Suffering has been a part of the human condition for as long as anyone can remember. It’s an inevitable part of life. We suffer heartbreak. We suffer sickness. We suffer the grief of watching those close to us suffering.

Everyone suffers. Granted, some more than others. Perhaps you have never known the suffer­ing of having to go to bed every night really, really hungry. But many people have. Maybe you have never known the suffering of war personally. But that suffering continues to be endured by many people throughout the world.

So much hardship. You only need to turn on the news to get inundated with it. Crime, acci­dents, earthquakes, floods, fam­ines, plagues, and so much more. So many causes of pain.

The Special Suffering of One Man⤒🔗

With so much suffering taking place, what difference could it possibly make for us that one man who lived 2000 years ago hap­pened to suffer?

One man suffers today in China by being in jail for his beliefs. An­other man suffers today in Africa, dying of AIDS. These things hap­pen, and we don’t really get all that worked up about it. In fact, we would literally go crazy if we were to attempt to empathize with every bit of suffering that goes on around the world at this point in time. So why should we care about the suffering of a single individual so many years ago?

You should care, because the individual we are talking about is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The suffering He experienced was the most important suffering ever. In a world where billions of people suffer every day, the suf­fering of that one man 2000 years ago, His suffering was dif­ferent, unique. And His suffering still makes all the difference in our lives.

Lifelong Suffering←⤒🔗

Part of what made his suffer­ing significant is that it was life­long. Christ’s whole life was one of misery and torment. There really wasn’t a minute that went by where he was not suffering to one degree or another.

Can you imagine that? Thank­fully, we are not called to endure suffering like that. Even when we are suffering the most, there are going to be at least brief interludes in which our awareness of suffer­ing eases somewhat. And of course, we can always look back to better, happier times. But Christ had no true rest from His sufferings during his whole life.

It’s easy to have this image of Jesus being a jovial figure who would have appreciated a good laugh. We presume He must have enjoyed being among us.

But consider who He was. He was the Holy Son of God. Every minute of His life He was faced with the reality of the fact that He was living among a very unholy people. In His divine nature there was no way He could ever stop being confronted by that truth.

Even with the limited aware­ness of His human nature, He would have had some sense that He was a sinless person living among sinners. Do you think that would be easy? Do you think that if you were thrown into a snake pit, you would not be constantly aware of the fact that you are not a snake?

You might, if you were ignorant of who you are. But would Christ ever have been completely ignorant of who He was?

Now don’t get me wrong: Christ living here on earth was not all completely negative for Him. For one thing, He experienced fellow­ship with His followers. He had a deep love for them.

But they were often ignorant of who He was and what He was teaching. They didn’t believe Him, they ran away from Him, they even denied Him. We can’t imag­ine what it must have been like for Him.

Comprehensive Suffering←⤒🔗

Another aspect of Christ’s suf­fering is that it was comprehen­sive, in that He suffered both in body and in soul.

Whether or not He was in physical pain throughout His whole life, this is not something we can really answer. But we know that He certainly suffered bodily near the end of His life be­cause of direct attacks against His flesh.

We do know that He endured spiritual suffering throughout His whole life. There is a sense in which he was suffering the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race throughout His life. And as a full human being, sharing our weakness, such a tor­ment must have had a physical effect on Him.

This is not something we could begin to fathom. But remember this: there was no part of who He was that was not attacked and was not subject to anguish.

Progressive Suffering←⤒🔗

In addition to His suffering be­ing lifelong and total, it was also progressive. Christ’s sufferings became more and more severe, eventually reaching a climax as His life came closer to its appointed end. He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane. He was arrested at the hands of wicked men. He was rejected, by the people, by the leaders, and even His own followers. This surely increased His suffering.

He was tried, convicted, con­demned, mocked, abandoned. And His suffering grew worse and worse until it was culminated with the ultimate suffering of the cross.

It’s not too hard to see how such suffering progressed in terms of physical pain. We read about what happened to Him near the end of His life, and we get a bit squeamish. Crown of Thorns. Scourging with whips. And then on the cross, terrible thirst, hung up to die, with nails through his hands and feet. Terrible.

