Suffering
He Gets Us. Jesus. • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 9 viewsNotes
Transcript
Prayer
Why, God?
At a recent gathering, a friend of mine was talking about his Dad, and his struggles as he became quite elderly. His wife had passed away, he was tired and hurting, and he kept asking the question, why doesn’t God just take me? I’m ready to go. He was suffering and it didn’t make any sense.
Our world - and our lives are filled with suffering…I was talking to my stepson, Evan, last night about the war in Ukraine, and in particular, the attacks on civilians...
Hundreds of Ukrainians hiding for weeks in makeshift shelter, the theater of the city of Mariupol. The word “Children” was painted in large letters in the parking lot in front of and behind the building - but that didn’t stop the Russians from bombing and destroying it, killing many of those hiding there, buried underneath rubble.
I read recently the story of a young girl, only 11 years old was raped…and then became pregnant as a result of that rape. A child carrying a child.
the list goes on and on…dear friend who develops of debilitating disease, our own aches and pains (particularly as we age), emotionally suffering because of abuse or broken relationships
Suffering is an incredibly personal experience and yet, at the exact same time, it is universally shared
Suffering is profoundly personal. Our stories, our experiences, are so unique to each of us. Try as we might, we can’t share in - or fully understand - the suffering of others.
And yet, the experience is universal. Everyone suffers. Everyone. We all have pains and difficulties. Everyone carries the scars and wounds of life in one way or another.
Here again, is another place that Jesus Gets Us. That Jesus understands the day-to-day difficulties we face in life.
Consider for a moment the Apostles’ Creed, which is the oldest, most widely used affirmation of the Christian faith.
It is remarkably brief - only 112 words. 112 words to capture the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith. The Bible is a pretty long book - actually, it’s a collection of books, 66 of them. Apostles’ Creed condenses those 66 books down to 112 words, that’s about two words for every book of the Bible.
Apostles’ Creed includes our core convictions: the Trinity, belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God as the creator of heaven and earth. The death and resurrection of Jesus as the means of our salvation - the promise of forgiveness, eternal life. All these essential tenets.
So it’s very telling that in this highly condensed list, one of the phrases that has been included speaks to the suffering Jesus endured: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate.
Think about that - there’s so many things that Jesus did that are not included. The Apostles’ Creed does not include anything about the healing miracles Jesus performed, nothing about his teaching or his proclamation of the good news, how he traveled about - none of that.
But it includes his suffering. That Jesus experienced pain and difficulty. Jesus hurt - he hurt a lot, tremendous pain. Earliest Christians considered Jesus’ suffering so essential that they made sure they included it in their list of essential teachings.
Over the course of this sermon series, He Gets Us, we’ve talked about emotional suffering that Jesus endured: being misjudged, feeling alone, financial struggles.
Of course, Jesus suffered not only emotional pain, but almost incomprehensible physical pain...
I was watching a movie this weekend, one I’d seen before and really enjoy - but the one part about the movie I don’t like it is that it includes some gruesome violence - even though they’re meant to be played for laughs (it’s a comedy), I still cringe at that type of physical harm.
I would have been doing a lot of cringing if I’d been watching what happened to Jesus...
When the Roman soldiers strapped him to a post, bared his back in order to inflict the scourging ordered by Pontius Pilate. 39 times they whipped him, taking the cat of nine tails, with its nine separate strands, to which were attached lead balls and pieces of bone, which had the effect of ripping open the skin. The lashes would be administered all the way down the back and down to the back of the legs. 39 times…one…two…three…four…again and again and again. He suffered under Pontius Pilate.
That was just the precursor. Pilate has hoped that would be enough to satiate the Jewish leaders. It wasn’t. So Jesus was condemned to death. Today the goal in capital punishment is to kill as humanely and quickly as possible. To limit the pain.
There were no such qualms in Jesus’ day - in fact, quite the opposite. The goal was to inflict pain and suffering and to make a show of it. Those crucified would be hung on their crosses along the road leading in and out of town so everyone could see. Those being crucified would hang there, naked and exposed, nails driven through the hands and feet. Each breath an exercise in pain because it required lifting the body to breath. And those been executed would hang for hours, if not days. There’s a reason our word - excruciating - as in excruciating pain - comes from the word, “crucifixion”. Jesus gets us in our suffering.
Here’s the critical question: Why was this so important, why was the suffering of Jesus included in Apostles’ Creed?
He Gets Us. Suffering
Not just God gets us, that he understands the difficulty of human experience, but the fact that Jesus suffered is a clear demonstration that God cares.
Our suffering matters to Jesus. He didn’t stay up in heaven, remote, distant, aloof…Ooh, that looks painful, so sorry you’re hurting down there.
No, when Jesus came to be with us, he came to be with us in fullness of human experience. We suffer. Jesus, being human as well, suffered with us.
Jesus could have come down to us purely in his divine nature, just appearing to be human, but not really human. Sort of a Superman status - looks human, but invulnerable (other than that whole Kryptonite thing). Nothing hurts him.
But that’s not how Jesus came, he entered fully into the human experience, including our suffering. He emptied himself of his divine power and glory in order that he might be human…finite…weak…limited…able to suffer. And he did suffer.
Tim Keller makes the point that we may not understand why God allows us to suffer. Why suffering is such a persistent part of the human experience. But Keller says that the one thing we cannot say is that God doesn’t care about our suffering. The fact that Jesus came as one of us and suffered with us is proof positive that God does care. He is with us. He is with us in our suffering.
But it goes far, far beyond that. It’s not only that Jesus suffered with us - which is amazing enough - it’s that he suffered for us.
