Why do Christians suffer?  What should we ask God to do for us in this regard?  Is he available like the famous story of Aladdin and his lamp to respond to our wishes?  We’ll explore this in part from John 16.  Let’s begin with some context.

Chapter 16 is awkwardly placed into John’s gospel.  It’s not the text that is awkward, but breaking the context is unnecessary.  Here, Jesus has been telling the disciples how they would suffer for him.  He is encouraging them to not abandon their faith and says he has been warning them so they would be ready when the time came…to be prepared to suffer.

In a very real sense, Jesus had been their shepherd/protector.  He says:

4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5but now I am going to him who sent me.  John 16:4

While Jesus was alive, he took the brunt of the abuse from the Jews.  He was attacked.  He was hunted.  He was nearly stoned and thrown off a cliff.  He was scorned and accused of sin.  The disciples had suffered these things to a far lesser degree because Jesus was the main target, but he knew after he departed, his disciples would be the target of this abuse.

The reference to throwing them out of the synagogue needs to be understood in its historical context.  This was not the equivalent to kicking somebody out of a Sunday morning worship service at a local church.  The synagogue was the center of the Jewish life and culture.  To be thrown out of the synagogue was to be outcast from the entire community – rejected by the church, the city, the  nation.  Because of the severity of what they would suffer, a helper, an “Advocate” would be sent to them…the Holy Spirit.

Jesus makes this promise with the assurance that it was a necessity, stating it was a good thing that he would leave so the Holy Spirit could come and be with them.  It’s not that the Spirit was absent from the world before now (there are many references to the Spirit in the OT), but admittedly, the Spirit’s work took on a new weight or emphasis with the establishment of the church.  The Spirit’s presence would be the seal of redemption (Ephesians 1) and would give the apostles power to stand, to speak, and to work wonders among men.

21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:21-22

Jesus uses this imagery of childbirth to describe how their momentary grief at his departure would be turned to joy with his resurrection and (in context) with the coming of the Advocate.  Indeed, Paul used the same imagery in Romans 1 to describe how all of creation had been ” in labor” awaiting what was about to unfold.

An practical lesson for all believers from this passage is the reality of Christian suffering and the necessity of it.  Too often our prayers center on God taking away every hurt, every illness, every problem, and every persecution or trial.  We easily fall into the cycle of treating God like a “magic genie”.  In other words, we just rub the lamp of prayer and God comes out to grant our wishes.  This can consume our prayer life.

While God cares about our lives, and while praying for healing and peace is biblically sound, the Christian must learn that suffering is not only allowed by God for his people – it is promised.  James says trials are to be counted a “joy” because of the patience they produce.  In chapter 4 of his epistle, James also says we often pray selfishly…for our own pleasure.  If our purpose in praying to God to relieve our suffering is simply for the sake of relieving our suffering, we have missed a valuable point.  Let us not forget to pray that God use the trials we (or others) are facing to accomplish a great work in us for the gospel and for his kingdom.  Pray we might see his discipline in our sufferings.  Pray we might see his justice or his grace played out to better understand his will.

   33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I recently heard someone I know (who is a personal fitness trainer by trade) use the expression, “Pain is just temporary”.  I suppose that is a good way to motivate someone in intense physical training.  I wouldn’t know, since in no way am I a product of intense physical fitness training.  However, this expression is true in a larger sense.  In the end, God has won the greatest victory of all.  Our trials, pains, and needs will melt away as nothing when we see the awesome nature of what Christ has done in redeeming us and making eternal life with him a reality!
– Based on a lesson by John Summers