The Incomparable Sufferings of Christ
I love the season of Advent each year. I love the building excitement and expectation, the music and the feeling of goodwill that seems to appear among people. Advent is a most significant season of celebration for the Church. We have just finished the season of Lent, leading up to Easter. Easter is the other foundational season of our Church and faith.
I’ve often reflected on the differences between these two seasons as we celebrate them. The world encourages mass consumption of easter eggs displayed in every shop. But what about our church and, indeed, ourselves? How do we prepare for this pivotal event in the Christian calendar? We live in a society that likes to move quickly through pain, rushing back into happiness mode. ‘Real’ world disasters are glossed over while 'make-believe’ horrors are viewed regularly. Are we in danger of becoming de-sensitized to the actual suffering that is happening daily? Do we, in our desire to celebrate the resurrection, rush past the actual suffering of the crucifixion, not wanting to spend time in reflecting on the horror and agony of Christ?
The season of Lent is a special time to do just that, to “worship ... at the splendour of Christ’s sufferings” as John Piper describes it in his book Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ. Some may think because Jesus was the Son of God, he didn’t really suffer. Hebrews 4:15 tells us clearly that He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses because “he was tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin.” He was the only person in history who really did not deserve to suffer and yet he suffered the most. In the midst of cruelty and injustice, which would make us faint just to glimpse, Jesus did not revile or threaten vengeance to his tormentors.
“Sweat, wrung from him like drops of blood, poured off his face” (Luke 22:34). “Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him” (Matthew 26:67). He was flogged. (Matthew 27:26). A crown of thorns was pressed down on his head. “Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him” (Mark 15:19). In this condition he was unable to carry his own cross (Matthew 27:32). He was mocked. He was stripped. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross. The mockery continued until Jesus, in excruciating anguish and feeling totally abandoned, cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Imagine the anguish of that moment. Have you ever felt the pain and utter helplessness as a friend has shared a traumatic experience? One person’s pain can leave us emotionally exhausted. Several years ago I was sitting at the back of a room, listening to people going to a cross at the front of the room and naming, out loud, issues that they were struggling with in their lives. I began to feel overwhelmed by the painful emotions that were being expressed and, in that moment, God spoke, “You’re feeling overwhelmed by a roomful of people, imagine how my Son felt carrying the weight of the world’s pain on his shoulders.” I have never forgotten that moment and it leads me to give time each year reflecting on the Cross and the part that my sins played in nailing Christ there. Then I can understand a little more the amazing gift that I have been given.
John Piper says,
“Never before or since has there been such suffering because, in all its dreadful severity, it was a suffering by design. It was planned by God the Father and embraced by God the Son (Isaiah 53:10, Acts 2:23, John 19:28)... Not only was it suffering by design, but also by obedience. Jesus embraced the pain. He chose it ... And his obedience was sustained by faith in his Father (Phillipians 2:8, 1 Peter 2:23, Luke 23:46)... Why? He had set his face to die... He lived in order to die (John 12:27). Therefore, the suffering and weakness of Jesus were a work of his sovereign power (John 10:18). He freely chose to join the Father’s design for his own suffering and death.
And what was that design? To be a substitute for us, so that we might live (Mark 10:45) ... And the goal of it all? First, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18) ... Second, in the very hour of death the Father and Son were glorified (John 13:31). Our joy in savouring God and his glory in saving us are one. That is the glory of Christ’s incomparable sufferings.”
In this season, following Easter, do not forget the unspeakable suffering of Jesus. Don't let it pass you by as Easter finishes. Rather, spend some time in the Scriptures, seeing yourself as a bystander to all that happened. Other books have also helped my understanding (The Day Christ Died by Jim Bishop is an oldie but still available on Amazon). Why? Because it was for you that Jesus suffered and died. It was our sin that brought it to pass. But it was done so that we “might comprehend with all the saints the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of Christ” for us. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart (Ephesians 1:17,18) to know and experience the amazing truth — that we are loved with the deepest, strongest, purest love in the universe. And ask him to give you a greater understanding about the vastness of the sufferings of Christ and what they mean. The significance of that will bring our lives new purpose and spur us on to greater, selfless living.
I pray that following this Easter we will continue to spend time with Jesus on this journey and what it means for us. Then, when we remember the joy of the resurrection we will be able to recognise the absolute glory of what Christ has achieved through his incomparable sufferings.
