"Learning Obedience"

​5th Sunday in Lent – B                                                                                   LSB #’s 434, 433, 421
Text – Hebrews 5:8
 
Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.
 
LEARNING OBEDIENCE
 
 
The author of Hebrews is preaching a sermon, & he has a congregation that is exhausted.  They are tired of serving others, tired of worship, tired   of Christian education, tired of being peculiar & rejected by their world.    They’re tired of prayer & spiritual struggle.    Their hands droop & their knees are weak.  Attendance is down & they are losing confidence. 
The threat facing this congregation is not that they might charge off in the wrong direction.  They do not have enough energy to charge off anywhere.  Tired of walking the walk, many of them are giving thought to taking a walk, away from the community & away from the faith.    Does any of that sound familiar? 
The author writing the sermon, we call the book of Hebrews, does not appeal to improved group dynamics, to conflict management techniques, the reorganization of mission structures or to snappy worship services.   Rather, he preaches about the nature & the meaning of Jesus Christ.   Jesus, & He alone, can generate surprise, wonder, gratitude & obedience.[1] 
Although He was a son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what He suffered.  (Hebrews 5:8 ESV)   What does it mean to learn obedience through suffering?   We talk of learning things in the school of hard knocks & that’s heading in the general direction.  Hopefully, you’ve heard of Job & know something of his suffering.   He traveled a long way down that road. 
Each of us has known some form & degree of suffering.  It’s the nature of being alive in a world broken by sin.  However, living in a society with all the modern conveniences we have, it is possible to avoid much of the suffering of days gone by.   Manual labor is something that many people no longer put up with.  No matter how hot or cold it is outside, we have central heat & air conditioning to make our lives more bearable if not downright comfortable.   We have heating pads or ice & ibuprofen or morphine if physical pain is too much to suffer. 
Death is something we have not been able to put off or cure.   Could it be that in the past God used the lesser forms of suffering to help us prepare for the suffering involved in taking our last breath?  Job learned obedience through his suffering, but all he had to treat the boils on his body was a piece of broken pottery.  He scraped the sores with them. 
It was then that his wife compassionately told him, “Curse God   & die.”  (Job 2:9 ESV) Although Satan killed their children, apparently he allowed Job’s wife to live in order to cause him even more suffering.   By chapter 3, Job is cursing the day of his birth & complaining, yet, by chapter 42, he has learned obedience & repents in dust & ashes. 
Our sinful nature is all too willing to bail out on the suffering God sends, or allows, into our lives.  If we quit, we short-circuit God’s plan to teach us obedience.    Jesus did not quit.   He endured the suffering right down to His very last breath from the cross.   And He did not learn that obedience for His own good, but for your good & for mine. 
God calls us to learn obedience not just for our own spiritual development, but for the good of our neighbor.  You & I learn obedience for the good of our spouse & siblings, for our parents & children, for our coworkers & employers.  We learn obedience in order that we can walk in the good works that God prepares in advance for us to walk in. 
As Jesus suffered & died so that you & I might be made whole,  we suffer,  & one day die as well,  that God might bring blessings  to the people around us,  through us.    All joking aside, it may seem strange to think of your death as a blessing to others.  Nevertheless, I was able to be present for the death of each of my parents & I do count that as a blessing from God.   To be with them, the moment they passed from death into true life, from this vale of tears into paradise, was a profound experience that is impossible to put into words.   Suffering tends to strip away all the frivolous realities of life to focus our attention on what is eternal. 
Things that were so important to me during my teenage years became totally irrelevant once the navy locked me up underwater for months at a time.  I have no doubt  that you also can name once important issues  which faded into oblivion  as times of trial & tribulation came into your lives.   The author of Hebrews stated in chapter 12:
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness & peace for those who have been trained by it.”  (12:11 NIV)    Learning obedience is but another blessing that comes with righteousness & peace.   If we would just be perfect in everything we do,   there’d be so much less stress for us to deal with. 
Since we cannot be perfect in anything, the Holy Spirit calls us to repentance.  He enables us to repent, & then teaches us obedience through what we suffer.    Learning obedience means accepting & even rejoicing that God is good & He is allowing or even causing what we view as suffering in order to bless us.  As the apostle Paul wrote:
“…God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God…”  (Romans 8:28 NASB)   Just making the effort to hear a sermon is suffering for our sinful nature, but to those who love God, He works even painful sermons together for good.   He works painful worship services together for good, & painful reunions,   painful employers & coworkers, etc. 
Suffering is the nature of living in a world broken by sin.  Why do ever think it should be otherwise?   Certainly it was God’s plan for Jesus to suffer & die here in this world, but most of the world hated Jesus even though they knew nothing of God’s plan.  They did not kill Jesus because they wanted Him to save the world.  As grim as it sounds, we should expect to suffer in this life & not only because the world also hates us.  Our own sinful nature hates God, hates the Word of God, hates the songs that praise God or lift up His name.  We do not want to endure any sort of suffering in order to learn obedience, & for that reason God must allow us to suffer. 
How many of your parents or teachers taught you obedience by only giving you everything you ever wanted?   Practicing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, that is translated as self-control, is all about denying ourselves some or all of what we desire.   Jesus subjected Himself to the most horrific of suffering & denied Himself even life.  We hear of His struggle:
Jesus said to them, “‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, & watch with me.’  And going a little farther He fell on His face & prayed, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’  And He came to the disciples & found them sleeping.  ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch & pray that you may not enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’  Again, for the 2nd time, He went away & prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’”  (Matthew 26:38-42 ESV) 
 
