The Perfect Church part 4

"He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, One of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem."

Isaiah 53:3

Today's Church seems to have an aversion to pain, anger, and unpleasantness. I have been told that since I have pain and anger in my life, I need to be healed and "freed" from it in order to minister to others. I was told that God needed to take that from me or I won't be effective. I remember one pastor wouldn't even have an open conversation with me about anything for that very reason.

It is automatically assumed that because I have pain, anger, and suffering in my life, that I am in a state of unforgiveness and bitterness. I am told that I need to forgive and just let go of the past and in a sense, ignore what people do and say to me if I am ever to be a pastor or have my own ministry.

Of course I understand what it is to forgive and HAVE forgiven those who have hurt me, but such people won't hear that. It is assumed that because I forgive people that I don't feel it, and am impervious to those things.

In light of the prophecy Isaiah made about Jesus Himself, I wonder if they would say the same thing to Him. The verse DOES say that he was spurned and avoided by men. So I guess it is safe to say that if we suffer and are real in it and through it, we will be avoided and spurned by men.

Even the well wishers and those close to me wish they could make my pain go away. Me living a life, feeling pain, sorrow, and depression is intolerable to them. For me to insist that it is simply the way of things and is my path is to somehow blaspheme everything they were ever taught about God.

The Bible never tells us that God will take away all of our pain and suffering and anger because of this wicked fallen world on this side of eternity. In fact, Jesus bluntly promised his own disciples that they would SUFFER. The Man of Sorrows, Our own Master tells us to expect suffering and pain and hardship in this world.

If Jesus is the Man of Sorrows, and He is our Master, our very life whom we follow, are we to expect to NOT have sorrow and pain? The Father never freed Jesus from His pain. Jesus was never delivered from the cross. He was never healed. He died!

Before AND after Jesus, many who chose to love and know God suffered tremendously. In fact, there is an entire book in the Bible devoted to mourning and grieving and sorrow and pain. (Lamentations). The prophet who wrote it is known as the weeping prophet. Many people in early Christianity lost their lives for the gospel. We don't hear about that anymore in our sanitized civilized institutional churches.

So where do we get this idea that a true man of God doesn't have pain? Where do we get that a minister of God's love, a pastor or church leader is above and beyond any pain in life? Where do we get the idea that God has to free a church leader, minister, or pastor from pain and heal them for them to be effective?

I can tell you where, dear reader. Buddhism. Eastern, pagan philosophy tells us that the truly enlightened guru or teacher will have mastered pain and be above it and is not effected by it. Somehow this new age drivel has seeped its way into our churches today. Everything is somehow supposed to be pleasant.

Paul, one of the most prominent men in the Bible who wrote most of the New Testament, asked God three times to take the thorn from his flesh. Did God heal him? Did God free him from it? NO! God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him and that he could handle it because of His grace.

Now, dear reader, I will tell you what most pastors and institutional churches don't want to hear. I asked God to free me of my pain, anger and such. I asked God to heal me and deliver me many times. Do you know what He told me? I bet you can guess. God told me NO! He told me that it is because of my pain and sufferings and that I feel them deeply that I will touch people's lives. It is those things which keep me real. It is those things that remind me of my humanness. And yes, God DID tell me that His grace is sufficient to carry me through those things.

The Bible God doesn't offer easy answers. He doesn't promise us a pain free life. He doesn't promise us deliverance and healing from life's wounds, this side of eternity. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are selling something reminiscent of an oily substance from a snake.

Truth be told, the Bible is not a happy, positive book. It is actually quite the opposite as it is vividly and graphically real. David, a man after God's own heart has no qualms about telling us exactly how he feels about the evil men trying to kill him. He has no qualms about suggesting in graphic detail to God what He might do to his enemies. These words in today's church would be considered bitter and a pastor would probably take David through a "deliverance" ministry.

But lo and behold, today's church has decided that such feelings aren't appropriate for a perfect church. This attitude causes a horrific, fatal disease that I like to call "Church Face". That is, because of this attitude, we are taught to ignore what our hearts are saying to us and try to measure up to this pain-free illusion that Christianity is supposed to be. The result? We are afraid to be real. We are afraid to be vulnerable and be our authentic selves. And in this state, a hypocrite is born.

In Church we are taught that Christians are supposed to be happy and if we aren't we are doing something wrong or we are not in God's favor. This is a false Christianity that resembles more of Buddhism and eastern mysticism than what the Bible tells us.

In John the Baptist's final days we see a touching, yet quite disturbing scene. John is in Herod's dungeon and he sends messengers asking if Jesus is the promised Messiah or if they were to look for another.

Now it isn't that John didn't know. Of course John knew. He himself witnessed the Spirit descending on Jesus. What John was hoping for was to be rescued by this Messiah. The answer Jesus gave was quite unsettling. He spoke to John's heart, not what John wanted in the immediate moment.

He said "The lame walk, the blind receive sight, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

Notice in the list of what Jesus said about himself that was NOT said. He didn't say that His own wouldn't die, suffer, and experience pain. He never promised to free His people from pain and rescue them from their circumstances. Instead, He simply gave John a loving rebuke stating that he is blessed for not falling away on account of Jesus. After this, we know the story, John the Baptist was beheaded.

John the Baptist didn't go free. He did not end well by many standards, especially that of the religious leaders of his day. He didn't live a happy life ever after. He didn't enjoy prosperity. No, he died after suffering in a dark dungeon after an entire life of living in the rugged wilderness. Nothing about his life was pleasant or happy. If John the Baptist were alive today we would probably have him committed to a mental institution. Pastors would tell him that he needed deliverance and to be healed and to be educated in a leadership program in order to minister.

This is what the "perfect Church" doesn't want to tell you. This unpleasantness of no easy answers, this not knowing if the pain will go away, this awkwardness that we feel when encountering Jesus and what the cost really is to follow Him is hidden from the average pew sitter.

I would love to hear in an altar call at any given church meeting a pastor saying "If you follow Jesus, you will lose everything you held dear. You will suffer. Your entire world will be upside down and many will hate you." See how many people THEN convert! I think the money coming in to fund the building would be in the red that day and after and they would have to close down shop.

The perfect, pain-free, eternal bliss church is an illusion folks. There is no such thing. I heard it said well from a pastor that if you are comfortable and happy in this world as a Christian, there is something wrong. You aren't doing it right.

So the real story of the gospel? I will tell you plainly, dear reader. A God who the entire world opposes loves you and wants to be a Father to you by you following His son. If you do, the world will oppose you to. You won't have it easy as you don't walk in step with them. You may not end well. You may die early. You may suffer. Pain won't go away. Sorrow will be your companion in this world. But the promise is in the future glory. The party is on the other side, folks. Right now we are here to do our job as living our lives in the heart of God's love and loving others in the freedom He gives us, answering to and fearing no one except for Him. And of course His love casts out all fear. Any takers?