July 20, 2022
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” That’s how Isaiah described Jesus; quite differently than we usually hear in evangelical circles these days. We North Americans have an archetypal hero—the Lone Ranger, the James Bond, the Rambo, the Superman who takes on the bad guys with brains, courage, and muscle. He may come stealthily like Rambo, or in a show of power like Superman, but singlehandedly he clears out the bad guys, rights the wrongs, vanquishing all evil before slipping offstage.
Jesus does none of that. One of his signature statements is, “In this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” But instead of cleaning house with a show of power, he hangs bleeding, a king on a cross. What kind of victory is this? How can he claim victory when we still bury babies, and see our dreams crumble before the onslaught of every kind of evil?
I am watching and praying for my son as he battles cancer in weariness yet shining forth in his faith, delighted just to be in God’s presence. If our Lord were not a Man of Sorrows, my son could take little comfort in him. In this life, victory is not so much to be free of trouble; after all, Jesus promised we would face all kinds of it, but to be free from its oppression. When our troubles fail to destroy our faith, our troubles are defeated. Faith has overcome. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4).
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