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There are a lot of Christians who have faced great hardships in their lives.
There’s Perpetua, a young woman towards the end of 1st Century who was killed by wild beasts and gladiators for sport because she would not recant her Faith.
There’s Julian of Norwich who almost died from illness in the Middle Ages, witnessing visions of Christ that gave her hope in her troubles.
There’s Francis and Clare of Assisi who each gave up their wealth in order to help others know Jesus better through their poverty and service.
There’s Martin Luther, who faced persecution for trying to bring the church back to the roots and core of our Faith in Jesus.
There’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer who held to his Faith, even with the rise of Fascism in his native country of Germany during WWII. He was imprisoned for working against the Nazi Regime, and he was killed, for spite, just as the prison camps were being freed at the end of the war.
There’s Brother Roger who founded the ecumenical community of Taizé in France during WWII as well. He left his native Switzerland to do so and to find a place to be with Jesus even in the midst of hardship. He helped many refuges during the war and continued to foster Taizé as a place for young people throughout the world to come to know Jesus all the better in their lives.
There’s Martin Luther King, Jr. who, like many of his ministerial colleagues, held on to the love of Jesus when others looked down on them for their race in the Civil Rights Movement. King was dedicated to living out the tenants of love that Jesus taught him, even when they were unpopular and even when violence was enacted on him and others.
There are so many heroes of our Faith, more than I could mention in this space. Many of them have had to face hardships ranging from war to the more personal problem of illness. The same may be true for yourself or others that you know.
What got these heroes through their times of trouble is what we see in our readings today. What got them through was knowing there was only one person who could help them: Christ Jesus.
We see this today as we reach the end of our month’s long journey through John. We’ve seen Jesus speaking to those who were at the feeding of the 5000. We’ve seen Jesus trying to impart true wisdom to them that goes beyond just filling their bellies. We’ve seen already that Jesus’ listeners weren’t ready to hear Him.
Now we see that the difficulties of what Jesus is saying become so much that even His Disciples are leaving. Jesus saying that He is the bread that gives life, that’s not a thing that people around Him want to hear. Now His Disciples don’t want to be seen with Jesus anymore because the world no longer seems to accept Him.
Then Jesus turns to the 12 and asks if they wish to go too. Peter answers Him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Jesus is what we need when we face hard times, even when the whole world is against us. This is why Ephesians tells us to armor up. This armor is not the armor of war. We are to wrap ourselves with Truth and make our feet ready to proclaim the Gospel of Peace. Even when Ephesians does speak of weapons, it is the Sword of the Spirit, which is the very Word of God, Jesus Himself.
This armor is meant to get us through any trouble we face. It is meant to protect us. It is meant to remind us that Jesus is always there.
Solomon does the same by building the Temple. He realizes the truth God spoke to his father David, which we heard just a little over a month ago, that God needs no house to dwell in. The infinite vastness of the Lord, as Solomon declares, cannot be contained in a house. It cannot be contained anywhere.
Yet the Temple needs to be built to remind Israel that God is with them. It is meant as a reminder to the rest of the world too.
So many Christians throughout time have faced hardships. They only made it through because they knew that God was with them. They only made it through because of that simple answer to just about every question you will ever be asked in Sunday School: Jesus. Our Lord was present with them even when all others were against them, even when the world hated them for Jesus’ sake.
We only celebrate the greatness of those who came before us not because of themselves. We celebrate them because they would tell us to celebrate someone else. We celebrate them because we’re not really celebrating them, we’re celebrating the one they would tell us to hold on to: Jesus.
Jesus is the one we really celebrate when we remember any Christians’ life. Jesus is all we have. Jesus is all we need.
We all face hardships in life. My hope is that when you face them, you realize that Jesus is with you because if you have Him at your back, you will have hope that you can make it through.