Pilgrims are those who travel or wander in a foreign land. Some pilgrims travel to a specific place in search of enlightenment. Others embark on a lifelong journey pursuing a place they cannot see but they hope for in faith.
As followers of Jesus, we live a life with the hope and confidence of a better world that is to come. The author of Hebrews spoke of individuals in the Old Testament who “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” because they died in faith, longing for a country of their own (Hebrews 11:13-16 NKJV). Like them, modern believers in Jesus Christ look forward to the fulfillment of the promise from Jesus of a home in eternity with Him. In John 14:3 CSB Jesus said, “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.” Words such as these from the lips of Jesus form the hope of a future beyond this life that is absent the pain, suffering, injustice, and death of this world.
Comfort for the Brokenhearted
Many who come to Christ are lost, hurting, and rejected in this life. Jesus spent a lot of time with people the religious leaders of His day considered to be “sinners” (Matthew 9:11). Anyone who comes to Christ must recognize their spiritual bankruptcy as Jesus said in Matthew 5:3. When we read the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life, most of those to whom He ministered were in a place of pain, desperation, or were rejected by polite society.
There are many in our culture who are so comfortable physically, they cannot see their own spiritual bankruptcy. That is a disadvantage of our affluent culture. The leaders in Jesus’ day were also blind to their spiritual need. They were the holy ones of Israel. They were the teachers and the guides. Yet, they could not see that the answer to all their questions was standing in front of them in the Person of Jesus, the Messiah.
Paul spoke to this when he wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27 CSB, “Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” God has chosen to call to Himself those of us who recognize our spiritual need.
There is a void in every human heart that is made for God to dwell in. We can seek to fill it with external comforts, or distract ourselves with busy-ness, or attempt to numb our sense of need with alcohol, drugs, or other worldly pursuits, but the reality of the void persists. Only relationship with our Creator can fully satisfy the longing in the human heart. To fill that void, we need to be honest with ourselves about our spiritual needs and be willing to open ourselves to God, through faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit draws unbelievers to faith in Jesus and believers to a closer walk with Him.
God promises comfort for our spiritual poverty. When we place our faith in Jesus, we become accepted in Christ as God’s children. We, who were once outcasts, are now accepted. We who were once broken, are made whole. We who were once sick, are made well. The guilt and pain of our sin is removed, and we have God’s peace in its place.
Jesus said that those who are forgiven much, love much (Luke 4:47). Many times those who become the most fervent in their faith are those who most strongly oppose the message before their conversion. The apostle Paul is a fitting example. He was a persecutor of the Church, but when the risen Jesus confronted him (Acts 9:1-9), it turned his life in an opposite direction. He not only eventually evangelized much of the Roman world, but he also wrote about half of the New Testament.
There is not only comfort for those who are lost and hurting who come to Christ, but there is also comfort for those who are in Christ who experience the harshness of life. Let’s be real, following Jesus at times can be difficult. We can find ourselves in circumstances we did not ask for, nor did we cause. There is a reason Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV) that “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Peter knew believers were suffering through many diverse types of trials. As believers in Jesus, our outlook is to rejoice because our suffering through trials is building our faith and storing up good things for us for when our Savior returns. We are called to persevere through these trials. Recall Jesus, who endured every kind of temptation we face, yet He did so without sin. His purpose was to redeem us. God has given us purpose as well.
From Comfort to Calling
God’s love brings us wholeness by the work of His Spirit within us. His love also gives us purpose and mission in life. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10 that, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do,” CSB. God has something for each believer to do with their life. Let me be clear about this, the fact that God has work for you and me to do for His kingdom does not mean that we are called to what we call full time ministry. God will work through us in our daily lives whether we are accountants, ditch diggers, homemakers, politicians, welders, or airline pilots. While God does call some to professional ministry, God uses most of us to influence people for His kingdom as we live our daily lives in our spheres of influence.
When Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 to go into all the world and make disciples, He never said to make full time ministers. He said to make disciples, just like Jesus had made disciples of these eleven men. Rather than being called to professional ministry, most of us are called to be disciples right where we are. Paul said that when we come to Christ, we should continue doing the work we were doing when we came to faith (1 Corinthians 7:20). Our task then is to learn to follow Christ where we are so that the Kingdom of God can permeate the world from within.
God has called us from our rejection, pain, suffering, heartache, and disillusionment into a family where we are accepted and loved. But being loved and accepted is not the end of our story. Jesus said that freely we have received, therefore we should freely give, Matthew 10:8b. God is continually seeking those who are lost. Many of those who recognize they are lost come to Him. While God’s grace is available to anyone who is willing to accept it, human pride too frequently does not allow people to acknowledge God’s rightful place as Creator. They fail to recognize what His holiness means with respect to our acceptance in His presence. None of us can stand before Him in our own righteousness. We need the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. Jesus is the only human being who lived a life of complete righteousness. Through faith in Him, we too have a righteousness that is not earned but given as a gift because of our faith in Jesus.
Ambassadors of Reconciliation
We are urged to be reconciled to God, to find peace with God. In so doing, we are accepted in God’s family. As family, we have a mission of sharing with others the message of reconciliation that saved us. We can do that wherever we are in life.
Paul instructed the Corinthian believers in this idea when he said, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.
We come to Jesus to be free of the guilt of sin and the pain of being separated from our Creator. Once we are reconciled, we find acceptance and community with other believers. God gives us a mission of working to reconcile others to God. From finding comfort for our pain to receiving a calling to bring others into the peace of Jesus. This is the Pilgrim’s life. This is the life of a biblical Stranger.
This post is adapted from themes I dive into in my book, The Stranger’s Conflict. If you want to go deeper into what it means to persevere as a stranger in today’s world, grab your copy today.