The Pilgrim’s Way
Photo from Scott’s college yearbook. Scott on left.
written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. ”
In college, I had the lead in a play created from John Bunyan’s Christian allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress. The morality play challenged my faith for the rest of my life. Bunyan’s work was published in 1678. Bunyan began the work while in a British prison for the horrific crime of “holding religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England.” The imprisoned Bunyan could relate to the main character, “Christian,” who carries life’s heavy burdens upon his back.
Christian is an “everyman character” who carries his burden from the City of Destruction, Christian’s hometown, to the “Celestial City,” which we recognize as heaven. Christian’s burden is his sin, which could become so heavy that it would cause him to sink into hell. The burden, and its increasing weight, becomes unbearable at times. Christian realizes the necessity of seeking deliverance.
Christian faces numerous struggles and temptations on his way from Destruction to the Celestial City. Christian’s journey is filled with missteps, but when he trusts in God’s glorious salvation, the burden becomes lighter and gives him the means to complete his arduous journey. Finally, Christian crosses over the River of Death to the desired Celestial City. Christian’s lifelong progress shows the reader that life is not without its challenges and painful struggles. Bunyan believes each painful moment is a test, and our response lightens or weighs down our burden. Yet, if we persevere, trusting in God along the pilgrim’s way, we shall cross our river of death, to God’s celestial city, and our heavenly abode.
What moved me was the recognition that our harshest moments are not by happenstance, but are part of God’s design. God doesn’t design injustice and earthly pain, but instead takes human suffering and uses it as a tool for developing trust and guiding each of us on a path of deliverance. We may not carry a huge pack with all our sinful burdens on our backs, but each of us knows the weight of our burdens. Even amid the struggle, we are called to recognize and celebrate that God has created a path for our pilgrimage to God’s Celestial City, where God waits with outstretched arms, to take off our burdened pack and wrap us in God’s divine arms forevermore.
