Life Wasn’t Meant To Be Easy.

John Westerdorp, Trowel and Sword, March 1999.

Preamble: In his article “Annus Liturgicus” (TSR Jan. 1 ’24) Bill Deenick wrote about the church calendar as not being big in Reformed circles but nevertheless being useful in planning his preaching. Lent is that period before Easter which lends itself to this. As we are now in that time of “Lent” it seemed appropriate that we find an article on the subject, however this turned out not to be so easy. John Westerdorp came to the rescue with an editorial which in part at least touched on the subject and we have reproduced it here. For those who may not have a full understanding of the observance of Lent and how it came about we have included a link to a website called “Compelling Truth” which gives a concise background to Lent as part of the church calendar. To access this article go to:

https://www.compellingtruth.org/what-is-Lent.html

Life Wasn’t Meant To Be Easy.

One of Australia’s past Prime Ministers, Malcolm Fraser will always be remembered for his words, “Life wasn’t meant to be easy!” If I remember correctly people had complained about government cut backs to social welfare to which the Prime Minister responded with those now well known words. Subsequently the media gave Fraser a hard time for daring to put it that way. The opposition certainly made mileage from it at the next election.

I have often reflected on those words and concluded that Fraser possibly said more than he realised. It is surely an implication of the fall (Genesis 3) that life is no longer meant to be easy. M. Scott Peck begins his book, “The Road Less Travelled” with the observation, “Life is difficult.” And a few paragraphs further he states, “Life is a series of problems”. Peck is making this point over against people who moan incessantly about the enormity of their problems “as if life should be easy.”

If some would question Peck’s credentials, as not quite kosher to Calvinists, then consider the words of two young men with impeccable Calvinistic credentials. They pointed out that in this life we need comforting and that if we want to enjoy the comfort that comes from knowing we belong to Christ then we first of all need to know that life wasn’t meant to be easy. Okay, Ursinus and Olevianus put it just a little differently in the Heidelberg Catechism. They state that first thing I have to know, to live or die happily, is “how great my sin and misery are” (L.D.1).

I hasten to add that many saw Fraser’s words as an excuse for doing nothing to relieve the lot of the needy. It is one thing to say, “life wasn’t meant to be easy”, in order to make people face the reality that we live this side of Eden. It is another thing entirely to use that phrase as an excuse to perpetuate abuse or injustice.

Because of our rebellion against God labour pains and thorns and thistles are the way things are now meant to be until Jesus comes to make all things new. But if use that as an excuse for doing nothing to help those who are being exploited by evildoers then God’s judgment stands against me. No one can ever excuse the horror of child abuse by an appeal to Genesis 3. It is perverse to close our eyes to the pain of a divorce simply because life is now meant to be tough. To use the expression in that sense is heresy.

Lent And Christian Living.

This issue of T&S comes to you in the middle of that part of the church year that we call ‘Lent’, the forty days leading up to Easter Sunday, Traditionally it was a time of penance and self-denial when fasting was encouraged and the eating of meat forbidden. In Reformed Churches we have a somewhat ambivalent attitude to Lent.

On the one hand we strongly reject the idea of Lenten fasting as an attempt to win the favour of God. Calvin already rebuked, as superstitious nonsense, the idea that by keeping to such rules we thereby perform some excellent service to God (Institutes iv.xii.20). In the popular mind Lent is still often seen in those terms. In places like Brazil, Lent is preceded by all the excesses of their Mardi Grass, before the austerity of the fasting time when people seek to make things right again with God. Such *works righteousness’ has no place in the Christian life. It obscures the gospel of Christ.

On the other hand many of our churches use the Sundays of Lent to focus on the sufferings of Christ who goes the way of the cross. I have personally found congregations appreciative when I have used this time to preach, for example, on the Suffering Servant passages from Isaiah, or the seven words of Jesus from the cross. When, in our own life, we accompany that by some forms of voluntary fasting or abstinence, Lent can become a very meaningful period of reflection leading up to Good Friday and Easter.

If nothing else these days leading up to Good Friday remind us that we are followers of the Man of Sorrows… that Jesus came to take upon Himself our sin and suffering… that the brokenness of life was something He experienced to its painful and bitter climax. Certainly for Jesus life was not meant to be easy. “He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” (Is.53:4). It was for that purpose that He came and took on our humanity.

Admittedly, we now live after Easter and are therefore more than conquerors with Christ. Believers share in the reality of His victory and resurrection. Yet the apostle Peter, in his first letter, also affirm the truth that in this life we are called to take our share of suffering in imitation of the Man of Sorrows. For believers there is a special sense in which life was not meant to be easy. There is special hardship and pain for those who follow in the footsteps of the Master. At the same time the followers of Man of Sorrows are also challenged to be Christlike in taking up the burdens and hurts of others.

The Prosperity Gospel.

During a recent bout of illness my disturbed sleeping patterns led to rising early enough to watch some of the religious programs which Channel 10 puts on at such an unearthly hour that one wonders if anyone ever watches them. Well, many people do. I’m occasionally encouraged by fellow Christians, “You really ought to listen to Marilyn Hickey some time.” Or, “That Benny Hinn is an inspiring guy!”

That particular morning began with a forgettable program that seemed more New Age than Christian. Kenneth Copeland followed, pushing what he calls the “covenant of prosperity.” I was appalled. Okay, he and his assistant, Leroy Thompson, said some good things once in a while, “Money without God is a disaster.” True! But their preoccupation with health and wealth drowned out the good things they said. The half-hour hit rock bottom for me when Copeland and Thompson encouraged their viewers to extend their arms and then draw their arms in while saying, “Money, come to me now!” – three times. Believers were challenged to get up and shout that out every morning.

It becomes painfully obvious that the *name it and claim it’ gospel of Copeland is a far cry from the call of Jesus to take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Him who had nowhere to lay His head. Copeland has given the greed and materialism of our western culture a “Christian baptism” and attempts to show that for Christians life should be easy.

Marilyn Hickey had a helpful talk on sexuality. However the showmanship of Benny Hinn that followed reminded me of all the worst features of the American televangelists that have done so much to discredit Christianity. It was one long parade of claims of miraculous healings complete with ‘slayings in the spirit’. The only time he opened the Bible was to read from Isaiah 27:3, But he then misused this lovely promise to the church to assure individuals that God wanted them to be healed.

In both Copeland and Hinn I saw no recognition that until Jesus comes again life is not meant to be easy. More capable analysts than I have commented that these men have no theology of suffering. There is no recognition that, as Paul put it. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22).

Redemptive Opportunities.

I write these pages to encourage you the reader to adopt a sound view of reality this side of Jesus’ return. Hardships and difficulties ought not to take us by surprise. But I mention these things also because it is especially when we take seriously that life was not meant to be easy that our days on earth will also become rich with redemptive opportunities.

Jesus himself warned that it is not the healthy who need a doctor but those who are sick. On another occasion he warned how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Copeland and Hinn should spend a little more time reflecting on those teachings of Jesus.

No. I’m not taking a social gospel line – as if the sick and the poor are necessarily closer to the Kingdom. What I am saying is that I have had far more opportunities to minister to the souls of men and women in situations of need and crisis than I have in situations of health and affluence. A healthy view of reality in a fallen world provides far better opportunities for gospel proclamation. What a joy it is to remind those who have discovered the hard way that life wasn’t meant to be easy; that Jesus will one day put an end to all the groanings of this fallen creation.

JW