Jesus' Suffering and Death

Jesus, Suffered and Died – Manuscript Our Scripture this morning is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews 2:10-18. Hebrews is found about halfway through the New Testament. It can be found after the Gospels and Paul’s letters and right before James’ letter. I invite you to follow along as I read Hebrews 2:10-18. 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. 1 This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Prayer of Illumination: Lord, our God, in the reading and proclamation of your Word, we pray you will illumine our minds and hearts so that we may hear and understand your Word, know and live according to your Word, and become living letters of your Word, equipped to follow Jesus in every part of our lives, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through Christ our Lord, the living Word. Amen. There’s a symbol that many of us wear on our clothes or on jewelry that would have been inconceivable to a first century Roman. They would look at our bulletin cover and be aghast. They would see a cross and they instantly knew that those who hung on it were convicted felons. It would be like someone today wearing a little golden electric chair around their neck. The cross, much like the electric chair, was a sign of suffering and death; something reserved for the most dangerous of criminals. And yet, from the earliest days of the Church, our main symbol has been the cross. Why? There are other less jarring symbols that they could have chosen, like a dove, a lamb, or a fish. So why the cross? Because at the absolute center of the Christian faith is the fact that Jesus suffered and died on a cross. We are continuing our series on the Apostles’ Creed this morning. Last week, we began looking at the section of the Creed that focuses on Jesus Christ and saw that he is savior. Today, we’re going to look at how he accomplished salvation. As we look at this passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews we’ll see that Jesus actually suffered and why that matters, and that Jesus died and what it accomplishes. He Suffered The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us in verse 10, “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”2 While there is a lot there and if we had more time, I would spend more time on the first half of this verse. But what I want you to notice for the context of this sermon is the last phrase, “should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering”. The founder of our salvation, Jesus the Christ, was perfected through suffering. One commentator puts it like this, “God qualified Jesus to come before him in priestly action. He perfected him as a priest of his people through his sufferings, which permitted him to accomplish his redemptive mission”.3 What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that suffering is an integral part of the redemption found in Jesus; that for him to redeem his people he needed to suffer. This suffering is found throughout Jesus’ life. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 2 that “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”4 Since he took on the likeness of men, he was subjected to all of the suffering that we experience. He felt the suffering of colds, scraped knees, and other physical aches. The Apostle John tells us that as Jesus and the disciples were going from Judah to Galilee, they had to stop in Samaria because Jesus was physically tired (John 4). He took on our suffering even in the basics of living life as human. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, God incarnate, bore the same sufferings that you and I bear. While he suffered the same things that each and every person suffers, when it tells us that Jesus suffered it especially refers to the cross. Crucifixion is quite possibly the most awful, terrible form of execution the world has ever invented. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion, they seemed to have perfected the sadism and cruelty. They invented a word to describe the horrors and pain found in crucifixion, excruciating; literally, from the cross. It was awful and terrible. The person being crucified would be flogged, beaten with a whip. But it wasn’t just any whip, it was a cat o’ nine tails. That was a whip that had nine separate ends with shards of glass, bone, and poetry attached to the ends. The back would be torn to pieces from the flogging they received. We’re told that before Jesus was flogged, that various members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council, took turns punching him and beating him. They hit them then they would mock him by commanding him to prophesy who had hit him. After the flogging, the person being crucified had to carry the crossbeam to wherever they were being crucified. When that person finally reached the place of crucifixion, the victim’s arms were nailed to the crossbeam ever so slightly above their shoulders. Death from crucifixion might take days as the victim struggled to keep their shoulders and chest up for air to enter the lungs. Jesus suffered all of this physical agony. But more than that, Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross. On the cross, God the Father poured out his wrath for all the sins of those who believe, past, present, and future. That’s what Jesus means when he says he thirsts in John 19. In biblical imagery, to thirst is to experience divine judgment. The biblical writers lived in an arid, desert climate. They understood what it meant to thirst. At first, the mouth is parched and dry. But the longer someone went without water, the greater the thirst became until the insides started to burn and shrivel up. When the biblical writers speak of “thirst” what they’re telling us is that there is something our souls need just like our bodies need water or else they’ll dry up and shrivel away. Our souls need God. That’s what Jesus is experiencing on the cross. He is experiencing the drying and shriveling of all of us who would believe so we wouldn’t. He suffers so we can have his comfort; he drinks the cup of wrath so we can drink the cup of fellowship. It matters that he suffered. We’re told why in verses 17 and 18 “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”5 He suffered so that he could help us. One of my favorite shows is called Timeless. It’s a show about a group of people trying to save the world by time travelling. I know, very realistic. After an incident while time travelling, one of the characters starts to have visions of the future. In one of the visions she sees her boyfriend pointing a gun at someone else. Her boyfriend dismisses it and says that he doesn’t believe in fate or God or anything beyond the material world. He confesses that he witnessed his mother constantly say “God will provide” even as she lay suffering on her deathbed. It was then, after seeing his mother suffer like she did that he lost all faith. Maybe some of you have seen more than your fair share of suffering. The 20th century brought out some of the worst horrors we have ever seen. Various wars with terrible gasses and agents that slowly cause some to go blind or die; Hitler’s death camps; the ethnic cleansing in Russia, China, and other places. Maybe you’ve seen that and you conclude God doesn’t exist. But don’t you see if Christianity is true, God suffered. Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, suffered. Alister McGrath, a British theologian, writes this, “The suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary does not explain suffering. It does, however, reveal that God himself is willing and able to allow himself to be subject to all the pain and suffering that his creation experiences… God knows what it is like to be human - an astonishing and comforting thought. God is not like a general who issues orders to his troops from the safety of a bomb-proof shelter, miles away from the front line, but one who leads his troops from the front, having previously done all that he asks them to do in turn. If God asks us to suffer on his behalf, it is because he has already suffered on our behalf.”6 What other faith says that God himself suffered? None. Every other faith wants to separate God and suffering. In Eastern philosophy, suffering is just an illusion so the gods can’t actually suffer. In Islam, god is removed from the world to the point that it’s inconceivable for god to suffer. But in Christianity, God himself suffered and he suffered at the cross. Christianity is the only faith that says God suffered. And that means God understands what it’s like when we suffer. No matter what suffering we experience in this life, we can turn to Jesus and know that he understands. He understands because he experienced it on the cross. And because he experienced it, he can help us in it. That’s why the best counselors are those who have experienced the same thing themselves. One of my best friends is a recovering sex addict. He also is a trained mental health professional and runs a handful of counseling and support groups. The reason he is able to help them is because he understands. So we can turn to Jesus and know he fully understand our sufferings and temptations because he suffered himself. He Died The author to the Epistle to the Hebrews also tells us that Jesus died. In verses 14 and 15 he writes, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”7 Jesus truly died on the cross. He didn’t swoon or faint as some theorize. He died. Anyone flogged and beaten as he was and then nailed to a cross where he would slowly suffocate would die. If that wasn’t enough, we’re told that the centurion presiding over his death pierced Jesus’ heart with his spear. He was dead. Sometimes churches will add this line, “And he descended into hell” after stating that Jesus died. That phrase has caused some controversy in recent years. This might surprise you, but I actually am in favor of that line. See, originally hell was the word to refer to the land of the dead. It’s the Latin equivalent to Sheol found in the Old Testament. But over time, it took on the meaning of Hades, the place of eternal damnation. I’m very much in favor of the first sense of the word. Jesus died and descended to the land of the dead. That makes it incredibly clear that Jesus truly died. He didn’t appear to die; he actually died. Yes he is God-incarnate but he still suffered the same fate as every human, he died. His divinity does not compromise his humanity. That’s important because of what Jesus’ death accomplishes. We’re told that because he truly died, he destroyed “the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil”. There’s an incredible irony here that’s not lost on the biblical writers. By dying, Jesus defeated death. His death is the end of death’s power of humanity. Death is an interloper in God’s creation. It’s not part of God’s original design. Death entered in through Adam’s trespass and has kept humanity enslaved since then. But Jesus defeated death by dying. What that accomplishes is the deliverance of all of those who believe from the power of sin and death. We are redeemed. Those who believe and trust Jesus are delivered from the powers of sin and death; they’re delivered from Satan’s domain to God’s kingdom. Those who believe and trust are redeemed; there’s nothing they need to do for that. The very last thing Jesus says before he dies is “it is finished”. In Greek, the tense of the word finished means completely, absolutely, utterly finished. Nothing to do. It is used when a debt had been paid. The bill would be stamped with the word finished. No more payments, no more interest; it is finished. Jesus is saying, “My death paid the bill. There’s nothing for you to pay. It is finished.” Compare that with Buddha’s last words. Buddha’s last words were, “Continue striving”. He was telling his followers, “The bill isn’t paid. There’s still money you owe and it’s accruing interest”. That’s the difference between religion and Christianity. The difference is “continue striving because you need to pay off the debt and hopefully God accepts you”, religion, and “it’s finished. I’ve paid it all” the gospel. Jesus’ death accomplishes our redemption and deliverance. What that means is that we don’t need to strive; we don’t need to pay the debt ourselves. Unfortunately most of us don’t believe that. As far as I can tell that manifests itself in two ways. First, it manifests itself in spiritual insignificance, an inferiority complex. Often people say, “I need to clean myself up before I go to God”. I’ve heard people say that constantly. They don’t believe that Jesus’ death has actually accomplished redemption for them; they don’t believe it’s finished. So they continue to strive and try to pay a debt they can’t actually pay. Second, it manifests itself in spiritual pride, a superiority complex. In those who don’t believe but have this veneer of spiritual pride often look down their nose at others. They might think, “I’d never do that. I know better”. This is hypocrisy at its finest. Unfortunately that’s how much of country views Christians. They view us as people who think they’re holier-than-thou and look down their noses at those who dress differently or those who have failed somehow morally. See those who have this veneer of spiritual pride don’t believe Jesus’ death accomplished redemption either. Instead of continuing to strive like those who have an inferiority complex, they think they’ve paid it themselves. They think they have redeemed themselves through their hard work and morality and expect others to do the same. But Jesus’ death actually accomplishes redemption, it finishes the work. To those who have an inferiority complex, believe they are spiritually insignificant, Jesus says, “My death accomplished your redemption. I have delivered you. It is finished. Trust me.” To those who have a superiority complex, a spiritual pride, Jesus says, “My death accomplished your redemption. I have delivered you. I am the one who finished the work. Trust me.” The cross is absolutely central to Christianity. Many of us will continue to wear it as necklaces or pins; I’ll continue to proudly display one on my desk. People might find it odd that we would adorn ourselves and offices with a symbol of suffering and death. But we do it because we know that through Jesus’ suffering we have a great high priest who bore all of our shame and guilt; that he knows what it is to suffer. We do it because we know that Jesus’ death accomplishes our redemption and deliverance. Let us pray.