By Jeff Kennedy:
This Week In Sunday School:
For the past several weeks we have been studying about pain and suffering. Why does suffering exist, why am I suffering, how can God use my suffering to help others, and what is God’s answer to suffering. This week we’re going to look at “Does God Really Understand My Pain and Suffering?” The Bible passage is from Isaiah 53:2-12.
It’s an interesting thought, to consider whether God really understands pain and suffering. After all, He is God, the creator of all things, and the sovereign power of the universe. When He originally created all things, He did not intend for there to be any pain or suffering, but, humanity brought sin into the world, and with sin, came pain and suffering. So, if pain and suffering in the world was not what God intended, how can we know that He really understands what we go through when we suffer? The answer to this question can be found in our passage.
The prophet Isaiah is considered to be one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, if not the greatest. He minister to the people of Judah some 700 years before Jesus. Yet, God showed him many things that would come to pass with the Jesus, the messiah. In today’s passage we learn that Jesus, even though He is God, He was also human, like us. Isaiah wrote that He would be despised and rejected. Have you ever felt like that? Isaiah said that He would be a man of suffering and sickness. Have you ever been sick and miserable? Isaiah said that people would turn away from Him and not value Him. I don’t know about you, but I’ve experienced all of those things many times in my life. Although many to these things can be, and for some are, part of our daily lives, Isaiah would go on the describe suffering that Jesus would endure that we cannot even imagine. He would describe, with astonishing accuracy, the events of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection. He would also write for us, the reason for Jesus’ suffering. Jesus’ did not suffer for His own wrong doing, but for our wrong doing. He bore our sin and shame and suffered our punishment. Why would He do that? The simple answer is, because He loves us. Isaiah writes that He willingly submitted to death so that we may be justified through His sacrifice.
So, how does God understand our pain and suffering? It’s because He’s experienced it, just like us. Even more, He experienced pain and suffering that we can’t even imagine. And, He did it, not because he had to, but because He chose to. Yes, Jesus chose to experience unimaginable pain and suffering for us, so that we may have the opportunity to receive the grace and mercy that He offers through that sacrifice, and, so that we can know that the one who loves us that much, also understand exactly what we are feeling and experiencing in our daily lives.
May God bless you all and we hope to see you this week in Sunday School at Maranatha.