Man of sorrows

 Isiah 53:3 

Its hard to really think about the things that Jesus went through in His life.  Easy to read.  Hard to imagine.

Born to an unmarried couple in the middle of an occupation by a brutal dictatorship who wanted Him dead at birth.  Forced into exile and presumably homelessness and poverty as a refugee.  Having to live apart from His heavenly Father divested of all the trappings of heaven and the company of angels.  Super bright as a child and probably seen as somewhat precocious by the adults He wanted to hang around to quiz on their religious beliefs.  Unmarried way past the age when everyone else was married.  Weird cousin who lived in the desert.  Wandering mostly homeless for three years as His teaching caused people to want to stone Him and throw Him off cliffs.  Accused of being a drunkard and associating with scum. Misunderstood by just about everyone.  Suffered the death of one of His best friends and the betrayal of another.   Sold out to the enemy occupier by one of His followers.  Underwent a sham trial and false accusations before being handed over to the crowd which only days before had hailed Him as Lord and now wanted His blood.   Crucified in the most brutal manner in front of His mother.  The only thing the Bible doesnt seem to suggest Jesus suffered was any form of physical illness or disability.   He was most certainly acquainted with grief.

I dont think we can start to imagine the added grief He must have felt as He watched the people He had come to live and die for not only living far from God but being actively kept away from Him by religious leaders.   And the pain of seeing the cruelty the Romans inflicted on the people of Israel - crucifixions lining the roadsides and slaves being bought and sold and killed at will.  These were all people known and loved by the Father - perpetrators as well as victims.  Then there was the illnesses which killed and disabled people all the time .  Illnesses brought about by the fall : heartbreaking to the Father heart of God. 

Im not surprised that Jesus only lived for 33 years.  Im not sure He could have coped with much more and God was merciful in releasing Him when He did.  

And yet alongside all the suffering He underwent and sadness He witnessed, He somehow still managed to be kind, humble, generous, funny and merciful.   We see Him get angry with the religious leaders who are supposed to be representing God but merely mis-represent Him for their own gain.  And we witness Him doing battle with demons ( albeit quietly) to drive them out of people they are afflicting.   But mostly Jesus suffers in silence, carrying His grief steadfastly towards the cross where He knows it is going to be nailed for eternity.

The good news is that as we watch Jesus carrying His own sorrows and grief so well, so nobly, with such grace, we are assured that He has also been carrying ours.  I think there is a hint in the gospels as to how Jesus managed to carry the griefs and sorrows of His own life and of the whole world and manage not to implode.   Peace.  

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. ( John 14:26-27)

Jesus says that His peace causes troubled hearts not to be troubled and fearful hearts not to fear.  The peace Jesus is and knows and lives is what enabled Him to walk on this earth and not be crushed by what He saw and experienced.  Peace comes when we can trust utterly and completely in a God who is good, who loves us and who has a plan.   Jesus knew that the end of all suffering and sickness and pain and injustice and death was coming.  Every homeless child, every leper on the street, every crippled beggar, every flogged or crucified ' criminal' was someone Jesus was about to shed His blood for. 

The way to cope with the ' cost of living crisis', with illness, sadness, betrayal, disappointment, bullying, homelessness, and all other causes of grief and suffering is not merely to try harder or ask for more help more loudly.  The answer is to find peace.   To find peace we need to come to a place of trust in God.  And if we can trust Him then we can hand over all our struggles and know that He has got us safe in His hands and will meet all our needs.  You know people who live like this.  So do I. People who have awful things going on in their lives but are at peace with God and shining beacons of hope and trust and even joy.

Jesus was a man of sorrows so that we don't have to be.  Thank you Jesus. Help me to fully trust and give me peace.