You can’t look forward to all the joys of the Easter day celebration of Christ’s resurrection without first looking at Good Friday and Jesus’s death on the cross. I think if we’re honest, we prefer Easter Sunday. Why? Because we don’t like to talk about suffering and pain, especially if it relates to us. Certainly, that’s understandable. Especially in our feel-good culture, pain and suffering is something we want to avoid at all costs and, even as Christians, we think somehow we should get a pass. We’d rather think about the risen Jesus in all His glory and enjoy the Easter baskets and bunnies—the fun parts of Easter.
We think if we forget about Good Friday, we won’t experience a cross of our own. But sooner or later, all of us will have a walk of suffering. In Philippians 1:29 we’re told, “Unto you it is given…to suffer.” Scripture never promises a life free of heartache. All of us will have to bear up under some cross toward a hill that can become for us a Golgotha-like experience. Maybe it’s a cross of illness, a cross of a broken relationship, or a cross of deep emotional or spiritual pain. We live in a broken and fallen world after all.
I will never forget the dramatic image of Jesus walking with the weight of the cross on His scourged body up the hill to Golgotha in the movie The Passion of the Christ. The utter agony. The brokenness. The sense of complete abandonment from the Father. I remember having to look away so many times because the pain of watching what Jesus did for me was just too hard to emotionally absorb.
Jesus’s walk to the cross and then the hanging on the cross was the most horrific suffering imaginable to mankind. But because we have a Savior who suffered Himself, “Jesus understands… ‘for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses…’” (Heb. 4:15). No, just the opposite. Because of the cross—because of Good Friday—Jesus fully identifies with the walk of your suffering and mine. He feels the pain as greatly as we do. He weeps with us. He sympathizes with us in every way. Whatever cross you carry, you can be sure that Jesus will be there for you in it; that He will not abandon you to carry your cross alone.
Because of the cross—because of Good Friday—Jesus fully identifies with the walk of your suffering and mine.
The other thing that struck me as I watched the movie was how, at just the moment when the weight of the cross became too great for Jesus to bear alone, a man named Simon of Cyrene was forced to help Jesus carry the cross the remainder of the way up the hill. (By the way, experts say the walk was about a half a mile.) Can you imagine? Many of you can because you have been carrying your cross for weeks, months, or even years.
What a wonderful picture of God’s provision for Christ in His greatest hour of need—and ours. Our walks of suffering are never to be walked alone. And when you think about it, we’re never not engaged in a walk of suffering. At times, we may be the one suffering, at other times we may be the “Simon” helping someone else carry their cross—and that brings a form of suffering all its own—a “spectator suffering.” Never forget that you have a Suffering Savior, who on Good Friday, died for you so you would never have to suffer alone—because He understands your pain and grief fully.
There can be great comfort found in our cross knowing that as we join our suffering with Christ’s, He gives us all the resources we need to carry it—namely drawing us closer to Himself. Psalm 4:1 says, “Thou has enlarged me when I was in distress.” Our crosses enlarge our relationship with Christ and keep us near as He comes near to us. I know that has been true in my own suffering. As Job says, “I knew you only by hearsay; but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” When we turn to our Suffering Savior in our moments of greatest pain and heartache, we discover His companionship in ways we never thought possible. He is never closer than when we are carrying our cross.
Our walk of suffering is a shared experience with Jesus—something that can bring deeper intimacy in our relationship with Him if we let it. He may not remove our cross in the way that we desire—but in His goodness—He offers something more valuable—Himself. Before “I knew you only by hearsay, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”
Because of Good Friday, we have not been left alone in our walk of suffering. We really do have a Suffering Savior who not only understands, but walks with us with great sympathy every step of the way.
