In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When comparing prayers written 500 or more years ago to
those written in recent decades, you’ll notice many differences. This is not
necessarily a bad thing. Language develops over time. And even if the general
temptations and afflictions experienced are common to all men at all times, the
specifics certainly change.
There is, however, one area in which we should pay more
attention to the prayers of our distant forefathers than even our grandparents.
I speak of prayers concerning suffering and death. Hear the words of our hymn
of the day, The Will of God is Always Best, written in the 16th
century:
Lord, this I ask, O
hear my plea, Deny me not this favor;
When Satan sorely troubles me,
Then do not let me waver.
O guard me well, My fear dispel, Fulfill Your faithful saying:
“All who believe By grace receive An answer to their
praying.” [1]
Notice that in this hymn, we did not pray that God would
remove the suffering or temptation. Whenever Satan troubles us—and in whatever
way he might do so—we prayed that God would not let us waver from the faith He
has given us. It is a prayer against losing faith in the face of suffering and
temptation.
Then, we prayed that God would guard us and remove our fear.
Finally, we prayed that God would fulfill the promise He has given us. He has
said that the prayers of all who believe will be answered and, in this hymn, we
are holding God to His promise.[2]
Our prayer continues in the fourth stanza:
When life’s brief
course on earth is run And I this world am leaving,
Grant me to say, “Your will be done,” Your faithful Word
believing.
My dearest Friend, I
now commend My soul into Your keeping;
From sin and hell, And death as well, By You the vict’ry
reaping.[3]
The topic of our prayer has shifted from suffering and temptation
to death. Notice that our prayer is not for one more day, a miracle, or even
for a peaceful end. By praying “grant me to say, ‘Your will be done,’ we are
asking that God would again keep us steadfast in the faith once delivered in
the face of death. We are begging God to give us the faith necessary to face
the dreadful end of our life on this side of glory.
Our prayer ended by commending our souls to God’s care. It
is only by His death and resurrection that the victory over sin and hell, and
death as well, is given to us. We can ask God as our dearest Friend because He
has come to us and brought us into His home through faith. He alone has the
power to conquer death and He has called you His own. Why trust the greatest cancer
doctor Mayo has to offer when he is powerless against death? Instead, see that
God has given great gifts of healing to doctors but it is the Almighty alone
that determines the days of your life. He alone will welcome you into the glory
of heaven when the number of your days has come to an end. He alone has won the
victory over Satan and the grave.
Hear now, a modern prayer, written on behalf of those
experiencing serious illness:
O Lord, You are the great Physician of soul
and body; You chasten and You heal. Show mercy to Your servant. Spare his life
and restore his strength. Even as You gave Your Son to bear our infirmities and
sicknesses, deal compassionately with him, and bless him with Your healing
power. We commit him to Your gracious mercy and protection; through Jesus
Christ, our Lord…[4]
In this prayer, we are asking for God’s mercy, to spare the
life of the afflicted, to restore his strength, that God would deal
compassionately with the afflicted, and that God would bless him with God’s
healing power. Finally, we commend the afflicted to God’s gracious mercy and
protection.
There is nothing heretical or false about this prayer. It is
published in the Pastoral Care Companion, the small booklet designed for
pastors to use on visits for the purpose of individual pastoral care. There
does, however, seem to be something missing.
The modern prayer makes no mention of receiving the
affliction in faith. It seems to assume that the affliction is contrary to
God’s will for the Christian. Strictly speaking, prayers are not written for
the purpose of teaching. They are written for the purpose of asking God for
something. But our faith is shaped by the words of our mouth and the actions of
our body just as much as our words and actions are shaped by our faith.
The temptation in omitting prayers to receive suffering in faith is to believe the goal of this life is to avoid suffering. The sin in this temptation is elevating the avoidance of pain, suffering, and even death, to the highest good. None is good but God alone.[5] The highest good is God, and Him taking on your flesh and dying in your place so that you might receive His life. Modern Western medicine has made this a daily temptation so that we seek constant and permanent relief from every pain. There is always a prescription, doctor, specialist, or surgery for what ails you. And if there isn’t, if you are deemed to be terminal, then there is medication to render you unconscious and unfeeling until the medicine itself finally stops your heart and lungs.
