The Passion of Christ: Love That Suffers

"The Passion of Christ: Love That Suffers" – Isaiah 53:5 In the Bible the word "passion" keeps its original sense: suffering. So the title is not ornament — the passion of Christ is love that suffers, and it runs from Gethsemane to the cross. From there this study says something uncomfortable: if you want to know the essence of life, learn to suffer; because everything a person gives himself to with passion brings suffering with it, and that is why giving yourself to others costs so much today. Then it expounds Isaiah 53:5 phrase by phrase, and closes with the zeal for God's house in Psalm 69:9 and John 2.

I. The most dangerous day

A. The most dangerous day is not the hard one: it is when everything is fine. Then we rest and stop being watchful, and it takes only a day for everything to turn over.

B. If not today then tomorrow, and one day it comes. But God stays the same, and we depend on Him for everything.

C. We are good-humored for a little while, we love in small portions, and we can be decent people depending on how someone strikes us. Sometimes we even take on an air of superiority.

D. Whoever faces his own life is scandalized by himself: "how did I act like that?".

E. If we must measure ourselves against someone, it is against Jesus.

II. What passion means in Scripture

A. In the Bible "passion" keeps its original sense: suffering. And if anyone knew how to suffer, it was our Lord Jesus Christ.

B. "If you want to know the essence of life, learn to suffer."

C. We do not come to church so that a song will lift our feelings and pull us out of sadness. Even while suffering, a person weeps, wipes the tears, and goes on; because whoever has faith knows a new day will come.

D. We do not like to suffer, and that is why there is nothing behind us — no record, no well-being that was fought for.

E. Cleverness can be developed and willingness can be developed; but passion is not developed. When a person loves, his whole existence turns into passion.

F. The world does not want passion because it would require service and dedication: setting one's own rights aside a little and working to do good.

G. To be passionate in spiritual things is to have a visible eagerness, inspired by the Word and shown in obedience. And that requires reading it every day: the more it is read, the more it holds.

H. In every giving there is suffering; that is why giving oneself to others costs so much today. "I don't like getting involved with people because people cause problems": thinking that way, you are the first problem.

III. The woman who anointed His feet

A. She came, let down her hair, and with her tears and her perfume washed His feet. In that act the Master's whole being had to be moved.

B. He had come from the struggle with the rulers and the religious men, and He met someone who wanted to wash the dust from His feet.

C. She moved Him because she made her worship an act of humbling. The sweet fragrance lasted only a little, but those tears gladdened the Master, who knew the cross was near.

D. That is why His passion on the cross was for our tears. Not for how religious we learn to be, nor for being more spiritual than the next person.

IV. From Gethsemane to the cross

A. The soldiers came, the chief priests came, the religious men came; and all the disciples ran away. Jesus was left completely alone, hands bound, under blows and humiliation.

B. He reached the place of shame, where the religious men of that day were capable of marking Him out and selling Him.

C. Judas tried to return the coins and was told to keep them. Neither did he keep them nor did they go back where they came from: with those coins the God who makes gold and silver and created heaven and earth was sold.

D. And He came as a man: He hid His majesty within Himself, because there was nowhere else to hide it.

V. Isaiah 53:5, phrase by phrase

A. "He was wounded for our transgressions." Rebellion is what rises against everything: it protests everything, everything bothers it. "Look at him, who does he think he is" is rebellion; and judging how another mother raises her child is trespassing on ground that is not yours.

B. Jesus did not suffer for any fault of His own, but for our disobedience; and no one is disobedient once, but many times over. If that is so, what follows is a change.

C. "Bruised for our iniquities." He took our place as substitute. The suffering was deep, physical and spiritual: the crown of thorns pierced His skull, and His hands and feet, in proportion to that nail.

D. He bore the weight of the sin of all humanity: He did not die only for those who are converted, He died for the whole world. Though those who are saved are the ones who come to His feet.

E. "The chastisement of our peace was upon him." He carried the judgment we deserved; and Scripture says that knowing to do good, we do not do it.

F. Hence Romans 5:1: being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not have peace because of how decent we are.

G. "And with his stripes we are healed." Wounds in His hands, His feet, His side; the crown, the lashes. All those marks belonged to us.

H. It is spiritual healing, and the restoration has to be total: soul, body, and spirit. Where there is forgiveness there is healing and new life; whoever does not see it did not continue, and restoration does not go together with returning to the vomit.

VI. The cross that gave me peace

A. The passion of Christ is the highest expression of love, and what it calls for is a life of gratitude.

B. If today we sleep in peace, if we laugh, if we have joy and a place to gather, it came by His death; no mortal could produce that benefit.

C. "If you have no peace, it is because you have not gone to the cross to find the blood of the Lamb."

D. The cross reminds us that someone innocent took our place: He took my sin, my failure, my lovelessness. And we must recognize that my sin was the cause of His pain.

E. Take a look inside: how many times you have quarreled, how much anger you hold, how much irritates you. It is hard to understand how anyone living that way sleeps in peace.

F. And the nearness is yours to decide: it is not strength or being the greatest, it is being meek and tender toward God.

VII. The zeal of thine house (Psalm 69:9; John 2:16-17)

A. David expresses a burning love for God's house: he wanted to build the temple and had the means for it, but God said no, because his hands were stained with much blood.

B. What a person does not understand is his own problem; what God commands is what must be obeyed. Nothing has to be explained to us.

C. David was the greatest worshiper in history: all the psalms are hymns, they are songs.

D. When Jesus entered the temple and found it turned into a market, He overturned the tables and drove out the money changers: "my house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves".

E. The lamb was to be the one raised at home and the finest, not the mangy one or the scrawniest. They kept the best at home and brought God the leftovers; and leftovers do not go with God.

F. What the Father was going to receive was not the blood: it was what He already saw, that the people had degenerated.

G. And the disciples remembered the prophecy: "the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up". Because that was the place where the glory of God came down.

VIII. Application

A. Do not measure your faith by the good days; the day when all is well is the day of greatest carelessness.

B. Accept that giving yourself brings suffering, and give yourself to others anyway.

C. Do whatever you do with passion, not merely to get it done: that is where the heart and the understanding are enlarged.

D. Review your rebellions: having an opinion on everything, being irritated by everything, stepping into ground that is not yours.

E. Recognize that your sin was the cause of His pain, and live grateful instead of parading spiritual levels.

F. Do not bring God your leftovers. What is brought to His house is brought like the lamb raised at home: the finest.