The Power of Christ's Suffering
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Meditating on Isaiah 53 a few weeks ago, a thought struck me. I know it wouldn't have worked for Jesus to have just come to earth as He was, for He had to be a human being in order to take the sins of mankind on Himself. But as I came to these verses, I wondered. Why did He have to suffer so much? I mean, the goal was to take away our sins. Of course, He had to die, even perhaps on the cross. But couldn't that be a one-day thing? God turns the hearts of men. Couldn't He just cause them to rise up and kill Him one day, without all the physical suffering, and couldn't He have lived a more normal life, with regular followers and not all this emotional pain of rejection?
Of course, even though I had these thoughts, I knew it couldn't be, and that astounding verse came to my mind: Hebrews 5:8.
Hebrews 5:7-10
7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,”
It's one of those things no one can quite get. The Son of God, who is perfect, learned obedience. How can Jesus learn anything? He's the eternal word. How can He be perfected? He's already perfect. He never changes.
The previous chapter in Hebrews is the next thing that comes to mind.
15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Imagine the story without Jesus' suffering. Only what is absolutely necessary for Him to die. The only rejection He endures is that which is obvious because of those who don't believe. He'd still be our Savior. He'd still be a man, able to remove our sins. It'd still be an unbelievable sacrifice for the Son of God.
But the compelling power would be lost.
I wonder what that means for us. Without His suffering, the power of His story would be lost. Our hearts would not feel the same ache when we think that He would go through that for us. And though He was perfect before, we now know that He can understand our weakness. What glory and love, that He would endure pain, not only to save us, but so that we would believe, love Him, be comforted.
If someone you knew were in danger of death, theoretically you would do almost anything to save him, even if it was someone you aren't very close to. But how much are we willing to suffer to give another comfort? Jesus suffered such hardship, not only to save us from our sins, but for our edification.
It makes me think of that verse, "Now these things happened as examples for us..." This refers to the Old Testament, but surely it applies to the new as well, as John writes, "but these were written that you may believe..." Our objections are silenced when we hear what He did. Not only our objections to believing, but even in our Christian walk. How can we complain of anything-anything-when we remember this?
Without suffering, the power is lost. Suffering is God's tool of sanctification. And of all people, what have I suffered? Nothing. Yet I am unwilling to endure the petty suffering I do have. Think of the power we would have if we really understood this.
I post this as a reminder to myself, and maybe it will encourage you as well.