A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Rev. L. John Gable
March 11, 2018
Has anyone ever dared suggest to you that once you come to faith, once you say “no” to the world and “yes” to God, once you become a follower of Jesus, that suddenly everything, from that moment on, will go smoothly for you? All of your problems solved. All of your questions answered. All of your troubles and troubled relationships resolved? That nothing can ever interfere with the blessed assurance that all is well between you and your Savior, and further, that now that you are right with God you won’t have any hardship or heartache, disappointments or distractions, arguments with your spouse, conflicts with your kids or your boss or your friends? If only that were the case I’d sign on in a heartbeat, who wouldn’t?
This kind of sounds like what Paul is suggesting in the opening verses we read in Romans chapter 5. After clearly making his case in the preceding chapters that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God but then can be reconciled with God by faith in Jesus Christ, here we read: “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God” (vs.1-2) Peace with God and hope of sharing in His glory, what could be better and what could possibly go wrong? Smooth sailing from here on out, right? Wrong. To believe that is to believe some fabricated version of the Gospel, not the Gospel itself; that too is part of living the lie. So, let me be clear that is not what Paul is saying, so don’t you believe it.
In the very next verses, after making this claim that we are secure in our relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ alone, his tone seems to change, dramatically, immediately, abruptly, surprisingly. He goes from speaking in glowing terms about the peace we enjoy with God now and of the hope we have of sharing in God’s glory in the future to talking about the life of faith as it really is. We read on in verse 3: “And not only that, we also boast in our sufferings”, wait? What? Sufferings? Doesn’t he mean we boast in our successes, our victories over sin and evil, our conquests for the Kingdom? No, he says, “sufferings”, why? Because through suffering and hardship and disappointment and conflict with the world we have said “no” to, we begin to develop the spiritual muscles which enable us to trust in the promises of God, even when our present circumstances are difficult and the future looks bleak. So Paul writes, “We boast (rejoice, have confidence) in our suffering, because suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope; and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (vs.3-5). This is the “hope against hope” that Abraham held on to, as we spoke last week; the kind of hope that is dependent, not on our own abilities to work things out, but on the faithfulness of God to fulfill His promises.
Perhaps it is human nature for us, when suffering or sorrow or difficulty come our way, that we begin to question the faithfulness of God, particularly if we have somehow bought the false bill of goods that once we become followers of Jesus everything will go easily for us. We start asking, “Why is this happening to me? I’ve been faithful. I’ve been praying. Has God forgotten me, abandoned me, turned His back on me?” Those kinds of thoughts and feelings are natural, and it is for this reason that Paul encourages us to expect hardships and suffering and difficulty in the Christian life without losing faith or hope because there is a purpose to these which make them all worthwhile, even beneficial.
Victor Frankl, the Viennese psychiatrist who wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, spent many years in a Nazi death camp during World War II. Reflecting on his experience he writes, “There is nothing in the world which helps a (person) surmount their difficulties, survive their disasters, keeps them healthy and happy, as the knowledge of a life task worthy of their devotion. You cannot advance in life with any buoyancy unless you are sure that where you are going has purpose and what you are doing has meaning.”
This is exactly what we see in Jesus in our reading from Luke chapter 9 where we read, “When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” In Luke’s telling, this is the turning point in Jesus’ ministry when He effectively ends His earthly ministry, His ministry of preaching and teaching and healing and performing miracles in Galilee, and turns His attention and devotion to fulfilling His divine appointment in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, for Jesus, meant “betrayal, arrest, suffering, and crucifixion.” Jerusalem, for Jesus, meant hardship and disappointment, suffering and death. So why would He go there? Why would He willingly endure it? Because He knew that there was a grander purpose and meaning that could only be accomplished by His suffering and death, that is, His resurrection and our salvation. That purpose was worth the cost so He set His face undeterred toward it, and in doing so, He made it very clear to any would-be followers that they too would have to carefully consider the cost before aligning themselves with Him.
