From Anguish to Anguish
What would it mean to love another person so deeply that their separation from God became your own anguish?
Jonah prays from the darkness of the deep, desperate to be delivered from the belly of the fish. Paul makes an astonishingly different prayer: in his "great sorrow and unceasing anguish," he wishes that he himself could be cut off from Christ for the sake of his people. Between them stands Jesus, the One who actually bore the curse to save both His brothers and His enemies.
Moving from the depths of Jonah to Paul's anguished love for Israel, this sermon asks a deeply personal question: Is the love of Christ changing not only how we endure our own suffering, but how deeply we grieve for those who are far from God? It is a call to ask God for Christ's own heart… for our neighbors, for our enemies, and for the people right outside the doors of the Church.