When the goal of life is to avoid suffering, it leaves no
room for repentance. If pain, suffering, and death are only medical conditions,
they are not the result of sin. If they are not the result of sin, then we have
no need for God to remove them. Suddenly, God is only necessary when we choose
to do something we think is evil. We must repent of this idolatry. All pain,
all suffering, all illnesses, and death are the result of sin. God allows the
suffering of His dear children so that we would never forget the severity of
our sin. He allows these things so that we would repent of our sins and cling
ever more tightly to Christ our Savior.
When our prayers are only focused on God ending our
suffering or making it more palatable, we forget that God is a loving Father
who chastens those whom He loves. We forget that the just outcome of our lives
is misery and eternal death. We forget that it is only by grace that God
delivers us from every evil of body and soul, property and honor, and finally,
when our last hour has come, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us
from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.[6]
It is not sinful to ask God to remove suffering, temptation,
or grief. St. Paul does this three times concerning a particular messenger of
Satan sent to torment him.[7]
The Lord refuses to remove this temptation, saying, “My grace is sufficient for
you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” These words cause St. Paul
to gladly boast in his infirmities for he knows that God is sending them so that
he would be turned away from his own sin. He rejoices in suffering and
temptation because it means that he is saved not by his own flesh but by the
death of Christ. When Paul is weak, Christ is strong.
Thus we have the words of today’s hymn. We are reminded to
pray that God would uphold us in the faith to which He has called us. When you
are suffering sickness, pain, despair, or shame, turn to God and pray that He
would not let you fall; that your flesh would not succumb to this temptation
such that you would lose your soul to eternal death; and if it should be the
will of God to remove you from this vale of tears, thanks be to God that He has
ended your suffering and brought you home to Him in heaven.
When our Lord arrives in Nain, He interrupts a funeral
procession. The mother of the boy is weeping loudly. This could be an
indication of the Near Eastern practice of funeral mourning or simply an
expression of her grief, but it is certainly weeping and wailing as though
there is no hope. Christ bids her stop her weeping. This is not a
commandment against grief, it is a commandment against wailing as though death
were the greatest enemy, the greatest affliction of man.
Jesus has compassion on this grieving mother.[8] He sees her pain and it moves Him to express His love for her. Stopping the pallbearers, Jesus touches the coffin. He touches the instrument of burial, the mode of transportation carrying this young man from life to death, and He says, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”[9] Immediately, the boy sat up and began to speak.
Jesus was indicating to the crowd that this instrument of
burial has no power in the presence of Christ. Jesus is foreshadowing His own
death, by which the grave no longer has dominion over man. Jesus will take the
place of this young man and conquer death on his behalf. Christ will rise
again, just as this young man rose, but the resurrection of Christ endures
forever. By His death, the victory has been won on your behalf. By His
resurrection, eternity has been given to you.
The coffin is no longer the final resting place of this
young man nor anyone who dies in Christ. The tomb is now a cemetery, a word
that literally means “sleeping place.”[10]
The young man hears the word of the Lord and immediately sits up and speaks the
praises of God. Scripture is silent as to what the young man said, but I
believe he immediately began singing the Sanctus, the Gloria in Excelsis, or
another of the songs sung in heaven. He immediately went from praising God in
heaven to praising God in the flesh.
So, when you suffer, pray that God would remove the
affliction. Pray that God would hear your prayer and answer it just as He has
promised. But do not forget to pray for the most important thing—that God would
sustain you through this affliction in the one true faith; that God would grant
you the strength to persevere through the affliction, as long as it is His will
that you would be afflicted; that God would continue to show mercy to you by bringing
to your remembrance that this world is fleeting in the eyes of eternity.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
[1]
Albrecht von Preussen, The Will of God is Always Best, stanza 3, as
found in Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing
House, 2006), 758.
[2]
St. John 14:12-14.
[3]
Preussen, The Will of God is Always Best, stanza 4.
[4]
The Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, “Prayer 254
alt.,” Pastoral Prayer Companion (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing
House, 2007), 199.
[5]
St. Matthew 19:17.
[6]
Martin Luther, “The Lord’s Prayer: The Seventh Petition,” The Small
Catechism.
[7]
2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
[8]
St. Luke 7:13.
[9]
St. Luke 7:14.
[10]
“Κοιμητήριον [koi-mā-TĀ-rion] –
bedroom, place of rest.” A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and
other Early Christian Literature, 3rd edition, revised and
edited by Frederick William Danker [Commonly known as BDAG] (Chicago, IL: The
University of Chicago Press, 2000), 551.
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