Mark 13: Hope in the Hurt

So at first, this passage is gloom and doom.

It's the end of the world.

It's oh my gosh, what's about to happen?

Oh, we've got to figure this out, and everything's gonna be horrible, and it's all of those feelings, right?

But it's it's actually more than that because it's about kind of just the principle that life is hard and life hurts.

Right?

It's not necessarily like life hurts, like you forgot about your password to Netflix, and then you're so frustrated you want to watch your show, so then you have to get it emailed to you, but then it emails to your old email account, and you don't have that password either, and you're just upset and you're frustrated, you're mad, and you know that feeling, right?

We know that feeling.

That's actually quite frustrating, incredibly frustrating.

But this is actually about when life hurts so bad that it can be difficult to make it through the morning, much less a day.

I mean, sometimes we are in such hurting that just breathing can hurt.

And you know what I'm talking about.

You've been there, maybe you're not there right now, but you've probably been there.

We could go around the room, we could share our stories, we could share our wounds, and we would weep together to know what each of us have been through in our lives.

And we don't even have to do that because it only takes just a little a little bit of a moment for each of us to either think about what's going on right now or look back and think about what you've been through, what suffering you've been through, and feel that amount of hurt that you have your own sadness.

And in a way, this is a strange passage for Thanksgiving week, right?

But we've been going through a Bible teaching plan called the Lectionary, and this is the passage that shows up.

That teaching plan was formed outside of the United States and outside of Thanksgiving.

It's a universal global plan, and so churches all around the world are teaching this passage this morning.

All around the world, Christians are hearing this passage.

And what I think we'll hear is actually this passage has a lot of hope because it speaks to reality that you know what?

If you're hurting, hurt doesn't stop Thanksgiving week, right?

It doesn't stop Thanksgiving morning.

Hurt doesn't know those types of boundaries.

And we all know hope, and what we want to know in it is there is there hope in the hurt?

Is there hope in the hurt?

And we love that word hope, right?

And you know this feeling you got on the bus and you're sitting the back right, and then that girl or that guy got on and sat at the front left, and then the next time you got on the bus, you sat at the front left, and you did it in hope, right?

That he or she was gonna get on and sit in the same spot, and you already had the conversation worked out of what you were gonna talk to him or her about, and you did that conversation in hope.

That you were gonna see if maybe this person was interested in you and thought you were brilliant, and y'all could go eat at Chili's together, and you could have a future in hope.

Or you applied to a program, you applied to a college, you applied for a job, you had an interview, come home from the interview, you're talking to your mom, you say, Oh, mom is the best job, I keep living.

There's man, I hope, I hope I get this job.

Now, the interesting thing is if your mom was doing the interview, you probably wouldn't say that.

You kind of figure your shoe in, right?

Hope only has something to say or means something in uncertainty.

Hope has everything to do with not knowing and still putting trust in something to be true.

So we use it very casually a lot of times.

I hope we win Saturday.

I hope the store is still open.

But this word can mean a lot more, right?

Like if you're in a country at war, if you lived in Malibu this week and those fires are coming toward your house, this word starts to mean a lot more.

It carries more weight.

There have been times you've used this word hope with a lot of weight because you're saying something like, I hope this pain will go away.

I hope I'm not sick.

I hope my kid's not sick.

I hope my kid can make it through this season.

I hope this season ends.

I hope I make it out of this season.

I hope this gets better.

I hope being with my family this week is gonna be okay.

I hope Uncle Jerry doesn't want to talk about politics with everybody, right?

Like hope.

I hope we use this word.

And hope is waiting in trust for something.

So in this Mark 13 passage, Jesus is talking about this temple being destroyed, and then Jesus goes from there and starts making some comments about just how the world will be until his return.

And maybe it's a new language for you, new to church, new language.

You kind of read that, you know, that's kind of interesting.

Maybe it's old language, and like you've been in church that used this just to produce as much fear in you as possible in order to get you to do something.

Very possible.

Here's what is true Jesus thought this was important enough to talk about, so there's something here for us.

What I see is I see an overarching principle here, and that is this, very profound, mind you.

The world is not perfect, it does not operate like we want it to, and your world will be difficult.

Right?

It's not become a Christian, and you will, hey, if you become a Christian, all that hurt and that suffering is gonna go away, you get to lay by a pool, and people are gonna bring you sweet tea and fruit kebabs.

I mean, that's that is not the promise.

That's not what it is.

So, what is the promise?

If that's not the promise, what's the promise?

So let's look at the text.

Mark 13, verses 1 and 2.

Mark 13:1

And he came out of the temple, Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.

And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings?

There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

So they come out of this building, look at this building, it's beautiful, it's humbly, it's huge, it's beautiful, somebody is probably covered in gold.

I mean, this is a place they revere, they love this building.

And Jesus says, Hey, yeah, it's gonna be gone.

Like this glorious symbol of your faith and stability and structure and society, gone.

When I read it this week, it's sort of immediately for me, I was remembering the Debbie Downer skit on Signor Live in 2004.

Do you remember?

