Pain Is Not Your Enemy: Stop Running from It

 

The Temptation We Never Name

As we enter Holy Week, the Passion narrative puts a specific temptation right in front of us. It is not one we talk about often. But it gnaws at us constantly.

It is the temptation to believe that we can live a better life than Jesus did.

That might sound strange at first. But look at how it plays out in the story, and you will recognize it immediately.

Pontius Pilate and the Escape Route

Pilate’s wife sends him a warning. “Don’t have anything to do with this man.” And Pilate wants to listen. He wants out.

But the crowd is chanting. The pressure is real. So he looks for an escape route.

That is exactly what this temptation looks like in everyday life. When doing what is right, good, and holy leads toward pain, we start scanning for a way around it. Pilate found one. It cost him everything worth keeping.

If you want to do what is right and good and holy, you are going to go through pain and suffering. There is no version of the story where that is not true.

Judas and the Mercy We Forget

Judas is a more complicated figure than people often allow. Matthew, of all the Gospel writers, is the most sympathetic toward him.

“Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, deeply regretted what he had done.”

It is like stealing something small from a store and then feeling far worse than whatever you got out of it. It was not worth it. Matthew sees that clearly, and he lets the reader see it too.

The Church, for its part, has never declared that any specific person is in hell. Not one. That judgment belongs entirely to God. What happened between Judas and God at the end is not something any of us can claim to know.

Judas’s real problem was not the betrayal itself. It was that he could not forgive himself. He could not look up and see God looking back.

Peter and the Fear of Suffering

Peter denies Jesus three times. The reason is straightforward. He is afraid.

He does not want to suffer. So he creates distance. He separates himself from Jesus one denial at a time.

Most of us know that feeling. We may not use those words, but the movement is familiar. When staying close to Christ gets costly, the instinct is to back away.

What Keeps Us Close

So what holds us to Christ when the pressure builds? Three things.

• Faith

• Hope

• Love

Faith, hope, and love are the glue. They are what make it possible to keep doing what is right and good and beautiful, regardless of the cost. Without them, the escape routes start to look reasonable.

Even children know suffering. It starts early and it does not stop. The question is never whether difficulty will come. The question is whether we stay united with Jesus when it does.

God’s Greatest Power

Here is the thing about staying. When we hold on through the worst of it, something remarkable becomes possible.

God’s greatest power is taking your worst day and turning it into something glorious. That is what He is famous for. That is the whole point of the story we tell this week.

We call the day of the crucifixion Good Friday. Think about that word. Good. Only God can do that to a day like that.

Lent and the Long Practice

That temptation to separate ourselves from the love of God will always be with us. It does not go away. This is exactly why Lent exists.

The Lenten practices we take on, the promises we make and keep, are training. They are how we build the habit of staying close to the Lord no matter what happens.

That is the work. And that is the hope.