Although
He was the Son of God, the living, human Jesus was not saved from suffering,
and He suffered so very much, for us, as the perfect expression of God’s love,
and as the Exemplar for life.
In
this — His suffering, His consummation, His passion — we can surely know He was
one-hundred percent human. (This article
is not about Jesus’ one-hundred percent divinity, as absolutely incarnate of
God, though that, in our appraisal, is irrefutable.)
He suffered more
than we could ever suffer. He was
afflicted much more, yet suffered manifestly unjustly, propounding the
injustice of suffering without cause.
And hence, He learned obedience, through withstanding temptation,
enduring the pain the Father allowed Him to bear, and by being willingly
brought to nothing, among many other rationalities the brevity of this article just
will not allow.
We could say
that how could He learn obedience when He was already supposedly sinlessly perfect?
As a human being
He still had to endure His suffering, and being human meant to withstand His
suffering was never a fait accompli. We might think that obedience for Jesus was
easy, because He was of God. But being
fully human meant that nothing we experience as humans was alleviated from
Him. He suffered humanly. He suffered as you and I do… just as you and
I do… and suffered more… without any justification.
***
Jesus had to
endure the suffering of His passion to be our Saviour. He had to practice obedience to learn obedience. And in learning obedience, by being obedient,
He shows each of us in our suffering that we learn obedience by being obedient.
There is
something salubrious in surrendering our will for His.
To suffer, through
surrender, insisting on nothing, is to know God’s blessed Presence. Partakers of the same obedient suffering of
Jesus, makes us sufferers worthy of a crown.
That crown — in this life (because there is another crown) — is a crown of humility attuned to His obedience.
The learning of
obedience is the central purpose of our lives, and we cannot learn a thing
until we’ve suffered somewhat as He
suffered.
So here is the
encouragement:
If you suffer,
you’re halfway there. You already have
His Presence. The suffering won’t change
the fact that you’re suffering. It’s
real. It’s yours, yet you’d not wish it
on another. But in that cherished place
you have a friend in Jesus — the only one, yet the all-sufficient One, who goes
with you into the darkness of your present horror.
He is not only
with you; He’s guiding you in how to suffer obediently; to bear humiliation
like no human being could without His Presence.
Jesus loans us,
via His Spirit, moment by shrill moment, the strength to bear suffering
obediently. Our reward is He teaches us
how He suffered and we learn His obedience.
Then we know
Him. Then, finally, we’re able to love
Him.
And lastly, this
suffering I talk of is not an
exclusivist thing.
We’ve all
suffered enough to know Him and love Him, but have we let Him in to help us?
Jesus demands
our honesty, our willing surrender of horrendous realities, our openness to His
Spiritual healing.
Simply people, nothing
else works.
© 2016 Steve Wickham.
No comments:
Post a Comment