The Suffering Messiah and his Suffering People

Introduction

Nowadays, in 21st Century Scotland we’re built for comfort. As we make choices in life, often we make decisions motivated by our own comfort. For example, how easy it is to jump in the car unneccesarrily for a quick 5 minute journey rather than decide to take the longer 20 minute walk. Whenever we are inconvenienced by something in life, more often than not, an entrepreneur has identified that inconvenience before you, created a product, and has it ready for you to buy. We are very rarely in need, if at all, today.

However, in Jesus, we have one who chose a different path and calls his followers to a different path too, a path of suffering. But also, in the same way as we follow our saviour into suffering for his sake, surely we also follow him in his resurrection from the dead. Just as Jesus suffered before being raised from the dead, so also Christians when they suffer are assured that one day their suffering will give way to victory in the resurrection. And that is after all what makes this temporary experience of suffering worthwhile, what awaits us - resurrection.

Now, obviously a life of suffering for being a Christian in our context will look differently to what it looked like in the first century but we will get to that a little bit later on. Let’s first look at the path which Jesus himself chose in ‘the suffering messiah’

The Suffering Messiah

The context into which Jesus spoke these words is following on directly from Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah - God’s King. The text we have today is Jesus fleshing out more clearly what it means that he is the Messiah, namely, that he will suffer, be crucified, and rise again from the dead.

v31 “… that the Son of Man must suffer many things...”

Jesus is not saying only that he will suffer but that he must suffer. But why? There are many reasons why it was necessary that he must suffer, but one of them is found in Jesus’ great mission statement in Mark’s gospel, his whole purpose for coming was that he might give his life as a ransom for many (Mk. 10:45). That at the cross, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19). We were far from him, estranged from him, yet he came to earth that he might give his life to win us back.

v31 “… and after three days rise again.”

Now, of course the story of Jesus is not just one of miserable suffering with a sudden and abrupt end in his death, Jesus also rose from the dead. Not only was it necesarry for him to die, but also it was necesarry for him to rise. Paul, in essence, says in 1 Corinthians 15 “If Jesus is not raised, we might as well pack up and go home because our faith is for nothing.” No, it was essential that Jesus was raised for our salvation.

v32 “And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.”

A shocking moment in the gospels where the creator of Peter is being given a sharp telling off by Peter. And in light of us seeing the grand picture of the Bible in its entirety, we might be tempted to say “come on Peter, get with the program, duh!” But it’s really understandable that Peter is horrified by this picture of God’s chosen King suffering

Think of the horror felt by Americans on November 22nd 1963 as their president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Or even our own shock and sadness at the passing of Princess Diana in August 31st 1997. Leaders don’t die, they’re a symbol of a nations’ strength and might. In the same way, Peter was horrified that his Messiah, Jesus, would die.

God’s King suffering -  This would have been a shock to the system for Peter and the disciples. The popular idea of what the Messiah would be like was a triumphant Messiah, victorious over Israel’s political enemies which is contrasted here in the extreme with a suffering messiah who would die at the hands of others. Jesus would suffer on the cross, a roman torture device. The one who they thought was going to overthrow the Romans died on the Romans’ primary device of torture.

From our perspective - it’s quite easy for us to be used to Jesus’ death and not give it much of a thought but even for us this is counter cultural. Our idea of greatness certainly isn’t death, our idea of strength is not to be made subject to anyone or anything. And so for a king, especially God’s King to be talking about his being put to death, it surely even evokes in us a shocked and surprised response.

33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Jesus now rebukes Peter but for good reason. He brings Peter back to an understanding of the cross of Christ from God’s point of view. This wasn’t an easy adjustment for Peter, he even tried to defend Jesus at his arrest to prevent Jesus’ arrest and death. Yet Peter came to understand the necessity of Jesus’ crucifixion. In his sermon at Pentecost he speaks of Jesus’ death being according to the “foreknowledge and definite plan of God” (Acts 2:23).

