Advent - We Have Found The KingSample

Christ was and is the atonement for our sins. He took on our iniquities as the ultimate sacrifice for our sin that we could be made whole and restored into relationship with God, the ultimate healing. It’s Roman Road 101, right? It’s the foundation of our Christian faith and certainly the greatest of all news. However, I wonder if we’re too quick to skip over verses 3 and 4 of Isaiah 53 where Jesus life is characterized as despised . . . rejected . . . a man of suffering . . . acquainted with infirmity . . . stricken . . . afflicted.

I spend much of my time, money, and energy trying to insulate myself and the ones I love from pain. However, Jesus seems to model a life of walking directly into pain and suffering. Though we will certainly never experience the level of suffering of Jesus, loneliness, disappointment, rejection and pain are some of the most important benchmarks of the human experience. If we are so consumed with protecting ourselves and the ones we love from pain, we risk not being transformed more fully into the likeness of Christ as a result of that pain. It is often through the dark night that God reveals Himself most profoundly.

As Richard Rohr puts it in Adam’s Return, “It seems that nothing less than some kind of pain will force us to release our grip on our small explanations and our self-serving illusions. Resurrection will always take care of itself, whenever death is trusted. .. It is the cross, the journey into the necessary night, that we must be convinced of, and the resurrection is offered as a gift.” (pg. 38)

Pain and suffering that is not transformational is often deflected onto others, leading to cynicism, broken relationships, emptiness and paralysis in one’s relationship with God. In this season of Advent marked by a yearning for the long-awaited Messiah, may our prayer be that we are transformed into the likeness of Christ through all of life’s experiences and may we never forget that ultimately by His bruises we are healed. Thanks be to God!

Brent Harris, Vice President for Information Technology