Prepare for Suffering Now
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, here's a question from the news
00:00:07.800 | from a listener who asks this.
00:00:09.360 | Pastor John, thank you for the podcast.
00:00:10.960 | I'm struggling with the story of Jerica Bolin
00:00:14.280 | in Appleton, Wisconsin.
00:00:15.800 | There's an enormous amount of support
00:00:17.640 | for this 14-year-old girl who is terminally ill
00:00:20.880 | and has decided to take herself off life support
00:00:23.220 | in order to end her life faster.
00:00:25.400 | While I am compassionate about her situation and her pain,
00:00:28.640 | I am also unsure about whether she has the authority
00:00:30.840 | to speed her death like this.
00:00:33.440 | Pastor John, please help us with this question biblically.
00:00:36.480 | What would you say?
00:00:37.440 | - As I've been giving some thought to what I might
00:00:43.120 | be able to say that would be helpful in this regard
00:00:46.000 | to the Jerica Bolin situation and her incredible suffering,
00:00:51.000 | I've thought that perhaps I won't rehearse
00:00:59.080 | the arguments, at least not all of the arguments,
00:01:01.580 | for why no human being should take his own life
00:01:06.580 | since I've tried to do that in several other places
00:01:10.680 | to give those biblical foundations.
00:01:13.020 | Like a couple of years ago, there was another situation
00:01:17.900 | where we tried to deal with that.
00:01:20.500 | And people can go to the website,
00:01:22.160 | desireandgod.org, and type in euthanasia,
00:01:24.400 | and there's four or five podcasts
00:01:26.800 | and articles there about it.
00:01:28.080 | So instead, I thought I might be more helpful
00:01:32.640 | if I briefly address only one
00:01:38.960 | of the absolutely crucial underlying issues,
00:01:42.860 | namely the way that God intends for a Christian
00:01:47.480 | to deal with ongoing pain.
00:01:50.060 | This is one of the huge reasons,
00:01:53.780 | probably the biggest reason,
00:01:56.220 | that people desperately want to end their lives.
00:02:00.060 | They want to be done with suffering,
00:02:03.060 | which, of course, is understandable.
00:02:06.340 | The very meaning of pain is that we don't want to have it
00:02:11.180 | and we want to be rid of it.
00:02:12.980 | That's why we call it pain and not pleasure.
00:02:15.780 | One of the reasons I want to say a few words
00:02:20.460 | about that particular point is that
00:02:23.380 | even this past weekend, I was out in California
00:02:26.900 | talking to very educated, prosperous, professional,
00:02:31.180 | technologically savvy, mainly young people,
00:02:36.180 | and I was told more than once with illustrations
00:02:41.580 | that they had been tremendously helped
00:02:45.740 | in dealing with totally unexpected, big suffering
00:02:51.180 | in their lives, like, for example,
00:02:53.900 | a child living on a ventilator who's not gonna live
00:02:56.780 | till she's probably beyond six years old,
00:03:00.160 | being told by these young people,
00:03:03.020 | people in their 20s and early 30s,
00:03:05.560 | that they had been helped by being prepared
00:03:08.800 | for suffering biblically and theologically
00:03:11.280 | before the suffering came.
00:03:15.100 | And I say it that way because I know
00:03:17.940 | that in the very moment of agony,
00:03:20.620 | teaching and preaching and counseling
00:03:23.700 | are generally not what people either need
00:03:27.280 | or can even handle.
00:03:29.180 | All that needs to happen earlier
00:03:31.740 | while the mind is clear
00:03:33.540 | and the body is not being wracked with pain.
00:03:36.700 | And I've seen in the last 45 years,
00:03:39.020 | one experience after the other, so many of them,
00:03:43.100 | in people's lives where a biblical orientation
00:03:47.180 | on suffering has in fact served profoundly
00:03:51.820 | to make the suffering endurable and even significant,
00:03:56.260 | even if it's not easy.
00:03:58.860 | So here are a couple of those aspects
00:04:03.080 | of such a biblical, theological,
00:04:06.580 | God-centered vision of suffering,
00:04:08.980 | all of which are deeply connected with Christ's sufferings,
00:04:13.240 | which he endured, not mainly so that we would
00:04:17.140 | escape suffering in this life,
00:04:18.980 | but that we would endure suffering
00:04:21.600 | in the hope of everlasting and exquisite pleasure
00:04:25.100 | forever and ever in the resurrection.
00:04:28.180 | So I'm just gonna mention two things and illustrate.
