WEBVTT 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:07.759 Well, I this month, actually just a few days ago, is kind of a milestone in my life. 00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:11.679 It's been three years since I came here to Redeemer. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.720 That's something to celebrate. 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:16.239 I'm happy to be here. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:26.480 As some of you know, maybe many of you, uh, when I came here to Redeemer, it was a time of incredible grief and loss in my life. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:29.280 I was I was not fun at parties. 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:37.280 I had recently resigned from the church I planted, my family and I. 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:43.439 We we moved to a new neighborhood, an urban neighborhood in Atlanta, planted it in 2010. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:47.840 For 12 years we lived, we pastored, we served. 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:54.399 When I got here, I was exhausted, I was bewildered, I was angry and doubts. 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:57.920 Our family was struggling to understand what had happened. 00:00:58.159 --> 00:01:05.280 For about 18 years, we had kind of lived with this focus to plant and pastor a church. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:08.560 And in the blink of an eye, it had come to an end. 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:14.959 I entered what I would later uh come to learn is called the night of the soul. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:17.760 I didn't know if I had failed. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.400 I wondered if God had failed. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:25.920 All I knew was that our life had been utterly turned upside down. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:43.280 Now, often when we experience severely painful events like this or long-term suffering, it causes us to question many things in our lives, not least of which is God and our relationship with God. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:55.359 In those moments and seasons, God can become strange, he can become distorted in our eyes, even monstrous. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:04.079 The God we thought we knew would never have allowed these things to happen to us or to the ones we love. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.159 So who is he now? 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:09.280 Maybe you've been in that place. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:13.039 Maybe you're in that place this morning. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.039 What do we do when we when the unspeakable happens? 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:22.479 Where do we go when God is no longer familiar and he no longer feels safe? 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:25.919 Well, that's the subject of our sermon this morning. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:33.599 The truth and the good news, strangely, is that this experience is not unusual for Christians. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:41.360 In fact, that's why it has a name, the Dark Night of the Soul, which I was surprised to discover three years ago. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:50.560 In fact, we can turn to a number of places in the scriptures themselves to find God's people asking these very same questions. 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:57.039 Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers in the faith who have walked these dark paths before us. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.719 This morning we come to one of those passages. 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:06.000 For the last few weeks, we've been following in the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:14.319 The Annunciation when the angel Gabriel came to tell her that she would bear the Messiah. 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:18.879 Um she, I I forget, I wasn't here for some of those weeks. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:25.039 But anyway, we've been, I know that was the first one that Brad that Brad preached. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:31.360 Um today we come to, as we read, the crucifixion of her son. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:43.520 This was the darkest moment of her life when Jesus, her oldest son, was tortured and executed on a Roman cross before her eyes. 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:48.400 In John 19, uh, we see Jesus being hung on the cross. 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:53.199 The soldiers are carelessly dividing up his minimal belongings. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:59.680 This was sort of one of their privileges, as those who oversaw awful crucifixions. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:10.960 Um, and in that moment we're told this that standing by the cross, what uh cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:24.079 This was the moment that Simon the Prophet Simeon the prophet had spoken over Mary in the temple when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to be presented before the Lord. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:37.120 He said this to her Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rising of many in Israel, for a sign that is opposed, and a sword will pierce your own soul also. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:47.199 As we've seen over the last few weeks, Mary often stands as our representative in these stories, in the Gospels. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:48.959 She is like us. 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:56.240 She experiences the joys, the challenges, and the complexities of following Jesus. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:01.040 Today she stands in for us as the woman of sorrows. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:08.879 What does Mary have to say to us in our sufferings as one who has endured such great suffering? 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:14.480 And how does she help us to understand the place of suffering in the lives of all Christians? 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:17.680 Those are the questions we're looking at this morning. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.480 Glad you're here, especially if you're visiting. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.600 This is uh, you know, what we talk about every week. 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:24.800 No, just kidding. 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:28.399 Sorry, I'm just trying to introduce some levity to a heavy subject. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:29.759 All right, point one. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:39.279 Mary shows us that becoming a follower of Jesus includes following him into the depths of pain and suffering. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.480 You see, Mary was like most Jews of her day. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:52.560 She expected that when Messiah arrived, he would be a powerful political and military leader who would overthrow their oppressors. