It’s Better to Suffer as a Christian

Suffering is a universal human experience and an unavoidable part of our world. As a pastor, I am constantly helping people process their suffering. Why is this happening? What have I done to deserve this? How could God let this happen to me? When will this end? What am I supposed to do in response? 

All fair questions. All questions I’ve answered for myself and others. Not that I have every answer to the problem of pain—far from it. But over the years, I’ve gained a few helpful insights from Scripture and from faithful saints who have persevered in the midst of overwhelming suffering. I’d like to share one of those insights here. 

It’s better to suffer while working in the Master’s vineyard than to suffer outside of it. 

In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus gives us the following parable. 

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 

And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 

So the last will be first, and the first last.” 

This parable gives Christians a beautiful perspective on what it means to suffer as a Christian. How often have you been in a conversation with believers when they start reminiscing about their “BC” (before Christ) life? Perhaps you’ve had this experience yourself, where you revel in the memory of former sins before you became a Christian—whether it be excessive drinking, sexual conquests, foolish risks, unkind pranks and dark humor, winning fights to defend your pride, or anything else you’ve given up for Christ. Sometimes it’s easy to slip into thinking, “I sure am glad I had fun while I could.” And how many people have you met who use the same reasoning to delay their commitment to Jesus? I’ve had plenty of friends who decide they have time to get right with God later; in the meantime, they’re going to have their fun with sinning. 

The parable of the workers in the vineyard gives us an opportunity to explore this line of thought. One might ask the question, “Is it better to be a worker who was hired at the eleventh hour than to be one who was hired first?” What do you think? Based on this parable, it seems the one who was hired first is far better off than the one who was hired last. Of course, it depends on what you value. If you only value the payment but despise the work, you’d probably prefer the former. However, the reality of the kingdom of heaven is that working in the Master’s vineyard comes with its own inherent reward. 

Yes, laboring in the vineyard involves bearing the burden of the day in the scorching heat, but the end result of that day’s labor isn’t just the denarius you earned, it’s also the fruit of the labor for the Master. The workers hired at the eleventh hour still had to bear the scorching heat of the day, but what did they have to show for it? Comparatively little fruit for their comparatively little labor. Most of their day was wasted, waiting to find work and purpose. In the end, when we stand before God in heaven, any illusion of joy or gain from work outside of God’s kingdom will vanish. 

Two things stand out to me. First, notice the immense grace of God. Our reward isn’t based off of our productivity, but on God’s own generosity. No matter how long or short we labor for Him, we can rest in the full reward of God’s promises. Whether you are like Timothy, who came from a family of believers and followed Jesus his whole life, or your are like the thief on the cross who only came to Christ in his dying breath, God invites you into his eternal comfort. 

Second, when we recognize the goodness of the Master, we have good reason to delight in bearing the burden of the day—even in scorching heat—because His kingdom is worth our full labor. It really is better to suffer as a Christian than to suffer apart from Christ. So our labor is not in vain, both because we’re promised full payment regardless of how productive we are and also because the fruit of our labor is valuable in and of itself. 

The more we come to believe this, the less and less we’ll be tempted to revel in our life before Christ. I am reminded of something C.S. Lewis wrote in The Great Divorce. His teacher George MacDonald shares with Lewis the retrospective nature of heaven and hell. 

…both good and evil, when they are full grown, become retrospective. Not only this valley but all this earthly past will have been Heaven to those who are saved. Not only the twilight in that town, but all their life on earth too, will then be seen by the damned to have been Hell. That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me but have this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say, ‘We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly. (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, 69)

May we all find joy in laboring in the Master’s vineyard for as long as we can. May we all lay up treasures in heaven. May we all grow our longing for the dawn of that last, eternal Day, and may we flee with all passion and fear from the sun setting on that last, eternal Night.