We should remember that in Paul's day it could be very isolating. He would stay in a place only for months and then move on, leaving the new believers behind! They had no Zoom, no Whatsapp, no postal system - only the occasional parchment that needed to be delivered by hand! Yet when those parchments were written, they started with God and who He is. The 2nd Corinthian version declares that God is compassionate, that God is a God of comfort. Paul declares this even when the circumstances are hard, when it doesn't feel comfortable. These statements are like stabilisers on a bike or the keel of a sailing boat.
Lets dig into Paul's logic. In verse 4 he writes 'God comforts us that we can comfort others'. Paul sees himself and his companions go through hardships (difficulties like persecution), but somehow sees Jesus taking them through them, and sees that Jesus does that in order that they might somehow comfort others!
None of us would wish for suffering or ask for hardship. We ourselves are in really hard times as a nation, of course asking the theological question 'Why does God seem to be allowing this virus and all its havoc?'. We wouldn't wish for it. Yet Paul with Christ sees a way through, and through it the possibility of helping others. That is not a logic the world finds so easy, we might find it odd ourselves, but this is the logic Paul suggests here. It reminds us that with all suffering the natural question is 'Why?', but the better question is 'Given this situation how will I now respond?'.
This logic is the way of Christ! See in verse 5 'we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ'. Remember Jesus sets the pattern: he goes to the cross. Yet then there is resurrection. Lets remember that without the cross and resurrection there is no basis to our faith. Yet also remember that the Christian life is itself the way of the cross, i.e. experiencing many sort-of mini 'death & resurrection' experiences in our lives. These are times when things go wrong, when we have to lay things down before God, we have to shed our pride and so on. In each occasion we have to ask God to pick us up again, to fill us anew with His strength - i.e. death and resurrection over and over.
It is the same for us. The way of the cross now played out in our lives ... and somehow through that there is benefit for others. Hence the key question:
Key Qn: [OUT] Who is God calling you to comfort?
Challenge: Pray for one another, pray for others in your street
Yet that means living through some really tough stuff. For Paul verses 8 & 9 reveal troubles in Asia, great pressure, beyond our ability to endure, despairing of life, feeling under the sentence of death! This is not 'walk in the park' kind of stuff! Yet Paul says 'this happened that we might rely not on us, but on God - who raises the dead'. In our own times, with real hardship, uncertainty, economic turmoil and the worry it causes ... it means all the things we take for granted are being stripped away ... so that all we have left is to rely on God.
So call on God. Learn to rely on Him: this is Christian discipleship living sort-of mini death and resurrection!
Remember that Paul's hope is in Christ for deliverance. Why? Because Paul knows that God is compassionate, the God of comfort, and because God raised Jesus form the dead! It might be Palm Sunday today, and Good Friday later this week, but Easter Sunday is coming!
Finally note Paul's sense that we are in this together. In verse 7 Paul talks about 'sharing in sufferings' and v11 'you help us by your prayers'. A quirk of the Christian good news is that when we reach out and help/comfort people, we are hoping to reach them for Christ - that they might accept Jesus for themselves. But if/when they do accept they are then included in the same deal as us, i.e. in suffering + comfort, death + resurrection. Given the suffering aspect that might not sound like such good news!
Yet when included, they become part of a network of people praying and supporting each other. They are not isolated or alone. For us as a church that is why I have asked us to contact each other, and where appropriate use tech to do popup Ipods or impromptu cell groups. Now Paul didn't have Zoom - he could only send a parchment! Having said that, let us not put tech above simply praying for one another. Set yourself a prayer rhythm that includes cheering other members on in their faith.
There is a story of a missionary (James Fraser) to a remote part of China. The mountainous tracks to the distant villages were impassable in winter - it would take days to get there and back. So after a summer of preaching the good news to those villages, and seeing people turn from paganism to Jesus, Fraser was now concerned how he could nurture the villagers now the snow had fallen. He fretted about this - there was no way of contacting or gathering them. Yet he realised he could pray - and so he prayed for each new believer through the winter months. The next spring, when he finally made it to them again, he was thrilled to see how much they had grown in faith, meditating on scripture fragments, forming their own impromptu prayer/study groups!
Let pray for each other. Use the prayer diary - I work through it (faster than the suggested days) by imagining the church members are runners in a marathon. I imagine I am standing by the road cheering each on as my eyes scan the names on the page: for each praying that they will be strengthened, will become closer to Jesus, will be able to reach out more. I commend to you this same practice.
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