Focus: Jesus’ suffering was unique.
Function: To encourage the people to affirm Jesus’ suffering with humility, awe, and…joy.
Lord’s Day 15
Suffering is our daily, constant companion in life. Every day we are confronted with the ugly face of suffering and death. This past week we saw pictures of Hamas men and women, weeping at the funerals of militants wiped out by Israel’s military. We saw pictures of Israeli men and women and children, weeping over the death of 8 seminary students who were senselessly shot by a revengeful Arab. Suffering is our daily companion in life.
Terrorists in Baghdad continue their homicidal bombings. Al Queada in Africa, Farct rebels in Columbia, the Basques in Spain, Hezbollah in Iran and Lebanon, Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, and the Taliban in Afghanistan--to name a few, continue to heap up suffering in our world.
Of course, I’ve not mentioned yet the millions of AIDS sufferers in our world, the countless innocent victims of Tsunami’s, earthquakes, mudslides, floods, and other natural disasters. And then, of course, there are these 2 billion people or so in our world, who are trying to get by on an income of two or three dollars a day. Poverty slays its millions every year. Surely, human suffering is our daily companion. Jesus, too, knows suffering.
Oh, I know, many of us are blessed to the point that we have not suffered directly from the things I just mentioned. But suffering takes on many forms. And one of them is “sympathy”—that is, we can suffer with or alongside those who are directly affected by adversity, terror and death. Real people who live in the real world cannot escape real, physical suffering. It’s always knocking on our doors.
Suffering takes on different forms. There are people who, from all appearances so it seems, have “got it made.” They are financially prosperous; they are physically in good health; yet, inwardly, they suffer deeply: for some it is because they have no children. For others it is because they mourn the loss of a loved one, so deeply and so much that they inwardly “wither away.” They live with a dark cloud over their soul. Suffering, then, is pervasive and wide in scope: it may destroy our body; and it may squeeze the joy in our souls. Jesus, too, knows suffering.
About 740 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold Jesus’ sufferings. Isaiah uses metaphors and images and cryptic, poetic symbols that obscures and reveals at the same time. Isaiah forecasts the coming of a Messiah, a Savior to the world. His forecast contains shadows that become clear when you look at them through the eyes of Jesus’ person and work. It is hindsight that clarifies Isaiah’s “shadows.”
Listen, for example, to these shadows of Jesus’ suffering: vs. 4 “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows….” Vs. 5 “…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.” Vs. 8b. “…for the transgressions of my people he was stricken.” Vs. 11b. “…he will bear their iniquities.” Vs. 12b. “For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah, then, holds before us the shadows of the “suffering servant.”
Isaiah is also keen to remind us today that the sufferings of this servant have meaning. Listen: the servant’s sufferings have the following purposes: vs. 5 “…the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Vs. 11b. “…by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.” Vs. 12 (God) “will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.” The shadows of the suffering servant, then, contain profound pain and divine purpose.
Looking through the lens of Jesus’ coming into the world, we now can say that those shadows turned into reality when Jesus, the eternal Son of God, took on our flesh or human nature. The womb of the virgin Mary signifies the beginning of Jesus’ sufferings; the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea signifies the climax and end of Jesus’ suffering.
Every human being—to a certain extent—knows suffering. It’s our constant companion. Jesus, too, knows suffering. In fact, Jesus knows suffering as no one else will ever know.
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Probing the suffering of Jesus is tricky and often falls short of biblical insight. Mel Gibson’s movie “The Passion of Christ” tends to fall into the category of “shallow,” or “insufficient.” If you have seen the movie, you’ll remember its heavy emphasis on the physical aspects of Jesus’ suffering: the whipping of Jesus in the courtyard of Pontius Pilate was horrendous. And the actual crucifixion was unmistaken torture. Many viewers of that movie left the theaters because they could not stomach the physicality of Jesus’ suffering and death.
There are four things, however, that Christians must affirm in light of Scripture:
Number One: Jesus’ suffering is unique—one of a kind. If there is a Hall of Fame for Martyrs, you should not place Jesus in that Hall of Fame. He does not belong there. If there is a historic Top Ten List of People who suffered the worst possible physical death imaginable, Jesus should not be on that Top Ten List. Jesus’ suffering is unique—one of a kind.
