Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church …To the Lord’s people God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ (Colossians 1:24, 27-28).

Well, it’s a Monday morning in December, Christmas is coming – so who wants to talk about suffering?  Yet this week, as we continue exploring Christ, the Hope of Glory, here we are.  In our passage for this week, the “hope of glory passage,” Paul writes of rejoicing in what he is suffering (imprisonment) and goes on to write this curious line: I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

How can the hope of glory possibly be connected to suffering?

Last Sunday, Alex said if we focus on the whats of Christmas – trees, lights, gifts, parties, Santa – we end up with the blahs, starting around Christmas Day at noon.  If, instead, we focus on the who, the season need not end with a dull thud.  We get to enjoy the whats for a few weeks; we get to enjoy the who now and forever!

Paul embeds Christ, the hope of glory in the context of suffering, of his sufferings on behalf of those small and struggling Christian communities of the first century.  Our faith is never masochistic, but it is realistic: we are called to communicate and demonstrate the Good News in and to the world that is designed to resist it.  Paul was in a Roman prison because the Roman authorities saw him as a threat to the social order of the Roman Empire.

They were right.

We are not to seek suffering, but neither should we be surprised when it comes.  So when Paul writes of filling up “what is still lacking in regards to Christ’s afflictions,” he is reminding us that we have been called into the company of the Suffering Servant, into the community that daily picks up the cross to follow the Crucified One.  No, we add nothing to Christ’s finished work on the cross; yes, we are called into a life that is cross-shaped and cross-aligned.  It was because of this great Gospel hope that Paul encountered suffering.  He calls us to follow the one he followed.

As we learn to faithfully follow the Faithful One, we will encounter both suffering and hope.  The suffering helps clarify where our hope truly lies: not in some whats but in one and only one who.  And where do we find this who and the hope he brings?  In, of all the improbable and impossible places to look, the church, the community of the Lord’s people.  Our King dwells and reigns in the midst of his on-the-way people!

Sovereign Savior, teach us not to turn away from suffering, your suffering for us, the endless suffering of the world around us, and the suffering into which you may call us.  Mighty King who carried our sin and afflictions, who lowered yourself to lift us up, teach us to know that what we do for the least, we do for you.  Amen.