00:04:31.180 | The first is the Bible teaches us to relieve
00:04:36.180 | as much suffering as we can,
00:04:37.980 | both in this world and especially in the next,
00:04:42.280 | but it's this world that we're focusing on.
00:04:46.380 | When I say we don't have a right to take our lives,
00:04:50.180 | I don't mean we don't have a right to minimize suffering,
00:04:55.180 | trying to help people get rid of pain.
00:04:59.640 | That's the first thing.
00:05:00.480 | The second thing is that the Bible teaches us
00:05:03.700 | to squeeze as much Christ-exalting meaning
00:05:08.700 | out of our suffering as we can and shows us how to do it.
00:05:14.260 | So let me take those one at a time.
00:05:16.060 | Of course, Jesus' command to love your neighbor
00:05:21.740 | as you love yourself or to do unto others
00:05:24.840 | as you'd have them do unto you,
00:05:27.260 | isn't that enough to impel us to relieve
00:05:30.980 | other people's suffering as much as we can?
00:05:34.580 | Because we don't wanna suffer,
00:05:36.380 | and so we wanna help other people not suffer.
00:05:39.180 | But let's be more specific.
00:05:40.420 | 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul says to Timothy,
00:05:44.660 | "No longer drink only water,
00:05:46.980 | but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach
00:05:50.900 | and your frequent ailments."
00:05:53.900 | Now I was thinking this morning
00:05:55.980 | about that term frequent ailments.
00:05:58.580 | Doesn't the word frequent translate into chronic?
00:06:02.300 | They're frequent.
00:06:03.620 | They keep coming back for poor Timothy.
00:06:05.940 | And I think the word ailments, weaknesses,
00:06:09.060 | implies at least distracting discomfort, if not real pain.
00:06:14.060 | Paul wouldn't bother telling Timothy
00:06:18.500 | to work on these with some natural healing efforts
00:06:23.100 | if they weren't painful and disabling.
00:06:25.460 | So I think this passage is a clear illustration
00:06:29.240 | of using God-given natural means,
00:06:32.160 | even medical means of eliminating
00:06:34.720 | as much discomfort and pain as we can.
00:06:37.500 | So that's the first thing to say about pain.
00:06:39.500 | None of us wants it.
00:06:41.140 | That's the meaning of pain,
00:06:42.380 | and therefore we should help each other
00:06:45.020 | get rid of it if we can.
00:06:47.020 | And the second thing is that the Bible shows us
00:06:50.660 | we should squeeze as much Christ-exalting significance
00:06:55.660 | out of our pain as we can.
00:06:59.180 | Oh my, we need hours to talk about that
00:07:02.780 | and meditate on that.
00:07:04.100 | So let me just point quickly to four passages
00:07:08.260 | that people can take away and meditate on
00:07:11.540 | and see whether God doesn't shape their heart
00:07:14.660 | and their mind so that when the time comes
00:07:17.660 | for their chronic pain, they'll be ready.
00:07:21.460 | Number one, 1 Peter 1, 6 and 7,
00:07:26.300 | "In this you rejoice," and he's just given about,
00:07:28.900 | I count, 10 reasons for enormous joy in the future
00:07:33.960 | for the Christian, and then he says,
00:07:35.600 | "In this you rejoice, though now for a little while,
00:07:37.840 | if necessary, you have been grieved with various trials
00:07:42.120 | so that the tested genuineness of your faith,
00:07:44.620 | more precious than gold, which though perishes
00:07:47.040 | is tested by fire, may redound, may be found,
00:07:50.160 | may result in praise and glory and honor
00:07:53.120 | at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
00:07:55.120 | Only God knows when our pain is necessary.
00:07:58.960 | He uses the word necessary.
00:08:00.920 | Only God knows how to test us with fire
00:08:04.920 | so that our goal, our faith,
00:08:09.480 | will be purified and not destroyed.
00:08:12.640 | But that's the goal.
00:08:14.760 | His goal is purification.
00:08:16.400 | Satan's goal is destruction.
00:08:18.960 | And so we lay hold on the promise
00:08:22.720 | that suffering may be necessary,
00:08:25.680 | and it's various, and it's grievous,
00:08:29.640 | and it is ultimately gonna result in praise
00:08:33.800 | and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus.
00:08:36.380 | Number two, 2 Corinthians 1:9,
00:08:39.880 | "We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength
00:08:43.320 | that we despaired of life itself,
00:08:44.920 | but that was to make us rely not on ourselves,
00:08:47.900 | but on God who raises the dead."
