Why Did Jesus Suffer So Much on the Cross?

Jesus' suffering on the cross was surely in part physical.  The tortures to which his body was subjected must have felt indescribably painful, to say the least.  The son of God being tortured by us humans, all of us sinners who were 'not good enough even to carry his sandals' [from  Matthew 3:11] and 'a people of unclean lips' [from Isaiah 6:5] must also have been a horrifying concept mentally. However, this is not the sum total of the incalculable sacrifice that was made when Jesus died for us. Instead, by far biggest suffering must have been the spiritual pain experienced when his Father had seemed to desert him in his final moments on the cross: 
At three o'clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why did you abandon me?"
Mark 15:34

Jesus had clearly had more than an inkling of how horrible this would be, because he had previously prayed in the Garden of Gesthemane to have God's work done some alternative way if it was consistent with what God wanted (it wasn't):
"Father", he prayed, "my Father! All things are possible for you.  Take this cup of suffering away from me.  Yet not what I want, but what you want."
Mark 14:36

What happened on the cross is that Jesus took on all the sins of the world.  Imagine how this would look to God (and Jesus), both of them sinless perfect beings.  It would be absolutely horrifying.  It seems far less scary to us because we are already full of sin.  God turned himself away from Jesus because he could not bear to look.  How you would feel if your own father had to turn away from you in horror and disgust? The spiritual abandonment Jesus experienced at that moment was worse than any amount of physical torture.  This is why Jesus suffered so much on the cross.

If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Do Atheists Shout So Loudly When They Believe the Stakes are Lower?

When it comes to religious matters, we Christians believe our very souls are at stake.  Atheists do not believe there is anything so serious at stake.  Anyone would therefore expect that Christians would shout their message the loudest, since they believe there is the most at stake.  However, it seems that both 'shout' similarly loudly.  Why is that?    Both camps genuinely believe that their version is the underlying truth (although of course, both cannot be right).  Therefore, both camps have the truth at stake; they think of themselves as campaigners for the truth.  In addition, Christians believe our souls are at stake.  Why then do atheists shout so loud when they believe there is less at stake?   This is a question which is difficult to answer.  However, we should be aware that Christianity can actually benefit from these loud shoutings of the atheists.  Why is that? It is because the atheists give us specific things to refute. Much more dangerous for Christianity i
Read more

Organized religion and why it is important

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum of saints All too frequently, organized religion (i.e. a church) can seem pointless and boring.  I certainly found it this way before I started reading the Bible.  Often, the lack of interest in church may be caused by one of two main things: 1. The person has had a bad experience previously in organized religion 2. The person feels uncomfortable about realizing that they are a sinner In the case of the first problem, it is quite possible that differences in Christian denominations has confused the person.  It is confusing!  It is important to go to a church whose teachings are in line with the Bible.  Identifying such a church oneself does require a) attending a church and b) reading the Bible. In the case of the second problem, that isn't actually a problem at all for attending church.  All of us are sinners.  It is as simple as that. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 Organized relig
Read more

Do You Expect God to Match Up With YOUR Specifications?

"God isn't real if I don't believe in him" "I can't believe in a God who lets X or Y happen" The above are sentences which are heard frequently.  Curiously, these people seem to think that if God doesn't match up to THEIR specifications, He can't be real.  I think the root of this is the lack of ability we humans have to 'prove' or see the existence of God (or from the opposing viewpoint, to prove a lack of existence). The difficulty with which we can detect spiritual things compared to the ease with which we can detect the physical world makes it very easy for us to think we make the rules and that if God doesn't appear to follow 'our' rules (expectations), He can't be real. Consider a hypothetical creature of spirit visiting Earth for the first time.  This creature has no way of directly measuring anything physical.  Although unable to sense gravity itself, it realizes from reading minds that humans have measured
Read more