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Jesus’s Greatest Moments of Willing Suffering
He Submitted to Weakness
This moment in the final days of Jesus might seem, on the surface, to be a moment of defeat:
The soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. (Mark 15:16–20)
You might read this and think, Where was Jesus’s power? Why didn’t he do something? Why did he just stand there and take the abuse? Some looked at this moment and concluded that this couldn’t be the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Why didn’t Jesus call down an army of angels to deal with these blasphemous torturers? How could he let them mock his divine kingship?
Everyday Gospel Easter Devotional
Paul David Tripp
Paul David Tripp offers 30 selected readings for Easter, adapted from his book Everyday Gospel, with questions to help readers reflect on and celebrate how the resurrection of Jesus Christ radically changes life today.
But we know that this was far from a moment of weakness. Jesus was not weakly succumbing to humans who hated him and wanted to harm him. No, in this moment Jesus was committed to his eternal redemptive plan; he knew exactly what he was doing. He refused to be diverted. He did not rise to his own defense. He did not let mockery or physical pain cause him to abandon his substitutionary mission. He did not come to earth for his own pleasure, comfort, or acclaim. He could not give in and save himself, because through his suffering he would deliver salvation to multitudes. Jesus’s response to this torture did not mock his identity; it was his identity (see Isaiah 53).
You and I should see through the apparent weakness and be blown away by Jesus’s divine power. Rather than a show of defeat and weakness, what we witness here is a display of redemptive victory and strength. Jesus knew that his suffering was part of the plan that his Father had established before the world began. He knew the glory of grace that his suffering would unleash. He stood there with the worshiping multitudes in mind, the redeemed from all times and from every tongue and nation. He endured the torture and mockery for you and me. What appeared to be a defeat was another step in the success of his great redemptive mission. Jesus’s power was on display, and his power is our hope.
Now, by grace, that same power is ours as the children of God. We stand in both his power and his victory. In him we have the power to stand true in the face of mockery and suffering. When we are mocked, we do not have to be afraid or retaliate, but we can do what Jesus did. We can commend ourselves into the care of our heavenly Father, knowing that he will vindicate us in the end.
A Perfect Substitute
Matthew 27 records a terrible and dark moment of suffering for Jesus as he hung on the cross:
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. (Matt. 27:45–50)
Celebrate today that, as a child of God, you will never be forsaken.
The physical darkness that enveloped the earth for three hours signified how dark that time on the cross truly was. Yes, the scourging of Jesus was horrible, and it is impossible to imagine the pain he experienced when they drove nails through his hands and then hoisted him onto the cross like a cut of beef. None of that physical pain, however, came close to the trauma Jesus went through when he cried, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” But that horribly dark and painful moment was at the same time a moment of glorious, undeserved grace.
Jesus lived a perfect life as our substitute. In our place, he faced all the temptations that we face, yet without sin. Then he hung on the cross as our substitute, carrying the heavy load of our sin. He hung there, willingly taking the punishment that we deserved. But as he experienced our rejection, he cried out in emotional and spiritual agony. It seems unthinkable that the Father would ever separate himself from the Son. And the Trinity cannot be separated. But in these words, the man Jesus testified to the fact that, for our redemption, he was separated from the Father: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus came to earth knowing his job description. He knew that he was coming as the sacrificial Lamb. He knew there would be a decisive redemptive moment when the Father would not exercise his almighty power to come to his rescue. As a man Jesus would hang between heaven and earth, utterly forsaken and alone, rejected not just by his fellow man, but by his heavenly Father. This was necessary so that what was impossible for us to accomplish on our own would be God’s gift to us: sin defeated, forgiveness granted, and reconciliation accomplished.
Jesus’s humanity endured the Father’s rejection so that the children of his grace never would. He was willing to be left utterly alone, so that we would never be alone. He endured the full extent of the Father’s anger, so that his anger would never fall on us again. Celebrate today that, as a child of God, you will never be forsaken. Hanging between heaven and earth, Jesus settled that once and for all. His redeeming love for you will never be broken.
This article is adapted from Everyday Gospel Easter Devotional by Paul David Tripp.
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