CROSS PURPOSES 2: SUFFERING FOR US
Suffering is a fact of life. People get sick, and die. Some endure constant pain or loss of abilities. Some feel the ache of loneliness or loss. Some are bullied, abused, abandoned, or enslaved.
The world is a place of suffering. War, disease, natural disasters, and hunger. Violence, discrimination, grinding poverty and helplessness.
Where is God in a world of suffering? What does God do about human suffering?
***In 2005, a tsunami drowned tens of thousands of people across South and Southeast Asia; Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians were all affected. Newsweek magazine published an article trying to characterize the answers of the various religions to the questions, “Why us? Why here? Why now?” The article reflected the views of everyday people—not religious scholars. This is what the writer discovered:
“’Buddhists look to the idea of karma and ask what they did, individually and collectively, that a tragedy like this happened.’ Their main concern will be to generate good merit that can be transferred to the deceased as a positive force in the next lifetime. To this end, families will go to a temple to pray or have a special ceremony performed by a monk acting as an intermediary in the transfer of merit.”
For Hindus in poor fishing communities, all of life is controlled by the play of capricious deities... “Like Shiva and other major deities, these local deities have the power to destroy as well as create. The ocean itself is a terrible god who eats people and boats, but also provides fish as food… ‘Relating to the local deity and cooling her anger through propitiation is more important than thinking about personal or collective guilt for what has happened.’”
For Muslims, “all that happens is God’s doing, and nature itself—wind, rain, storms—constitute signs of his mercy and compassion. Even the destructive tsunami must have some hidden, positive purpose….’they have this notion that God is testing them by taking away a child or a spouse. Will you lose your faith or continue to believe?’”
Christians “think of [their Savior] on the cross—the God who takes on human flesh… But even though the acceptance of suffering is deeply embedded in [their] worldview, the death of so many innocent children alone was an excruciating test of [their] believe that their God is a God of love.”**
Those responses can be found anywhere in the world, even among Christians. When people suffer, some ask, “What did I do to deserve this?” Some say, “Everything happens for a reason. God is testing my faith.” Some try to bargain with God, in the hope that if they are good, they will be spared. Others become angry with God, when he does not answer their prayers in the way they think a God of love should, to protect people from suffering.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SUFFERING?
In the Old Testament, we find the story of how God chose the descendants of Abraham as his special possession, so that through them, all people could be blessed. (We find the fulfillment of that in Jesus Christ!) As he promised, God made them into a great nation, and the 12 sons of Jacob became the 12 tribes of Israel. After the time of David and Solomon, the nation separated: 10 tribes as the nation of Israel, and 2 tribes as the nation of Judah.
God was faithful to his covenant, but his chosen people were not always so faithful. The results of unfaithfulness were devastating. In 722 B.C., the ten tribes of Israel were overrun by the Assyrians, and they were dispersed in the vast Assyrian kingdom. The nation of Judah lasted until about 600 B.C., when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and temple, and took the people into exile in Babylon.
We can imagine the confusion and questions of the people, as they were forced to go into exile. “Where is God?” “Has God abandoned us?” “Is there any hope for us in the future?”
Isaiah was a prophet in Judah, about the time the 10 tribes were taken away. The first 39 chapters of the book bearing his name were addressed to the people of Judah during that time. Chapters 40-66 seem to fit a later time—the time after the exile of Judah. Some speculate that those chapters were written during the exile of Judah—the Jews—by a later prophet. No matter who wrote the chapters, God’s message in those chapters had great meaning for exiles who felt abandoned by God, suffering in a strange land, seeking hope in a hopeless situation.
In Isaiah 41-53, we find a series of poems about a mysterious “servant of the Lord.” The identity of the servant is ambiguous. In some passages, the servant of the Lord is a collective term for God’s chosen people, as in Isaiah 41:8-9, “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.” The servant represents the remnant of the nation of Israel.
In other passages, however, the servant is an individual, who represents God’s people. The identity of that individual is a mystery. In Isaiah 53, the servant seems quite definitely to be an individual who suffers for the sins and salvation of all God’s people.
Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12. (Preacher: Emphasize words like “suffering…infirmities…sorrows…oppressed and afflicted…suffer”)
Some Jews today believe Isaiah’s “servant” represents the Jewish people, and that through the suffering Jews have endured through the centuries, God will finally restore the glory of Israel. Some Jews think the “servant” might also refer individually to a Messiah still to come, a representative and leader who will restore the glory of God’s chosen people.
As Christians, we recognize the “servant” as Jesus Christ. Christ represented God’s people, taking their guilt upon himself. He suffered for them, he justifies them, and he heals their relationship with God. He bore “the iniquity of us all,” and he “justified many.” He “poured out his life unto death,” and yet he was able to “see his offspring.” Of him it could be said, “After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied.”
Jesus Christ suffers on behalf of God’s people.
But why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Even his disciples wondered!