00:08:49.640 | One of the reasons or designs,
00:08:54.600 | one of the designs in all of our despairing suffering
00:08:58.760 | is so that we would be thrown
00:09:01.320 | onto the invisible arms of God.
00:09:03.640 | We can't see them.
00:09:05.520 | We can't physically feel them.
00:09:08.040 | And so all we can do, according to Paul here,
00:09:11.560 | is trust the God who raises the dead,
00:09:15.400 | which is what the design of that experience was for Paul.
00:09:19.760 | Third, 2 Corinthians 4:16, "So we don't lose heart.
00:09:24.760 | Though our outer nature is wasting away,
00:09:27.600 | our inner nature is being renewed day by day
00:09:30.980 | for this light momentary,"
00:09:33.920 | which means horrible and lifelong,
00:09:36.740 | "affliction is working for us
00:09:40.160 | the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison."
00:09:43.040 | Now, that text does not say that the affliction is easy.
00:09:48.040 | It doesn't say that being renewed day by day is easy
00:09:53.500 | while the outer man is being eaten away
00:09:55.640 | by some horrific disease
00:09:58.040 | that we can hardly speak of, it's so terrible.
00:10:00.740 | But it does say that this is possible
00:10:04.680 | because we look not to the things that are seen,
00:10:07.440 | but to the things that are unseen.
00:10:10.080 | The almighty God, the power of the Holy Spirit,
00:10:12.760 | the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins,
00:10:15.040 | the victory over Satan, victory over hell,
00:10:18.080 | hope of everlasting joy,
00:10:19.560 | those are the unseen things that we squeeze onto
00:10:24.160 | and squeeze meaning and significance.
00:10:27.080 | And the last one I would mention is Romans 8, 22, 23.
00:10:32.080 | We know that the whole creation has been groaning together
00:10:36.200 | in the pains of childbirth until now,
00:10:37.920 | and not only the creation,
00:10:39.600 | but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit
00:10:42.280 | groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons,
00:10:47.280 | the redemption of our bodies.
00:10:49.600 | None of the promises of God
00:10:52.520 | keep us from groaning in our pain,
00:10:55.360 | but they do keep our groaning
00:10:58.000 | from becoming bitterness and despair.
00:11:01.080 | They turn meaninglessness and misery
00:11:06.000 | into waiting for glory.
00:11:09.440 | Now, I know those two observations
00:11:13.400 | are not the totality of the answer to the question
00:11:16.960 | about physician-assisted suicide.
00:11:20.760 | And so I hope our listeners will go and read
00:11:23.200 | about Brittany Maynard two years ago
00:11:26.000 | and what I wrote there and what other people have written.
00:11:30.440 | But oh, how crucial it is to get these two things
00:11:34.240 | firmly in place in our hearts before our day comes.
00:11:38.300 | Number one, it is right and good
00:11:41.720 | to try to reduce pain in this life and the next.
00:11:46.360 | And two, it is right and possible with God's help
00:11:51.360 | because of Christ and because of hope
00:11:54.160 | to squeeze as much Christ-exalting meaning
00:11:58.400 | out of suffering as we can.
00:12:00.600 | - Amen, necessary words.
00:12:03.560 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:04.800 | And for more details about this podcast
00:12:07.920 | or to catch up on past episodes
00:12:09.560 | or to subscribe to the audio feed,
00:12:11.880 | even to send us a question of your own
00:12:13.640 | if something in the news has caught your attention,
00:12:15.620 | go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:12:20.620 | And tomorrow we're gonna talk about life hacking.
00:12:23.440 | Yes, life hacking.
00:12:25.280 | Our age is abuzz over the latest tricks
00:12:27.640 | and shortcuts to productivity and hacks to everyday life.
00:12:30.400 | And tomorrow we're gonna focus on life hacking gone wrong.
00:12:34.240 | How does it go wrong?
00:12:35.280 | We'll look at the life story of one prominent individual
00:12:38.560 | in which it did.
00:12:39.960 | You don't wanna miss it.
00:12:40.800 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:12:42.640 | with longtime author and theologian
00:12:44.400 | and pastor John Piper.
00:12:46.440 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:12:47.320 | We'll see you tomorrow.
00:12:48.480 | (silence)
00:12:50.640 | (silence)
00:12:52.800 | (silence)
00:12:54.960 | Thanks for watching.