The Best Gates

Suffering isn’t a modern concept.  Nor is, of course, healing.  Today we have quick relief with an aspirin or Tylenol or something that relieves all sorts of irritations, and we can leap on our merry daily routine, do the busy must dos, since our lives demand so much here and there, whether we have a headache, a heart problem or stub our toes. And then there has been the coronavirus. We have walked through a shock mountain to find out how to beat the virus and how to stay alive wearing masks and washing our hands a bunch.

Suffering came in all kinds of fabrics in the days of Moses, even, when no one was happy with anything, even though they were in the hands of God, and they fussed about the weird stuff that fell from the skies to the ground and that was all they had to eat. At least it was something to satisfy the growling stomach, but it wasn’t what they thought “food” should be after the exotic foods of the Egyptians, who held them in captivity, and they were not at all happy to be without that norm. I don’t think I would consider manna as tasty nutrition - maybe rain down homemade bread would have seemed more filling. While imprisoned in Egypt, the people of Moses sat around and filled their bellies with pots of meat and ate all the food they wanted. But in the new scene, saved by Moses under the commands of God, God poured down nourishment in thin wafers in bread showers. The Israelites were horrified and grumbled against God. It wasn’t what they were used to, nor anything they liked. Eventually God arranged with Moses and Aaron to feed them meat in the morning and bread at night. These people of God could just not handle suffering in the nourishment category.

We all know that Jesus has been called the true bread from heaven and became the living bread that came down from heaven providing spiritual nourishment to us, his people, and to give life to the world. But today, in this big wide round planet, hunger has become a major problem. Even the poorest of believers, be they Christian, Jewish, Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist - whatever faith, if any, all must fight for food in some of the most difficult corners of this earth. While a millionaire loads up his kitchen with expensive exotic food that mostly goes to waste and gets tossed to the dogs, there are beautiful people in the hot deserts and frozen mountains who must survive on whatever some charity can get to them.  It always hurts me and I am sure you to consider how much pain so many people live with, not only hunger and physical pain, but mental pain. It’s not just physical problems that are caused by things inherited, or poor diets of poverty, or being victims of violence or wars or car wrecks, or just eating too many pints of ice cream, or having learned addiction to drugs that are destroying one’s mental sense from the time they are teenagers and for which there is little physical cleansing.  

But Peter, points out that what counts is trusting that God knows what HE is doing, even when we suffer pain though we really don’t have reason to suffer so horribly, such as cancers or distorted birth without all normal parts, or losing limbs in a disastrous car wreck or slipping on an iced sidewalk, things which happen that aren’t really in our control. Then there is another approach - overdosing on drugs and extreme mental illness, which grow from a controlled to non-controlled upbringing, in families chocked by addiction and crime, or just babies born with deformities which parents could have or maybe could not have any control.  

Peter said if you are beaten for doing wrong, well, that’s your problem because you caused it. If you are doing things correctly, things right and good and are suffering for that — than you are in the heart and hands of God because He did that too. He hung on, was nailed to a cross - a suffering far beyond reason - so that all of us who love him, know him, follow him, could learn that He cares more about us than any living thing on earth.  He did nothing wrong but be honest. He was abused and beaten and insulted and cursed, but he just listened and went on with whatever was next in His life. He knew what was in store. Never did he say anything deceitful, insulting, or wrong.  And more than anything, when he was being abused, he did not pay back with abuse, much the same pathway so many martyrs and saints would suffer in their efforts to bring the spirit of God, of His Son and of the Holy Spirit into the lives of unbelievers who might, in the end, find the road to belief. 

Suffering was all a part of Jesus’ reason to be on earth - he wanted to be the example for all those who knew him, found him, followed him, and believed in him, even centuries after he had departed this earth, leaving the tasks of making things good and right in our hands. And He taught us that when He was abused, he did not return abuse; when He suffered, he did not threaten; but He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He bore our sins in his body on the cross so that, finally, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; And may we never forget, by his wounds we all have been healed, if we just acknowledge that, use that, become that healed soul dancing its way to the heavens. 

The only way to Christ, we learn in his teachings, is being his sheep. When we are his, He guards our souls and hearts.  We must abide in him and that means we must enter by the gate he is guarding. We must hear his voice just as the sheep hears the whistle, the cry, the voice of his shepherd. Jesus calls his own sheep in many ways, but mostly by name and when we perk up our ears and hear him, he leads us out of the prisons, the foals, the fields, the gates as He goes ahead of us. He leads us. True believers will not follow a stranger, a scam, an easy go, a risky challenge. Jesus told his people: I am the gate for all my sheep. All who came before me were thieves and bandits; and the sheep did not listen to them. Only I am the gate. that will open for you to pass on through. Whoever enters through me, He promises, will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, full of pride and greed and envy, and jealousy and abuse. 

 Jesus came so we could have a life and have it abundantly as we share it with others who are lonely, homeless, sad, and needing love and hope. How many of us - probably not even one - would endure abuse and not say a word, not a complaint, not pointing his finger at who did what to him.  When Jesus was abused, He did not return abuse; when He suffered, He did not threaten; He allowed the leaders who already had commitments to lead their way, to continue doing what they had to do. But Jesus trusted only one and that was his Father, and even though it may have pained him for a moment, Jesus knew that what He was doing was what his mission had been set up for him to do for His Father.  He gave His life, He allowed his body to be torn apart, He let the powers try to distort his mind, but He never stopped being who He was and is, and He never gave up on us, not then nor now when things seem so horribly out of hand. His heart is in our hearts. His hand holds our hand. His spirit fills our spirits with a love that is the greatest gift of all. Thank you, Jesus. 

 ~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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