The Hurt and The Healer

Eccl 7 :1-2

Today is my mom’s birthday.

Last November 3 is the day of my mother’s death.

What a difficult scripture and what a tough way to begin a sermon. If you were wondering if this was going to be a comedy show, beginning that way certainly made you realize that we aren’t being silly today.

In the last couple of months I've been sharing with you the scripture and the understanding of God in the songs that we sing here at church.

The singing we just did was not a performance, like a nice concert. We were trying to honor God who died for our sins and rose again. Who gives forgiveness to all who follow Him. We sing because we are giving a gift to God that He asks for us to give.

And that singing was even more. That singing gives us the poetry, the power, the memory of what it means to follow God in the everyday parts of life. I might be walking around a store and remember a song we sing. Maybe even just one line. God uses that to remind me about him.

Do you have that experience? Do you remember some of the songs we sing or maybe the songs you said in worship from many years ago?

So today we are looking at a song called the Hurt and the Healer. It is from the band MercyMe and MercyMe has so many very popular songs. Some that people outside the church might even know like “I Can Only Imagine”

Today’s song, is the heart wrenching and very honest, The Hurt and the Healer.

With a line like,

“Jesus come and break my fear Wake my heart and take my tears”

Everything about this song screams genuine honesty in the midst of tragedy and heart ache.

That is why I began the sermon in the way that I did, It’s the truth and this type of incident made the song writer think of the verses that I read. Scripture is full of honest hurts, real pains of life. It’s not happy wagging dog tails and nicities. The Bible is real life so it is fitting to have a song that goes to this reality too.

Hurt and the Healer is the opposite of what so much of what people might think when they walk into worship. When people ask how are you doing? And people say “fine,” “ok”, or putting on the smiley face so people don’t know what it is really going on.

Yet that kind of behavior, being in the church and being afraid to share the pain, hurt or frustration isn’t from God.

We learn what God wants through the Bible

Romans 12:15 CSB

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

Come alongside people where they are at. Acknowledge that it is good to join people in true community, right in the truth of where they are.

As we look at these lyrics, this worship song screams that life is not something separate from worship. God is here in the church but he is also out there at the doctor’s office, at the lawyer’s office, at work, at home, at the mortuary. He is with you in the tragedies as well as the happiness.

God is there and God knows that works.

I can tell you what doesn’t work. In the midst of tragedies, an explanation. This truth is what the song begins with:

Why? / The question that is never far away / The healing doesn't come from the explained

Why did my mother die? She had leukemia. Why did she have leukemia? Likely because she had chemotherapy twice to fight two occurrences of breast cancer. Why did she have breast cancer, she was genetically pre-disposed to it.

The explanations do nothing to help with grief. Often I hear people ask me, why did this happen? If I just knew why they cheated or why I was in an accident. It’s not really a search for the obvious. It seems like it will help but it is an empty searching. Why were you in an accident. An accident occurs because two objects cannot hold the same space and time without a collision. The search for an explanation is usually a search for a reason. What sin was committed or what blessing will come from it?

In the biggest tragedy recorded in scripture, the book of Job, Job gives us wisdom of what we can do instead of search for the why; when Job loses everything he says,

Job 1:20–22 (CSB)

20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,

21 saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.

The crying out is not wrong, Job immediately did what his culutral expression of grief was. He tore his clothes and cut his hair. His version of wearing black and listening to depressing music. Then he acknowledge the Lordship of God in everything. The expectation that negative will not happen is just not what is in this life on this side of heaven. Bad stuff comes.

Jesus said,

Matthew 5:45 b (CSB)

For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

It comes to everyone, blessings come to all. So does pain. What is unique, is the hope in the pain.

Yet when we face these pains and these hurts our prayer can be as it is in the song,

Jesus please don't let this go in vain / You're all I have / All that remains

In the Bible we read the story of Joseph, who is sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely thrown in prison and then through God’s grace, becomes the second most important in Egypt. Joseph describes a reason for his pain when he finally reveals himself to his brothers and says,

Genesis 50:20 CSB

20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

This is the why many people seek, when do they get to be as Joseph was and tell people how God has done something with their pain.

Perhaps you will get to say it. Perhaps you won’t in this lifetime. There will come a day though that you will know.

Therefore we reject that all pain is value for teaching us lessons.

Because if the only hope you can take from any pain is to learn from it. Eventually your lessons will die with you. Or as I have discovered in aging you get to a point in life where you know so much and discover that people stopped listening. It is popular to take what is promised in our faith and other faiths, take the happy part, that there will be a day when the pain will be shown to now be in vain and remove all the spiritual discipline that builds this kind of faith.

Outside of faith in Jesus, this pain makes no sense. In Jesus we see it as a refiner’s fire.

1 Peter 1:5–9 CSB

5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Yet in the pain, there is a reality, when what has come before now becomes the basis for doing the now. The faith that was developed back then becomes the practice of now.

What do I mean? It is hard for me to fix a car because I don’t have mechanic skills. It is easy for an athlete to run because they have run many times before. It is easier for a fire fighter to run into the fire because they have trained many times before.

A person who has trained in faith sees the fruit of their work when the hurt comes. When the hurt comes, the practiced faith emerges, we identify the healer, Jesus Christ.

In this faith we can accept the promise that this pain will not be wasted. You don’t have to fear. You can exist where Jesus is all you have.

Romans 8:35–39 CSB

35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ is with you in the hurt. He experienced your hurt and nothing can take him away from your hurt. He also can take you through your hurt. He can take you from this moment and lead you through it to the conquering.

During this time, during this struggle God is for you, not against you, will you be for God?

His love cannot be separated from you. Even in the pain, even in the depression, even in the grief, God is there and making the way for you to join Him in the conquering. The glory is coming in the suffering.