The human nature of Jesus developed & learned just as we do, except without sin.  We see a great contrast in that text between Jesus & His sinful disciples.  Although I’m using the law to show us our sin, it is legitimate to ask, “What price are you willing to pay in order to learn obedience to God?   What are you willing to suffer?” 
Looking at our lives,   our answer is embarrassing!   We know nothing of what the disciples suffered, let alone what the Son of God, our Savior, suffered.   “In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33 ESV)   Was Jesus talking there about losing 5G cell service?    He wasn’t even talking about losing electricity. 
Jesus was talking about being persecuted or killed for following His teachings.  “But take heart; I have overcome the world,” means that Jesus has overcome the people who would persecute & kill Christians for what they believe.   Since Jesus has overcome them, He certainly has also overcome all the lesser injustices we suffer & endure in this life.   Jesus has even overcome sinners like us when our answer is embarrassing to the question, “What are you willing to suffer in order to learn obedience?”   If you are going to take heart because Jesus has overcome the world, you’ll need more than snappy worship services to endure suffering. 
Our nation is not headed in the right direction according to the teachings of Jesus, regardless of what the polls say.  If our people keep going that way there is plenty more suffering to come  because that’s the only thing that causes sinners to take note.  At times, God even brings the suffering into our lives specifically in an attempt to turn us back from our sins. 
If God’s children are going to live our lives in surprise, wonder, gratitude & obedience, it’ll take far more than snappy worship services or clever mission statements to empower us.  Instead, we daily will need the power of God’s almighty forgiveness to strengthen us for the onslaught.  Only God’s Word, Baptism & Holy Communion convey that power to sinners. 
There is nothing that we can do, on our own, to love being in the house of God, or to love our neighbor as ourselves.  The Holy Spirit has to create that love within us each & every day, because each & every day our sinful nature goes with us everywhere we go.  Here’s one last story to illustrate why Jesus needed to learn obedience.
One December afternoon just before Christmas vacation, parents stood in the lobby of a preschool, waiting to claim their children.  When the bell rang, the youngsters ran from the classroom, each child carrying in his or her hands a special “surprise” – a brightly wrapped package containing a project that each child had diligently worked on for weeks to give Mom & Dad for Christmas.  One little boy was trying to run, put on his coat, & wave all at the same time.  He slipped & fell, the “surprise” flying out of his hands & landing on the tile floor with an obvious ceramic crash.  There was a moment of stunned silence immediately followed by the little one’s inconsolable wail of tears.  The boy’s father tried to be strong & comfort the little guy, kneeling down & saying, “It’s OK, son.  It really doesn’t matter.  It’s OK.”  The boy’s mother was wiser about such things.  She swept the little boy into her arms & said, “Oh, but it does matter.  It matters a very, very great deal!”  And she wept with her son. 
 
The human nature of Jesus had to learn obedience, & one of the ways He learned it
was through suffering.  This learning through suffering also taught Jesus how & when to weep with us as you & I live in a world that is so terribly broken by sin.  “But take heart; Jesus has overcome the world.”  And He overcomes our sins as well.  Amen. 

 
 
Glory be to Jesus, who in bitter pains poured for me the lifeblood from His sacred veins!        Blest through endless ages be the precious stream which from endless torment did the world redeem!       Lift we, then, our voices, swell the mighty flood; louder still & louder praise the precious blood.  Amen.  LSB 433:1, 3, 6.


[1] Long, Thomas, G., Hebrews: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997), P. 3.