When Pain Gets Tough Series

When Pain Gets Tough

Isaiah 53:3-5

July 10, 2011

Morning Service

Introduction

There are a number of different names or titles that Jesus is known by. Many of these relate some nature of His character or some type of strength. Here are a few examples:

Lion of Judah, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Son of God, Son of man, Messiah, Christ, Savior,

These names are often some of the first that we think of when we consider Jesus. One of the many different titles or names for Jesus is radically different from the rest. There is one name that we often forget when we think about Jesus: man of sorrows. The title gives mental images of weakness. It sends the message of being powerless. Man of sorrows is definitely not one that we automatically recollect when we think of Jesus.

Man of sorrows gives us images of pain and torment. Man of sorrows gives the picture of suffering and defeat. The reality is that consideration of man of sorrows should give us great hope. Jesus took the worst of the human condition and the worst human life could throw at Him and He overcame. The mental picture is one of pain. Jesus was all too familiar with the reality of human pain.

Jesus openly predicted that He would go through an incredible amount of suffering. Jesus told the disciples that He would have to suffer many things. On four places the gospels record the words of Jesus about the coming pain and suffering.

And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Luke 9:22

Make no mistake Jesus was familiar with pain. There is nothing more common to the human condition than pain. From before His birth, Jesus came to become the man of sorrows. Jesus came to be the one who suffered. Jesus came to bear the depth of our pain and punishment.

The reality is that every person deals with three types of pain: physical, emotional and spiritual. Jesus gives us the best example of dealing with pain. The day of the crucifixion Jesus will deal with incredible emotional pain, excruciating physical pain and pain of separation from God. Understanding the depth of Christ’s pain can allow us to have a better grasp of our own. Learning how Jesus handled pain can give us some help in handling our own pains.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:3-5

Jesus was hated so we could find hope. He was hurt so we could experience healing. Those who knew Him best fled from Him and hid themselves or denied knowing Him. Those Jesus came to save refused to accept Him and their rejection was heart breaking. Jesus was described as the kind of person who was loathed and despised. People hated Him so much that they could not stand to look at Him.

The people watched Jesus and believed that he was being punished for a crime. He was dying the death of a common criminal.

Jesus endured incredible emotional, physical and spiritual pain for us.

Common bond of pain

The reality of pain is something that we share with Christ. Peter writes these words in his first letter: 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 1 Peter 1:10-11

Pain weaves it way through the pages of scripture and reveals itself in the fabric of life. There can be no doubt that pain is part of life. Pain has a timeless nature to it and knows no bounds of culture or ethnicity. Pain is a human reality that everyone must come to terms with. There is no escaping the overarching fact that pain happens to good people, every day.

God whispers in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone for rousing a deaf world. – C.S. Lewis

Three different kinds of pain