Must We Be Pain Free?

Have we become a culture where the elimination of pain and discomfort has become a priority of our lives?  When was the last time you watched TV for any length of time without seeing a commercial for some type of pain reliever?  And when we want relief, we want it fast and easy to take.  Recently, I read a report that U. S. health care dollars spent on dealing with neck and back pain alone had exceeded $86 billion per year, and that was back in 2005.  Interestingly, the article went on to say that little improvement had resulted from this huge expenditure.

Am I against reducing and eliminating needless pain?  Not at all.  I know, for example the debilitating effect and excruciating pain that can come from a migraine headache.  It can render a person almost unable to function.  Of course, there are numerous other forms of intense and chronic pain that afflict many of us that need attention and mitigation.

Nevertheless, have you stopped to realize what a great gift and blessing our sense of pain actually is?  Life without this warning mechanism would be devastating and probably brief.  Modern leprosy is an affliction in which the victim feels no pain.  Loss of fingers and toes is not uncommon.  But it is not from the disease itself but due to multiple injuries and infections that caused no pain.  Imagine how long a person would survive working in a kitchen with no sense of pain.  How long before hands and fingers would be lost to cuts, bruises and burns?  Or, consider a painless appendicitis.  Before any symptoms would be detected, the victim would probably die.

What then should our response to pain be as believers in Jesus Christ?   Should we thank God for our pain and just grin and bear it?  That’s a bit extreme, but I do think we should be thankful for this vital warning system He has given us.  But are we possibly too focused on our personal discomfort to the exclusion of more important issues of life?

Lately, as I have been reading in the Gospel according to Mark, I have been struck by the multitudes of people that came to Jesus for healing as He preached and traveled about Israel.  Days on end they seemed to keep coming, and it says that He had compassion on them and healed them all.  But there was a unique instance of healing that Mark focused on that, I think, might shed some light on the question of how we should deal with our afflictions. 

Four men carrying a paralyzed man on a pallet went to Jesus for healing.  He was in a house teaching the crowd that had gathered there, but it was so tight that they could not get in.  Undaunted, they went up on the roof, dug a hole and lowered their friend down in front of Jesus.

And what did Jesus do?  First, seeing their faith, he said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”  That’s not what they came for and some of the scribes began reasoning that this was blasphemy because only God can forgive sins.  To silence their thoughts, He said, “So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” He told the paralyzed man to get up, pick up his pallet, and go home. Immediately he did so, and everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. 

What lessons can we learn from this event?  First, what, apparently, was more important in Jesus’ eyes, for the man:  to be healed of paralysis or forgiven of his sins?  Have you ever thought about all the people that Jesus healed?  They all died!  Even the ones He raised from the dead.  Is it better, then, to be prepared to enter heaven for eternity (have your sins forgiven) or only to be healed for a little while of an illness? 

We see, therefore, that faith in Jesus is the key to salvation: “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).  Faith has always been so, as it is written in Genesis 15:6, “he [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”  I often wonder how few of all those multitudes that He healed truly believed in Him and how many He healed simply because of His compassion.

The faith adventure of the four men and their paralyzed friend should help us understand that in our pain and affliction the most important response is to trust in Jesus through it all.  I believe our attitude should be, since He is Lord and knows all things, that if He would receive more glory from our being healed, as it was in that case, then we would seek for Him to grant our request, otherwise, we willingly would accept what in His infinite wisdom is best.

“How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!  How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!”  -- Psalm 32:2