Suffering, the Cross, and Our Hope

Redemption Comes With a Price

Every moment of salvation in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, has the same pattern. And always the redemption and salvation come with a price. In the end the price is always high, but worth the expense. This truth has given me so much confidence and so much courage to be able to face attempted murder, persecution of my family, damage to property, beatings, and rejection.

Faith That Perseveres in Suffering

The essence of faith in the Bible is to put our security and trust in the Lord. The time that such faith is needed most is when disciples of Yeshua are required to persevere in times of serious challenges, tests, or danger. A person can indeed have a very deep relationship with God, be totally dedicated and even willing to suffer for his faith in the Messiah, and sacrifice much.

The Power of the Cross

The traditional Christian world has placed its emphasis on the suffering of Jesus, as if by what He suffered He saved us. But there are people who suffered a whole lot more than Jesus, and their suffering did not bring salvation to anyone. We are still hung up on this idea that the suffering of Jesus is what saves us. That is not the picture that the New Testament portrays of the power of the cross.

Jesus did not go to the cross as a helpless, weak individual who fell into the hands of bandits. He went there with His head raised, knowing toward what He was going. He went there with full knowledge, on a voluntary basis. The cross is not a sign of shame or of weakness — it is a sign of victory.

And that is the essence of being disciples of Yeshua the Messiah: having the redemptive power that is given to us to do things that normal human beings don't have the strength or the ability to do. Once a friend of mine, one of the highest civil servants in Israel, asked me over lunch, "Tell me what real benefit you get from believing in Jesus Christ — don't give me religious jargon." And I told him: the ability to withstand pressure, and the strength and the power to keep on going when everything else is against you — the ability to believe even in the face of the total darkness in front of you.

The power of the cross is not something that worked only when we were baptized and then left us on our own. The word of the cross to us who are being saved is the power of God — a present, progressive power that started in the past and continues to empower us as disciples of Yeshua. And this empowering is to live: to live in your job, to live in the face of terribly discouraging things, to continue praising God and finding joy even if your wife is sick, or you are sick, or your mother died.

The power of the cross can make weak people strong. It is a very real power, and that is the meaning of salvation. The meaning of salvation is not just going to church, or singing, or giving of your money. The meaning of salvation is to have the power of the cross in your life, which defies death, defies fear, defies everything. If our faith in Jesus Christ does not give us strength and power from God to live, our faith is worthless.

The Cross Is Not the End of the Story

Unfortunately most of Christianity stops at the cross, and ninety percent of all our attention is focused on Him hanging on the cross, on His bleeding and His suffering. No one wants to diminish the seriousness of the cross of Yeshua, and no one wants to minimize His suffering. But if we stop at the cross, we have no life. If there is no resurrection and ascension, and Yeshua is not sitting at the right hand of God, our faith is in vain.

Yeshua was homeward bound; the cross was only a necessary and essential station along the way through which He had to go. He knew what was waiting for Him in Jerusalem. He knew the book of Isaiah, and chapter 53, and He was willing to go to the cruelest death on the Roman cross — to liberate us from our own evil inclination by His suffering and death and glorious resurrection, and especially by His ascension to sit at the right hand of the Father.

The same is true for us: where we stand today is not the end of the story. The cross is not the end of the story, the resurrection of Yeshua from the grave is not the end of the story. Yeshua is now in Heaven, like Joseph was in Egypt, serving as the prime minister. The end of the story has not yet happened.

The Suffering Servant

Let us stop and look for a moment at one of the most important chapters in all the prophets, Isaiah 53, the one that Yeshua knew very well. Originally the servant of the Lord was the nation of Israel; but the nation, as a collective, failed to represent God, and so God put all the burden on one servant, one human being, who would do the work of bringing the knowledge of God to the rest of the nations by His suffering.

Our sins were the road, the path, to the cross — and that is the crux of Yeshua's life and ministry. As a nation we didn't do it; we couldn't do it. So there had to be one man, one representative of the nation, who would take the burden on Himself, who would be willing to go to Jerusalem and die for the nation of Israel and for the whole world.

This World Is Not Our Home

Stories like Abraham's reminds us that we are living a nomadic life in this world at best, and that we don't have a permanent home here. Abraham, who was promised the land of Canaan as his eternal inheritance, didn't get to inherit the land, but was a stranger and a tourist in the land that was given to him. Regardless of where we build our home, and whatever materials we use, we are still going to be pilgrims and strangers on God's good earth.

Living with the idea that we have nothing permanent in this life and in this world is a very powerful force. It gives us strength to take and receive the difficult moments of our lives with a coolness that gives confidence and comfort when there is a loss or difficulty. No matter how hard things can be in this life, we know that it is all temporary, and that there is another world, better, and with no illness. The material things in life then have much less importance, and even if we collect them and love them, we know that they are but a trifle.

Everyone in our transient world must remember Rabbi Nachman's short saying:

God Keeps His Promises Through Every Hardship

Think of the history of Israel in the last two thousand years, and remember the suffering of the Jews through the centuries — the Inquisition, where Jews were tortured and burned in the city squares of Europe; the massacres, the expulsions, the pogroms of Eastern Europe; and then the Nazi Holocaust. Then read the words of Isaiah the prophet, spoken nearly twenty-eight hundred years ago:

These words are medicine to my soul. No matter what hardships and difficulties we go through in this world — personal, national, international — it does not matter. God has proven in human history that He keeps His promises. If there is no other proof, the greatest proof is Yeshua Himself. The end will be good for all those who love the Lord and who walk with Him on His path. Everything else is just another lesson that the Creator is trying to teach us, so that we can have a better life now and for eternity.

More Than Conquerors

Even in our suffering, the grace of God produces a victory, and all things work out for the good of those who love the Lord.

Closing: The Bell Has Not Rung Yet

School is not finished yet, and the bell has not rung yet, and the classes are not dismissed yet. We are all waiting for the graduation ceremony. Let us see how much we can get done before the final bell and the shofar sounds.

The one who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows did not stay on the cross, and neither do we stay in our suffering. He set His face toward Jerusalem and beyond it, all the way home to the right hand of the Father — and He is coming back. So take up the little that is in your hand, cross the narrow bridge without fear, and remember that the God who turns evil to good, who makes weak people strong, and who keeps every promise He has ever made, has prepared for us a place of eternity where there will be no more tears, no more plagues, and no more suffering.