Hebrews 1:4; 2:5-12

Job 1:1; 2:1-10

Before I read the passage from Job, I want to offer some stage cues.  Job of course is the protagonist described as blameless and upright.  The setting is split between two locales, the dialogue in heaven between God and Satan and then the activity on earth with Job and his wife.  The term Satan does not refer to the devil as some would think- that concept did not exist in Job’s time.  Rather Satan is a term for one of the heavenly hosts who plays the part of the adversary.  This is the second testing of Job.  The first time around, God and “Satan” decide to see how Job responds when his children and property are destroyed; a trial certainly capable of decimating one’s faith, or creating anger at God.  But Job doesn’t curse God; rather he mourns and worships God in his time of grief and devastation.  The two accounts are identical save for the trial Job faces.  The first one is children and property, the second is Job’s health.  Now let us read the second account of what Job is asked to endure.

 

This week I heard a woman outside our congregation share about her recent diagnosis.  She had a faith that had offered comfort in the good times.  When her health had taken a turn, she felt betrayed by God.  In that moment she felt so far removed from faith that she decided she could not depend on God.

 

The adversary (aka Satan), Job’s wife and later his friends all thought that Job would or should respond in a similar way.  Turn from God, curse God for the curse of ill health.  You see there is a theology in the Old Testament that faithful obedience connects with blessings and disobedience with God’s curse (Deut. 30:15-20).  “Job’s friends will reinforce this connection when they join him at the ash heap, assuming that Job’s suffering testifies to his disobedience.  Then Satan, the adversary, offers God the challenge of placing a proverbial stick in Job’s spokes, wagering that removing the “hedge” of Job’s blessings (removing his family, his fortune and his health) will be enough to send Job over the handlebars, undoing Job’s faith” (Feasting on the Word B4, pg. 127).

 

Have you ever been thrown over the handlebars?  Have you felt like God stuck that stick right into the spoke of your life?  Have you faced a trial so great that you began to question your faith?  Or curse God?  You wonder, “What in the world did I do to deserve such tragedy?”  We are all broken people.  We get cracked when we are rejected, we wither when our dreams are crushed, we leak with tears of grief when our soulmate dies.  We would be hard-pressed to live a long, full life and not be tested in some deep way, even if our brokenness is only visible to God.

 

In the sorrow of his brokenness, Job asks a very poignant question.  “Shall we receive the good from the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”  Any rational person would say no. Somehow we seem to celebrate the good as our own doing or blessings from God.  If things go bad, we often blame God.   We like to share in the credit, we don’t want to be the one at fault.  Job is the archetype of faithful endurance, he has lost his children, his wealth and his health; remaining faithful.  We find courage in Job, not so that we can become martyrs for the faith, but to remind us that God is faithful.

 

In our brokenness we are more than welcome to get angry at God in those times of trial.  God has very broad shoulders and can handle it.  And directing our anger at God might help us not to lash out at the people near and dear to us when we truly need their support.  Anger is different from curse.  We can be angry at God as we process our pain; if we curse God, decide that God has abandoned us hereby rejecting our faith, then we have lost the integrity for which Job is known. Job teaches us we have a choice about how we respond to the trials we face.  We can be like the woman I spoke of who felt abandoned, or we can cling more tightly to the hope of healing.  We have a choice.

 

We have considered Job’s suffering and how it shapes ours.  The real key is Christ’s suffering. Jesus is crowned with glory for his suffering death so he might taste death for you and me.  He died on the cross so that we might know God’s love, a very comforting thought in our brokenness.  Hebrews asks what we wonder in our dark moments, “Who am I God that you are mindful of me, and care for me?”  How is my pain even your concern?  We sense the great distinction between God and a mere human and yet Christ bridged that void.  Christ being divine and being human knows our suffering and knows God.  When we sense Christ’s presence with us in our pain, it is God hovering over us.  For “Christ is the exact imprint of God’s very being!” (Heb. 1:3)

 

Have you ever seen those boxes with hundreds of pinpoint cylinders that capture the image of whatever is pressed against it?  It is called pin art.  It is similar to three dimensional pixels capturing every topographic nuance.  So if I place my hand with my fingers spread on one side, it makes the relief image on the other.  It imprints what it touches.  Jesus is the exact imprint of God.  Jesus is God, Jesus touches God and so God’s very essence is imprinted on Christ.  Scripture tells us that our salvation is perfected through Christ’s suffering.  Christ on the cross, tasted death, bought your salvation, Christ also knows your suffering now.  It is almost like when you push out your hand in pain Christ feels the relief of your pain on the other side.  He feels the depth of your pain and its force.  Christ absorbs your pain in his grace.  Amen.