Transformed Through Suffering

Why is Good Friday referred to as “good”? What the Jewish authorities and Romans did to Jesus was not good. However, the results of Christ’s death are very good! , “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

This week practicing spiritual distancing finds us intentionally retreating to our own mountaintop or garden to talk with and listen to the father giving intimate, solemnity to the passion of Jesus. This pandemic is teaching us something profound that parallels Holy Week in that human suffering is universal and transformative. Right now, we have all been given the gift of pain.

As followers of Christ, we are not saved from, pain but rather we are saved through pain.

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many. () In this declaration we see salvation through suffering in Christ’s life given up in death to pay the price for all guilty people. In giving his life we grasp the suffering was voluntary and resolute. By Christ’s own wounds we are healed.

But he was pierced for our transgressions (disobediences), He was crushed for our iniquities (sins); the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ()

Because we serve a suffering God, we can see God in our own suffering and in the suffering of others.

Throughout the entire biblical story, we see this central theme of suffering, of dying and rising again. An example from Jesus’ teaching is found in John’s Gospel, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it bears much fruit.” Holy Week reminds us that if we are to be born again, we must first die. Pain is a moving teacher reminding us that before we will rise up, we most assuredly will go down.

veryone is hurting. Everyone is suffering. Instead of trying to escape the pain, lets spiritually distance ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to use our suffering as a vehicle toward transformation. How can we model this practice of dying and rising for our families? What needs to die in your life for you to truly rise in Christ’s faith? If we all commit to heeding these questions in this Holy Week, Easter blessings will still be ours that no disease or pandemic can or will ever take away.