Jesus does not say we will not suffer; Jesus says we will not suffer alone. Jesus does not model a stiff upper lip in the face of suffering, rather Jesus cries out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In the book of Job, we see that suffering is disproportionate and unjust, and innocent people suffer immensely in this world. Jesus himself did not deserve what he got. Yet suffering is never pointless. The scriptures say that “our momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Author Tim Keller points out a wonderful line in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It comes right at the end of the story when Samwise Gamgee sees Gandalf, and he says, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?”
Yes, it is.
It’s not just that suffering is going to end, although it will. Suffering will be healed, reversed, undone. Everything sad is going to come untrue. C.S. Lewis said heaven will work backward. It has already started. Heaven has already turned the cross, which was the ultimate symbol of violence, hate, and injustice, and turned it into the ultimate expression of sacrificial, triumphant love. One day heaven will turn agony – every agony, your agony and mine – into glory, endless glory, unimaginable glory, an eternal weight of glory.
“Therefore we do not lose heart….though outwardly we are wasting away….yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day….for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all…so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.” — 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Susie Grade 