When Christmas Hurts: Finding Hope in Suffering
When we think of Christmas, images of joy, celebration, and wonder typically fill our minds. But what happens when suffering crashes into our holiday season?
During the Christmas season of 2023, my brother-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. What began as melanoma on his scalp had spread throughout his body, leaving him in pain, exhausted, and understandably frightened. It scared everyone in the family.
It was devastating to get this news, especially during the Christmas season.
The Reality of Pain During the Holidays
The truth is, suffering doesn't take a holiday break.
Satan doesn't clock out for Christmas.
Cancer doesn't pause its relentless march. Families still argue, loved ones pass away, marriages crumble, and people lose their jobs. Mental health struggles like anxiety and depression can feel even more overwhelming during a season when everyone else seems to be celebrating.
The contrast between the joy we're "supposed" to feel and the pain we're actually experiencing can make our suffering feel even more unbearable.
Jesus: A God Who Understands Suffering
This is where the Christmas story offers us something profound: hope in the midst of our pain. The narrative of Jesus's early life reveals that God didn't enter our world in a bubble of protection and comfort. From the very beginning, His story was marked by hardship and danger.
In Matthew's Gospel, we witness a striking contrast that illustrates this truth. Shortly after wise men traveled 900 miles to worship the young Jesus with expensive gifts, falling on their faces before Him in recognition of His divine nature, His family had to flee for their lives. King Herod, consumed by paranoia about any threat to his throne, launched a murderous campaign to eliminate this potential rival.
The same Jesus who deserved constant worship and adoration instead found Himself a refugee, His family running for safety in the dark of night.
Divine Purpose in the Midst of Pain
Matthew uses the word "fulfilled" throughout this account as he quotes Old Testament prophecies about The Messiah. This word reminds us that even in the darkest moments, God was working out His sovereign plan. Just as God had once called His people out of Egypt, now He was calling Jesus out of Egypt – a parallel that pointed to an even greater deliverance to come.
This divine pattern shows us that our suffering isn't random or purposeless. Even when we can't see it, God is weaving our pain into a larger tapestry of redemption.
The massacre of the innocent children in Bethlehem serves as a haunting reminder of the depths of human evil and the reality of suffering. Yet even in this horrific event, Matthew points to prophecy being fulfilled, showing how God's purposes advance even through humanity's worst actions. This doesn't minimize the pain or excuse the evil, but it assures us that God is able to work even through our deepest suffering to bring about His good purposes.
The Comfort of a Savior Who Suffered
Jesus's early experiences of rejection and danger weren't anomalies – they foreshadowed His entire earthly ministry. The prophets had foretold that He would be "despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain" (Isaiah 53:2-3). Even His hometown, Nazareth, carried a stigma that marked Him as an outsider. To be called a Nazarene wasn't a compliment; it was a term of derision, similar to being called a backwoodsman or hillbilly today.
This rejection followed Jesus throughout His life. Religious leaders conspired against Him, His own people rejected Him, His hometown tried to throw Him off a cliff, and even His own family thought He was out of His mind at one point. His journey culminated in the ultimate suffering of the cross, where He experienced not just physical torture but also the spiritual anguish of bearing the world's sin.
Finding Hope in the Christmas Story
For those of you experiencing pain during this season – whether it's illness, loss, loneliness, or any other form of suffering – know that you're not alone. The Christmas story reminds us that we worship a God who didn't observe our pain from a distance but entered into it fully. Jesus chose to step down from His heavenly comfort and experience every aspect of human suffering. He can truly empathize with our pain.
While suffering remains a reality in our broken world, Christmas (combined with Easter) points us to the ultimate hope: a day when all pain will cease, all tears will be wiped away, and we'll experience the fullness of life with our Savior. Until then, we can find comfort in knowing that Jesus not only understands our suffering but is present with us in it, working all things together for good, even when we can't see how.
The God who entered our world as a vulnerable baby, who fled as a refugee, who was despised and rejected, is the same God who sits with us in our hospital rooms, who comforts us in our grief, and who promises that our current suffering isn't the end of the story. He is Emmanuel – God with us – in our joy and in our pain, in our celebrations and in our sorrows.
As we navigate the complexities of suffering during the holiday season, may we find comfort in knowing that the Christmas story helps us find hope in the midst of our pain through a Savior who chose to suffer for us in order to bring us eternal life with Him.