For the past two weeks, we have been studying how Jesus suffered. The first week was about the accusations Jesus faced when He healed people who had suffered for over 30 years. Then, we watched him suffer character assassination for meeting with the dreaded tax collectors.
Last week, Roenz from William Jessup shared with you Isaiah 53, in which the suffering servant was predicted with such profound accuracy that it is chilling to read. The verse that just put such a chill in my spine I struggle to read it is verse 10 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”
If I read this correctly, the Father crushed His Son so I could walk in freedom.
What haunts me about these verses in Isaiah 53 is that I think about my suffering all too often. I suffer because I was not invited to a BBQ at someone’s house, or I get a nasty text from someone, and I think I am suffering. So I need to ask myself, am I suffering or giving myself another pity party?
I was at the Ronald McDonald House in Indianapolis, IN, this past week. You may be unaware of what they do, but they are always near a children’s hospital in most major cities. They offer families a cheap and often free place to stay when their kids are ill. Many are there for months and usually 1-2 years for very sick kids. While walking around with 60 other cleaning professionals, I often find myself confronted with the same question Isaiah 53 leaves me with: am I suffering?
I might face difficult things, but I am not suffering like Jesus, who the Father crushed. I don’t suffer the same way the disciples did. Have you ever seen how they all died?
1. Matthew
Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.
2. Mark
He died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.
3. Luke
He was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.
4. John
He faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a massive basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution In Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death.
John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison Island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
5. Peter
He was crucified upside down on an X-shaped cross.
According to church tradition, it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die In the same way that Jesus Christ had died.
6. James
The leader of the church in Jerusalem was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he had survived the fall, his
enemies beat James to death with a fuller’s club.
* This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.
7. James the Son of Zebedee,
He was a fisherman by trade when Jesus Called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched, amazed as James defended his faith at trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.
8. Bartholomew
Also known as Nathaniel, he was a missionary in Asia. He witnessed for our Lord in present-day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, where he was flayed to death by a whip.
9. Andrew
He was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers, they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. When he was led toward the cross, his followers reported that Andrew saluted it in these words: ‘I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.’ He continued to preach to his tormentors For two days until he expired.
10. Thomas
He was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the sub-continent.
11. Jude
He was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
12. Matthias
The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot was stoned and then beheaded.
13. Paul
He was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero in Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational Doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.
After looking inward, I realize I do not suffer; I sometimes face difficult situations. Christians in Muslim countries suffer, and kids who are sex trafficked suffer. I have close friends who have lost children, and their suffering is tough. One more reason to pull the pity log out of my eye and keep my eyes up so I can see how blessed I am. See you this Sunday at 9:30 AM for Palm Sunday.