Christ the Suffering Servant

Bro Koay Kheng Hin

This is the Christmas season so I am wondering if this message is appropriate. We sing "Joy to the world" and here I am talking about the suffering servant. But I believe after the message we will find Christmas even more meaningful.

I met with a young man and when I say young he is about 40 and I say still young man. He is an unbeliever and he said life is full of suffering. 

As we look into the Bible where man say life is suffering,  to the religious tradition and philosophers,  they only touched on half truths.

When we look at life, there is no way it is just ups with no downs. Life is about uncertainty. Sometimes that uncertainty can come through a visit to a doctor, or a boss calling you into his room, or one fine day you go home and your wife say I no longer can stay with you, or a call comes in and it bears bad news.

One day I said this at a wake service. The one thing about the certainty of life is the certainty of uncertainty. You cannot wake up one day and say you have your future in your hands.

If you know there are uncertainties in life, we know that good prosperous times will be interjected with suffering and pain, we need to ask this question - if down the line, we meet a challenge that challenges us, have we ever thought how we will tackle it?

There are 3 ways people handle suffering.

One is they fear suffering and they put it on the back burner. They say it will happen to everyone but me. That is the fear of suffering.

The second one is they realise it will happen but what to do? Suffer also suffer la because we are born to suffer.

And of course there are those who say everything is an illusion. You can say in so many ways pain is an illusion but when he has a toothache he will know how real pain is.

How do the children of God handle suffering?

Fear of suffering is not the way. Denying it is also not it. I believe it is to embrace suffering. Embrace suffering is not to want suffering. Not to wish for suffering. If you do I'll send you to Lam Wah Ee psychiatric ward. Something is seriously wrong with you if you look for suffering.

So what is embracing suffering? To embrace is first and foremost to accept it and that it is real and true. And we all do have a problem. But it does not stop there. It is more than to accept it as reality. It is to go beyond acceptance but know that we have victory over that suffering.

What is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever that is not well? I had a non-Christian friend who was unwell and the words that came out was he has no hope. And why it happened to me? What can I do or look to alternative medicine? You can see he is in despair.

But we see some of our Christian friends who have also been unwell. And some say they are fine. And they have peace and they have left their life in the hands of the almighty God. And that God will pull him through. He is not well but he is okay. It's true.

The child of God has embraced his suffering and he also knows he will have victory.

My mother is not well and she has gone for a review this morning. But my mother encourages me more than I encourage her. She say don't worry so much. Every day is a blessing from God. She is much more at rest than me. At times I also suffer wondering. But she is an encouragement to me. Why? She has embraced that life will have mortality. But in Christ she knows she has victory and the grace of God is sufficient for her.

When we go through a time of need, as children of God we run to God. Even unbelievers will run to God but we run in the right direction.

Yes in the time of need we look to God and come to Christ but what Christ do we see? A Christ seated at the right hand of God and his deity in majesty or do we see Christ in his perfect humanity.

As much as he is the perfect God, he is at the same time the perfect man. When we say Christ the Suffering servant we see Christ as the perfect man.

Isaiah 53:3

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Jesus was a man of sorrow. He was like one where man hide from his face. He was despised. That is our suffering Saviour.

Isaiah 53:4-5

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:6

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He carried our sorrows. It was all for us. He was familiar with suffering and was physically pierced.

Now we want to look at the Christmas Story and see how it mirrors these verses. Here we see Jesus just before going to the cross.

Matthew 26:38

Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

This is the picture of a man in sorrow and suffering. The story tells us that Judas came and betrayed Jesus to be arrested. How did Jesus addressed Judas? He called him friend. Jesus faced betrayal from a man he has discipled for 3 years.

In Jesus the man, his humanity is real. He hungers and thirst just like us, but Jesus calls him friend. Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver which is the worth of a slave. Jesus was betrayed.

Peter was always the first to protect Jesus. But Jesus already knew. When Jesus was arrested, Peter denied Jesus not once but three times. You must know how Jesus feels.

