SUFFERING
SERVANT
Fourth
part of nine in Who is Jesus? Advent series
Matthew
20:18: “We are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests
and teachers of the law. They will
condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked,
flogged, and crucified.”
Jesus advised His disciples where
they’re headed and why. His face was
set. Nothing or no one could change His
mind now. His determination to fulfill
the Father’s will was strengthened by Moses and Elijah recently at His
Transfiguration (Matthew 17).
Doesn’t it encourage us when we see the human part of
Jesus needing strength? Naturally, His
mind overflowed with His LAST trip to Jerusalem.
Just consider these passages (that Jesus knew) from
Isaiah 53:
Verse 3, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Verse 4, “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried
our sorrows,
Verse 5, “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He
was crushed for our iniquities;
Verse 6b, “and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of
us all.
Verse 7, “He was oppressed and afflicted, … He was led
like a lamb to the slaughter,
Verse 8, “By oppression and judgment He was taken away.”
But, WHY?
Verse 10, “yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and
cause Him to suffer,”
People think of suffering on a scale of 1-10. One being not too bad, and ten being
excruciatingly unbearable. Jesus
suffered the whole scale of suffering (for us), but only screamed out
once. His screamed anguish did not come
from the last verse, Isaiah 53:10.
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”
Matthew 27:46 translates that
as, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus’ anguish came from the Father’s unprecedented absence (because Holy God
cannot look upon sin), not from Jesus’ physical pain.
Think about that.
How much pain can you take before screaming—and that’s usually physical
pain! Jesus couldn’t bear the Father’s
leaving Him alone. This is how close a
relationship to our heavenly Father that Believers-in-Christ ought to
have!
Check out the lesson linked below, for Jesus’ coming to
earth as a servant.
Take
Home Nugget
Two more descriptions of Jesus come from others. John the Baptist said in John 1:29, “Look,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world!” (Emphasis added).
The other comes from Revelation 5:5: “Then one of the
elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
Root of David has triumphed. He is able
to open the scroll and its seven seals.’”
(Emphasis added).
Holy Jesus, please strengthen us during
our time of suffering! Amen.
Adapted from
“There’s a Title for That” by John UpChurch.
Crosswalk.com Contributor.
November 4, 2016,
J.D. Griffith
Here’s an eBook by J.D. Griffith:
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