Remember His Suffering
Rev. Joseph Lai
Every year when we come to this time near the Easter the Resurrection Day, we are often faced with complicated feelings. On one hand we are ready for the excitement to celebrate Resurrection to once again recharge ourselves with this marvelous truth that the same resurrection power that was exerted toward Jesus to raise him from the dead is the same power that has been put to work in all of His followers.
We have been raised to carry Life of the God kind and the power of the God kind. And yet, while we are ready to celebrate all that, at the same time we also remember His Death and His suffering. The lamb of the Passover that was slain. The sacrifice he suffered for us. Many Christians today no longer observe the Good Friday, but yes, there is much to remember. Especially when you realize that the main purpose of Jesus establishing the communion was for us to remember Him.
As the Scripture was written: And He took bread and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me." (Luk 22:19-20)
So let us remember Him, as much as Jesus has said “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Remember how he gave himself away, how he allowed his body to be tortured to be pierced. So let us take some time to remember Him, remember the cup of suffering he took for us.
Ps 103 says “forget not all of His benefits”, and the word of God went on to list all the benefits of God’s redemption. And those benefits were purchased for you at a huge price. Today many Christians all too often forget some of the benefits. Well, we often would remember the benefit of the forgiveness of sin, but most of the time we forget about the rest of the benefits. Sometimes I wonder if we would remember what heavy price was paid in order for us to have all that benefits, if we would see the sacrifice Jesus made in order that God can heal you, in order that God can satisfy your mouth with good things, in order that you may be delivered from the pit, perhaps we will begin to treasure each and every one of all those benefits.
Today I want you to remember how he had suffered for you. Go back to the night that he was arrested and taken by the soldiers. Look at how the story began. Mat 26:36 Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. Luke 22:39 “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed...” The bible emphasized that it was almost like a routine of his habit on that final week that he would choose to go out to the Mount of Olives at night time each and every night. That is how Judas knew exactly where Jesus was that he could guide the soldiers to arrest him.
Luke 21:37 made a point to let you know that’s what Jesus did everyday, in the daytime he would teach at the temple and at night he would come out to the Mount of Olives.
Why choose Mount of Olives? Why Gethsemane? It is not far from the town but it is not a short walk either. You would think that with all the busy work to do during the day, he must be tired at night, but he still chose to walk at least 30 – 40 minutes to come out to this place. Why? Why Gethsemane?
For what we know, Gethsemane is a place that produces Olive Oil; there was an Olive Oil factory. It is a place where Olives were being crushed and pressed to produce Olive Oil. Do you see the significance here?
At a time when Olive Oil was commonly used for a variety of basic life necessities. You would have Olive Oil as a base for herbal medicine to make medicated oil that it provides healing for you. People used Olive Oil to make soap, as a general cleansing detergent. Then Olive Oil was also used for cooking and baking. It was a daily item for food products.
Then you would also need Olive Oil to fuel your oil lamp that you may have light. That was still a time in which people who could not afford to light a lamp at night are considered the poor. They lived in darkness the whole night. Olive Oil was needed for healing, for food, for soap, for fueling the lamp to give light.
How do you get Olive Oil? You have to take the fresh Olive and crush it. If Olive was not crushed, no oil can be poured out. So if you would walk with Jesus to the Mount of Olives, if you would be one of the disciples following him to the Garden of Gethsemane, that was a place where Olives were being pressed and crushed, and you would see the Olives lying around all over the place, after being crushed and trampled.
Do you see it? He insisted that he will be just like those Olives crushed and trampled on the ground.
He chose to be the food, the healing, and the light. He will be crushed to be our cleansing. He was determined to be crushed in order that he can be our healing and our light.
Every night he chose to go out there to walk pass those crushed Olives. Each and every time he went there, he was on purpose to build up his determination that he too would offer up himself to be like those Olives to be crushed and trampled for you and me.
And this night when he knew the time has come, when he knew that was the place where he will be captured, he knew what Judas was doing, he knew that was the place where the soldiers were going, and yet he insisted he would still go out there.
That is the Persistence of Love.
I want you to remember that all along the way Jesus was with sorrow on this particular night. In fact He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” (Mat 26:38)
Before he started praying, he was already overwhelmed with sadness. “to the point of death...” Can you imagine being so sad that would seem the sadness will be killing you?
The scripture said he fell to the ground. Did you ever get a hold of that picture? I have not yet seen any drawing or picture or movie that really capture that moment. I mean at some drawing you may see him kneeing down nicely by a rock. But no, he actually fell on his face! This is the moment that our Lord was filled and overwhelmed with depression and emotional turmoil.
He was sad to death, to that point where he just totally collapsed. He was totally heart broken; his soul was altogether in turmoil. But what torment could it be, so great to the point of death. Why did he grieve so much?
“Father if it be thy will, remove this cup.”
On that night when our Lord was crying and when he was sweating blood lying down there on he ground. He was all alone. He invested 3 years of his life into these disciples, yet none of them stood by him. None of them could offer him comfort; none of them stay awake to keep him company when he needed the most. No one knows what was going on and no one understood him. He was all alone.