But such physical suffering, as bad as it was, it was not the worst of it. He showed what the worst of it was when He cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” The Son of God himself ultimately being forsaken by God His Fa­ther. Throughout His life, and especially near the end, He was more and more suffering the agonies of hell. It was the most terrible burden that has ever been borne.

Legal Suffering←⤒🔗

There is another aspect of his suffering that we need to con­sider, but some may find this one a bit surprising. His suffer­ing was legal.

This is not to say it was just. He was perfectly innocent. His suffering and death was a com­plete miscarriage of justice if ever there was any. But this does not take away the fact that it was in fact legal.

In the Apostles’ Creed, believ­ers confess that He “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Rather striking, isn’t it, that this relatively minor biblical character is one of only two non-divine persons specifically named in this brief summary of our faith.

This is no accident. Rather, it serves to highlight a very impor­tant point. He was sentenced to death under the authority of the ruling government of His day. True, Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, and he even tried to wash his hands of the whole affair. But that didn’t stop him from handing Jesus over to be crucified. Christ’s death still had the stamp of government ap­proval written all over it.

But is this important? After all, who cares if His suffering was legal, if in fact it was a mis­carriage of justice? Being legal should not be as important as whether or not it was the right thing to do.

But the thing is, the govern­ment serves as God’s agent who exercises judgment on His be­half. Of course, those in govern­ment are accountable to God for how they act. But this does not change the fact that they have been given a special role to serve as the dispensers of God’s justice here on this earth.

This role is not given to the mercenary, it is not given to the vigilante. It is given to the state. As we read in Romans 13:1, 4 — “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established ... he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

Of course, Pilate really had no idea of the depth and meaning of what he had been forced into. But this does not take away from the fact that he had an important role to fill. And what all of this empha­sizes to us is that everything that was taking place was according to the plan of God.

Jesus Himself acknowledged this when He said to Pilate — “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” Jesus knew perfectly well that it was God’s plan which was being fulfilled.

Oh, the terrible depths of suf­fering that Christ went through, that He would know the power given to Pilate came from above. Think of it: to stand before this pa­gan unbeliever, and know that he had been given the authority to pass judgment upon you, the Son of God. Truly, He knew what it meant to be forsaken.

Cursed Suffering←⤒🔗

Christ’s suffering was also cursed. Jesus Christ suffered a cursed death. As we read in Ga­latians 3:13 — “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by be­coming a curse for us, for it is writ­ten: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”

It was no accident of history that He died on the cross. Re­member how at one point the Jews wanted to throw him off a cliff? It didn’t happen, because He wasn’t meant to die that way.

Remember also how shortly after Pentecost, Stephen was killed by being stoned? That was the traditional Jewish method of execution. So why did the Jewish leaders bring in the Roman authorities and have Jesus killed with a Roman form of capital pun­ishment? Because that’s the way God wanted it to happen. Dying by having rocks thrown at Him would not have been cursed in the same way as dying on the cross.

This might seem strange for us, saying that one form of death is more cursed than another. But nevertheless, we have the Bible proclaiming that death on a cross was a cursed death. So whether we really appreciate why it was cursed or not, we recognize that it was so, because God said so. Therefore, we know that it was a terrible death for Him to have to endure.

We are reminded again of the depths of the anguish Christ went through. To have his death be cursed points to this. How can it be any worse, than to be cursed by God? Nothing else can ever come close to matching that sort of agony.

Life-Giving Suffering←⤒🔗

Being reminded over and over that no one else ever suf­fered in the way He suffered, we can’t help but wonder about what the point of all of it was. So He suffered more than any­one else in history, so what?

The answer to this is clear. He suffered so that you would not have to ultimately suffer. He suffered His whole life, in order that you might have life. He suf­fered in body and soul, so that you might be redeemed in body and soul. His whole life antici­pated the progressive worsening of His suffering, in order that you might anticipate eternal peace. He suffered the legal punish­ment against sin, that you might be freed from that punishment. He was cursed, that you might be blessed.

What does the suffering of Christ have to do with you? Everything. Never forget that. Because of his suffering, you have life. Because of his suffer­ing, you have joy. Wherever you go, whatever you may be called upon to face in this life, may this truth continue to uphold you and give you strength.