“Nay, here is one despised, left out of all human reckoning; bowed with misery, and no stranger to weakness; how should we recognize that face? How should we take any account of him, a man so despised? Our weakness, and it was he who carried the weight of it, our miseries, and it was he who bore them.” (Isaiah 53:3-4)
“This is the greatest love a man can shew, that he should lay down his life for his friends …” (John 15:13)
Our Lord is called the Man of Sorrows because of the pain he suffered, as he took on the burden of every sin committed by every person who ever lived and ever will live. But on the other hand He tells us that suffering for love is a great thing, and commands us to do the same.
The painting Crucifixion, by Anatoly Shumkin, which I talked about in an earlier reflection, certainly captures His suffering and his love.
And I have no trouble at all believing that beneath all of His unimaginable physical and mental suffering He simultaneously experienced unimaginable joy.
Often I think about Jesus from the perspective of myself as a parent. As a parent, I imagine someone offering me the following deal:
“If you allow us to kill you, in exchange we will guarantee that your children and your grandchildren will have the opportunity to live forever in paradise. Not only that, but we will extend this same guarantee to cover all of your grandchildren’s children, and all of their descendants down to the end of the world.”
I would take that deal in an instant. Wouldn’t you? Not only that, I would take that deal without worrying too much about the manner in which they would kill me.
It’s not hard to imagine Jesus feeling that same way, although on an infinitely larger scale. By His death and Resurrection, by His making of Himself a sacrifice for our sins, he won the same guarantee for every person who ever lived and ever will live. But unlike you and me, He felt about every person who ever lived and ever will live the same way you and I feel about our own children. I ponder the inexpressible joy in that.
Prayer
Lord, I cannot possibly thank You in any adequate way for Your sacrifice. Please help me to never forget it. I am sorry for all the times I have forgotten You in my thoughts and actions, and in so doing added to Your suffering and subtracted from your joy.
