I Want Patience, and I Want It Now!

Matthew 11:2-11 and James 5:7-10

I was given the advice once by a fellow pastor, “Never pray and ask God to teach you patience; he might give you children.” I guess it’s too late for that.

What is patience? The Greek word for it in the New Testament basically meant “slow to anger.” It means that you are willing to bear up under hardship, suffering, injustices inflicted against you without losing your self-control.

Patience is listed in the Fruits of the Spirit passage in Galatians, and most of the letters of the New Testament implore God’s people to have patience. It may not get the press that “love” gets, but it certainly seems to be an important Christian virtue.

James tells us here three ways that we must be patient.

First, we must be patient as we await Christ’s return.

No doubt about it, we live in a troubled world. Evil and injustice abound in this world. We are given assurances by God that this world and its troubles will not go on forever. Eventually, this world and all its troubles will pass away to be replaced by the New Creation, free from all of them. It will happen. But it might take a lot longer than we would like it to!

I can’t begin to count the number of times that someone has said to me, in some form or another, that Jesus is coming back soon. They usually have some specific reason, drawn from the latest nonsense going on in this world. And there are always plenty of examples of nonsense.

Here’s the thing: I can’t say they’re wrong. For all I know, they are correct. It might be tomorrow. But here’s the other thing: Every single generation of Christians going all the way back to the writers of the New Testament has said the same thing. There have always been Christians who have seen something going on in the world and said, “This is it. Jesus is coming back!” So far, they have all been wrong. And there is no really compelling reason to think that people who say it in our generation are right.

I think there’s a certain level of comfort in thinking, “It will all be over soon. All my troubles will be gone.” But that just might be the exact opposite of patience. Instead of praying for God to remove all our struggles and trials, we should be praying for God to give us the strength and endurance to stand up under them! That’s patience. Patience is enduring suffering, not praying for escape from it.

Christ will return. But don’t stand around waiting for it to happen. We have work to do. The Church has a mission to accomplish in this world. We’re here to proclaim Jesus until he returns. Focus on the mission at hand, not looking for a reason to think it will be over soon.

Second, we are told to be patient with each other. “Don’t grumble about each other or God will judge you.” I’m pretty sure this isn’t any easier than patiently waiting for Christ’s return!

Why will God judge us if we are not patient with each other? Because he is patient with us. How many times have you shaken your head when you think about the things that someone else has done? Now, how many times do you think God has shaken his head when he thinks about you? Yeah. We have all received more grace than we could ever be asked to show to someone else, and that is the basis for the reason that we must be patient with each other.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to say, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Those things go hand in hand. Those lacking in mercy cannot expect to receive mercy.

In Ephesians 4, Paul instructs us to be patient with each other, making allowances for each other’s faults because of your love. Whether or not we are Christians, we are all still human. None of us is perfect, so we all have faults. We all grieve each other in our imperfection, and we need to make allowances for those faults.

Paul goes on in Ephesians, “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God, through Christ, forgave you.” Again, the foundation of our gracious behavior to each other is the grace we have received from God.

In Colossians 3, Paul writes, “Make allowances for each other’s faults. Forgive those who offend you. Remember, the Lord forgave you.”

Our patience with each other is always predicated on God’s patience with us. God is not asking us to do anything he has not already demonstrated to us. If we think that it is impossible for us to forgive someone of some offense, then we should remember Christ’s example to us. He died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, praying for forgiveness for those who harmed him. He is not asking us to walk a road that he did not walk first.

Finally, we are told to be patient in suffering, as the prophets demonstrated.

Matthew’s Gospel told us the story of a prophet who suffered. John the Baptist was imprisoned for his condemnation of the actions of Herod Antipas, who was the ruler of Galilee and Perea. Perea included the region east of the Jordan River, which may explain how John came to his attention. Herod Antipas had an affair with his brother’s wife, who also happened to be his niece. He then divorced his first wife and married his former sister-in-law. It was adultery and incest, and John criticized him for it. So he locked John up in a prison cell. It was an unjust imprisonment, of course. John spoke the truth. Herod Antipas was at least nominally Jewish, and as such, he should have kept the Old Testament Law.

It must have been hard for John to be in prison. He was used to living under the dome of the sky, and now he was confined to four walls and a roof. Doubts crept in. He had preached of a Messiah who would bring a sudden judgment. Now he was unjustly imprisoned. Where was the judgment he was expecting?

He wasn’t wrong. He just didn’t know the timing. Christ brings sudden judgment in his second coming, not his first. But when you’re suffering, it can be hard to wait. Doubts become more prominent in our times of suffering.

He sends word to Jesus by his disciples. “Are you really the One?” Jesus sends word back, “Look at the signs.” He was doing the very things the prophet Isaiah said the Messiah would do.

“God blesses those who are not offended by me.” God may not do what we would expect him to do. But he always does good. Jesus didn’t bring a sudden and terrible judgment at that time. But he was doing good. He was healing the blind, the lame, and the deaf. He was proclaiming good news to the poor. He was raising the dead.

Doubts are inevitable in the life of faith, and especially in our times of suffering, hurting, and difficulty. But John does the right thing. He goes to Jesus with his doubts. We should do likewise when we go through hard times and struggle with doubts. Patience is not easy. It’s not easy to be patient with each other. It’s not easy to be patient in hard times. But we should go to God. We should ask him for the strength, the endurance, the gracious spirit we need to be patient. He gives good gifts to those who ask.