He suffers with us and for us

In a previous post I told of an interview with Bethany Hamilton, who lost her arm in a shark attack, in which she says that she would not choose to have her arm back if she could. Bethany has a remarkable faith in God, and she encourages each of us to believe that God loves us , and that no matter what happens God still has a plan for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11). So Bethany has a ministry to bring hope to those who have lost hope. But Bethany is not the only person who suffered significant loss, and could later say she would not choose to reverse it. I am thinking of Joni Eareckson Tada who, as a young teenage girl, broke her neck in a freak diving accident and become permanently paralyzed from the shoulders down. Though she did not come to this easily, she is reports “If I were asked to choose between being in this chair (her wheelchair) knowing Him, and not being in the chair but not knowing Him, I would chose to be in the chair".

My description above as “not coming to this easily” is of course a huge understatement. Nevertheless she could in the end, find her way through it all to make the statement, and mean it. Her point was and is that in partnership with Him, her tragedy allowed her to find a relationship with Him that is so significant, that it more than compensated for her pain and struggles. The relationship that faith and trust in God brings can do that for each one of us. Paul suffered more than you and I are ever likely to suffer (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-29). He tells us that through patient endurance the “Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts” (Romans 5:5). He also talks about the “fellowship of His sufferings”, that special closeness that comes when we fully invite Him into our pain. In the same passage (Philippians 3), Paul tells us that he gave up everything he held dear to be thus “found in Him”.

No matter how difficult our trial, Jesus was there before us. And He does not ask of us anything He Himself was not willing to do and more. He suffered for us, and He will suffer with us if we will let Him (surrendering all). Its hard to explain how it helps, it is in fact something of a mystery, but it does help, it really does.

Let's look a little more closely at these things. Firstly then He suffered for us. In Romans 5:7,8 Paul says “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Or as Peter puts it “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). So it was for us that He suffered and bled and died while we were still in rebellion, and consequently at enmity with God (Romans 5:10). Mel Gibson's movie “The passion of the Christ” depicts the physical suffering of the beatings and the cross, but its not just the physical pain. In the garden He is in such emotional turmoil that his capillaries actually fracture and he literally sweats blood (Luke 22:44). And then there is the spiritual pain of separation from His Father for the first time ever, as He (again literally) becomes sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), and God the Father turns His face away.

And Christ suffers with us. We may have caught a gimps of what what it means to suffer with someone when we came along side someone who was suffering, even weeping with them in their pain. This is what the Lord wants to do with us. It is easy to say to someone “I know what you are going through”. It is unlikely all the same, and such phrases should be used sparingly, for though we may think we know, we may not have a clue. On the other hand Jesus really does know what we are going through, He has been there, He really has. Indeed “we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). There is no one who loves us more, and there is no one who suffered more, and He did it for us. Why? Well as we said above, He did it “to bring us to God”. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”(Acts 4:12). It should break our hearts!

It is a remarkable thing this fellowship of His sufferings, our welcoming Him into the midst of our pain. Suffering is not something any one of us would likely choose, but for those of us who embrace Him in these times, we find something the World neither knows nor understands. Indeed, when we choose to rejoice in the midst of it all, put away our anxiety and turn to Him with prayer and petitions with thanksgiving, He brings us the “peace that passes all understanding” (Phil 4:4-7), the peace that the World cannot know (John 14:27). The one who suffered for us then, is the same one who suffers with us bringing us His peace and grace and comfort.

Prayer: Lord bring me this peace that will guard my heart and mind in You. (Phil 4:7)