EMBRACING SUFFERING

Finding God’s Presence and Compassion Through the Cross

By Dr. Jonathan G. Smith
September 13, 2024

What if I told you that suffering isn’t something to be avoided, but something that connects us with the very heart of God? What if the pain, heartbreak, and struggles you face are not signs of God’s absence, but rather proof of His deep presence in your life?

In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus does something remarkable. At the height of His ministry, when His disciples were expecting triumph, He announces that the Son of Man “must suffer many things.” With this declaration, Jesus flips the script on how we understand suffering—not as something to escape, but as a necessary path to redemption.

None of us want to suffer. When I talk about suffering, I mean anything that causes us pain in life—whether it’s emotional, spiritual, mental, or physical. Most of us have experienced some chronic forms of suffering. Even more, sometimes, we experience multiple kinds of suffering simultaneously. That is what makes it so difficult to endure.

Many of you sitting here today have faced suffering in your own lives. Perhaps it’s a battle with chronic illness, the weight of financial burdens, the heartache of strained relationships, or the deep loneliness that comes with grief. If we’re honest, sometimes it feels as though suffering and life are in conflict, at odds with each other.

Moreover, when things are going well, we often shy away from people who are suffering because, quite frankly, their pain can pull us into their struggle. This is why kids don’t like to visit nursing homes. Children are full of joy, energy, and wonder, but they lack the categories to understand suffering. As the old saying goes, “Getting old ain’t for sissies.” Meaning, age and suffering seem to walk hand in hand.

In many ways, it seems like suffering doesn’t fit with life as we want it.

My Personal Experience with Suffering

Ivey and I have faced days where the pain was so overwhelming that just getting out of bed felt like a monumental task. We’ve known what it’s like to feel betrayed by people we trusted, to grieve the loss of loved ones, and to question where God is in the midst of it all.

We’ve also endured betrayal in the workplace, the sorrow of loss, the anxiety of financial challenges, and even the injustice of being wrongly accused. Whether it’s health, relationships, money, or reputation, the longer one lives, the more suffering seems to accompany the journey.

And if we’re being honest, we’ve all had those moments where we wonder, “God, where are You in this?”

The Search for an Answer

So, what is the answer? What hope do we have in the face of such pain?

Before we answer that, I want to address a particularly troubling teaching that has made its way into Christian circles—the so-called “health and wealth” gospel. This teaching proclaims that God’s will is for you to live an abundant life of wealth and affluence, free from suffering. If you pray hard enough or declare it loud enough, these preachers claim, God will “bless you.”

They are against “lack” and for “abundance.”

They often quote verses like 3 John 1:2, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers,” or Malachi 3:10, where the prophet encourages Israel to bring tithes into the storehouse so they can receive a shower of blessings.

Now, it’s true that scripture does speak of prosperity and blessing in various places, but we must be cautious. Many of these preachers promise a life of ease and wealth without recognizing that Jesus didn’t promise a pain-free life.

Instead, He promised the cross. In Mark 8:34, he said, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ Whether we like it or not, true disciples must learn what it means to see God’s redemptive work in suffering.

The Tension in Scripture: Suffering Servant vs. Conquering King

In the Bible, particularly in the Gospel of Mark, we find a tension between two themes: the Suffering Servant and the Conquering King. This tension comes to the forefront in Jesus’ proclamation and Peter’s reaction.

Up until chapter 8 in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus had been declaring the Kingdom of God, casting out demons, and healing people from disease. In every respect, Jesus had acted as a conquering king, demonstrating power and authority.

So when Jesus asks His disciples who they think He is, it’s easy for Peter to declare, “You are the Messiah.” Based on everything Peter had witnessed, Jesus seemed to fulfill all the expectations of the promised messianic kingdom foretold to King David in texts like Psalm 89:3: “The Lord said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn an oath to David my servant.’”

There was little doubt about Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, the conquering King.

But what Peter, and many others, failed to recall was Isaiah 53, which described a suffering servant who would “bear the sin of many.”

How do we reconcile this tension?

In truth, we’re not so different from Peter. We pray for our suffering to end, and when it doesn’t, we often rebuke God, wondering why He allows it.

What we fail to see in Jesus’ announcement is something of a mystery. By entering into human suffering, Jesus reveals a dimension of God’s character that we might otherwise overlook—His compassion.

Understanding Compassion

Compassion is often a misunderstood character trait of God. Many associate it with weakness or compromise, but at its root, compassion means to “suffer with.”

The Latin word compati literally translates to “suffer together.” Jesus embodies compassion through His willingness to enter into human suffering, not to avoid it. That is compassion, the willingness to “suffer with” by “entering in.”

In Mark 8:2, Jesus says, “I have compassion on the crowd.” He then feeds them with just a handful of loaves and fish. But His compassion wasn’t motivated by the need to fill their bellies—it was driven by what it felt like to go hungry.

He knew what it was to hunger because he himself had hungered.

What this reveals to us about God is profound: He is deeply present in the brokenness of His creation.

Does that mean God understands what it means to suffer? Yes. How? He understands because He, too, “suffered many things.”

Learning to embrace suffering

Here lies the mystery of Christianity. The road to Christ’s victory was on the road of suffering.

So often, we view our struggles as abnormal, thinking, “This shouldn’t be happening. Something must be wrong with me.” But that’s not true! The crucifixion of Jesus—the ultimate symbol of suffering—normalizes our struggles as part of what it means to live in this world. Our suffering is validated because God Himself willingly entered into it.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus, our High Priest, can empathize with our weaknesses because He endured every kind of temptation and suffered when tempted (Heb. 2:18; 4:15).

God’s Presence in Our Suffering

We can draw deep comfort from knowing that our struggles are not overlooked by God. They are not anomalies, nor are they uninteresting to Him. On the contrary, they are deeply important because He has experienced them too.

So, what does your suffering say about God’s presence in your life? If Jesus, the Son of God, entered into our pain, could it be that in our moments of deepest suffering, God is most profoundly at work?