Here’s why: Jesus’ suffered in our place. All our sufferings--past, present, and future--flow onto the shoulders of Jesus Christ. All human suffering--caused by our sins, and intensified by God’s wrath on our sins—all suffering concentrates on Jesus. Why? Because Jesus took upon himself our sins. Though sinless, he, Jesus took our place. Hollywood does not reveal that truth in Mel Gibson’s movie. And most people, including many Christians, do not ponder that horrendous, yet good news truth either. Jesus’ suffering is one of a kind. He took our place—the place of the entire human race and world.
Number Two: The extent of Jesus’ suffering includes body and soul. That Jesus suffered physically, most people will recognize. That Jesus suffered in soul or spiritually, few will acknowledge. Yet, Jesus was constantly confronted with our sins and misery.
When people rejected Jesus’ claims and message, he agonized in spirit over their unbelief; to the point of weeping over Jerusalem while people were singing, “Hosanna to the King.” Jesus knew their fickleness however, and he could already hear Good Friday’s murmurs: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The scope of Jesus’ suffering includes body and soul.
Mockery
touched his spirit; betrayal by one of his 12 disciples struck the nerves of
his love. Sensing abandonment by his own heavenly Father, with whom he is
perfectly united in godhead—led to his anguished cry: Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani—My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”
Clearly, when you probe
Jesus’ suffering, you realize it’s not only unique; it’s also extensive: body
and soul.
Number Three: The depth of Jesus’ suffering is wide in scope. The suffering starts with Jesus’ conception in the womb of Mary and reaches to the tomb of Joseph. The cradle of Bethlehem and the grave in Jerusalem are the markers between which we must probe the depth of Jesus’ suffering. Thus, the Catechism tells us “That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end…” Jesus suffered. In a real sense, Jesus lived his entire life and ministry under the shadow of the cross. Suffering was Jesus’ constant companion.
Number Four: What makes Jesus’ suffering so unique is not only that Jesus took our place, but he also took upon himself the crushing weight of God’s wrath against our sins. Echoing the Bible, the Catechism says; “…Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race.” It was as Isaiah said it would be: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Bearing our sins and the sins of the whole world upon his shoulders, Jesus was crushed by the weight of God’s wrath against our sins.
This is why the cross plays such an important role in Jesus’ death—and in the preaching of the apostles. “Christ crucified” is who and what we preach! Why? Because the cross is a symbol of the curse of God on sin. We learn that truth in Deuteronomy 21:23 and in Galatians 3:10-13. Death by crucifixion was accursed by God.
Probing the depth of Jesus is scary, revealing, humbling, and horrendous in nature. His suffering is one of a kind; includes body and soul; extends from the cradle to the grave; and leads to the crushing weight of God’s anger against our sins upon Jesus’ shoulders.
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Yet, probing Jesus’ suffering is oh so necessary. For
when we survey Jesus’ suffering, we make an astonishing discovery: Jesus
suffered that we may enter life—eternal life. That’s why I invite and encourage
you to affirm Jesus’ suffering with humility, awe and joy.
Here’s why: Jesus is our sin bearer; he is the “Lamb of God, who takes away our sins.” Jesus is our “atoning sacrifice” says the apostle John in I John 2:1,2. And as such Jesus “sets us free, body and soul, from eternal condemnation.” Jesus “frees us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us;” “he shouldered the curse which lay on me, and you, and you.” In other words, Jesus’ pain is our gain.
The Catechism tells us in light of
Scripture that Jesus has gained for us “God’s grace, righteousness, and eternal
life.”
God’s grace leads us to embrace the Lord Jesus as our Mediator or only High Priest. We have someone who appeals to God on our behalf. Because of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, we now have access to God the Father. That’s grace.
God’s righteousness comes to us as we stand in the courtroom of God’s justice and here these words: “There is now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus….” Why no more condemnation? Because Jesus paid it all. The wages of sin—earned by us—are paid for by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross. That’s the wonder of God’s righteousness.
God’s eternal life flows unto us through faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ we receive our inheritance. We may enter and possess, already today, the gift of eternal life. That gift of eternal life we shall fully exercise on the restored creation, when Christ returns and makes all things new.
You see? Jesus’ pain is our gain: God’s grace, God’s righteousness, God’s eternal life—affirm and receive these gifts by faith today.
And do so in humility—always knowing our place. Jesus took our place that we may live. Thus we owe him endless gratitude and joyful service. Let there be humility.
Let there be awe. In this season of Lent ponder deeply Christ’s suffering; the deeper our pondering, the deeper our wonder; and the deeper our awe, the deeper our gratitude. Let there be awe.
And yes, let there be joy.
For the purpose of Jesus’ suffering leads to healing or salvation. Or as Isaiah
says: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his
wounds we are healed.”
In the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.