One day, Jesus was walking with his disciples, when he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” They replied (Mark 8:28-29), “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” The Messiah, like the servant of the Lord, represented God’s chosen people. He was their hope. Jesus “then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” Peter did not understand why Jesus had to suffer and die.
WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF JESUS SUFFERING ON THE CROSS?
-IN HIS SUFFERING, JESUS JOINED US IN OUR SUFFERING.
***Jewish writer Elie Wiesel lived through the horrors of the Holocaust. His book, “Night,” tells of a child who was hanged by the Nazis. Because of the child’s weight, it took him longer than normal to die. Wiesel says, “For more than half an hour he stayed there, hanging between life and death…his tongue still red, his eyes not yet dazed. Behind I heard a man asking, ‘Where is God now?’ I heard a voice within me answer him, ‘Where is he? Here He is—He is hanging here on these gallows.’” If God would not save a good, innocent, boy, what hope was there?**
Yet Isaiah had prophesied about Jesus to Jews, in Isaiah 53:3-4, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain…Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”
Jesus was the Christ, the Jewish Messiah, who represented all of God’s Old Testament people. He suffered because they suffered. Yet Jesus is OUR Messiah as well, who represents us. He suffered because we suffer!
Hebrews 2:10-11 says, “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”
Jesus suffered in solidarity with those who suffer.
-IN HIS SUFFERING, JESUS BORE THE RESULTS OF OUR SIN.
Isaiah 53 makes a surprising connection between suffering and sin: (Isaiah 53:4-5) “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.”
Is suffering caused by sin? Sometimes.
The people of Israel suffered because of their sin. Idolatry left them empty and desperate, injustice caused poverty and distress, and rebellion against God led to oppression by their enemies.
Sometimes we bring suffering on ourselves. If we eat or drink too much, we may suffer the consequences. If we give our bodies to sexual perversion, there might be physical or emotional distress. Much of the physical suffering that we endure is a result of not getting enough exercise, eating the wrong things, working or playing too hard, or not observing the commandment to keep the Sabbath in worship and rest.
We might also suffer distress in our minds. Romans 1:28 says, “…they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.” When God is neglected or pushed aside, our minds are filled with other things: fear, self-centeredness, dissatisfaction, greed, or anger. We might try to fill the void by a lust for more possessions, pornography, or risk-taking.
In a broader sense, sin causes suffering in the world. Drug abuse causes crime and suffering, even in the countries that supply the drugs Americans use. Wars, gang violence, human trafficking, economic and political injustice—all cause suffering. Disregard for the environment, unjust governments, crooked politician and judges—all cause people to suffer. Bullying, body shaming, abuse of power, manipulation—more suffering.
Of course, not all suffering is human-caused. There are earthquakes, hurricanes, drought, and mosquitoes. There is cancer, plague, and death.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were protected from all of that—all suffering. But when they sinned, they were cast out of the garden, to go into a world where suffering was part of life. Ever since, people have lived in that kind of world.
Jesus, the Son of God, entered that same world. He suffered because of the sins of humanity. As he approached the cross, he was exposed to the power struggles and political intrigue of the religious leaders. He was exposed to the jeers of the crowd, and the cruelty of Roman soldiers. On the cross, nearly naked, he was exposed to the shame associated with a cross, where criminals hung in shame. He died in pain—physical, emotional, and spiritual—exposed by the sins of people like you and me.
If not for our sins, and the sins of all people, the Son of God would have been safely in heaven. Because of our sins, Jesus hung on a cross.
As 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross…”
-IN HIS SUFFERING, JESUS GIVES US HOPE IN OUR SUFFERING.
Isaiah 53:11 ends on an amazing note: “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.” For the writer and those who heard, I imagine this left more questions than answers. If the servant was to be “led like a lamb to the slaughter…cut off from the land of the living…assigned a grave…,” how could he see the light of life? The hope of resurrection was not so obvious for Old Testament saints.
The fulfillment of Isaiah’s vague hope is, of course, in the resurrection of Jesus. After the cross, Jesus saw the light of life, and the prophecy of Isaiah found fulfillment. In 2 Timothy 1:10, Paul says, “Our Savior, Christ Jesus has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Because the suffering of Jesus ends in life, our suffering also ends in life. Paul says in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” In 2 Corinthians 4:17, he says, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
How can we have that hope? Jesus, the Messiah, the servant of the Lord, who represents God’s people, suffered for our sins, and rose from the dead to give us life.
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In going to the cross, Jesus suffered for us.
How then should we live? In Colossians 1:24-27, Paul told how he lived, in light of the cross: “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
That is remarkable! “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions.” What could be lacking in what Christ has done? The only thing lacking was that not everyone had accepted what Christ has done for them. Paul was willing to suffer to help them understand, and trust Jesus for salvation.
If we suffer, our goal should be that others can know what Christ has done for them. By faith, they can know that Jesus is with them in their suffering. By faith, their sins can be forgiven, and they can be healed. By faith, they can see the light of life, now and forever.
That is the good news of the gospel: Jesus suffered on the cross for us and our salvation. Thank you, Jesus!