Then came the physical pain. If you saw the Passion of Christ, you'll know how it was. He has both emotional and physical pain. Today's Star, an article says emotional pain can sometimes be more hurtful than physical pain. A cut can heal but emotional pain can last a lifetime.

I want to tell you the feeling of being rejected is very real. Finally the straw that would have broke the camel's back is this. Jesus throughout his life always had the comfort of the Father's presence and the presence of the Holy Spirit. But when the wrath of God came upon him, the presence was not felt by him.

Jesus bore the pain of the cross physically, emotionally and spiritually alone. It is the alone that is most difficult. That's why we have the befrienders. Having someone that goes through with you makes a difference. Jesus died with a broken heart. My God my God why have you forsaken me?

Jesus could have called legions of angels to come rescue him. What kept him on the cross? It was a demonstration of his love for us that kept him on the cross. Even for those that mock at him or laugh at him. Jesus said father forgive them for they know not what they do. Were they really ignorant? No. Some of those there saw his miracles. The Pharisees were there and chose to crucify him with their legalistic views. That was the grace of Christ our Lord to say forgive them.

Jesus' cries of anguish is a Christ that is poignant but also a tragic cry. Why have you forsaken me? To an unbeliever, the cross seems to be a tragedy. That Good Friday is not a good Friday. They see the cross as a tragedy. They saw an innocent man being crucified. An innocent man condemned to crucifixion. But for all of us we know. That the cross was a triumph. That in Jesus and in his statement that it is finished, he is like a Phoenix that rises. His triumph was completed when he rose again on the third day. As Christians we must understand it was for us and the life of God and it was not a tragedy but a triumph for God and for us. A triumph when the spoils were for us. But it was bought with pain and suffering and blood. And we must not take the blood of Christ for granted.

We now inherit the wholesomeness as a child of God. It is because Jesus' body was broken for us.

So now in your time of need or suffering what do you do? Our God is there. Jesus already died for you on the cross and he is there to provide, protect and to pull your through.

1. When you suffer Come to Jesus.

Hebrews 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.

When you suffer, remember He suffered even more. If you feel abandoned, He was abandoned even more. Jesus is the ultimate empathiser.

If you have a situation when your marriage goes through a problem, and you see a friend who has a perfect marriage they may not know the pain you go through. Empathising is someone who has spent time with people who has gone through what you go through. But make sure they have victory over their situation. But more so, come to Jesus. He knows what you go through. After Calvary, no one needs to be alone in their pain. He is always there and he will draw towards us. We will be enveloped by his love because he understands. When you talk to Christ and come to him he emphasises with you.

2. When suffering Look to Jesus

Hebrews 12:2-3

2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Look to Jesus like how Jesus looked up to heaven and said Father forgive them for they know not what they do. That's how you can forgive those that hurt you. Some people leave the church because of hurts. Learn to look to Jesus to forgive.

Some of us don't like bosses that can talk but don't do. But those bosses that also do and put their hands on the plough is different. There is nothing that the Lord ask of you he has not done. When he say forgive, he has forgiven. When he say sacrifice, he has sacrificed.

3. When suffering He is an Enabler

Romans 8:37

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

His life for you will enable you to go through all of your suffering and pain. In the meaningless of your suffering, you will be more than conquerors, when you embrace your suffering in him.

Suffering comes with the human condition. You will have victory over it and rise above your suffering and there is a meaning attached to it. God uses it as you look to God as Paul writes.

Romans 5:3

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

Note that we do not rejoice for suffering. We rejoice in our suffering. That's the difference. Suffering produces perseverance. That's how God moulds you. Character is moulded in the crucible of suffering.

James 1:2-4

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Maturity comes though suffering. That is spiritual maturity. But today it is twisted. There are those who says if you believe in Jesus you'll be prosperous. So the bigger your car, the more spiritual you are. They have a mistaken identity of the God they worship. They worship the god of prosperity and they call him Jesus. Or they say if you are a Christian you should not suffer. Again, they have a mistaken identity of the God they worship. Suffering is real, and Jesus went through it so will we.

As Christians we are more than conquerors in our suffering with Jesus. When you have Jesus, it is enough. For his grace is sufficient for you.