Do Not Lose Heart
2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:1
On December 6th, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor ostensibly because they claimed that America was trespassing in the Far East. The next day the Japanese began invading the Philippine Islands in order to evict the Americans and their allies from the Philippines. Within a month, the Americans were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. On April 9 1942, with his forces crippled by starvation and disease, U.S. General Edward King Jr. surrendered his approximately 75,000 troops on Bataan.
The Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march some 65 miles. This march has been called the Bataan Death March. The exact figures are unknown, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and bayoneted those too weak to walk.
Ernest Gordon’s book To End All Wars is the true tale of what took place in the Japanese prison-of-war camp made famous by the movie The Bridge over the River Kwai. The camp was the end of the line for the Bataan death march, deep in the jungles of Asia. Few would survive, and everyone knew it. To make the best of a terrible situation the prisoners teamed up in pairs, each watching out for their buddy.
One prisoner was a strapping six-foot-three fellow built like a steel tower. He was a Christian with a steadfast and resilient demeanor. If any could come out of this alive, most felt he would. The man he was paired with came down with malaria and became very sick. Their captors did not want to deal with sick prisoners, so anyone who was unable to work was confined to a “hothouse” until they succumbed not to the illness or to heat exhaustion, dehydration, and the collapse of his bodily systems. The sick man was locked into a hothouse and left to die.
But his buddy would not allow that to happen. Despite the personal risks from the prison guards and the various illnesses of men in the isolation house, each evening the big man braved the journey past those fully armed, watchful prison guards and went to the other man, shared his meager meal, brought him his own slim blanket to cover the fevered convulsions of the sick man and to pray for and testify to his faith.
At the end of two weeks, the sick man recovered well enough to be able to return to the general population. He even survived the entire camp experience and lived to talk about it. His buddy, however—the strong man that all thought was invincible—died very shortly from exposure to diseases at the “hot house”. He had given his life to save his friend.
When the Allied troops liberated that camp at the close of the war in the Pacific, virtually every prisoner was a Christian. There were worship services every Sunday, and the death toll was far lower than any expected. These were true, at least in part because one man rejected his own pain and discomfort and through his own personal witness to save a friend facing death.
With that in mind we come to our scripture lesson message today. We find that Paul has written to the Church at Corinth again to speak to them regarding the blessings found in the challenges of doing the Lord’s work. As most of you know great suffering and persecution were part of Paul’s life as a missionary of the gospel. Numerous times he was beaten within an inch of life by both Romans and Jews because of his preaching.
Paul and his missional partners almost willfully endured those hardships for their faith in Christ and their calling to testify to the truth. At no point did his suffering stop him from continuing to preach the gospel, not even from jail or prison. In fact in the first verse in our reading we see Paul paraphrasing King David, who had his own challenges and pain, when David said in Psalm 116, “I trusted in the Lord even though, ‘I am greatly afflicted’”.
Please understand that Paul sees no reason to fear pain and punishment. He is convinced that just as Christ suffered and died yet was raised from the dead after the crucifixion, remember Peter meets him to the road to Damascus, Paul believes He and his partners would also be raised back to life and into Christ’s presence if they should die for proclaiming Christ to the world.
You see, resurrection from the dead for all believers is central to Paul’s faith. The fact that Christians will be raised from the dead gave Paul confidence to keep facing danger and pain. It gave him motivation to keep telling more and more people about God’s grace through faith in Jesus despite the discomfort and challenges that he faced.
Friends, the devil does win some battles, and afflictions do weigh heavy on us but Paul says “the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself. Therefore, he says, Do Not Lose Heart despite your difficulties. These things are temporary. They will pass away. They are not eternal. Keep looking ahead. Suffering is short. Glory is eternal. Do Not Lose Heart!
Paul says that we can have the same faith as those that came before us, the saints who have preceded us. Paul had the same spirit of faith as Noah, Abraham, David, and Isaiah. We can also have the same spirit of faith as Paul and the others if we desire it, if I we choose to have it!
They anticipated the things they didn’t yet see with their eyes, we must as well. They had God’s promises in scripture to go on, we do as well. We know God raised Jesus from the dead, and we also have Paul’s expectant understanding that God will also raise us.
Yes even today, we face plenty of sufferings that could cause us to lose heart. Yet the scriptures tell us through our acts of redemption, including our Baptism by the Spirit, we are united with Christ, we will suffer like him, we will die like him, and we will rise like him. So how can we endure such sufferings? We can through our faith and we can if expectantly anticipate a God given renewal of our afflicted bodies.
We are told that Jesus went to the cross believing that God would raise him. Jesus’ afflictions were anything but light; in fact they were the full punishments of Hell for the sins of the entire world, for our sins. An eternity of sufferings was compressed into just a few hours of time. But they were not forever and God did raise him.
We must also look beyond the transient, the momentary, the earthly, the seen, and look to greater things of glory expectantly! Heaven will be beyond all comparison, and it will be forever. Streets paved with gold, living and being in the presence of God, no illness, no pain all gone, our bodies like Christ’s being perfected. Not a different body but newly perfected body. Heaven is a place of perfect peace, joy and happiness. And it will be forever; then we will understand that today’s afflictions were but momentary! So, do not lose heart! You have been united to Jesus, in his death and in his resurrection.
Hear the Good News my Friends………
It is easy to lose heart and quit. Don’t forsake your eternal reward because of the intensity of today’s pain. Your very weakness allows the resurrection power of Christ to strengthen you moment by moment. Our troubles must not diminish our faith. We should realize that there is a purpose in our suffering.
Embracing our earthly afflictions: (1) remind us of Christ’s suffering for us; (2) they keep us humble and willing to sacrifice for others; (3) they cause us to look beyond this brief life; (4) they prove our faith to others; and (5) they give God the opportunity to demonstrate his power and caring nature to others.
I like to think that that unnamed man, in that horrible prison, despite the terrible afflictions that he was facing understood those things. And through his understanding of these things he went above and beyond to comfort and care for one of God’s own, adding to his own afflictions and ultimately sacrificing his own life to save to life of another and changing the lives of thousands.
Our ultimate hope when we are experiencing afflictions, persecution, or pain is the realization that this life is not all there is—there is life after death! Knowing that we will live forever with God in a place without sin and suffering can help us, like Paul, to live above the pain that we face in this life.
Apostle Paul tells us “Do Not Lose Heart” in the face of hardships in life but rather persevere in doing what is right and necessary for the coming Kingdom of God. Even though outwardly we may be wasting away, our souls and our spirits are constantly being renewed and transformed by God.
In closing our lesson today, Paul a tent maker by profession says, Do Not Lose Heart over the failing of the “tent” in which now occupy because ultimately we will have a new home with God, in which will live eternally. It will not made by failing and flawed human hands, but rather it is crafted by the hands that created the universe! Do Not Lose Heart because of the temporal pain and challenges we endure today, a more glorious home awaits us! Amen.