On Suffering & Superpowers

From those sunrise mornings where the light spills through the valleys and the trees before reaching the peaks

In the grand finale of the story of Job, this man broken by the loss of his home, children, wealth, and health, confesses to God in his agony that he spoke of things too wonderful for him to know. God, satisfied that Job has seen what he cannot fully know, turns to Job’s friends who have spoken wrongly of God.

The Lord says to Job’s friends that they are to sacrifice to Job. Then Job will pray for their forgiveness. God accepts Job’s intercession and forgives his friends. At its core, Job’s story is the forerunner for the story of Jesus. One would come, serve, suffer, sacrifice, and become an intercessor for his friends.

However the biblical story doesn’t end with Job’s intercession or Christ on the Cross.

There’s a quiet line at the end of the Lord’s Prayer many of us (including myself) have yet to commit to memory:

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.

Jesus according to Matthew’s Gospel 6:14

Jesus then practiced this perfectly:

Forgive them Father, for they do not know what they are doing.

Jesus according to Luke’s Gospel 23:34

The Lord’s commission has not been to remove us from the warfare of this world. Instead, our mercenary days upon the earth are that of beings not of this world:

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself that they too may be sanctified.

John 17:15-19

Jesus is not of this world and yet the quiet miracle widely available to be witnessed is that you and me and every citizen of heaven here on this earth is scandalously not of this world.

The sacred is spilling out over civilizations like vessels toppled by little children. We could glance at this truth as ordinary or choose to gaze at the play the light has made as it dances between gatherings of two or more.

Intercession is abundantly available to be given and received. We all are agents of eternity. This is his mercy. This is his glory.

I know of no other deity who can take such a gamble with intercession and yet still see victory, but this is Christianity.

Until next week,

-Steven

PS. I published my first video on YouTube in over a month and it’s the first sneak peak anyone has seen of my new studio. Thanks for being on this journey with me.