Sharing in Christ 2. Suffering Isa 52:13-53:12; Ps 22:1-22; 1 Pet 2:18-25; Matt 27:45-54 St Marks 10.6.18
Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uIJLRw7dGw
Last week I spoke on how Jesus was as human as each of us; with the great exception that he never sinned (Heb 4:15). The weak and limited humanity of God the Son is offensive to ordinary human reason, but there is something more offensive than this. That God could suffer and die a miserable death has been a scandal to philosophers and adherents of other faiths to this day e.g. Judaism, Islam (Acts 17:32; 1 Cor 1:22-25). Even in the Church theologians have tried to limit the sufferings of Christ to his humanity alone, but Luther was prophetically correct to boldly declare Jesus as the “crucified God”. Whilst revolutionary in his own time this perspective has become popular in many Western churches; however you would have to search hard in our city for a congregation that lives as if suffering has become and essential part of the Lord’s own sense of identity. I’m not being theoretical in saying this, for if we accepted what suffering meant for Jesus we would already be freely be living out “the cost of discipleship”. Which by and large we’re not.
The Test of Suffering
Paradoxically, affluence tends to breed the protest that the pain of the world is incompatible with the existence of a loving God, whilst poverty tends to be a breed religion. “Buddha delivers us from our suffering.” said our tourist guide in Myanmar. The Bible understands the profoundness of suffering in terms of how it tests the heart. As a righteous man afflicted with great pain Job found these tensions unbearable; “What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, For you examine us every morning and test us every moment.” (Job 7:17-18). In a pain-multiplying crisis; illness, relationship breakdown, financial stress etc. people become less apathetic and more likely to turn to God or away from him.
The New Testament never approaches these issues philosophically but in a Christ-centred way. Paul says at the start of 2 Corinthians, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 …comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Cor 1:3-5). Paul is comforted by God as he trusts in the Father who raised Jesus from the dead (vv.9-10); for it was by resurrection that the Father of all mercies comforted Jesus after the ordeal of crucifixion and death. In Christ we never have to suffer isolated and alone. We never need be deceived into thinking that there’s something about our sufferings as weak sinful people God in Jesus can’t understand.
What Sort of Suffering
The suffering of Jesus is much more extensive than we generally realise. Physically he was nearly starving after 40 days in the wilderness and cried out in thirst on the cross (John 19:28), he knew weariness (John 4:6) and the compassion constantly drawn out of him by ever present human suffering was tremendously draining (Matt 9:36; 14:14 etc; John 11:35). He lamented with anguish over the refusal of Jerusalem to turn to God knowing that as a consequence men, women and children would be destroyed by war (Matt 23:37-38).
But his physical and emotional suffering was exceeded by his relational suffering. John tells us, “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.” (John 1:11). The people of Nazareth who tried to kill Jesus after his first sermon were men and women he knew by name, folk we might call “uncle” and “auntie”, and old playmates were among them (Luke 4:22-30). Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters were with the crowd but didn’t do anything to save him (Mark 6:3). For John tells us, “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). Mark recounts a situation where the whole family tried “to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”” (Mark 3:21). In our terms they wanted to involuntarily commit him to Graylands Psychiatric Hospital. These are dreadful things but nothing that Jesus couldn’t cope with, for as he said on the eve of the cross, “you…will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” (John 16:32). Loved by the Father Jesus could bear any pain; but to say sinners his death could not be that easy. Calvin was correct in interpreting the phrase in the creed, “he descended into hell”, of Jesus’ experience of the cross.
The Test of the Cross
Christ was challenged to the limits of his sinlessness in the Garden of Gethsemane. He became sorrowful to the point of death (Mark 14:34-36) because his sense of the lostness of impenitent humanity under the judgment of God was near unbearable (Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15 etc.). Luke tells us he needed the help of an angel to strengthen him to make it to the cross (22:43). People sometimes ask, “Why did Jesus have to suffer so much to save us, wasn’t there a less painful way?” The answer is “No”, because the scripture teaches us that the Father could only bring his Son to perfection through limitless suffering (Heb 2:10; 5:9). With the most brilliant insight Luther said, “The cross puts everything to the test.” Despite all appearances, my life, your life, the quality of every human life is tested by the suffering crystallised and concentrated in the cross. The cross tests everything because the cross first tests Jesus.
