THIS SUFFERING SAINT

What images does the title of this letter bring to mind? Perhaps you envision a member of the persecuted church in China being singled out for discipline and/or confinement because of his or her uncompromising faith. Maybe your thoughts go to Mother Teresa, walking the streets of Calcutta, India, amidst some of the world’s most extreme and horrific poverty. Or…maybe you think of some of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Christ, whom, upon their conversion to Christianity, may be killed for no other reason than naming the name of Jesus. I believe all of these examples (and more) would qualify as suffering saints.

I want us however, in this letter, and letters to follow, to focus on one particular saint whose suffering is well documented in scripture. I want us to examine key scriptures, foundational to our very Christian beliefs, that were undoubtedly, to some degree, the result of his suffering.

And I want to challenge us to consider whether or not we experience any significant cost to our decision to follow Christ, and if not, why not? Are we prepared to face and perhaps endure an ever increasing rise in persecution against Christians and against the Church?

Just this morning as I was watching the news, I viewed a report about anti-I.C.E. protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, storming into churches on a Sunday morning, disrupting services, and with heated dialogue, getting up into the faces of congregants who had come to worship, and now were having to endure a very abusive and potentially violent assault by those who arbitrarily had decided that, “these Christians need to be confronted.” 

Now…whatever you may think about the I.C.E./anti-I.C.E. issue is not the point of discussion here. I will say that I firmly believe first amendment rights were clearly violated by the agitators, and I believe (hope) the courts will support that fact. But again, even this is not the point of this letter. Persecution against Christians is “coming to a theater near you”, as the saying goes. In fact, it’s already here!

Now let’s look at this suffering saint from Scripture, who I believe sets the standard for Christian suffering.

Some years ago as I had come downstairs into the kitchen one morning, I heard Linda, who was in her normal posture of sitting at her little table on the porch with her Bible, books, and notepad spread before her, proclaim: “Hmmm…” I asked her, “What is it?” She explained, “I was just reading about Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. The Lord told Ananias (in Damascus) that he was to go to a street called “Straight”, pray for Saul to receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Lord explained to Ananias that this persecutor of the church, “Is a chosen vessel of Mine, to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Linda went on to say, “It’s interesting…Paul is going to receive his sight, but he’s going to ‘see’ what things he must suffer.”

It’s kind of a good news/bad news situation. Good news:  Paul is going to be healed of blindness. Bad news:  He’s going to see what things he must suffer. And suffer he did!

We probably all have varying images of what Paul may have looked like; tall or short, bearded or cleanshaven, thin or wide, and so on. However, from scripture itself, and using some forensic analysis, we can get a fairly specific idea as to Paul’s physical appearance.

In 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, Paul offers an itemized list of things he suffered and endured in the course of his ministry, which would have specific and lasting implications. “Five times I received, from the Jews, 39 lashes” (2 Corinthians 11:24). In this letter we’re going to assess the nature of that one punishment and its lasting consequences, just for starters.

The Cat of Nine Tails was a brutal device of punishment, co-opted by the Jews, and inflicted upon their perceived detractors. The best way I can describe this cruel instrument is to think of a whip, rather like a bullwhip, though probably shorter in length. Instead of the whip coming to just one tail, the “business end” of the device sported nine separate tails. Fastened to the end of each tail was a piece of bone, pottery shard, or perhaps metal, designed to tear or lacerate the flesh. The traditional “nine-tails” punishment protocol called for 40 lashes minus 1 to allow for a safe margin of not breaking the Law.

Often, the lashing or whipping was portioned out to one third directed at the front of one’s torso, while two thirds were inflicted on the rear of the torso. Obviously, some of the nine-tails found their way to arms, legs and even face.

Now let’s do the math: 39 lashes x 9=351. This is how many lacerations Paul would have endured at each nine-tails lashing. However, he tells us he endured five such lashings!  351×5=1,755.

One thousand, seven hundred fifty five lacerations were inflicted on Paul’s body.

Many, subjected to this brutal form of punishment, died in the process of one event. Paul survived five!

The apostle Paul was thrashed to the bone, probably penetrating some of his organs at times. We don’t know the exact timetable of these five lashings, but in a ministry that lasted 30 to 35 years he would have, on average, been thus tortured approximately once every 6 to 7 years throughout his ministry life. He would have endured significant scar tissue, infection, and persistent pain.

Let’s pause for a moment. So, why am I describing all this to you? Is it some morbid sadistic focus on physical suffering? Of course not! I want us to understand and to be reminded of what this one suffering saint endured, so that he might both spiritually and experientially impart to us the greater understanding of such deep theological and doctrinal truths as substitutionary atonement, salvation, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

I want us to understand more deeply why and how he would write, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to His death (Philippians 3: 8-10).”

In the weeks ahead we will further explore what price Paul paid in order to write some of the grandest truths we shall ever consider, and by which, we shall own eternal salvation, inherit the kingdom of God, and possess eternal life. Thanks be to God for confronting this persecutor of the church on the road to Damascus: THIS SUFFERING SAINT.

In Christ,

Dallas Holm