Christ Suffered for Us

Christ Suffered for Us

Ouch, quite the sunburn

Jesus says nobody took his life, he lay it down for us but what happened to him was evil, the men who condemned him and crucified him were responsible for their actions.  They were not some robots doing to Jesus what God had planned for them to do yet Jesus told Pilate he had no power except what was given him by God. This is one of the mysteries of God. He can use evil to fulfill His purpose even though that evil is not His will or His doing.  Christ suffering clarified my own suffering a little more this Easter. I do not want to even pretend that our suffering came close to Jesus suffering. Ours is only a bit of muscle pain compared to his, but let me imagine what it was like for Jesus mother if I had been her and Jesus were my son. I have seen his power to heal and do miracles. I have heard the incredible wisdom he speaks with, his amazing character. I am thinking he will become a great leader. More and more people are flocking to hear him. There is no one like him. I imagine that he will bring about a revival like none other for Israel if everyone listens to him and follows his lead. 

But then, there I am at the cross with only a of few of his disciples the rest are where? And I hear people say, “I’ve had it with this God. How could he abandon the best man we have ever seen? I don’t see how God could bring any good out of this.”  What would I say in that moment? I’d probably agree first I had watch them torture my son until he was almost dead and now I was watching him slowly die hanging on a cross, oh the excruciating pain that would cause a mother, and yet I am looking at the greatest, most amazing thing God could ever do for the human race.  In that moment justice and love are being satisfied; evil, sin, and death are being defeated once and for all but because I cannot fit it into my own limited understanding, I am in danger of walking away from God.  How could he make my son suffer so?

Now let us reduce that experience to my experience or let us compare it to Joseph rather.  All the suffering he faced only to save many lives later and be a great leader. The separation of our sons is not good, its hard and we do not see any good in it. But what if God looked twenty years ahead and saw something like Joseph as a great leader with influence standing before his brothers saving his now large extended family. United and one nation. It never would have happened without the suffering Joseph endured. Likewise that gun or that helium would have had no power to kill unless it was given the power from above but what we will see 20 years from now in our family or maybe even far more then our family will be different then what it would have been without this suffering and I'm believing that it will be beautiful. That does not make it right just like it did not make it right for the people who sold Joseph or threw him in prison innocently. 

When Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were told to bow to the king’s image this is what they answered, Daniel 3:17-18 Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you set up.  This is what Tim Keller says in his book Walking with God through Pain and Suffering:  On the one hand, they express a strong belief that God not only is able to rescue them but actually will rescue them. But then we are puzzled by their next sentence, beginning “But if not.”  If they are confident in God, why would they even admit the possibility of not being delivered?  The answer is that their confidence was actually in God, not in their limited understanding of what they thought he would do. They had inner assurance that God would rescue them. However, they were not so arrogant as to be sure they were “reading God right.”  They knew that God was under no obligation to operate according to their limited wisdom.  In other words, their confidence was in God himself, not in some agenda that they wanted God to promote.  They trusted in God, and that included trust that he knew better than they what should happen.  So, they were essentially saying this: We will serve him whether he conforms to our wisdom or not.  We do not defy you because we think we are going to live—we defy you because our God is God.

I have to say I was arrogant enough that I believed God would protect my children if I had faith and that I would see them grow up, I thought “I was reading God right.” but after it happened I was humble enough to realize that God was under no obligation to operate according to my limited wisdom and I chose to trust God anyway therefore whether they lived on this earth or not I would serve and believe God.

If you are new to this blog and wonder what happened to our boys you can find it in the post titled Our Story, on the web version it is featured on the right side of the screen.