Perspectives on Suffering and Evil V: The Cross             (Hebrew 2:10-18)                 2009.09.20                               Pastor Richard Yu

          At the risk of limiting the rich meanings and implications of what was accomplished on the cross, I’ll only reflect on it as it relate to the theme of evil and suffering to offer you the fifth Biblical perspective: The perspective of the cross – the suffering Christ endured. In my previous message I talked about the perspective of hidden mystery, which requires us to simply trust. It’s easy to say the word or discuss the concept, but is it easy to do? No. Nevertheless, when Christians think seriously about evil and suffering, what makes us certain that God is to be trusted is that he sent his Son to suffer an excruciating and shameful death on the cross on our behalf. The God we trust knows what our suffering is all about by his personal experience.

One of the things that would make us feel worse in our suffering is that we suffer alone – not simply suffer alone physically, but more so emotionally when we feel no one understands, or no one cares. When ministering to others, one of the things that make me less effective is when I cannot really identify with them in their condition, or relate with them in their situation. I know it, and they know it, too.

In this Hebrews passage the primary theme is the solidarity of Christ Jesus with his people. He fully identified with them in their suffering condition (vv. 16, 17). And that solidarity is affirmed in at least two ways: One, Jesus and his people are of the same family, and all of them are his brothers and sisters (vv. 11-13).  For Jesus’ solidarity with his people to be real, he also must be a true human being, with genuine flesh and blood. And we know he was indeed like us (cf. Phil. 2:6-8).

In addition, a priest must be one with those whom he represents before God. In order to serve his people as their high priest, Jesus also needed to become completely like his brothers and sisters – apart from sin, of course. One way that we can be sure of the fact that Jesus did partake of human flesh and blood in like manner is because he finally died a physical death on the cross.

The second way this passage speaks of the solidarity of Jesus with us is in his identifying with us in our suffering (vv. 9-10, 14-15, 18).

What is meant by his being made “perfect” through his suffering? If the Son is the exact representation of the Father, if all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him, if he is the perfect radiance of God’s glory, how can he be anything less than perfect? The answer: The already perfect Son of God was to be made the perfect Savior of his people; and in order to become that, he must enter into their experiences and share those experience for himself – he must endure suffering and death, which is common to human lot.

Jesus suffered not only with his people but for them; and therefore was made perfectly qualified in every way to be their high priest. He is merciful because through his own sufferings and trials he can sympathize with theirs; he is faithful because he endured to the end without wavering.

Why is all this necessary? The Bible speaks about God’s mercy as well as God’s wrath. God stands over us in wrath because he is holy; but he also stands over us in love. He is the God who loves the world (that means you and I) in such a way that he gave his one and only Son to us. He relinquishes his Son to be crucified on a cross. The cross, then, reveals the kind of God we trust.

We already know that, theologically, all sufferings come directly or indirectly from the fall; there is a sense that some temporal sufferings, such as war, natural disasters, or the like, are already a foretaste of the ultimate suffering. But in the fullness of time God sent his Son, the Word became flesh and dwell for a little while among men. Christ comes, and takes the ultimate suffering of his people, he takes our penalty, he takes the curse of sin upon himself, and that changes everything.

Yes, this suffering Servant is the son of David; “to us a Son is given,” the government is on his shoulder, he is also called the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace; he was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities; he faced the wrath of his Father so that his own people might go free. So the Christians who are thoughtful can never think of their sufferings apart from Christ’s suffering.

        A wise pastor once said, “God’s love is measured by a little hill outside Jerusalem.” When nothing seems fair, nothing seems right, and when the pain seems unbearable, don’t forget that God lost his Son. In fact he didn’t loose him, he gave. And when you can’t put all this together, at least hold on to this; because nothing else will stabilize you.

Christ died for sinners of whom I am chief. God demonstrates his love in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He who has not withheld his own Son but freely given him up for us all, how shall he not freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Do you see? What else can finally sustain you?