Jesus willingly entered into suffering on our behalf - trusting that God would redeem the offering of his life. Use it for good.
I remember, when I was in middle school, the Catholic school I went to, we would go to participate in the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent. If you’re not familiar with the Stations of the Cross, it’s a Lenten service in which you walk through the journey of Jesus on the way to the cross. It’s a way to remember all that Jesus endured - his trial before Pilate, beatings he endured, carrying the cross on the way to Golgotha. Typically, if you visit a Catholic church, somewhere inside the sanctuary you’ll see signs or markers of some sort that feature the 14 stations of cross.
Distinct impression I had participating in the Stations of the Cross was a profound sense of the injustice of it all. It was so clear from the Gospels that Jesus was innocent - and yet here he was, being railroaded by religious leaders, as they worked to ensure that he would be put to death.
It was so unfair. I hated it. I so wanted it to turn out differently - there’s so many points in the story, if this one thing was different - if Pilate had listened to his wife, if he hadn’t knuckled under the pressure of the crowd, if the crowd has chosen Jesus instead of Barabbas, then Jesus would not have suffered terrible death on cross.
I saw the suffering of Jesus. But I missed the redemption. I missed that Jesus did this for us, for our sake, taking on our sins, dying to them. That there was great purpose to this suffering - this was God’s great rescue plan. Isaiah 53:4-9...
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
I love the way Tim Keller expresses it here: The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experience of cosmic abandonment…Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken...Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.
Jesus suffered physically, he suffered emotionally and he suffered spiritually - all for our sake. As Keller says, He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us. Wow! This is what he means to say that Jesus Gets Us. That he suffered not just with us, but for us.
Spiritual Disciplines - So, what does this mean for us? How do we put this into practice, and live in obedience to what Jesus is teaching us this morning?
Reflection on the Cross, Jesus’ suffering and death
James Bryan Smith (and others) suggest, in our times of quiet and reflection, to spend time reflecting on the sacrifice Jesus made for us and then offering ourselves to God in response.
Smith says he will spend a few minutes being still, a few minutes reflecting on Jesus’ suffering and death, and then pray, “As you have given yourself to me, so I will give myself to you, God.”
What an amazingly simply thing to do, and yet, so transformative - it roots us in Gospel, in Jesus’ great love for us, his willing sacrifice. This is what changes hearts, this humbles us and gives us a willingness to respond in love and obedience to God.
Let me suggest another soul-training exercise and this one is a way to help us deal with our suffering while we’re in the midst of it - and it’s to hold this truth that Jesus Gets Us in our suffering.
Bring your suffering before God, holding it before him. Jesus knows. Jesus gets us. He suffered with us. Know that you’re not alone in your suffering. Remember, he cares. And not only does he care, he will comfort you: 2 Corinthians 1:3-5...
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
Bring your pain and suffering to him, with an openness, trust that he is with you and will comfort you (and then you’ll be able to offer the same to others - be a loving presence and a comfort to them).
As you bring your pain and suffering to God, trust that God is in the business of redeeming suffering. Of bringing good out of evil. This is not to say that God will fix the problem, undo the harm or the loss - those are all real and we should mourn and grieve our losses.
It is to say that we trust in God’s goodness, his power over evil, that God can and will bring good in the midst of evil.
A couple of months ago we shared the story of Jerry Sittser, who lost his wife, his mother and a child all in the same car accident. He spent a tremendous amount of time grieving and suffering - bringing that to Jesus, holding it before him. And his great discovery was that God used to suffering to enlarge his soul. Even today, as he carries that grief with him, he has a greater capacity for compassion and love.
Tim Keller tells story of a man who was part of his church who had lost most of his eyesight due to a drug deal gone bad. Can’t imagine how devastating that would have been - but the whole experience transformed his life. The man told Keller: “As my physical eyes were closed, my spiritual eyes were opened, as it were. I finally saw how I’d been treating people. I changed, and now for the first time in my life I have friends, real friends. It was a terrible price to pay, and yet I must say it was worth it. I finally have what makes life worthwhile.”
Finally, I mentioned at the beginning the story of young girl who was raped at the age of 11. That child, now pregnant, chose to carry that child to term and gave birth to her daughter, Kathy. Kathy just ran as a candidate for Senate in state of Pennsylvania. She didn’t win, but can you imagine how proud her mother is? It would have been so easy to abort that child - and now, here she is, seeing her girl as a grown woman accomplishing great things.
In midst of our suffering, we bring it to God, looking not just for his comfort, but how he will bring good out of the suffering.
Inspiration: This is the hope of history, that all evil and suffering will be redeemed. That Jesus will end evil and suffering without ending us! Revelation 21:3-4...
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
In other words, no more suffering. None. I want you to just take a moment and reflect with me just a hint of what that means, no more suffering...
pain or war or abuse or neglect
headaches, back spasms, upset stomach, fever…no more shooting pains or dull throbbing pain
emotional and relational pain we experience…feeling left out…quick biting comment…judgmental look…feeling of shame, not being good enough…loss of things precious
hunger…loneliness…depression…lack of purpose or meaning
Where are you hurting right now? What’s the point of suffering in your life at this moment?
All gone, never to return. This is our great hope. Romans 8:18…I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
That’s hard to fathom, isn’t it? That God promises such a glory that whatever terrible suffering you may be enduring, it’s not worth comparing. Don’t even try. Your suffering can’t touch good God has for us.
Does Jesus ever get us. He suffered with us. He suffered for us. So that we might suffer no more.