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:06:01.040 For hundreds and hundreds of years, God's people had lived under the thumb of brutal oppressing powers. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:12.399 She believed that Messiah would come and restore Israel to a prominent world power as it had been back in the days of King David and King Solomon. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:15.439 But that's not what Jesus did. 00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:25.199 From almost the beginning, Jesus' ministry, Jesus' life frustrated and confused the Jewish people of his day, including Mary. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:32.879 Similarly, as Christians, we often think that following Jesus means moving from strength to strength. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:36.160 I know that I believed that early in my Christian walk. 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:37.360 We know the truth now. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:41.199 We have the Holy Spirit, we have access to great wisdom. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:45.040 Surely my Father in heaven wants goodness for me. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:50.720 I mean, isn't that how Jesus closed, or uh David closes Psalm 23? 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:55.759 He wrote, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. 00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:01.680 Don't we wish that that is what encapsulated the Christian life? 00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:10.560 Now, when I embarked to plant a church, I was already fully aware that I was a people pleaser, as we like to call it. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:14.160 I was, I cared too much for what other people thought of me. 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:20.079 And that's a tough place to be when you're planting a church, when you're starting a new organization. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:31.360 But my hope and even my expectation, my faith, was that Jesus would heal me of this, so that it wouldn't take, have so much control over my life. 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:45.519 But after 12 years, the vitriol, the conflict, the chaos of COVID, both inside and outside of our church community, broke me, and I came to the end of myself. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:52.959 The most disorienting part of that whole experience was that I expected God to save me. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:08:00.399 I knew entering into that season how hard it was, and I could see how hard it was going to be. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:04.959 But I put my faith in the God who made promises to me. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.560 And I believed he would get me and he would get our church community through it. 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:13.839 But he didn't. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:23.199 When I resigned, I felt both the shame of failure and the disbelief that God had not come through. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:25.759 I was devastated. 00:08:27.199 --> 00:08:33.440 After stepping down, I began a long and slow process of grappling with what had happened. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:40.320 Questioning my relationship with the Lord, my calling to the pastorate, many, many things. 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:54.720 Through readings, meditations, conversations, I was reminded that Jesus had said to his disciples, if anyone comes after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 00:08:55.279 --> 00:09:02.960 To follow Christ, the crossbearer, is to become a crossbearer ourselves. 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:10.639 I can only imagine what Mary was feeling as she saw her son hanging on the cross, gasping for air. 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:16.480 Mary knows the pain of God utterly forsaking her expectations. 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:27.120 If you've ever felt utterly bewildered or even forsaken by the things God allows in your life, I want you to hear this morning that you are in good company. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:29.120 Point two. 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:39.039 Mary shows us that God uses the downward movement of our suffering as a way of drawing us closer to Himself. 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:51.440 As I reflected on this passage this week, it occurred to me, you know, Jesus died on the cross to defeat sin, death, and Satan. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:57.679 He died for the sins of God's people, and so he died for Mary's sins too. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:00.639 And so it raised this question in my mind. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:05.679 Is Mary with Jesus in this moment in his suffering? 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:09.759 Or is Jesus with Mary in hers? 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:13.840 Of course, she's there because she is Jesus' mother. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:14.799 She loves him. 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:21.039 Her heart is breaking for him as he hangs upon the cross. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:26.639 But Jesus would have been on this cross whether she was there or not. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.240 And then we see this happen. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:39.200 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. 00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:42.799 Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:46.639 And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:58.879 In the midst of this sword piercing her own soul, Jesus is there with her, loving her, providing for her. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:04.799 This is one of the profound mysteries of the gospel. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:07.679 Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 3. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:12.480 He's talking about the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:30.480 And he says that his desire is that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:57.039 How can we experience the blessing and joy of being united with him in his resurrection if we are not also and at the same time united with him in his death? 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:01.600 Beloved, this is not an easy concept, I can confess. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:16.480 But I will say this: that I believe that the gospel teaches us that our suffering is transformed when we realize and embrace that Jesus meets us right there in our suffering. 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:33.120 When I was in between pastoral positions, I had stepped down from our church in Atlanta, and discerning whether I was still called to pastoral ministry or not, I began networking, just meeting with people, looking for opportunities. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:37.120 Another position. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:45.200 In those meetings, I would inevitably share what had happened, uh, or bits and pieces of it at my previous church. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.159 And the most unexpected thing happened. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:13:02.720 Inevitably, when I would share my experience, the person I was meeting with would begin to share their experiences of suffering and loss, often in the workplace, but but also more broadly. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:09.600 And this sharing of grief and suffering became a lifeline to me. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:23.120 I left these networking meetings, often they had no contacts, they had no offers, they had nothing to offer me, but I would leave knowing and experiencing that I was not alone. 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:27.440 And there was a deep and surprising comfort there. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:35.039 And what I came to realize is that Jesus himself could relate to my suffering. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:40.000 He had experienced loss, grief, betrayal. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:48.159 And so through these people, in these networking meetings, I was experiencing the heart of God. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:52.000 His love and compassion met me there. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:14:04.000 No matter what you are going through, no matter what you have gone through or will go through, brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ can meet you there. 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:09.600 And I encourage you to bring those griefs to him. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:19.279 Because in a surprising way, he meets us there in ways that we would not expect. 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:21.679 Alright, point three, final point. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:30.480 Mary shows this that those who follow Jesus into death will also experience the surprising joy of resurrection. 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:37.360 What do you think Mary thought as they lowered Jesus dead from the cross? 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:45.279 She probably didn't have the capacity to think much into the future, but we know what happens. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:50.639 In two days' time, Jesus would rise from the dead victorious. 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:57.360 The loss she thought she was seeing and experiencing was actually the greatest victory in history. 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:02.159 And the same promise is made to us as well, beloved. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:08.639 In Romans 8, Paul links all of this together in a mind-blowing passage. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:09.840 He writes this. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:25.679 Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:30.559 Beloved, through our faith in Christ, we become fellow heirs with Christ. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:51.519 And so, just as Jesus inherited resurrection life, just as Jesus appeared to his disciples and showed them that he was victorious over death, so we, along with creation, Paul says, look forward to the day when we will inherit the same resurrection life. 00:15:51.840 --> 00:16:06.639 And as John, the beloved disciples, writes at the end of the book of Revelation, it is the day when all tears will be wiped away, all suffering will be put away. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:15.519 And so, yes, we are called to follow Jesus, to bear our own cross, to bear grief and loss. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.399 But that is not the end of the story. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:20.879 It is merely the beginning. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:32.799 The end of the story is the defeat of death, the defeat of sin, the defeat of all the powers of darkness in this world, and resurrection life, the renewal and the restoration of all things. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:40.399 Mary shows this that for those who suffer with Christ, we too will experience the joy of resurrection. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:52.159 Even as we meditate on what she as a mother was experiencing on Good Friday, what was she experiencing on Easter Sunday? 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:56.240 To see her son alive and whole again. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:02.000 In my story, coming to Redeemer was a resurrection for me. 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:10.559 Russ and the elders, the staff, and you, the congregation, provided a place for me to both heal and to serve. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:18.480 There were other positions I wanted more than to come here to Redeemer because they were familiar, they were within my denomination. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:32.079 But after Stacy and I met with the elders, she said to me, Redeemer, with its focus on rest and grace, it is the place we need to be. 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:33.759 And she was right. 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:44.880 In the midst of our suffering, God met us and he provided for us in ways we could not have anticipated and showed himself gracious, kind. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:50.480 He wept with us, and he lifted us out of the miry clay. 00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:59.519 Where have you been able to see God's amazing grace play out in your life in the midst of suffering? 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:09.839 Where is God showing you his loving presence in the midst of your suffering that you may be holding at arm's length? 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:18.079 Beloved, because Jesus is raised from the dead, there is always hope of resurrection in our lives. 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:27.920 Yes, in the life to come, but also in our day-to-day, Jesus is constantly meeting us and bringing resurrection life into our life. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:42.000 The suffering that often causes us to doubt the goodness of God is also the place where God meets us and reveals the depth of his love, grace, and forgiveness for us. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:56.960 Though we would never ask for that suffering, in a very real way, we can even one day give thanks for that suffering because of how it becomes the channel of God's love becoming tangible in our own lives. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:03.680 If there's anything in this sermon you have a question about, or if you have any prayer you need, I'll be down front after the service. 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:04.880 I'd love to meet with you. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.079 Let's pray. 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:27.440 Our Father and our God, Lord, though suffering is always unpleasant and something we would avoid, yet in your upside-down kingdom, it becomes a place of amazing joy, renewal, and life. 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:30.880 Lord, meet us where we are suffering. 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:36.240 Let your grace and love be tangible to anyone here this morning who is in that place. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:38.160 But we ask it in Jesus' name. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:38.880 Amen.