I Don't Want To Suffer
At Christmas we welcome and celebrate the birth of Jesus. It symbolizes God’s plan to rescue humanity from sin through his son. It’s a beautiful picture of Gods unfathomable love, showing us the great lengths he was willing to go through to have relationship with us. We feel gratitude as we contemplate all that it means.
Easter, however, is a very different time. Through the Scriptures, we see the week before Jesus’ death, as a series of events that lead to the most excruciating pain for our sweet Jesus. While we felt the elation of his coming as a baby to save us, his death is the realization of the amount of pure suffering he was willing to endure for US. It’s both humbling and beautiful.
His torture and humiliation bad as it was, was also so very good. It was the goodness of God personified, showing his willingness to endure it all for US. Equally as bad, was what he endured the night before his crucifixion. As he prayed in the Garden, asking his Father to let this cup of suffering pass from him, blood vessels burst in his head as he agonized in prayer. Great was his wrestle between his flesh not wanting to suffer and his heart to fulfill his mission.
Seven hundred years earlier Isaiah prophesied…
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all “(Isaiah 53:5–6 NKJV)
I’ve tried to imagine the things going through Jesus mind that week. Was it difficult to sleep for thinking of all that would happen? Surely he’d seen a crucifixion in his 33 years on earth. Did he lose his appetite? Was the weight of this part of his suffering? None of us know for sure, but I imagine as a human, he was deeply troubled.
Ann Voscamp stated, “However hard this week is, this was Jesus’ hard week, and He overcame and if we come to Him, we can too.” There is obviously no comparison to our handful of pesky troubles with Jesus’ suffering, but our hard is still hard for us.
Jesus knew he couldn’t bypass his trial; he must go through it. This last year was a lot of loss, a lot of change, a lot of hard. Some of us lost people, we all lost a bit of freedom. But I like to think of all the things we gained. Time…. we gained time with our kids without all of the distractions, time to savor the life we were letting slip by, time to reflect on just what it is we have, each other.
I think perspective is one of the most valuable things we can have. Without perspective we cannot see what our struggles can produce. I don’t know what we are all struggling with currently. It may be very difficult. But what I do know is that how we get through it is of the utmost importance.
We have a choice. We can choose to think of how difficult it is, how much we wish we didn’t have to go through it at all, how unfair life seems to be right now, OR we can choose to embrace the loss, the struggle, the pain and look forward with hope that God can take it and make something beautiful out of it. Because after all, He can.
Ann states, “After a year of losses, this Lent asks us to embrace the depths of loss-and embrace all of the Hope of God.” Hope gives us the ability to see the trouble in a different light. To see the possibilities ahead instead of seeing the end of something.
I want to challenge all of us to take some time this week and write down what we see as a challenge. Then take that paper and offer it up to Jesus. Hold it up and say…
Jesus, you died to save me but also to give me victory. I have this list and it seems really hard to me. But it’s not for you. Take these struggles and turn them into triumph. Turn what the enemy means for my harm into good for me. I give you all of it….in Jesus name amen.