Pain always provokes a “Why?” in the human heart. But there are two sorts of “Why”, one heads to hell the other to heaven. “Why me? Why is this happening to me? What have I done wrong to be suffering like this, God, why don’t you get me out of here?” This is the normal way we respond to God through suffering. This is NOT what Jesus is asking when he cries out in unbearable agony from the cross, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Matt 27:46). He is asking to be able to see the greatness of his Father’s healing and purposes for humanity; he is bearing our sorrows, griefs, wounds, sicknesses and sins to save us, but under our judgement such saving purposes are hidden from his heart (Isa 52:13-53:12; 2 Cor 5:21). The hiddenness of all the divine goodness brought anguish to God’s Son infinitely more painful than any ordinary suffering.
In merely human terms the cross looks like a man dying isolated and alone in physical, emotional, relational and spiritual darkness (Matt 27:45). But the cross is God’s mysterious revelation of his purposes for creation to fill all things with the tested character ofChrist crucified, the perfected image of God in man(Eph 1:10; Col 1:16). The wisdom of God is inexpressibly wonderful. If the judgement of an infinitely holy God came on us sinners we would be annihilated (Ps 130:3; Rev 6:16-17). Only God as a human could in limitless mercy bear away own judgements and in his Lordship forever take away the power of suffering and death as condemnations. This is what happened in the death and resurrection of the Son of God. The gospel proclaims the complete triumph of Jesus over all the powers of evil (Col 2:15) and the senseless suffering they inflict. Let me illustrate. In the middle of the nineteenth century a powerful revival broke out in Germany that saw healings, conversions, restored marriages and a release of evangelistic zeal. It was provoked by something a demon uncontrollably confessed as it came out of a possessed woman shrieking, “Jesus is Victor.”
Jesus is Victor, not despite his sufferings but through his sufferings. Do you remember the dull depressed disciples walking along the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion? Jesus came to them and explained; ““Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”” (Luke 24:26). Through Jesus’ obedient suffering the Father has glorified his humanity, a humanity that embraced all our struggles and triumphed over them by sheer faith in God. In God’s unsurpassable wisdom human suffering has in Christ become the means to our glorification/eternal life.
“My” Suffering
Let me use an example to illustrate a confusion that cripples many Christian’s lives. I was speaking with someone recently going through a lot of grief over the condition of an elderly mother. I could have (well, being me I couldn’t have) patted her on the head and told her “God loves you.” Instead I reminded her of what the scripture says prophetically of Jesus’ “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief….4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;” (Isa 53:3-4). Since Jesus bore our griefs on the cross and has been delivered from their power by the resurrection comfort of his Father, he can be powerfully present in all our struggles and sorrows to comfort and console. We all need to learn that our pains are not our personal property, they belong not to us but to Christ as Lord (1 Cor 6:20). In Christ the “Why” of suffering has been transformed into a place where the presence, power and purpose of God is to be expressed. Never isolate Jesus from your suffering never deny his love.
Even as glorified in heaven Jesus still identifies with the sufferings of his people (Acts 9:4) so we unite our sufferings with his. This is why Paul can say, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,” (Col 1:24). Nothing in this ageing groaning creation can separate from knowing God’s loving presence (Rom 8:20-23, 35-39) if, as Paul says, “we suffer with him (Christ) in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:17). People like us find this message very hard to handle, but here’s a comment from a persecuted Christian in the Middle East. ” through the path of suffering Christians will continue to embrace the Cross of Christ because we know that our salvation and resurrection is through the Cross, for Christ has given us victory over death and sin through His death…and… glorious Resurrection,” (Bishop Aphrem). Jesus didn’t suffer and die so we can escape suffering anddeath, rather he shared our suffering and death so we can share in his glorious victorious suffering and death.
Conclusion
Suffering isn’t the human problem, useless suffering is; suffering without the “Why?” of the cross answered by the glory of the resurrection. It’s the sort of suffering that I see in Christians who can’t escape depression, who become embittered or, as I have encountered very recently, try, or succeed, in committing suicide. Whilst the eternal purpose of suffering to make us Christlike is hidden from unbelievers (2 Cor 4:4) there need not be any useless suffering amongst the people of God. In an age where people cannot bear the thought of a lifestyle cramped by pain and multitudes are seeking to drown their sorrows by a host of addictive pleasures, alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, shopping, there are huge opportunities for suffering Christians i.e. all of us to put our trust in the victorious suffering humanity of Jesus so that the power of his Spirit can intensely and lost men and women might come to faith in him. Through the lens of the life of Christ I see sadness turning to excitement proclaiming, “Jesus is Victor!”