When Hope Shouts: Navigating Exhaustion and Exultation in Christ

In Luke 22:45, Luke describes the disciples in the garden as having fallen asleep because they were “exhausted from sorrow.” This picture of sorrowful exhaustion illustrates the disposition of so many of us in the midst of storms of suffering.

When you experience hardship, life often seems marred by sorrow and even incapable of producing joy. In these moments, it does not seem to be what is best for us, but what is worst for us. There are days when your current season of trial seems like the deepest darkness imaginable, where you desperately try to make sense of your surroundings in a constant state of stumbling over yourself.

However, this perception of darkness is not the final word on our suffering. These sorrows do not have ultimate staying power. There is a future time following the persistent pain and the immediacy of affliction. Though the present is perilous, the afterwards is on the horizon.

Though the world we live in is full of pain, there have been hints that a day is coming when all will be made right. We have heard rumors of another world.

Toward the end of Hebrews 12, readers are given a glimpse of the final destination of the race that they are running: the heavenly kingdom (12:18-24). And entering into the kingdom means entering into the presence of the King. The peaceful fruit of righteousness is the kind of reward that is enjoyed at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Christ, who is our hope, suffered and made the ultimate sacrifice, and one day his scream will change its tone. On that day, the “Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thess 4:16).

Rather than closing their eyes to the pain around them, believers have been granted the prospect of a different line of sight. A believer is someone who endures in this life by “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). If you suffer in this world as sons and daughters of God, hold on, Hope is coming, and he will make all things right.

Toward the end of the vision he sees in the book of Revelation, John is shown a foretaste of this coming day. He recounts, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21:1). He also sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:2). He then hears a “loud voice from the throne” which declares, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them” (21:3).

In a recognition of the pain and suffering that has taken place between the Garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem, John is told that God himself “will wipe away every tear from their eyes” and “there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying or pain” (21:4). This scene provides a picture of the fulfillment of the new covenant. God and mankind have been reconciled, sins have been forgiven, pain is no more, and the curse has been reversed. In short, paradise has been restored.

This vision John sees on the Island of Patmos is drawn from a prophetic vision of this recreation in the book of Isaiah. There the Lord declares, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind” (Isa 65:17). This promise of things to come should cause us to “be glad and rejoice forever” in what the Lord creates (65:18). The Lord himself will “rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in [his] people.” On this day, the effects of suffering will be silenced, for “the voice of weeping” and the “sound of crying” will “no longer be heard” (65:19).

Ours is a world where parents have to bury their newborn children, where sons have to bury their middle-aged fathers, and where friends have to bury the companions of their youth. But on that day, “no longer” will there be “an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days” (65:20). Then the children of the Lord “will not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity,” but the offspring of the Lord will be blessed, as the lion lies down with the lamb and all is made right (65:23).

Though the race set before us is long and strewn with suffering, one day the weary runners will lift up their heads to hear him “who sits on the throne” say, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5). On that day, as the finish line comes into sight, the race will be finished, and “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” will once again say, “It is done” (21:6).

Not only has Jesus gone before us, he also stands at the finish line. Looking forward to this future reality is the transformative gift that Christian hope offers to hurting believers.

The readers of Hebrews were striving to persevere in the midst of suffering. One of the purposes of Heb 12:3-11 is to encourage them in this situation to press on in the faith. These believers had forgotten key truths that had the ability to sustain them. They had forgotten something about their past: Christ has gone before them (12:3-4). They had forgotten something about their future: the peaceful fruit of righteousness (12:11). And they had forgotten something about their present struggle: God is dealing with them as his children (12:5-10). The writer addresses this theological amnesia directly by pointing his readers to Jesus, the one who suffered on their behalf.

The same exhortation should still carry weight for biblical readers, and our primary response should be the same as well. The writer has given us two commands in this passage: to consider him and to endure hardship. We can see the relationship between the two by reversing their order. We can only endure hardship by considering him.

As we consider Christ, we must never forget to remember the exhortation that God has given us in Heb 12:3-11. Remember something about your past: Christ has gone before you. Remember something about your future: the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Remember something about your current suffering: God deals with you as sons and daughters.

This is a word you will never want to forget. You will want to have these words woven deep into the fabric of your being, so that when the pain of suffering begins to throb, it will do so to the rhythm of the Gospel proclamation: You are his, and you can suffer in his arms.

In the end, remember that the Bible presents to us a God who beckons in the midst of pain, “Be still, my child, and cling to your redeemer.”


Note: This is adapted from the closing section from a section of a journal article, “When Hope Screams: Learning How to Suffer as Sons from the Book of Hebrews.” If you would like to read the whole article itself, see here.