The Staying Power of Christ in the Midst of Suffering

As I have been reading through the New Testament this year and this mornings reading fell on the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I am using a Bible that takes you through the entire Bible in a year, but I have been doing just the New Testament portion.   

The New Testament portion was John 19:1-22 describing the horrific yet beautiful sufferings of Jesus Christ on the cross.  This horrible suffering that Jesus went through began with a scourging which involved Jesus being stripped and tied to a post and beaten by two torturers who took turns after getting exhausted.  They would use a whip that had pieces of leather on it with sharp pieces of metal and bone attached to the end.  They would whipp the victim and it would go around the front of the body and literally pull the skin from the body.  This would often end up exposing muscle, tissue and even bone.

Pilate had this scourging done in hopes of letting Jesus go free, but the Chief Priests would not allow that to happen and Pilate had no back bone.  So Jesus was sent to the cross where he was nailed to the cross and suffered even more physically.  But perhaps the greatest suffering of all came when God the Father turned his back on Jesus as he bore the sins of the world.  II Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Christ died on the cross for our sins.  He cried out it is finished as he breathed his last the Scriptures tell us.

But I am so thankful that Christ did  not stay dead but he rose again conquering sin and death.  And because of this sacrifice and resurrection we can be set free from the bondage and consequences of our sin.  We can enjoy the hope of eternal life with Jesus Christ our King because of the death and ressurrection of Jesus.

I have also been reading a book by Stu Webber called “Tender Warrior”.  In this book he describes one of the components of biblical manhood being what he calls “staying power”.  This he describes as the power to stay in difficult situations.  The power to stay committed even when times get tough.  Staying power to stay when your marriage gets difficult, staying power when your job stinks, and staying power to stay on mission with Jesus when it gets difficult. As I ponder the cross and the sacrifice Christ made I can think of no bigger staying power then the power of Christ to remain on the path of suffering and sacrifice for you and me.  He could have called ten thousand angels he could have taken a different path he could have done something different and called it quits be he stayed on the path because of his love for you and me.  Weber says this in his book “When He could have turned away from the cross, He stayed the course, setting His face like flint, all the way to Calvary.  When He could have come down from the cross and sidestepped teh suffering, He stayed.  When He could have summoned armies of angels to deliver Him and called down divine air strikes on His adversaries, He stayed.  He perservered and “stayed under” all the way until that moment came when He could cry out, “It is finished!”

As I ponder the cross and my response the least I can do is stay the course Christ has called me to.  He gave his life to free us from the bondage of sin and set us on a path of mission to take his good news to a lost and dying world who needs the hope of the cross!  He put us on mission to make disicples of all nations! (Matthew 28:19-20)  When times get tough it can never be tougher than his path.  God never promised an easy road, but called us to stay on mission regardless of how tough it gets.  I think we Americanized Christians think following Jesus is somehow suppose to be easy and painfree when we see none of that in the Scriptures. 

The greatest all Tender Warriors Paul of the 1st century said this about his journey with Christ “I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.” II Cor 11:23-27  If he said this about his walk with Jesus how can we think ours will be an easy road???

Will you be able to say with Paul as he said late in his life “⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”  II Tim 4:6-8

Let us take up our cross daily and follow Him!  That is the least we can do for the One who has given everything for us!