Trouble will give you an opportunity to testify- Luke 21:5-19

Luke 21:5-19

There is a line in our Gospel that really caught my attention. Verse 13 says, 

“This will give you an opportunity to testify” (Luke 21:13).

The Greek word for “testify” is marturion. This is where we get the word “martyr”. When someone is martyred, they are killed because they are a follower of Jesus. We sometimes expand that word to mean someone killed for a cause, but originally it was someone who was killed for their testimony about Jesus. Jesus says that his followers should expect to be treated poorly. Jesus says, 

“they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.” 

 “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name” (Lk 21:12,16-17).

Some people have a tendency to assume that when something bad happens to them that they have done something wrong. We might say, “What have I done to deserve this?” We sometimes think in terms of Karma. If you do good, then good will happen to you. If you do bad things, then bad things will happen to you. … There is a bit of truth in this. I make decisions that have consequences. … But life is more complicated than this. For example, the book of Job challenges that notion. Job had terrible things happen to him, through no fault of his own. … Jesus died on the cross through no fault of his own. So, we can have something bad happen to us, even if we haven’t done anything to deserve it. … Maybe we find ourselves suffering because of someone else’s sin, or it might just be the chaos that life throws us.

Obviously, Christians who were martyred, didn’t endure that tragedy because they were bad people. No, Jesus says that they are in that place because they are his followers. It is because of their goodness that this is happening to them. We heard a hint of this in last week’s gospel reading. Luke 6:22-23 says, 

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”

And, in John 15 Jesus says, 

“If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. … ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (Jn 15:18, 20). 

In other places, He asks his followers to pick up their cross and follow him (Matt 16:24). So, the followers of Jesus are told that they should prepare for a hard time. …

The specific reality Jesus was talking about was a confrontation with authorities over their dedication to Jesus. This was a painful, and sometimes deadly, reality. There were times when being as a follower of Jesus was very dangerous. It is still dangerous in many parts of the world. I have met a number of Christians from various parts of the world who have spoken about how dangerous it can be in their home country. I have heard it said that there were more Christians killed for their faith in the last 100 years than in all the previous centuries put together since Christianity began. So, this is still a very real danger for many of our brothers and sisters around the world.

As Christians, it is important that we let go of this karmic thinking. Life is more complicated than this. We will be confronted by pain and difficulty, and that doesn’t necessarily mean we have done something to deserve it. In fact, we should expect suffering. We should even prepare for it. The important question is how we will respond to the difficulties and sufferings of life.

Beyond the reality of martyrdom, I think we can also extend the words of Jesus into other parts of our lives where we endure suffering- “This will give you an opportunity to testify” (Luke 21:13). I wonder if we can look at all our difficulties this way? What if every suffering we encounter can become an opportunity to testify? … In John 9 we read, 

“As [Jesus] walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:1-3).

 Jesus goes on to heal the man, but maybe there are other ways that God’s works might also be revealed in the midst of suffering.

I knew an amazing man named (Tsuyoshi) Eddy Nishida. He was born into a Buddhist family, and during World War 2 he was forced into the Japanese internment camps as a young man. For a while, he was in the quarantined tuberculosis section, and while he was there, he saw a lot of people die. When he spoke about why he became a Christian he said that Christians died differently. He witnessed Christians dying full of hope and not afraid. Witnessing this began his journey to becoming a Christian.  

I don’t think anyone was trying to convert Eddy. He just witnessed how Christians dealt with their suffering. Without realizing it, they were testifying to the power of Jesus in their lives. They went into death in the knowledge that they belonged to Christ, and that Christ walked this path before them, and (like a good shepherd) he would guide them through that valley of the shadow of death to the Father’s house where a place has been prepared for them.

This doesn’t have to be true only of our death. This can be true of our life as well. One of the teachings of the saints is that if we can endure the sufferings of life with the mind of Christ, those times of suffering can become opportunities for spiritual growth.

One of my favourite books is the Mountain of Silence. It is an exploration of Eastern Orthodox Christianity through a series of interviews with the monk and priest, Father Maximos (which isn't his real name). I want to read you some of Father Maximos’ comments that have to do with the sufferings of life. 

 We have spoken before about humility as being the root of virtue. He says, that we can learn humility “through systematic [spiritual disciplines] askesis: fasting, ceaseless prayer, all night vigils, work, and the like. Beyond that, and most important, it is when human beings learn how to have patience with the many and unavoidable sorrows that they will encounter in life.” …

“Learn how to accept sorrows as divine gifts, including personal failures. Through experiences of grief human beings have the opportunity to place the stone of their heart into a grinder and turn it into dust. [A stone heart is not a good thing. We need hearts of flesh (Ez 11:19).] They must go through these sorrows of the heart. Through grief they may come out victorious. Life itself is a form of [spiritual discipline] askesis. People just don't recognize it and lose heart.” …

“That’s why in the [Book of Revelation] the Saints are referred to as ‘those who have passed through great sorrows.’ Their life was not easy.”… 

“Sorrow is an unavoidable part of life regardless of when and where you live. It is an integral aspect of human existence.” … 

“When I say sorrow, it does not mean that we celebrate suffering as if it is something to cherish and pursue. Rather, to the extent that suffering is unavoidable, accept it as a gift from Heaven. Then it will have a therapeutic impact on your heart. Redefine it in your mind as an opportunity for spiritual growth. Because that's what it is in reality. Whether people realize it or not, we live in a world of ongoing [spiritual discipline] askesis.” …

“Something very paradoxical happens within the heart of Saints who experience, for one reason or another, deep grief and sorrow. It is the mystery of God's grace. While everything goes wrong, at a certain point there is a sudden inner transformation and illumination. That which was experienced as intense grief now becomes the cause of a great amount of Grace, so much so that the bitterness of the grief is annihilated. Grief is transmuted into ineffable joy.” …

“I advise people that when they learn how to make it a practice in their lives to be patient with small temptations of grief, they can gradually learn how to accept the greater temptations of suffering that they will unavoidably experience in their lives. With practice they learn not to become lost under the weight of such temptations. Their heart may be shredded into pieces but they are not lost. It is a problem with people today that they are incapable of dealing with the slightest sorrow or temptation. They often disintegrate as human beings.” (Markides, p. 60-63. Mountain of Silence)

It’s not only the Martyrs that can be witnesses to Christ. We can also be witnesses by suffering differently. Through Christ, we can find meaning in our suffering. And that can help us suffer differently. God is in the business of turning crosses into resurrections. May we learn to offer our suffering to God so that it can be transformed in such a way. Perhaps your suffering “will give you an opportunity to testify”. AMEN