Learning From Our Past Brethren
Suffering is not a foreign concept to the Bible. We have been studying the book of Exodus here at Cities Church and we have seen that the Israelites have suffered under intense slavery in Egypt. They have had no freedom. They have been forced to labor in terrible conditions. And yet in their suffering, they turned to God. They groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help, and God heard them.
The question for us in this morning’s exhortation is: where do we turn when we are suffering? Think about your own life right now. In what ways have you gone through suffering? Think about just the challenges or setbacks that you have faced in the past two weeks — how are you doing with it? How are you handling it? Where are you turning to in your daily trials?
In an effort to help us answer the question of how we should deal with hardship in our lives, I want us to consider the example of past saints. I want us to look at Christian examples and learn from them — and a great place to turn is to our African American brothers and sisters in Christ who suffered as slaves in early America. Many African American slaves were Christians who suffered in incomprehensible ways and yet maintained their faith in Christ.
The list of suffering that our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ endured is long. At a high level, I will list a few. They suffered from isolation and separation. They were kidnapped in Africa and ripped away from their families and forced onto ships. They were packed into ships where many died on the voyage to America due to disease and lack of food and water. If they were able to maintain familial connection during the voyage, at the slave auction block husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, were forced to separate as one family member was purchased to go with one master, and the other to another master. The cries of pain shook to the core. Then in their slave labor, the suffering continued. Records from masters and slaves suggest an average waking time for the slaves of four o’clock in the morning. The best estimates place the slaves’ workday between twelve and fifteen hours, often with self-care tacked onto the end of the endless workday.
John Goodwin, an ex-slave, remembers his mother being forced to leave her baby all alone in the cradle all day long while she worked in the field. He also recalls her difficult double duty. He said in an interview “My mommy had to work hard all day long with all the balance of men… After working all day in the cottonfield she would come home and work half of the night for herself and children. She used to wash, patch, spin, and cook for the next day to carry out in the field.”
Her work was endless and yet she and many other slaves trusted Jesus through these sufferings. We have a lot we can learn from them — especially the ways they did not allow their suffering to define them.
The way they did this was to practice their faith every moment of every day. They would constantly call to mind their Savior Jesus Christ. Charlotte Brooks, an ex-slave, said “Religion is good anywhere – at the plow handle, at the hoe-handle, anywhere. If you are filled with the love of Jesus you [can be] happy.”
How did she get this mindset? It’s because Charlotte Brooks and others understood that trials make us God-dependent — and I marvel at the depth of her faith! Christ’s suffering for humanity’s sin was the key that unlocked her heart and enlightened her eyes. Christ shared with her the experience of unjust suffering, but even more importantly, Christ gave her forgiveness and the hope of being with him forever.
Think about the power of that subtle mindset and heart shift. Instead of focusing on their own suffering as being ultimate, they went deeper and saw how Christ suffered immensely to save sinners. And they went there. They went beyond the narrative of an evil master, to their own personal victory of eternal life and inner freedom from sin through faith in Christ.
The Exhortation
So, the exhortation today is to consider our hearts and attitude when we face hardship or trials or challenges in our daily life. Not just on Sunday. How are we doing with having Jesus in our hearts on Monday when we go to work? Where do we go with our sufferings when we feel like we can’t go on anymore?
I exhort us, as a church, to learn from our past brothers and sisters, and to turn to Jesus in all moments of our trials.