“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew xvi. 24, ESV)
“You’ll never have me for a disciple.” Richard said aloud. “I want money, travel, pleasure. I have suffered enough. Yours is the way of the cross and even if it is the way of truth as well, I won’t follow it.”
Opposing Roads
At twenty -five, Richard Wurmbrand had already gained significant wealth and influence. He knew the allurements of the world and recognized they were counterfeits — incapable of satisfying. Still, he was determined to take full advantage of the pleasures they offered.
He was not a Christian, but Richard saw what many Christians miss — he could not walk two roads at once. He had to choose one or the other, for the road of the world and the road to heaven do not run parallel.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew vii. 13-14, NJKV)
He had no intention of leaving the ease of the broad way. The road called “difficult” would be just that. Still, he couldn’t seem to ignore the beckoning to live for a purpose greater than himself. All his life, he had felt an unquenchable emptiness. Emptiness God alone could fill.
Called
The answer to Richard’s prayer came like a plea: “Come My way! Do not fear the cross! You will find that it is the greatest of joys.”
On the day he became a Christian, Richard, the man who had told the Lord he would never walk “the way of the cross” knelt to make a very different request: “God, I was an atheist. Now let me go to Russia to work as a missionary among atheists, and I shall not complain if afterwards I have to spend all the rest of my life in prison.”
Instead of taking him to Russia, God brought the Russians to him. For at the close of World War II, the Russians took Romania as part of their spoils. Now an ordained, Lutheran minister, Richard recognized this as God’s answer to his prayer. He took every opportunity to share the gospel with the Russian soldiers who had invaded his country.
The Cost
As he witnessed, Richard began to prepare himself to face the suffering he knew would follow. The man who had dreaded the cross, now impatiently awaited its coming: “My life as a pastor, until this time, had been full of satisfaction. I had all I needed for my family. I had the trust of my parishioners. But I was not at peace. Why was I allowed to live as usual, while a cruel dictatorship was destroying everything dear to me and while others were suffering for their faith? On many nights, Sabina and I prayed together, asking God to let us bear a cross.”
As He had before, God gave Richard what he audaciously asked for. In 1945, four thousand clergymen, of varying denominations, were called together by the communist government. The meeting was called the “Congress of Cults”.
The meeting commenced with the Romanian Prime Minister making lavish promises to those who were willing to cooperate with the government. Richard Wurmbrand watched in dismay as one minister after another welcomed the sacrilegious proposal.
Sabina, Richard’s wife, had also heard enough. She leaned close to him. “Go and wash this shame from the face of Christ!” She said.
He did not look surprised by the charge. “If I do, you’ll lose your husband.”
“I don’t need a coward. Go and do it!”
He nodded. Then he rose and asked for permission to speak. “It is our duty as priests to glorify God and Christ, not transitory earthly powers! To support His everlasting kingdom of love against the vanities of the day…”
So began Richard Wurmband’s speech and fourteen years in prison. Where he faced torture in both mental and physical forms. To this was added the struggles of prolonged isolation, tuberculosis, freezing temperatures, and starvation.
Two years into Richard’s imprisonment, his wife, Sabina, was also arrested. She faced the harsh conditions of a labour camp. Leaving their only son, who was not yet ten, without both of his parents. In all these trials, the Wurmbrands praised God.
How?
How did Richard Wurmbrand go from a man who refused to be Jesus’s disciple, to a pastor who not only faced trials but prayed for them? How did Sabina Wurmbrand find the courage to have her husband stand for God when she knew what the cost would be? How did the Wurbrands maintain their faith and joy in the face of such extreme hardships?
They chose to believe what God had told Richard, “Do not fear the cross! You will find that it is the greatest of joys.”
What God had told all Christians, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”(James i.2 -4, NKJV)
They’d prayed for suffering and they’d prepared for it: “I had prepared myself for prison and torture as a soldier in peacetime prepares for the hardships of war. I had studied the lives of Christians who had faced similar pains and temptations to surrender and thought how I might adapt their experiences. Many who had not so prepared themselves were crushed by suffering, or deluded into saying what they should not.”
Those Who Suffer
All Christians, not just Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, are meant to carry crosses. In Matthew xvi. Jesus did not say, “some of my disciples will carry a cross.” He said, “unless you take up your cross, you can not be my disciple.”
The world perceives suffering as a bad thing. But God views suffering in an altogether different light. He tells us suffering is a tool He uses to build us, a commodity of the greatest value:
“…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans v. 3-5, ESV)
Let’s agree with God! Let’s allow Him to change our perception of difficulty just as He did Richard’s.
Let’s pray for suffering as the Wurmbrands did. Let’s prepare for it. Let’s rejoice in it.
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. ” (1 Peter iv. 12-13, NKJV)
In Christ
Quiana
*Quote and excerpts were taken from Richard Wurmbrand’s book, In God’s Underground )
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