Suffering as Obstacle... or Means

In America we are both very pragmatic and very goal oriented. Often those goals have to do with our personal happiness or peace but we are willing to endure delayed gratification or hardship to see these goals realized. Christians in America while decrying falling moral standards also drink the same Kool Aid, seeing the Christian faith (or Jesus or the Holy Spirit or the wisdom of the Scriptures) as a more righteous means of attaining those same self oriented goals. The value of suffering in the life the Christian is then only understood from the perspective that it must be preparing us for some greater accomplishment in this life. Suffering is simply an obstacle we should overcome in seeing our dreams realized.

I wonder what the Martyr Stephen would have thought of this logic (or Irenaeus, or Justin the Martyr, or the Reformers Latimer and John Huss, or the Sudanese Christians of the 21st Century). Stephen was a powerful servant and preacher of the New Testament Church. He did not go out of his way to antagonize Roman or Jewish authorities. He simply testified to his faith in Jesus Christ. For that, he was publicly debated, then slandered, dragged falsely into court and was stoned in an illegal mob action. His suffering may have resulted in the spread of the Gospel outside of Jerusalem (a persecution broke out as opponents of Christianity felt emboldened by Stephen's stoning, scattering Christians throughout the surrounding Roman provinces), but Stephen didn’t know that was going to happen and he certainly wasn't around to enjoy the growth of the Church. He was dead!

To put it simply, this kind of suffering just doesn't compute with our utilitarian view of suffering (no pain, no gain... therefore, personal pain must lead to personal gain). Suffering is an obstacle... the exact opposite of our pursuit of happiness, or success, or personal peace. There can be no sense made of suffering like Stephen's. At least not if we expect our suffering to result in some temporal good or even personal growth.

The key to "making sense" of is exemplified by Stephen himself. His goal was not Church growth or greater influence in the culture. He was pursuing the Lord that delivered him the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. As he stood before his accusers just before he was put to death, he had a vision of Christ standing at the right hand of God. In the midst of his suffering, stripped of property, friends, family even life itself as he faced execution, he had a clear vision of his savior... and this was reason enough.

How far this is from our gut instincts as Christians. Do we dare pray that the Lord would give us the logic of Stephen?