As if Dying Wasn't Enough

As if dying wasn’t enough.

As if the act of crucifixion alone wasn’t enough.

Why did you let them hurt you so badly? 

Shred your skin with whips.

Rivers of blood from a crown made of thorns, impaled in your scalp, dripping, burning into your eyes, into your mouth while the ENTIRE regiment of soldiers mocked you. They spit on you. 

Did you cry out or did you stay silent? Were you sad, or angry, or resolved? 

You must have felt so alone--

How lonely do we feel in our own suffering? In our loss, in our lack. In grief, in pain.

Loss of loved ones, of our children, of our parents. 

Our own bodies fail us.

Betrayal.

A dream shattered.
Loss of our innocence. Abuse and pain inflicted by others. 

Affliction brought on by our own hands and choices.

But my dear ones, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. 

Remember, beloved, Jesus experienced all of these. 

And he did it for us. 

Jesus felt the real physical pain in his body. Felt real emotional and spiritual distress. He experienced the abandonment of his best friends and family.

Forsaken by His Father. 

He joins us in our suffering. He follows us into our darkness and sits in it with us. 

Paul writes this in Romans

For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full right as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

I invite you to let yourself go there, to your pain, your suffering WITH Jesus. 

Maybe it’s on the surface, overwhelming, and you’re drowning in it. 

Maybe it’s buried deep deep deep and hidden. 

Take a breath and tell Jesus about it. Show Him. Let Him sit in it with you. Let Him grieve it with you. Let Him speak to you in it. Listen. Let Him hold you close. 

You are not alone. 

Jesus’ suffering was not the end of His story

It is not the end of yours. 

Resurrection is coming.