Suffering for the Good

Through my high school years, I was privileged to sit under my dad's Bible teaching in Sunday school and in my youth group. Many of the deep truths and funny stories he shared stand out in my mind. He had a way of making the Bible come alive as he taught.

Most fixed in my mind is his account of the crucifixion. I remember when he came to the verses describing Jesus' suffering on the cross, he would step away from his podium to give us a visual of the passages.

Dad would take us to the garden to envision Jesus agonizing in prayer as His disciples nearby succumbed to sleep. Dad described in detail the great blood drops of sweat as Jesus pleaded with the Father to remove the cup from Him. He made sure we understood that cup contained the wrath of God against every sin we would ever commit. We could not begin to imagine such horror. Dad pointed to Jesus' heart of submission as He said, "Not My will, but Yours, be done."
Moving from disciples who slept to one who betrayed, we "saw" the kiss of Judas in the garden of Gethsemene; Satan slithering through the twisting of olive branches.

Dad would continue through the night time mockery of judicial proceedings, detailing Peter's cowardly denial, the enraged beatings, blaspheming, spitting, slapping, laughing, abusing of the body of our Savior. Then, he would describe the crown brought by soldiers, huge, stabbing thorns, twisted into a circle and pushed down, piercing the head of that bowed to the Father on their behalf.

We heard of the scourging, tearing of flesh by shards of bone attached to leather strips, repeated until flesh, muscle and nerves were shredded. At times, Dad's descriptions were too much to bear.

He went on to explain the cross, where Jesus willingly lay Himself down. Nails, spikes really, driven between bones in His wrists and ankles. Then, he demonstrated how Roman guards, adept at tortuous killing, hoisted the cross and dropped it into a hole, ripping through flesh at the nail sites. In hanging, Jesus had to pull Himself up with suspended, extended, fatigued arm muscles to breathe every breath. Yet, using every ounce of strength, He spoke words of comfort from the cross, concerning forgiveness, provision for His mother, assurance of salvation to a dying thief, and agony in thirst.

The most heart-wrenching words ever spoken came from His lips in hours of complete darkness as God the Father turned His face from His only Son, Who had become sin for us. As Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" At this point in Dad's lesson, I could no longer take it. Jesus, perfect, blameless, hanging there in utter darkness, in a state of complete isolation that I will never have to comprehend. Too much.

Dad came to the end of the lesson, recounting Jesus' last words from the cross, "It is finished." Holding my breath, I remember one question rising from the depth of my soul, "Why?" I wanted to know why He had to suffer so much agony. I knew blood was required. I understood sacrifice; but suffering, like that? Why? After all, Dad reminded us He could have called "more than twelve legions of angels" to stop the torture at any moment (Matt. 26:53).

Hebrews 12:2-4 explains Jesus despised the shame of the cross, yet He chose to endure. Why? I've found my answer in passages like 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For He made Him Who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

I also learned why from 1 Peter 2:21-24, "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him Who judges righteously; Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed."

He suffered to endure every type of suffering you and I could ever experience, abuse, hate, false accusation, beatings, nakedness, humiliation, betrayal, abandonment, loneliness, physical, emotional, spiritual agony, death.
Hebrews 5:8 says, "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He suffered to identify with us. We suffer to identify with Him. In dying, He showed us how to live in a world suffering as a result of sin. He suffered to raise our dead hearts to righteous life in Him.

Ultimately, the answer is found in Isaiah 53:10, "Yet, it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. " It pleased God to make Him suffer in our stead. His stripes were necessary so that we could be eternally healed. Through His suffering, our broken souls are made whole. Amen.
Hosanna...Jesus saves!