Along the way someone said, “I’ll go with you!” and Jesus rather curtly replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Another said, “I’ll go, but first let me go and bury my father”, seemingly not an unreasonable request, but Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” And to still another who said, “I’ll go with you, but first let me say good-bye to those at my home”, He said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Was Jesus being harsh and hard-hearted? No, He was being honest, brutally honest. He was focused on the task at hand and He knew that He could not allow anything or anyone to distract Him from His divinely-given appointment. Anyone who was willing to make this journey with Him must be equally willing to consider the difficulty and count the cost. Such counting the cost gives clarity to our decision-making.
In the mid-1960’s when the Peace Corps was first being organized volunteers were enlisted without deception. Advertisements spoke of the potential dangers and the miserable living conditions of this kind of service, yet 10,000 applications were received for those early positions. The Peace Corps has one of the best advertising slogans I’ve ever seen, calling it “The toughest job you’ll ever love.”
Jesus knew the way of obedience to His Heavenly Father, the way of His own discipleship. He knew that the way to Jerusalem was one of hardship and suffering and death, and He chose to follow it, because He knew the grander purpose. He held on, “hope against hope”, to the promises of God that His suffering and death would secure the way of our salvation. He was willing to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. So Paul writes, “While we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly”, that means, you and me. “God proves His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Why? So that we could be “saved through Him” and so enjoy peace with God and hope in the glory of our salvation. There was a purpose, an eternal purpose, that gave His suffering and death eternal meaning.
Friends, Jesus models for us the life of faith and invites us in to the life of discipleship, with all of its costs. Is there suffering and hardship and disappointment along the way? Yes, but even these can be redemptive and purposeful if we carry on. It is not suffering for suffering’s sake if there is something to be gained by it. Admittedly, if we “give up” in the midst of our struggle then all we have gained is struggle; but if we persist there is something to be gained, like endurance, character, hope. The struggle becomes endurable and character building when there is a purpose and a promise attached to it, a reason to keep going, a reason to press on.
Friedrich Nietzsche, ironically himself an atheist, uses a phrase that I think perfectly captures the life of faith. He speaks of “a long obedience in the same direction”. He writes, “The essential thing in heaven and earth is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.”
In a similar vein, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr writes, “Nothing that is worth doing is achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.”
I believe these truths speak to us of both our present struggles and our future hope. They remind us of the reason Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem and was willing to endure excruciating suffering and death; for us and our salvation; and why He was so abrupt with any of His would-be followers. His intent was not to discourage, but to encourage an honest counting of the cost before signing on to the life of discipleship, lest when hardship comes we turn back saying, “No one told me about this.”
Because of the work that Christ has done for us we have been given a promise: peace with God and the hope of sharing in His glory, but along the way of our “long obedience in the same direction” we are also told that there will be suffering and sorrow. Maybe you are going through one of those tough places right now: in your marriage or with your child, at your job, in a relationship. Maybe you are walking through the valley of grief or disappointment. Maybe life itself is hard for you right now, maybe you are even finding it hard to believe. St. John of the Cross calls this “the dark night of the soul.” Maybe you are thinking, “This is not what I signed up for when I said “yes” to Jesus, “yes” to my spouse, to this job, this commitment I’ve made, this life I’ve chosen. I’m ready to quit, throw in the towel, give it all up, it’s just too hard.”
Before you do so, please read and reread and reread again the promise that Paul claims for us here: “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.” That is the promise God has given us when we put our trust in Christ. He is holding on to us, even though we may feel like we are just hanging on and having to walk this long way alone. So press on with this confidence, that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Whether you can see it right now or not, there is a purpose and a reason and a hope at the end of the long journey of our obedience. At the end of the journey is God. He is both our journey and our journey’s end…and He alone makes the long obedience worthwhile. So we do not lose hope because this hope will never disappoint us. Amen.