Hold on

by, Isam Itson III

Matthew 27: 54 – When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”.

Hardly anyone wants well meaning people to suffer. Most of us want honest and responsible people to enjoy a good life. We educate our children hoping that they will lead good and productive lives. We teach them how to meet the needs of their family and society. 

Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, was often referred to as a good teacher or rabbi. He said that he came to show people the way of life in God’s kingdom. He performed great miracles and taught the huge crowds of common people about the presence and goodness of God in their lives. He wanted them to live lives of love in relationship to each other that honored the depth of God’s love for all people.

Jesus even called certain men who followed him and trained them specifically to teach others about how to live in God’s kingdom. He even taught them how to cultivate lives and habits of thought that allowed God to move in and through their lives more consistently and purposefully. 

And the people loved Jesus. Many believed in him and followed him. Many more came to him to receive healing, deliverance, and wisdom for their troubled lives. That’s what makes this particular part of Jesus’ story so powerful. The soldiers were not convinced that Jesus was the Son of God because of his great teaching.  The soldiers were convinced by the signs of God’s presence that accompanied the pain and shame of his death.

Maintaining our composure and good behavior through times of intense personal suffering reveals the integrity of our testimony to unbelievers. Once Jesus resolved to submit to the Father’s will in Gethsemane he did not defend himself or seek to lessen the severity of his pain. For the joy set before him, the fulfillment of the Father’s love for us, Jesus endured the cross and despised its shame (He 12:2). As a result, God moved. Jesus was still dead, but God revealed himself in the earthquake and the restoration of life to those who came out of their tombs at the death of Jesus. 

When we submit to the death of our desires and preferences in obedience to God, our faithful submission speaks volumes to those around us. We suffer, but God uses our composure to reveal himself to others. This does not mean we do not feel the pain. It means we don’t give in to the pain. We do not jump off of the cross trying to escape it. We endure it. We hold on until our flesh dies. We hold on to God until his revelation of himself to others is accomplished through our faithful, long suffering, endurance. Like Jesus, we cry out to God when we are alone with God, so that we can surrender to God under the onslaught of society. Dying to our desire for ease and comfort while trusting in God is the core of our testimony to others. 

The power to die to our personal desire for ease and comfort for the sake of the fulfillment of God’s purpose for our life in relationship to others, like Jesus died on the cross, is found in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:8 Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power to be his witnesses. Until the Holy Spirit came upon them. The word for witness comes from the Greek word that we translate as martyr. When followers of Jesus Christ die to themselves, God reveals himself to the world through their faithfulness in the face of their vulnerability, suffering, and grief.

In response 

Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and then stay faithful to God’s word. No matter the cost.