A MAN OF SORROW

CHRIST’S SUFFERING - PART ONE

During events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion, He suffered like no other man could possibly suffer, for, along with His physical sufferings, He suffered from a spiritual standpoint after a fashion which it was impossible for anyone else to suffer. The latter sufferings, according to Scripture, were far worst than the former.

1. PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS

In as far as His physical sufferings were concerned, the Prophet Isaiah over seven centuries before this time, stated, “…His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 52:14).

He was spat upon and beaten by the Jewish religious leaders; then He was turned over to Pilate, who, after dealing with Him a second time, had him “scourged” and “delivered” into the hands of his soldiers to be crucified; and the Roman soldiers, following His scourging, arrayed Him in as a pseudo King and repeatedly mocked Him, spat on Him, and struck Him on the head with what was apparently a hard bamboo-like reed (Matt. 26:67; 27:26-31).

A literal rendering of Isaiah 52:14 would reveal that His physical appearance would be so altered by the time He was placed on the Cross that it would appear to actually not be that of a man; and the same verse states that because of His mutilated physical appearance many would be “astonished” when they looked upon the One about to be crucified.

Actually, Isa. 52:14 is set between two sections of Scripture dealing with the future day when Christ rules and reigns over the earth (vs. 1-13, 15). Verses one through thirteen introduce the subject (His coming day of glory and exaltation), verse fourteen moves the reader back 2000 years in time (referring to His suffering and humiliation), and then verse fifteen moves the reader forward once again to that time introduced in verse one through thirteen.

A parallel is shown between that which would occur at the two advents of Christ. The degree of His suffering and humiliation would parallel, in an opposite sense, the degree of His glory and exaltation. This is why the writer of Hebrews could state, “…who for the joy that was set before Him [the day when He would rule and reign over the earth]” Christ “endured the cross, despising the shame…” (Heb. 12:2).

In that coming day the same scenes which witnessed His suffering and humiliation are going to witness His glory and exaltation. He is going to be “exalted,” “judge among the nations,” and “rebuked many people” (Isa. 2:2-4; 52:13). And “kings shall shut their mouths at him” and see and hear things which they had neither “been told” nor “considered” (Isa. 52:15).

Those who look upon Him in the coming day will once again be “astonished”, though after a different fashion, for His coming glory and “exaltation must, in an opposite sense, parallel His past suffering and humiliation. And, as His physical appearance resulted in the people being astonished, in the past, so will His physical appearance result in the people being astonished in that future day.

In the past Christ appeared apart from His Glory. He possessed a body like unto the body which men possesses today, void of the covering of Glory in which man was enswathed prior to the fall. It was in this body that He suffered, bled, and died; it was in this body that the very God of the universe, in the person of His Son, appeared in humiliation and shame on behalf of sinful man; and it was in this body, in the person of His Son, that God Himself was so beaten that people looked upon Him in astonishment.

But in that coming day, matters will be just the opposite. Though Christ will return in the same body which He has possessed since the incarnation, it will no longer be void of the covering Glory. Nor, will He return as the suffering “Lamb of God.” All of this will be past. In that coming day, He will return as the conquering “Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And when man see Him in that day, they will look upon One Whose “countenance” is “as the sun shineth in his strength” (cf. Rev. 1:16; 19:11ff). And man will once again be astonished.