Jesus, Our Suffering Savior

Today we remember, and think in our hearts about the suffering of Jesus.

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? ² My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. ³ He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Isaiah's prophecy speaks to the suffering of Jesus, as He was scourged, beaten, a crown of thorns pressed on His head, and then made to go up the road called the Via Dolorosa bearing the weight of the crossbeam of the cross He was to be crucified on.

Matthew 27:³² Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. ³³ And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). ³⁴ The soldiers gave Jesus wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.

The Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem is 600 meters or over two football fields in length, known as the Way of Sorrow. This distance through Jerusalem to Golgotha was lined with people mocking Jesus as He carried His cross to the place of the skull. This is traditionally the route Jesus carried His cross, and it is still considered the route of Jesus, even though there is one other route thought to be the way Jesus walked with the cross. Whichever route, it was filled with the suffering of our Savior as He walked and carried the cross.

Isaiah prophesied what Jesus was carrying when He went to the cross. Isaiah 53: ⁴ Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! ⁵ But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole.

He was whipped so we could be healed. ⁶ All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. The weight of our sins. Hmm. What a weight that must have been!! Yet He carried it and finished the course, which helps us realize what a challenge it really was, and it was for you and me. Paul challenged Timothy to finish well, also, and in his 2 letter to Timothy Paul writes the following words. 2 Timothy 4:⁶ As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. ⁸ And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

When we take up our cross and follow Jesus, as He commanded, we are following the perfect example of a servant. It is not a slam against us to be like a servant when that servant example is Jesus, our suffering Savior. Thus, the following words hit us deep. Luke 9:²³ Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren