Words of comfort come easy to most of us – at least, as the saying goes, until we suffer a toothache ourselves or stub our own toes. But one wellspring of comfort never runs dry – namely, the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Through the ages, Christians have sought comfort amid suffering by remembering the truths we celebrate on Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. Since Jesus lived and died for them, these Christians saw themselves in His story of suffering. In turn, for the same reason, they felt His presence in their own tribulations, and more comfort flows from His presence than from an ocean of words.
Following are snapshots from only a few of their stories:
‘They took His clothes too’
Sent to a concentration camp in the 1940s for rescuing Jews in Holland, sisters Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom were forced to walk naked in front of gawking Nazi guards.
“Betsie, they took His clothes too,” Corrie whispered to her sister, remembering that Christ hung naked on the cross, that He knew such shame.
“Oh, Corrie,” Betsie gasped. “And I never thanked Him….”
‘Jesus was born in a place like this’
Fleeing for her life in 1900 during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, 7-year-old Jessie Saunders took shelter with her missionary parents in a rundown barn. The young girl, famished and feverish, looked to her mother and said, “Jesus was born in a place like this.” Days later, Jessie and her baby sister, Isabel, died.
‘His death … a remedy to our wounds’
In 1563, the bubonic plague swept through London, killing 24 percent of the city’s population. John Foxe – best known for his “Book of Martyrs,” published the same year – wrote to the survivors, “Casting up your mind and beholding the death of Christ, learn thereby to die and not to fear death.”
“If His death be a remedy to our wounds and victory against our death (as indeed it is),” he added, “then enjoy you your victory, giving thanks to Christ.”
‘Follow the steps of your Master Christ’
In 1553, evangelical teenager Jane Grey was placed on the throne of England, only to be abandoned by her friends and family when Roman Catholic Mary Tudor – the eldest daughter of the late King Henry VIII – marched into London to the applause of the masses.
Facing execution for treason, Jane wrote to her sister, “Follow the steps of your Master Christ, and take up your cross: Lay your sins on His back and always embrace Him. And, as touching my death, rejoice …. For I am assured that I shall for losing of a mortal life, win an immortal life.”
‘A better resurrection’
In the early 1530s, English Bible translator William Tyndale penned a letter to his young friend, John Frith, who faced the death sentence for his faith.
In a panoply of Scripture quotation, Tyndale encouraged his friend, “If when we be buffeted for well-doing, we suffer patiently and endure, that is acceptable to God; for to that end we are called. For Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps … Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him….”
“Dearly beloved,” Tyndale added, “ … comfort your soul with the hope of this high reward, and bear the image of Christ in your mortal body, that it may at his coming be made like to his immortal; and follow the example of all your other dear brethren, which chose to suffer in hope of a better resurrection.”
‘And so we will always be with the Lord’
For all of these Christians – and many more – Christ’s life, death and resurrection offered true and lasting comfort. And, like Tyndale, they recognized that Christ’s resurrection offers hope of “a better resurrection” to come. As the apostle Paul once wrote to a grieving congregation (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17):
“The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”