So here I am / What's left of me / Where glory meets my suffering

The glory the song writer speaks of is not our glory but God’s glory.

Here is an example of how this is working. Right now is March Madness, when 68 of the best men’s and women’s college basketball teams get to compete to be the national champion. Basketball is a unique sport in the fact that while it is a team game some teams can be carried by just one player. Caitlin Clark is a woman’s basketball player at the University of Iowa. She scored the most points in a college basketball career of any college basketball player ever, men or women. The reason other players on Iowa are having all kinds of television coverage of their play is Caitlin Clark. I have no idea who else plays for Iowa. Even when Iowa lost the few games they lost this year, the only reason I heard about it was because of Caitlin Clark.

In the spiritual world, you are a third stringer on the basketball team but God is the greatest all-star ever and sharing the glory with you. Followers of Jesus are on the winning team because Jesus will win.

Nothing that comes your way, nothing, can separate Him from you. Do you choose to follow Him

1 Corinthians 10:13 CSB

13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.

Ever that phrase God gives us nothing more than we can handle. It is a bad interpretation of this verse. Read the whole verse. See what it is talking about. There are things in your life that will kill you from a mosquito to falling bricks. You can get financially ruined. People can betray you.

But in all of that you do not need to walk away from God. God is faithful. While murder of a betrayer or immorality to deal with pain may seem like a way out, it isn’t. God is faithful he will pull us through .

Romans 8:37 CSB

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

So we can continue in the song to more truth in the middle of our real heartache:

I'm alive / Even though a part of me has died

This is my favorite part of the song. Even though I am sharing with you a load of encouragement, it’s real encouragement, something bad has still happened. I was talking with my second cousin, my mother’s cousin, last night, and he shared with me a cool old picture of my mom. He also reminded me of the encouragement that my mom is with our savior. I will see her again with Jesus.

Yet, my mom is dead and I miss her. You might be in the exact same predicament with whatever loss or hardship is in your life. You know the hope but you still hurt.

While we do have loss, hardship, real struggle, and even in the hope sometimes we can forget what do I do in the next hour. What do I do tomorrow.

So the song calls on us to keep going in the day. To start with the one thing we have to do to keep existing

Breathe / Sometimes I feel it's all that I can do / Pain so deep that I can hardly move

I’ve had the “air knocked out of me” before. Ever felt that, when you fall on your chest or get hit and then you just can’t breathe? It’s pretty awful but not near as bad as the feeling that is shared in this line of the song. I felt this way when I’ve been lied to. When I discovered pain that was months in the making. Pain that cut to the heart.

You ever spent the nights where you put yourself on the bed but you know that sleep will not be coming because your whole body cannot move passed the trauma of what you are experiencing.

Pain so deep that you can hardly move.

For many, the search is for any type of relief. My friends if we treat pain like the greatest enemy of life we walk right into the hold of the devil and his minions. We don’t have to go accepting anything for a way out of pain. We who walk in faith, need to avoid the F it moment. The moment when all of the pain comes to the place of temptation and we say F it, and do the temptation. That’s right “Forget about the consequences and just do the sin, you’ll feel better.” What F did you think I was talking about?

Remember this song in the midst of pain: To breathe, to move, and instead of F it, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. No temptation has come upon you that is uncommon to man. In the midst of pain we focus on this part of the song,

Just keep my eyes completely fixed on You / Lord take hold and pull me through

The scripture goes with it

Psalm 34:18–19 CSB

18 The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit. 19 One who is righteous has many adversities, but the Lord rescues him from them all.

The Lord will pull us through when we accept by faith that He will guide us through this pain. He is the healer bringing healing and that if we walk in him he is faithful to deliver us.

It's the moment when humanity Is overcome by majesty When grace is ushered in for good And all our scars are understood

This day is coming.

1 Corinthians 13:12–13 CSB

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

A poor reflections as in a mirror

This scripture has to be understood with some ancient wisdom. Before the invention of the modern mirror in Germany in the 1800s most people if they were to see a reflection would have seen it in water.Others as our verse speaks of here would see it in highly polished bronze or another mineral that could be made to be very shiny. This might get close to what a person looks like but really not very close at all.

That is how we understand the meaning of what God is doing in our world today. That is even how we understand ourselves. We might now some of our family history and it’s impact on us but we can’t possibly know that we are being blessed by a prayer in the 1600s or dealing with the consequences of a choice to say no to Christ last Tuesday. Yet one day we will know. And when we know the most important thing that we will know is that all of this heartache gets purpose in walking with Jesus.

So the song can sing about that glorious day.

When mercy takes it's rightful place And all these questions fade away When out of the weakness we must bow And hear You say "It's over now"

This part of the song speaks to the greatest moment in the scripture that when this is all over

Philippians 2:10–11 CSB

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Revelation 5:13 CSB

13 I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

It will happen, but in the moment of the hurt, the healing right now comes from accepting this future by faith. This is when the hurt and the healer collide.

Jesus come and break my fear Wake my heart and take my tears Find Your glory even here When the hurt and the healer collide

Your only job is to take Jesus at his words. If you accept that Jesus died for your sins, if you accept Jesus forgiveness, than accept Jesus future blessing while you are in the pain now. There is hope in the midst of this dreadful pain. One of the greatest foreshadowing’s of the blessing of God is the feeling of a hug in the midst of pain. When your body slumps and your tears stream but the strength of the other envelopes your body and holds you up. My friends that’s what Jesus has for you in this hurt.

Trust him to carry you through, by just trusting that you don’t have to figure out the way out. And live out these words to the song

You take my heart and breathe it back to life I fall into Your arms open wide When the hurt and the healer collide