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Day by Day Video
The Grief Was Just As Real
Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Dec 29, 2023
Show Day by Day
Dec 06, 2023
Duration:
00:03:16 Minutes
Views:
120
Christmas Jesus pain & suffering

Scripture

Jeremiah 31:13,16-17

Though heartache remains, we have a lasting hope in Jesus Christ.   ~~~   Sin is real. Its consequences are real and brutal. It leaves scars and causes pain and suffering, for us and others. Suffering is real. Pain is real. We need no reminder of that. But we find a reminder inserted into this Christmas story. Not many people talk about it, or preach it, because they don’t want to taint the Christmas story. But I would submit to you that we need this part of the story now, more than ever. Matthew tells us that Herod, with unbridled brutality, and loss of all self-control, sent a slaughter squad to Bethlehem to kill all baby boys two years old and younger. Bethlehem was a small town. But it doesn’t really matter. They were still slaughtered. And I am sure that the pain and screams were just as real, and just as loud 2000 years ago as they would be if it happened this weekend. But even before then, there was another scenario, another event that Matthew mentions. It took place in Jeremiah 31, where the nation of Israel had been conquered, and families and tribes were being led to a city called Ramah. That city served as a weigh station of sorts before families were separated from one another and sent into exile. Children were ripped from mother’s arms. Father’s were torn away from their families as they said their last goodbyes. And in their eyes, all hope was gone; hope was lost; hope was shattered. Life held out no purpose, no joy. The suffering was real; and it was deep. But if we go to Jeremiah 31, we will find, not only these words of grief, but we will also find words of hope and comfort. “I will turn your mourning into joy, I will comfort you and give you gladness for sorrow…Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears…they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future.” What is the hope promised to those people in Jeremiah 31 that can heal that type of suffering? What is the hope promised to the desperate mothers in Bethlehem on that bitter night? Matthew does not deny the pain and the heartache, but he beckons us to the promise of redemption. The redemption that is found only in Christ, the one who not escaped that slaughter so he could carry a cross and be executed for man’s sin. The sin of all believers. So suffering gives way to glory. Death and defeat give way to resurrected, overcoming, everlasting life that is secured for us by Christ.

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