His Suffering People

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The path of Jesus is to be the path of his followers. The necessity of Jesus suffering, his death on the cross before a glorious resurrection is paralleled by the necessity of the suffering of his disciples for Jesus’ sake, before their resurrection!

It’s easy to idolise comfort, safety, and security in Scotland in 2021, partly because we are fortunate to live with very little persecution and opposition today and have gotten used to it. Also its easy to idolise comfort because quite frankly feeling comfortable and secure is a nice feeling!

Think of television shows or movie’s, very rarely do they show life with people really hard up, struggling financially and materially. Often the people on these movies are living comfortable lives. Nice home, cars, jobs, and that translates into our lives where we expect the same in our life.

But to follow Jesus does not mean that we only follow when it’s easy, when we know the love of our church family, or when we sit with the ability to freely read our bible and enjoy the glorious truths of the gospel. But, to follow Jesus means also that we be willing to suffer for him. Paul the Apostle captures this well:

… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)

“35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

The Christian life is one of glorious resurrection, life, light, and joy. But it’s also one of knowing the sufferings of Christ, sharing the sufferings of Christ. You can’t have one without the other. But when we live as Christians accepted by Jesus through his death in our place, we live in the joys of eternal life, but also in the experience of suffering for Jesus.

Yet, resurrection and suffering are not separated as two distinct aspects of Christian living, but one fuels the other. Our ability to endure suffering is fueled by the reality of our promised resurrection. Peter - the one who Jesus corrected for neglecting the aspect of a suffering Messiah - writes in the New Testament about the realities of resurrection that are ours in Jesus (1 Pet. 1:3-12) before then writing about the call for Christian’s to suffer for doing good (1 Pet. 3:8-22).

When we suffer as Christians, we do not do so in a dull, depressing life of misery with nothing to look forward to, we suffer as we look forward to the realities of resurrection. Jesus’ call to us is the paradoxical losing our life in order to gain eternal life - in other words - not clinging to earthly comforts and securities in order to save our life on earth at the expense of our witness to others about Jesus, but rather forsaking earthly comforts to witness to others about Jesus.

What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world, yet forfeit his soul/What would it profit you if you gained all the likability and friendships of everyone you met, yet in the process forfeit friendship with God?

What does suffering for Jesus look like for us today where we are most likely never to be killed for being his followers? Well, I think for Jesus’ followers today in a very basic sense it means not being afraid to be disliked for believing and speaking about what the Bible teaches. What I’m not saying is that we intentionally go out of our way to be divisive, hurtful, hateful, or be antagonistic, nor am I saying that we should thoughtlessly just blurt out whatever truth the Bible teaches as it seems relevant to us. We must engage thoughtfully, considerately and carefully with others, but we must engage.

What I am saying is that most, if not all of us, have a tendency to idolise being liked by others which means that for many of us - myself included - there will have been times where we felt like we should say something about Jesus, or someone has done something wrong (inside or outside of the church) and out of a desire to be liked, we kept our mouths from saying anything.

What does it mean to walk in the path of Jesus’ sufferings today? It means denying ourselves the comfort and safety of being liked by everyone, knowing that we are not simply liked by Jesus, but we are loved by him. Jesus would endure mockery and hatred to bring us back to himself. Out of that safety of knowing we have the approval of God in Jesus, we can deny ourselves the comfort of always being liked all the time by everyone and when appropriate speak the truths of Jesus to those around us. It means speaking to our dear friends and family members, to our neighbours at appropriate points. It means when somebody asks for the reason for your hope, you have nothing to fear, but rather can share the truths of Jesus.

To clarify - as Christian’s, our life is a life of self-denial, of following in our saviour’s footsteps and suffering for his sake before being raised like him. But suffering for him is not to be accepted by him, but because in him we are loved and accepted. When we suffer for Jesus, we do so as those loved by him and because we are loved by him we can be assured he will keep us until our resurrection.