Is there such a thing as agony and victory? Everyone has agonized over something in their lives, yet there is hope. Most of us on this side of heaven have struggled and had trials and tribulations. In this podcast, we discuss agony with a twist: the victory that comes on the other side.
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Jesus wants us to live a life free from agony and strife. He wants us to live a victorious life, but how can we do so when there are so many hardships in our lives? How can we hold on to the hope that is the bedrock of our faith without caving in and losing hope? We can do this by looking at the scriptures but also taking them into our hearts and applying them to our lives.
Jeremiah is one of my favorite prophets in the Bible. I love his steadfast, single-minded focus on the mission at hand. Like most disciples, he left his family and home to pursue the mission God called him to, and in so doing, tragedy could have been averted. There was a movie made for television on the prophet Jeremiah. As we watched it, I kept stopping the DVD player to say to the children who were watching it with me at the time, “Look! Look! Do you hear that? It is the same thing that is happening today.” Finally, the children were so frustrated they asked if we could finish the movie before we talked about it.
The movie depicted Jeremiah’s upward battle and struggle as he agonized over sharing God’s message with an unwilling people. He was willing to articulate his agony in Jeremiah 20:10:13 (Read on air).
God is a God of mercy and forgiveness, but also righteousness. Jeremiah says, “But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior, so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.” When God sends someone to do His mission, He will equip them and provide for them. Jeremiah’s message was not very different from Jonah’s message to Ninevah: Repent. Repent. Repent. Yet, while Jonah was not a very good prophet and was a reluctant one, Jeremiah was obedient, and it cost him so much.
Jeremiah is said to be a prefigurment or a type of Christ in that he was crushed, maligned, rejected, and in anguish, the same as Jesus during his passion, the way of the cross toward the crucifixion.
Jesus quotes the words of Jeremiah: Jeremiah 5:12 (Read on air.) in Mark 8:18 – “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?”
He also quoted Jeremiah 7:11. (Read on air) with Mark 11:17 (Read on air.) and also Luke 19:46
Why did Jesus quote Jeremiah? Because he, too, was rejected, despised, maligned, crushed, and in anguish. As Jesus reflected on the words of Jeremiah, he must have heard an echo of what was to come. The amazing thing, as our pastor pointed out during a sermon, is the same people, the Pharisees, scribes, and scholars who were amazed at the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple, amazed at his wisdom and comments and answers to the questions, were now ready to get rid of Him. These were the same people who wanted to crucify him.
The lesson is that out of His suffering, redemptive suffering for all of us comes the VICTORY of the Resurrection. Jesus was born, lived a simple life, and died on the cross to set us free. We can now rejoice because, as we read in the scriptures, the victory has been won!
1 Corinthians 15:54 (Read on air)
The death of Christ was not the end, as we head into the last week before Easter we recall His passion, the events leading up to His crucifixion, but it is what is on the other side that leads us to rejoice!
Jesus wants us to be whole; he wants us to be without the burdens we carry. Yet, he wants us to strive for truth and righteousness. To be like Him, we can look at the example of his mother, Mary. She said to do what he tells you at the wedding feast in Cana. She points to her son, and we, too, take that clue and abandon ourselves to Him.
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina said, “The cross will not crush you; if its weight makes you stagger, its power will also sustain you.” Isn’t that beautiful? It is such a powerful truth. The crosses in our lives often make us stronger, and we grow through suffering.
God abandoned himself for us; shouldn’t we abandon ourselves to Him?
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Luke 9:20:23—After Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” Jesus gave one of his most famous discourses. He predicted His death and gave us a mission in life.
After Peter said, he was the Messiah. Luke 9:21-23 Read On Air.
Friends, to be disciples and follow, we must pick up our crosses daily. When we agonize and despair when we are rejected, lonely, and forgotten, remember the one who will never abandon or forget you, and cry out to Him. When agony comes, remember victory is at the other end. Maybe not how we would like it, but always within the perfect will of God. As we approach Easter or whatever time of year you are listening to this podcast, focus on the task at hand, yes—but rejoice in the Lord and His perfect will in our lives.
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