The Suffering Servant

"During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek."
Hebrews 5:7-10

So, how does this passage make you feel about Jesus? The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, the Alpha and the Omega, the One who was, and is, and is to come - the great almighty Son of God...reduced and humbled to a crying, weepy, submissive, and suffering servant. Surely this meek and vulnerable picture of Jesus is not accurate...or is it? I find myself initially taken aback at this portrait. I'm pretty sure that I would rather think of Jesus as a glorious victor. I think it's one of those Bible passages that catches us by surprise by upsetting our expectations.

This passage plainly slaps us in the face with the humanity of Jesus - He experienced emotion as we do, He cried and He wept, He experienced the grief that comes when a loved one dies as well as the grief that comes when a close friend betrays your trust. He experienced what it was to be hungry and homeless in addition to experiencing what it was to laugh and dance and rejoice amidst human relationships. Jesus was fully human.

Many people would tell you that Jesus' only time of suffering was during the week of His passion - the taunts, the mocking, Gethsemane, the scourging, the cross, enduring the wrath of God on our behalf. I'd even go a lot farther than that though...I think Jesus entire time on earth as the Word made Flesh was an experience in suffering. Not only did He immerse Himself in this world full of sin only to be spurned and hurt by those very people He created with fearful and wonderful love. Not only did the eternal One who was without beginning or end, subject Himself to a birth (bloody and meagre) and death (bloody and meagre) - but in His willing incarnation, He also limited Himself from the eternal relationship of love that He had always known with His Father and the Holy Spirit. It is no real stretch to argue that Jesus entire life on earth was truly an act of suffering.

So, why would the Son of God willingly humiliate Himself and endure wholesale suffering when He could have chosen not to?

For you...so that when you suffer He might be able to empathize and minister to you - understanding. But even more than that - that He might forgive your sins and grant you eternal life - our great High Priest forever - our Suffering Servant!

Thanks be to God for willingly suffering for us. O Lord give us the strength, and help us to consider it pure joy when we endure suffering of all kinds for your names sake. May we do so knowing that we are following You.

Be God's, Scott