Christ Lutheran Church: Welcome

Patient - August 31, 2008

Patient

Matthew 16:23

August 31, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

So, Jesus wheels on poor old Simon Peter and yells at him, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'

Now I said that it was PETER that Jesus said this to. And that is what is generally assumed. After all, what Jesus is reacting to is what PETER had just said when Jesus said that He, Jesus, was going to have to go through betrayal and arrest and torture and crucifixion before He would be raised to life on the third day. That is when it was Peter who said, "Oh no, Lord, that will never happen to You!" But over the years, something has been itching in the back of my mind. Maybe Jesus was not speaking to Peter at all. Maybe He was indeed talking to Satan himself. I know this is getting out of style these days, but what if we assume that Jesus said exactly what He MEANT to say, that we really don't have to "read between the lines at all." Maybe He said , "Get behind Me, Satan," because He really WAS talking to Satan.

After all Satan was always sneaking into people's bodies and saying things through them, kind of like a ventriloquist. Which would have put Peter in the role of what? That's right, a dummy!

So whether it was Peter or Satan Jesus was talking to, what Jesus accused them of was, "Not having in mind the things of God, but the things of men.' In other words, what Satan does is that he plays to the thoughts of men. He knows how we think, and plays on how we think.

We like sex, he plays on our appetite for sex. We like money, he plays on our appetite for money. We like popularity, he plays on our appetite for popularity. But more than anything, we like to put an end to our pain. So he plays on our appetite for ending our pain.

Now what's wrong with wanting to put an end to pain? That's the kind of nurse or doctor I want looking after me: someone whom I can count on wanting to put an end to my pain.

Now what's wrong with want to put an end to pain? That's the kind of nurse or doctor I want looking after me: someone whom I can count on wanting to put an end to my pain.

Except for one thing. Ending pain is NOT what a nurse or doctor is about. Anyone who has been in pain in a hospital knows that all too well. Ending pain is NOT their goal: their goal is healing. Oh, they may bring you medication to lessen the pain, alright. But when that pain medication starts to wear off, you may as well be talking to a wall. If your chart says that you cannot receive more pain medication for another hour, you will wait precisely four hours fifty nine minutes and sixty seconds before they answer your light again.

And they've gotten really clever recently. They give you this button you can push which gives you just a little bit more morphine if you want...until you've hit the maximum allowed. But unlike the nurse, it does not tell you that you have hit the limit. Oh no. They want you to keep pushing the button to your heart's content in the mistaken belief that you're getting more pain meds. They got this idea from watching rats hitting buttons to get stuff in a research laboratory.

Why can't they give you more morphine? First, they don't want to get you addicted to it. Secondly, they don't want to suppress your breathing.

If you want to heal, then you simply have to find a way to be patient in your suffering. Why do you think they call us "PATIENTS"?!!

Peter wanted to end Jesus' suffering. If I had been on the scene, that is precisely what I would have wanted to do. And together Peter and I, if we had been, would have kept Jesus from paying the debt of all our sins.

Peter's thoughts were on the side of human beings because his first priority was to take matters into his own hands and do whatever he had to do to end the pain as quickly as he could, regardless.

That is what drug addicts do, what alcoholics do, what people do who abort their babies, what people do when they commit suicide and euthanasia, what some people do when they seek a divorce. Every single on of these people is suffering unimaginable pain. Their desperation to end that pain is totally understandable to me. Their actions make all the sense in their world.

In the Old Testament Lesson that was read, Job wanted to die in the worst way. If I had been in his shoes, I might have too. He even asked God to end his life. THAT is hurtin'. But notice, he ASKED GOD. He lift it up to GOD. And he waited. He suffered patiently. And God answered by ending his pain in another way that restored his health, his family, his fortunes.

It is the human way - some these days would say the "humane" way - to take matters into our own hands to end suffering. Totally understandable. And if I were in those same circumstances, some of these short term solutions would be tempting.

But the mind of God is for His children to be patient in their suffering. That is only possible through FAITH in God's presence, His power, His good will for us, and faith in His ability to transform every cross. We are His children, the sisters and brothers of Jesus of the Cross. We shall be patient in our suffering as our testimony of faith that He will give us no more than we can bear and that when He does bring us to the test, He WILL provide a way that we may bear up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:13