They're sitting around this table, they're at Disney World, and first Jimmy Fallon starts giggling because he always lost character, and he's like, Oh, I'm gonna order the steak and eggs, and then she starts talking about mad cow disease, and then Pluto kind of comes by, and everybody's so excited to meet Pluto, and Debbie Downer says, Oh, it must be so hard to work here with the constant fear of terrorist attacks.

And it's just like every time somebody got excited about something, Debbie Downer came in and was just like, whack, and this is sort of what this feels like.

The disciples come out of this building, they're like, look at this beautiful building, we love this building.

And Jesus' like, oh, by the way, yeah, it's gonna be gone.

Now, the interesting thing here is they bite on it.

The disciples bite.

And they go, Oh, what?

Like, what are you talking about?

You tell me more, tell us more about that.

What when will that happen?

What will be the what will be the sign?

Now, Jesus doesn't bite on that.

Jesus gets more vague at this point.

He doesn't give straight answers.

And that's what we always want when it comes to this type of conversation about what will the world be like at the end or before Jesus returns.

And all Jesus says is like, it'll be difficult.

It'll be hard.

He does not promise the removal of suffering.

So, verses 3 through 7.

He sat out on the Mount of Olives.

So that's just like the temple is up on one mountain, there's a valley, it comes back up over, and they're on the Mount of Olives, looking over this valley, they can see directly across the valley to the temple.

Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, tell us when will these things be?

Right?

Like, tell me, what's going on?

What will be the sign when all these things are to be accomplished?

And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray.

Many will come in my name, saying, I am He, and they will lead many astray.

And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.

This must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines.

These are but the beginning of the birth pain.

So point number one is this.

We will want to understand things we will never understand.

Right, even reading this passage, all of a sudden you're like, I hope Russ gives me a few.

I've had a few questions about this.

I will not give you the answers to this.

I do not know the answers to this.

If somebody pretends to have too many answers about this, I would worry about that person.

We will want to understand things about suffering and hurting and how the world is gonna work.

And we'll never understand them.

Jesus says the temple's falling, they want to know more details, and he doesn't answer them, he just says, hey, don't stray, it's gonna be hard.

So, of course, you don't understand your sickness or your family's brokenness or even all of your own brokenness or your friend's cancer or your child's rebellion, or of course you don't understand those fires in California, and people died in fires this week.

People died in wars this week.

People starved to death this week, people were abused this week.

These are horrible things, and yet they're not a surprise to God.

He said, it's gonna be rough.

It's a world full of suffering.

And mind you, this is a God who endured suffering.

So he didn't remove suffering, he didn't promise the removal of suffering, but he comes into suffering.

He he proved his love to us, showed love by entering suffering, a crucifixion.

So somehow, mysteriously, in God's sovereignty, rule over this world.

God doesn't remove choice of a person to produce suffering upon another person, and yet he comes into suffering and says, I'll make beauty out of ashes.

I don't understand all that.

I hate suffering.

I hate it for you.

I hate it for me.

There's some darkness I'll never understand.

I would have designed the world quite differently.

I didn't get to design it, you didn't get to design it.

I would have had us all at Sandals, Jamaica forever, just there with those fruit kebabs.

But you know what?

What it tends to be is the longer I'm at Sandals, Jamaica, I become more and more of a selfish brat.

Isn't that interesting?

There's something about suffering that actually does something in us, and the Bible speaks directly to reality.

Romans 5, 1 through 5.

Since we have been justified by faith, that's good news, we have to do it by our own word.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So that means our peace has not come from our work.

It's our sin is put upon Jesus on the cross as righteousness is given to us, we're forever his beloved.

Verse 2, through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.

Why would we do that?

Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

You go, okay, what's so exciting about all that?

And hope does not put us to shame.

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So we don't know everything about our suffering.

You you won't know everything about your suffering, but it produces endurance, it produces character, and it produces hope.

And hope does not put you to shame.

Everything else in this world puts you to shame.

Everything else in this world will say to you, You're not enough.

You're not enough.

You need to do something else.

You need something else.

Then you'll be okay.

Just shop a little more, be a little more, earn something else.

Or your suffering will say to you, You deserve that.

There's shame, there's some shame to carry the rest of your life.

You deserve that, you cause that.

You're not worth anything anyway.

And Paul says, No, no, no, no, no, no.

Suffering produces endurance, endurance, character, character, hope, and hope does not do any of that shame business.

So even though we do not understand our suffering, if we can understand what suffering does, we can end up in some hope that God loves us, and there we are relieved of the shame that so much suffering wants to put upon us.

Point number two.

In our lack of understanding, we may be led astray.

It's kind of what Jesus' immediate response, they say, hey, tell us about the temple's gonna be destroyed, tell us about this.

And he says, Hey, you're gonna be tempted to be led astray.

Don't be led astray.

That's point number two.

In our lack of understanding, we may be led astray.

Author and counselor Paul Tripp, he always has great questions for us.

I always look up his questions on a given topic.

Here are his questions.

When faced with suffering and hardship, what commands your meditation?

When you're suffering and you're in hardship, what are you starting to think about?

The suffering that you're dealing with or the character and the love of your Lord?

