain to bring glory to His purposes is magnified in the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of the Messiah Yeshua. Praise the Lord!

In a like manner, God will use contemporary challenges to receive the glory that only He deserves. May we each acknowledge this inevitable reality. May we continue to offer ourselves up to His service, for the work of ministering to those who are yet to know Him—as He alone offers eternal life!

Perhaps in time as we understand Him and His ways more fully, we may praise Him for the difficult times we have undergone, recognizing that He was at work to accomplish His purposes. For even if we are slain, there is no other hope than in His plan for salvation. To Him be all the glory!

Until the restoration of all things…

Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt University in History and Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net). He is the author of several books, including: TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot. He is also co-author of Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study.