The old joke tells of a gentle, elderly man approaching his pastor after church one Sunday. “That was a fine sermon, pastor,” he offered, kindly. “Tell me, what do you do for work the rest of the week?”

Many pastors find this amusing because they’ve heard the accusation leveled in one way or another that they only have to work one day a week. This, of course, is a sometimes comical, other times tragic, misunderstanding of the work of ministry.

In fact, pastoral ministry can be exhausting. Whether you are a staff member of a large church, the part-time pastor of a small church, or somewhere in between, shepherding God’s people will tax your heart and soul. There is an emotional and spiritual pressure in ministry that can’t be found in any other profession. Burnout is inevitable. Pastors often find themselves in need of an alternative, renewable energy source to which they can have access.

Paul, the archetypal pastor, felt the same way your pastor feels. He was working hard to “present everyone fully mature in Christ,” and he discovered that he did not have enough energy within himself to accomplish the task. Rather than growing despondent, Paul turned to the infinite well of kingdom energy, his Lord Jesus Christ. He tells the church in Colossae that his goal is to make mature disciples out of them, and to that end “I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

For those called to minister to God’s people, Jesus has an infinite resource of energy available, without which the task would be impossible. But it’s not enough to simply ask God to do what we cannot. Paul didn’t passively sit by while Jesus did everything himself. No, Paul fought hard – he strenuously contended – with all the energy Christ was so powerfully, and graciously, working within him.

Pastor, are you fighting for the discipleship of your people as hard as God is working within you? Can you describe your ministry as a strenuous contention? Are you taking full advantage of the energy that Christ is working inside of you? Jesus is working hard, and he wants to work hard with you.

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Storytellers have known of the allure of mystery for millennia. The building anticipation, the frustration of the red herring, and the thrill of discovery draw us into these stories. As a kid, I loved to play Clue, the famous murder mystery board game. There was nothing more exciting than discovering whodunit and calling out, “Colonel Mustard, with the wrench, in the billiard room!”

Paul calls God’s story a mystery. It’s not like the mysteries that we’re used to, of course. In fact, in God’s mystery, the murder comes at the end – when we crucified Jesus Christ. The murder of Jesus actually reveals the mysterious plan of God to pay for the sins of mankind with his own death, and then unite all the peoples of the earth together in the resurrection of Christ. Of course, nobody really knew about this ahead of time. Sure, Isaiah pointed toward it in his prophecy about the suffering servant. But who could have guessed it would have happened like this?

That’s part of the appeal of the Gospel. Not only does it demonstrate the infinite love of God, but it’s also completely unexpected!

God is going to die?

Yes. The Son of God is going to die.

On a Roman cross, like a rebel of the empire?

That’s correct.

And in this death he’s going to forgive all the sins of the whole world?

You got it.

And then he’s going to rise again from the dead, thereby conquering death and disarming the powers of evil once and for all?

Nailed it.

God writes the best mysteries. He is full of surprises. And how fortunate are we who get to live after the great mystery has been revealed? In fact, we are the beneficiaries of the mystery, because as Paul said, “God has made known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you [plural], the hope of glory.” The mystery isn’t over. It’s still being told in and through the communities of saints we call churches. Jesus is among us, living his life through us, telling his never-ending story through the lives of generations upon generations of believers. And his presence gives us hope – hope that we, too, will experience the glory of resurrection into perfect communion with God forever.

What will that be like? Well, it’s a mystery.

Staying out of prison is one of my top priorities. I’m very careful to obey every law (with the possible exception of the speed limit) because I desperately want to avoid going to jail. The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy going to prison. In fact, some of his best work, including the letter of Colossians, was done while incarcerated.

Paul saw the suffering of his imprisonment as an occasion to rejoice. That seems like an odd response to most of us, to be sure, but Paul viewed his suffering as an opportunity to participate in the afflictions of Christ. Because Jesus suffered, Paul reasoned, our own suffering brings us closer to him. Not only that, but when we suffer well, we become an encouragement to the church. But what does it look like to suffer well?

First of all, we must be honest. While we cannot allow our feelings to shape reality, we must be able to name our true emotions with honesty and integrity. It’s okay to not be okay. It is spiritually destructive to try to fake your way through hardships, and it robs others of the opportunity to learn from you how to suffer well. God is out to redeem every difficult circumstance we experience, but he cannot redeem the circumstances about which we are dishonest.

