God’s Heart for Trauma Survivors,
Religion is often based on avoiding the pain and chaos in our world. The gospel of Luke presents a view of God wanting to walk with us through our pain and give it meaning.
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(Excerpt from Rum and Cola for the Survivor’s Soul)
The very first story in the book of Luke, found in Chapter 1:5-25, gives us our first peek at God loving people while they were struggling. In this story, Elizabeth and Zechariah faithfully served God and God was pleased with them, but they still dealt with an extremely hard struggle for most of their lives.
From an ancient perspective, this story was shocking. People in ancient times weren’t all that different from us today, except they perhaps had more to fear than us. They didn’t live in the modern age of science, so their religions were openly based on gods who they controlled through rituals, sacrifices, dances, prayers, and morals designed to please whichever god they needed favor from. Today, we use more intellectual language to try to cover up the same basic ways of seeking control. At the heart of it, most modern religion isn’t much different from the ancient ones; we all want a way to avoid suffering.
Ancient Jews (like modern Christians) were supposed to be different. They believed in only one God. They were to be his chosen people who would lead the world into a relationship with him. But deep down, their religious leaders still wanted a system they could control. Through hundreds of years, they developed elaborate systems of rules to follow so they would know if they were “in” or not.
By the time Jesus came onto the scene, there were so many rules in Judaism that it was virtually impossible for a working class person to follow them all. The religious leaders considered people in poverty, people with diseases, people with handicaps, and people who weren’t following the Law to be “out.” Many ancient Jewish religious leaders believed all struggles in life were the result of sin. So much so that they believed babies born with diseases or handicaps must have sinned in the womb! (CRAZY right?!) And as hard as it is for us to wrap our minds around how anyone could ever believe a baby actually did something wrong in the womb and deserved to suffer in this life for it, that’s the kind of messed up thinking that seeking control through religion leads to.
As Luke begins his book, written to convince people to follow Jesus, he starts with a very unlikely story. A story that stands in contrast to what most of us are seeking in religion. But if you are a survivor, it is what your heart has been longing for, not a story of control, but a story of meaning in the chaos of life.
Zechariah and Elizabeth’s goes like this:
In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Luke 1:5-7 (NIV).
Think with me for a minute about how emotionally traumatic it is today for women to not be able to have children when they want to. In ancient times, it was even more devastating. Women were only valued because of their ability to have children. A woman who couldn’t have children was considered cursed by God. So much so, that even though divorce was supposed to be illegal for Jews, they made an exception for women who couldn’t have children.
This is the religious culture that Zechariah and Elizabeth survived in. Even though Zechariah and Elizabeth followed God and were accepted by him, religious people around them did not see them that way. Zechariah and Elizabeth lived with being viewed as a flawed, cursed couple, rejected by God most of their adult lives. Elizabeth describes her situation as “disgraced among the people” vs. 25 (NIV).
Luke tells us that they were very old. They had given up. They had no hope of ever having a child. Yet, they remained faithful. They still followed God and tried to keep all that they knew of his rules for how to live. They were accepted by God. So, even though they had this beautiful, empowering relationship with him, for most of their adult lives they lived in disgrace and didn’t get the one thing that all ancient people wanted: a child.
Hold up! Think about this! This story doesn’t fit the formula. They did everything right. They were supposed to be rewarded. Luke goes on to tell us the rest of the story.
Zechariah was chosen by chance to go into one of the most holy parts of the temple and burn incense. It was a special honor. While Zechariah was there, an angel came to him and said that God had heard his prayers and he and Elizabeth would have a son. Zechariah did not believe the angel because he and Elizabeth were so old. The child that was being born to Zechariah and Elizabeth was John the Baptist. He was the prophet sent to prepare Israel for Jesus, their Messiah, the one that the Jewish people had been hoping to see for hundreds of years.
Being the parents of a prophet was a huge honor for Zechariah and Elizabeth and people often believe that this is the point of the story. They see it as Zechariah and Elizabeth followed God faithfully all of their lives and at the end they got a super-sized reward by being the parents of a prophet. People who still want to cling to the old formula of “doing good stuff = controlling God” see this story fitting that formula because Zechariah and Elizabeth were the parents of a superhero of the faith.
But catch this, y’all!
The beauty of the story is that Zechariah wasn’t expecting things to work out that way. We see this when the angel spoke to Zechariah and told him that he would have a child. Zechariah did not believe it was possible. It is super important to realize that Zechariah was not expecting God to give him a child. He didn’t jump at the angel’s message and go, “I knew it. I knew God was going to come through for me.” No. He basically argued with the angel and explained to the angel how it was impossible for him to have a child. He wasn’t remaining faithful because he expected a reward. He knew his relationship with God was reward enough.
How freaking awesome is that?
Zechariah and Elizabeth were both faithfully following God without expecting to be physically blessed in this life. Following God was their reward. They had a relationship with the Creator of the Universe! They were choosing to follow his path, and this decision gave meaning and purpose to their lives. Because they understood this, they were the kind of people God chose to be the parents of a great prophet. They were the kind of people who get to be in on the great work God wants to do in this world. They were survivors who understood that no matter what happens in this life, choosing to follow God gives meaning to our struggles.
Some of the most amazing survivors I know are AH-MAZING examples of what it looks like to follow Jesus. They inspire me every time I think of them. And you know what? Their lives are still hard. They still struggle with stuff. They still fall and have doubts. But their lights shine the brightest of all because they are surrounded by darkness. They listen to the voice who tells them how treasured they are and they drown out the other voices a little more every day!