The incomparable sufferings

I'm reading a book called Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper. I am taking my time with it and what I am going to post today is chapter 8 of this book. It was too good not to post it. When I read it, tears just came to my eyes (sometimes I don't like that but I guess that's just me). It reminded me again about Jesus love, that it's so great that He gave His life for me. It humbled me, because I know I did not deserve it, but still He did it for me. Some of my thoughts are in blue.

Thank you so much Jesus! My life without you would be no life at all! Forgive me for not always showing you to others and for failing you in so many ways. Help me be a mirror of your love and compassion. Help me die to myself so that you can shine through me. I love you.

The anguish of Jesus Christ

The agonies of God's Son were incomparable. No one ever suffered like this man.

No one deserved suffering less, yet received so much. The stamp of God on this perfect life is found in two words: "without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). The only person in history who did not deserve to suffer, suffered most. He "committed no sin, neither deceit was found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). None of Jesus' pain was penalty for his sin. He had no sin.

Could you imagine paying yourself for what another person did? It is hard for us humans to understand this. We would probably say, he did it, let him pay for what he did. But not Jesus, oh no, and thank God for that.

Therefore, no one has ever had a greater right to retaliate, but used it less. He had at his disposal infinite power to take revenge at any moment in his agony. "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53). But he did not do it. When every judicial sentiment in the universe cried out "Unjust!" Jesus was silent. "He gave (Pilate) no answer, not even to a single charge" (Matthew 27:14). Nor did he refute false ridicule: "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered he did not threaten" (1 Peter 2:23). Nor did he defend himself in response to Herod's interrogation: "He made no answer" (Luke 23:9). No one has ever borne so much injustice with so little vengeance.

He had the right but he didn't use it. He could have cried out to his Father and in a second everything would be over, no more pain, no more scorning, nothing. But he didn't. He could've opened his mouth to defend himself, but he didn't. Can you do anything else but admire him? I can't...I kneel before him in total surrender and recognition for what he did.

This was not because the torment was tolerable. If we had been forced to watch, we probably would have passed out. In the garden, "His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44). In the middle of the night, before the high priest, "they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him" (Matthew 26:67). Before the governor they"scourged" him (Matthew 27:26). Eusebius (about A.D. 300) described Roman scourging of Christians like this: "At one time they were torn by scourges down to deep-seated veins and arteries, so that the hidden contents of the recesses of their bodies, their entrails and organs, were exposed to sight."

I am reading this again and as I am writing it I can't help wincing. My Lord, what incomparable sufferings indeed, and all for us. And what do many people do with what he did, nothing...absolutely nothing. Like if it never happened. Jesus please forgive us.

In his agony the soldiers toyed with him. They dressed him in mock robes of royalty. They began to "cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, 'Prophesy!' And the guards received him with blows" (Mark 14:65). A crown of thorns was pressed down on his head--made worse by being driven into his skull with blows. "They were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him" (Mark 15:19). In this condition he was unable to carry his own cross (Matthew 27:32).

The torture and shame continued. He was stripped. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross (Acts 2:23; Psalms 22:16). The mockery was unrelenting through the terrible morning. "Hail, King of the Jews!" "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:29,40). Even one of the criminals "railed at him" (Luke 23:39).

It was a hideous death. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia tells us, "The wounds swelled about the rough nails, and the torn and lacerated tendons and nerves caused excruciating agony. The arteries of the head and stomach were surcharged with blood and a terrific throbbing headache ensued....The victim of crucifixion literally died a thousand deaths...The suffering was so frightful that 'even among the raging passions of war, pity was sometimes excited.' "

All this came upon the "friend of sinners," not with brothers at his side, but utterly abandoned. Judas had betrayed him with a kiss (Luke 22:48). Peter had denied him three times (Matthew 26:75). "All the disciples left him and fled" (Matthew 26:56). And in the darkest hour of the history of the world, God the Father struck his own Son with our punishment. "We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4). The only person in the world who truly knew God (Matthew 11:27) cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

Jesus suffering was not only physical, but emotional (everybody had left him) and spiritual (for one time in history he was separated from his Father while carrying all of our sins). It must have been awful for him. And all for us. Do we deserve all what he did? No... but he choose to do it anyways out of his love for us.

Never before or since has there been such suffering, because, in all its dreadful severity, it was a suffering by design. It was planned by God the Father and embraced by God the Son. "It was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10). Jesus was "delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Herod, Pilate, the soldiers, and the Jews did to Jesus "whatever (God's) hand and....plan had predestined to take place" (Acts 4:28). Down to the details, the sufferings of the Son were written in the Scriptures. "Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), 'I thirst'" (John 19:28).

Not only was it suffering by design, but also by obedience. Jesus embraced the pain. He chose it--"obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8). And his obedience was sustained by faith in his Father. "When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23). "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Luke 23:46).

In that faith "he set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). Why? He had set his face to die. "And what shall I say, 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour" (John 12:27). He lived in order to die.

He lived in order to die. He died so that we may live. In his death there is life for us. How extraordinary.

Therefore, the suffering and weakness of Jesus were a work of his sovereign power. "No one takes (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18). He freely chose to join the Father's design for his own suffering and death.

And what was that design? To be a substitute for us, so that we might live. "The Son of Man came...to give his life as ransom fro many" (Mark 10:45). "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). "The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).

And the goal of it all? "Greater love has no man than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Yes, but to what end? What does love pursue? Two great purposes were accomplished in the sufferings of Christ, which are really one purpose. First, "Christ...suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). The sufferings of Jesus brought us to God who is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. Second, in the very hour of death the Father and the Son were glorified. "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him" (John 13:31). Our joy in savoring God and his glory in saving us are one. That is the glory of Christ's incomparable sufferings.

He is the bridge that filled the gap between us and God. We are so unworthy but still he decided to bridge that gap; without him we would be completely lost. Jesus love is too deep, too pure, too intense to comprehend. There is no love like his. If I think I am loved by family and friends, their love does not begin to compare to Jesus love. To think of all he had to go through because of his love for me, but he did it knowingly. When he agreed to the Father's plan, He knew how much he was going to suffer, that he was going to be ridiculed, spat at, struck at, pierced, separated from his Father, but still his love for us is so great that he went through it all. He didn't deserve any of that, we did. But we were spared having to go through all that. There isn't anything we can do to repay him, it was his gift to us. And what a gift! Thank you Jesus!