“Father if it be thy will, remove this cup.”
Even so today, would you know him, would you want to understand him? Would you consider what was his feeling and what was his tears on the inside behind those words?
I have a son Abraham who was born with a very weird medical condition. I still remember that one morning walking up to his baby crib and I saw blood everywhere. Baby Abraham would scratch himself to bleed and still continue to scratch constantly. Every inch of his skin was either inflamed or torn or swollen. And he was under constant suffering of itchiness and pain for the first one and half year of his life, until we got a hold of the word and the revelation of God’s healing. But before then baby Abraham was extremely weak. One time we took him to the hospital where they had to draw blood from him to study to run different kinds of test and to see what they could do with him.
I could never forget that moment. I was standing just about 15 ft from him. And this was the first time I, as the father, watched my one year old baby boy go through it. There they had two people holding him still and another nurse with a big needle sticking into his tiny little foot. One big tube after another, they kept on taking blood out of him. And my son was screaming! And I always remember that moment of me standing there watching that horrific sight. On the inside of my heart, I was screaming “stop... stop... that must be enough now...”
As the son was crying, the father was crying in his heart. And that was the cry out of the Love of an earthly father. Have you ever pause for a moment and consider or meditate how much it must have hurt the Father God to allow Jesus to be mocked and humiliated, to allow him to be beaten half dead and then crucified?!
What pain it must have given to the Heavenly Father to have to be seeing His own begotten Son to be stripped and tortured to death! And He Himself needed to be the one who would actually pour down the judgment and condemnation on His own beloved....
Some say the more you love the more it hurts.
But there was infinite Love in Him. And so what pain it must have been!
Jesus being one with the Father... Did He not share the same pain that the Father was having on that night!!
I submitted to you Jesus was seeing what was happening just as what the Father
God was seeing.
Jesus was feeling exactly the same as what the Father God was feeling on the night.
Would not our Heavenly Father be in such turmoil?
This is my beloved son, I have watched him all these years, he served me everyday diligently, he has been faithful in carrying out all that I instructed him to do, he has loved me with all of his heart, his mind, his soul, and his strength. But now I need to bring upon him the punishment and the condemnation which he does not deserve. I am the Father but now I am going to be the judge watching him being tortured and crushed and I am not going to do anything about it. I am not going to heal him, I am not going to comfort him, I am not going to stand by him, in fact to this one and only begotten son that I have, I will turn my back against him while he died.
What pain and grief our Father God must be overwhelmed with on that night!
But Jesus is one with the Father and he felt what Father God was feeling!
Can you begin to comprehend why was it that he was so overwhelmed with sadness “even to the point of death...”
Now may you feel more into those words “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
Rom 8:32 says “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
Next time you come across that scripture, when you see those words “He that spared not his own son”, don’t be so quick to just scan through it. Get close to your heavenly father to touch and feel his heart.
Jesus did not fall on the ground just that one time; there was a second time he fell.
“And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him and put His own clothes on Him and led Him out to crucify Him. And they made one who was passing by, Simon a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear His cross.” (Mar 15:20-21)
Twice He fell. The first time He fell at the Garden of Gethsemane, where He completely broke down in His emotional and spiritual. The second time He fell, He fell while he was carrying the cross on the way to Calvary. He felt because He has nothing left in His physical state, after a long night of suffering beating and torture.
This is the Son of God who could walk on the Sea and has the power to heal all the sick. Yet He would not lift a finger to heal himself. He would not even do one thing to restore himself. He purposed to bear the curse of our sin all the way.
If you remember how he died, you remember how you have died. You must remember how you have been crucified with Christ! And as the Word of God says, you have been raised with Jesus, that now you live; yet no longer you yourself, no longer you your old self, but Christ lives in you. And the same anointing that was on Jesus is the same anointing that is now upon you. The same spirit of faith that rest upon Jesus is the same spirit of faith that is now given you. That is why Spirit of God is telling you “that life you now live in the flesh, you live by faith of the Son of God.”
Remember Him. If you remember Him you remember LOVE. As much as you are in Him and He is in you, you know you are one with Him. Then you know, as you remember LOVE, you remember what you are made of; you remember what Love can do, and what LOVE will do.
Don’t you ever allow the Father of Lies to tell you “no you are no good and you are not worthy.”
Don’t you ever allow your feelings to tell you “I am no body” “I am weak and not able to produce”
Jesus is saying remember me, remember that in my death you have died and rose up with me. You have been made new, you are full of love. You are somebody in God’s family; you can do all things through him who strengthens you.
Whenever you break the bread and you observe the communion, you remember Him. You do it to remember LOVE!
Remember the beating, the mocking, and the blood.
Allow that to be the evidence of God’s unfailing love for you.
Twice he fell but he kept on going, he would not give up.
Because Love was there, the expressed image of LOVE persist to prevail.
The Love of God does persist.
God’s Love has a persistence to uphold you.
God’s Love has a persistence to endure and will not stop.
No matter what circumstances. No matter what situations.
Love will not stop providing for you,
Love will not stop healing you and restoring you.
All because Jesus has partaken the cup of suffering on your behalf.