Do you force yourself to deny reality by either numbing yourself to the pain or by faking it in front of your family and friends?

Suffering will force either you hide more or you say, You got me.

Remember when you were a kid and your parents let you stay out after dark?

Maybe you didn't do this.

In our neighborhood, we play flashlight, hide-and-seek flashlight tag, and so like you know, you didn't have to tag the person, you just had to hit them with the flashlight, and so only the seeker had the flashlight, and everybody else hid.

And you would hide and you would hide in the same spots you hid during the daylight, but as soon as you it was dark out, like that same spot behind the bushes in the corner, you finally you get in your spot and you'd be there, but it was dark, and you scare all of a sudden you got to pee all of a sudden.

I mean, you know the feeling, right?

You're there, you got to pee, you're hiding, and Randy's coming around with the flashlight, and he's getting closer to you and closer to you, so you gotta pee more and more.

And he gets closer and closer, and finally, finally, finally, he hits you, and you have two choices, right?

You have two choices: run and hide more.

Or you say, You got me.

See, suffering has a way of shining light on our inability to understand everything, and how much we hate that.

And either we run and we hide more, or we say to God, You got me.

I can't understand it all.

And we've lived so much life trying to control everything.

Right?

Control it enough, the situation enough, control enough knowledge to understand something enough, and if I can control all of that, then I'll be okay.

But the reality check here that Jesus has sort of given us in the vagueness of his answer is you know what, it's more complex than you'll even be able to understand.

And we have to embrace that.

On some level, we have to embrace life in this world is more complex than we wish it to be.

I don't wish it to be this way, but it seems to be this way.

And God is actually more complex than I wish him to be.

And I don't wish that to be that way because I would like to understand everything.

But I do know this, and this is the good news that Paul ends for us on this subject of suffering.

Hope doesn't put us to shame.

See, suffering apart from God will always speak shame over you because you'll tell yourself you caused it.

You deserve it.

See, that will define you, the suffering will define you.

The war will define you, the famine, the fire, the hurt.

You aren't enough.

Or you suffer with God, a God who enters suffering.

He doesn't remove it yet, yet.

But he enters suffering.

That's the promise that he's with us.

And their hope does not put us to shame because we are not defined by the suffering, but we're defined by the God who enters the suffering, who loves us no matter what.

And this is where God brings beauty out of ashes.

You're not defined by the suffering.

Verse 8 says, for nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, right?

I mean, no different now than it was 500 years ago, a thousand years ago, 1500 years ago.

I mean, Jesus' comment 2,000 years ago is still relevant today.

It will be in the future.

There will be earthquakes, yep, okay.

In various places will be famines, yep, check.

And these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

And there's our clue, a little clue, a little word play there.

Point number three is this God will one day relieve and redeem all suffering.

All the wars and the pain and the suffering, all this we know will eventually come to an end.

It's a birth pain of a birth of something new, of something wonderful to come.

And the biblical narrative, the biblical narrative takes us to a full story of God fulfilling his covenant to redeem his people and create an existence where there's no fear and there are no tears.

There will be an afterlife.

You will die.

I will die.

One of the weird responsibilities I have as a pastor is to remind you that you will die.

But there is an afterlife with God where there is no disagreement, no discord, no discontentment, no anxiety, no fear, no distraction, no sin, no shame.

Ultimate, forever perfect bliss.

And you won't cry anymore.

Not out of sadness.

There won't be any sadness.

Like all that sadness that we feel, we carry around, will be taken away from us.

And all the sadnesses we have ever felt will be redeemed into glory, into, into joy.

And this is not something we know like we know math.

Right?

With like like the certainty that I can understand all of it right now.

This is not something we know like we know math.

This is something we know because we know about love and how love works.

And the love of God is that He redeems us in Jesus.

And hope does not put us to shame now, and it will redeem us for our afterlife.

My brothers and sisters, may you be thankful this week.

Be thankful this week for wherever you're at, whatever measure of suffering you're enduring, be thankful this week.

For hope does not put you to shame.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for the good news that no matter how much hurt we're feeling today, or loneliness, or discontentment, or fear, or anxiety, or shame, or guilt, that you are the reliever of such things.

That even in our suffering, you have you have promised to walk with us in the suffering.

God, there are people with us this morning that are sick.

There are people with us who have loved ones who are sick.

There are people with us who have been betrayed, abused, who have endured such suffering.

We would weep with them.

God, I pray for great healing in their hearts.

That you would be the comforter to them, to us.

Would we begin to walk with you a path of healing, of redemption, where we would know that hope does not put us to shame, that we could live in this world without shame, that we are loved by you and we are enough.

And give us eyes to see that there will one day be a day where our bodies are not falling apart, we do not have emotional pain and physical pain, relational pain, where the brokenness of the world doesn't weigh on us, where we'll understand things that we lack right now.

Help us to live in hope.

God, we thank you for your grace and mercy to us, that there is a certain hope.

That in Jesus you gave us a certain hope that you walked this earth, died across, resurrected in an objective historic reality for us to have a certain hope amidst all the uncertainty.

We know that you love us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.