Secondly, we must have hope. Another way of thinking about this is “living with the end in mind.” If we live with an eye toward God’s new creation (the mind-blowing, awe-inspiring, totally redeemed world and humanity he is going to unveil in the final days), we will be able to endure the suffering we experience today. The resurrection of Jesus and the promise of new creation give us hope to overcome the disappointment and loss we live through today.

Finally, we must rejoice. This is where it gets hard. The journey from honesty to hope to rejoicing gets complicated because rejoicing is always out loud. This is an audible response to the hope that lives within us. You may not always feel like rejoicing. In fact, when you are suffering, you will probably never feel like rejoicing. But the more you rejoice, the less power your circumstances will have over you. As you move from honesty to hope to rejoicing, you will become an encouragement to people in your life and an example of what it means to suffer well.

Servant of the Church – 1:24-29

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²⁴ 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. ²⁵ I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— ²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

Paul had never met the Colossians, but he saw his present imprisonment and consequent sufferings as being on their behalf. He understood his ongoing trials as a participation in the suffering of Christ. When he uses the term “lacking” in reference to “Christ’s afflictions,” he does not in any way diminish the salvific effect of the cross. As Wiersbe notes, “The word afflictions refers to the ‘pressures’ of life, the persecutions Paul endured. This word is never used in the New Testament for the sacrificial sufferings of Jesus Christ.”^[i] Paul’s imprisonment does not work salvation for the Colossians (or Paul, for that matter); instead it serves as the fulfillment of Jesus’ own prophecy: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. …If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”^[ii] Paul is continuing the work of Jesus. In fact, Paul clearly understood that it was Jesus himself accomplishing his work through Paul. In this sense, Christ’s afflictions were not finished. The Lord must continue to suffer through the suffering of his people, all for the sake of his church. Suffering, in fact, is fundamental to the vocation of the church. “Just as the Messiah was to be known by the path of suffering he freely chose – and is recognized in his risen body by the mark of the nails – so his people are to be recognized by the sufferings they endure.”^[iii] In imitation of Christ, the Church is called to suffer and die at the hands of the world for the sake of the world.

Suffering on account of Jesus is, paradoxically, of tremendous benefit to the Church. Insofar as the suffering is endured with faithfulness, the one who suffers well is a great encouragement to the faith of those who are watching. Throughout the history of the Church, martyrdom has always strengthened the faith of others and caused the body of Christ to flourish wherever it has been resisted with violence and bloodshed. Indeed, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. The power of the Gospel is displayed not when life is easy, but when the storms of suffering, persecution, and hardship rage and roll. “All Christians will suffer for their faith in one way or another: if not outwardly, then inwardly, through the long, slow battle with temptation or sickness, the agonizing anxieties of Christian responsibilities for a family or a church, [or] the constant doubts and uncertainties which accompany the obedience of faith. …All of these, properly understood, are things to rejoice in – not casually, flippantly or superficially, but because they are signs that the present age is passing away, that the people of Jesus, the Messiah, are the children of the new age, and that the birthpangs of this new age are being worked out in them.”^[iv]

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In 2010, the world watched anxiously as 33 Chilean miners were trapped over 2,000 feet below the surface of the earth. As you can imagine, the men faced overwhelming challenges living that far underground. But one of the most dangerous aspects of their plight was the complete lack of daylight. According to this Newsweek article, “the physical and psychological toll of the darkness” could have dramatic effects well after the miners are rescued. According to this BBC report, many of the miners are struggling to move on. Living in darkness wreaks havoc on both the mind and the body.

For those of us who watched, the images of the dramatic rescue of the miners will stay with us forever. It is remarkable to see someone delivered out of darkness.

It’s no wonder that, in the Bible and many other religious texts, darkness is used as a metaphor for evil. In Colossians 1:13, Paul writes that God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,” what he calls earlier the “kingdom of light.”

Just like the prolonged absence of sunlight, spiritual darkness takes a toll on our minds and bodies. Satan, the ruler of the dominion of darkness, seeks to enslave us through temptation and deception. Prolonged exposure to, and participation in, evil makes us less than human. The lies of the devil distort our minds and cause us to commit evil (sin) with our bodies.

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