Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - July/92

Contributor - Wim Meijer

Title - I Believe.. In Communion With The Church Of All Ages And Places: What Is Suffering?

Topic - Suffering

That is what the Heidelberg Catechism asks in Question 37: "What do you understand by the word 'suffered'?" I know a lot of people who are perfectly able to answer this question. Ask those millions of people who suffer from hunger. Ask an AIDS patient, or someone who copes with terminal cancer. Ask a woman who is abused by her husband. Ask a farmer whose family farm of decades is on the verge of bankruptcy. It is not necessary to continue this list. We all know people who can explain to us what "suffering" means. Maybe you know it from your own experience. The Catechism, however, is not just asking about suffering in general, but about the suffering of one person in particular, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We confess in the Apostles' Creed: "He suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell." This world is full of suffering. Your life may be full of suffering. Yet the suffering of this Man is unique, and deserves our special attention.

The things He suffered.

The Catechism teaches us that Jesus especially suffered at the end of His life", but also "during His whole life on earth". Many things can be listed that have contributed to His suffering.

1) Read Phil. 2: 5-8. In becoming man Christ left behind the highest form of blessedness in heaven, where He lived in perfect glory together with the Father.

2) He experienced all the weaknesses and the pains of the human nature: hunger, weariness, sadness, physical pain, etc.

3) He was poor. "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has no where to lay His head." (Matth. 8:20)

4) He was despised and subject to slander, rejection, lies, blaspheme. We must realize that He received this treatment from His own people for whom He had come into the world to be their Saviour. Even His disciples, who were so close to Him, often did not understand Him and increased His suffering by their unbelief.

5) He was tempted by Satan, in the beginning of His ministry, but also later when Satan made use of Simon Peter to keep Jesus away from the cross. (Matth. 16:23)

6) He was crucified. Crucifixion was a most cruel, and also a cursed death, only applied to the worst kind of criminals, while Roman citizens automatically were excluded from this form of capital punishment.

7) Except for the first, all these things have been suffered by countless people, and sometimes for very noble causes, as is the case with martyrs who died for their faith. However, there is one more aspect to the suffering of Jesus Christ which makes it totally unique and emphasizes its unfathomable depth. He suffered in His soul. And we become aware of this when we heard Him crying out: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He was rejected by the earth, and He was forsaken by heaven. He experienced an absent God. God may hide Himself from us for a while. But even then He is not totally absent. He still sustains our lives. But Jesus was forsaken. God no longer sustained Him. God rejected Him, condemned Him. And so Jesus experienced hell. There is some discussion on the historical meaning of the words "He descended into hell." But this is what I confess with these words: Jesus was forsaken by God. God was totally absent. And that means hell.

For our sins

The best commentary on the suffering of Jesus Christ is the prophecy of Isaiah 53. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities." Usually when we see someone suffer we become filled with sympathy. But the suffering Christ is not asking for our sympathy. He suffered for us. He deliberately gave Himself to suffer for our sins. And all He asks of you is to believe in Him and so to be saved from all your sins.

What thou, my Lord, has suffered

Was all for sinners' gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression,

But Thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Saviour,

'Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favour,

Vouch safe to me Thy grace.

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