Lord’s Day 15: Q&A 37-39: Join Us in Our Suffering

“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” I think that quote from The Princess Bride rings more true the older I get and the more I experience.

If you’ll permit me to briefly be a bit bleak, human existence is full of suffering. Look at the world around us. My wife has a number of chronic conditions that limit what she can do, especially now since some of her medications aren’t safe to take while she’s pregnant. We live in an area where there is a growing homeless population. Chadd works as a hospital chaplain, where he sees suffering of many forms on a day to day basis.

Many nations’ political systems are falling apart, it seems. There are wars actively happening around the world. There is hunger, there is greed, there is sin all around. Human existence is suffering. It (almost) always has been. Ever since The Fall, the world has been steeped in suffering and in sin, and you and I contribute to that every single day by our fallen nature. It is into this world of suffering that God sent Jesus to rescue us. “To join us in our suffering,” as Chadd has written this week in a Prayer of Lament.

This week’s Lord’s Day asks what Jesus’ suffering for us means, and why he had to do so ‘under Pontius Pilate.’ Being honest with our suffering means that we can appreciate and be thankful for Jesus’ suffering while we mourn the fact that we are the cause of it. This week’s resources are for us when we need to be remined of our suffering and of our Suffering Savior.

Lord’s Day 15

Q&A 37

PRAYER OF LAMENT

Lord of our lives,

Each day we feel the effects of sin and evil in the world.

We experience suffering directly or indirectly.

From broken relationships in our lives,

To unjust systems that harm the already vulnerable.

From violations to our personal safety,

To existential fears that we have no power over.

What makes the suffering worse 

is the knowledge that we contribute to this suffering.

Suffering others experience and suffering we experience

Because of the sin that we commit. 

Loving God, 

Some days it feels like your wrath is against us personally

Rather than against the sin in the world.

Almighty Father,

This suffering is too much for us to bear.

It feels like we are overwhelmed by suffering

We want to give up because we can’t do it ourselves.

God of grace,

We thank you that you sent your son Jesus

To join us in our suffering.

That we worship a Savior who doesn’t minimize or dismiss our suffering.

Instead, Christ suffered all his life,

Took on God’s wrath against sin,

And poured out his grace and forgiveness on us. 

While we experience suffering in our lives,

We know it is not as punishment for our evil.

Instead, our Savior knows suffering and defeated suffering,

So we are not alone in our suffering,

But joined by our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Q&A 38

ASSURANCE OF PARDON (Isaiah 53:4-5): 

Leader: Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,

People: Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

Leader: But he was pierced for our transgressions,

People: he was crushed for our iniquities;

Leader: the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

People: and by his wounds we are healed.

Q&A 39

ASSURANCE OF PARDON (Gal. 3:10-13, Deut. 21:23)

Leader: Anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.

People: Christ redeems us by becoming a curse for us.

Leader: It is through Christ that we have been redeemed.

People: Through Christ, we have been made righteous.

Q&A 37-39

CONFESSION OF SIN

Sovereign God,

There is so much suffering in our world.

Suffering caused by corruption, oppression, and injustice.

Suffering caused by leaders, groups, and individuals.

We have experienced suffering in our lives.

Suffering that we can explain and place blame

And suffering we can’t explain or find anything to blame.

God, we pray that your wrath would be poured out on sin and evil that cause suffering.

But as we reflect on suffering, Loving God,

We confess that we are the source of others suffering.

Whether intentionally or not, 

Others have suffered at our hand as well. 

Forgive us, Gracious God.

For the suffering we have committed

And set us free from our suffering.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON:

Gracious God, 

You are not a stranger to our suffering.

You sent your son Jesus, who suffered all his life,

Who was convicted by an earthly judge, Pontius Pilate,

To die on a cursed cross,

So Christ might be a curse for us,

Take on our judgment for sin,

And gain for us God’s grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

Amen.