The Way of Suffering

Introduction

I want to read from Matthew chapter 27, beginning in verse 45. Matthew 27, 45. The text this morning is about seven pages of reading, which we’re not going to do. You can read Matthew 26 and 27 on your own. Maybe you’ve already done that, I hope, if you saw what the sermon was going to be about this morning. But I want to read a section, and then we’ll kind of work through what was happening here in the story, and I want to pull some lessons out of this, as our focus throughout has been essentially what we just saying, which is to be more like Jesus, to follow his way, to see the things that he’s doing and what he’s calling us to do, and be working more and more each day to be like that.

So let’s begin reading in Matthew 27 and verse 45. It says, Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Lam the Sabbathani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, This man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

The tombs were also opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place. They were filled with awe and said, Truly this was the Son of God. Darkness fell over the land of Egypt. Not ordinary darkness. This was a darkness so thick and heavy, Scripture says it could be felt. And it lasted for three days.

I can only imagine how eerie of a feeling the Egyptians had as they sat, it said they stayed in their homes. They couldn’t even leave. Meanwhile, the people of Israel had light. Sort of strange. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened once again. He has a brief moment of clarity and is going to start to allow Israel to go, but then he becomes hardened and refuses. And before Moses even leaves, there’s no break here. He just goes right into the prediction that at midnight God would come in judgment. Israel would be saved through a sacrificial lamb. They’d cover their doorposts in blood, and the angel of death coming over their home and seeing the blood of the lamb on the doorpost would then pass over them. Before morning came, death had passed through the land of Egypt.

The firstborn of Egypt had died. There were loud cries and wailing that could be heard all throughout the land. But God’s people were finally set free. As you likely know, the Passover was a yearly commemoration of God delivering Israel from Egyptian slavery. The story I just briefly recounted.

The last major teaching section had ended at the end of 25. And he tells the disciples, after two days, the Passover is coming. I’m pretty sure they were aware of this, being one of the most important days in Jewish, the Jewish calendar. But this Passover would be different. As we’ve just read, there would be an eerie darkness that would fall again, this time for three hours in the middle of the day. Not over Egypt, but over Jerusalem, not over Pharaoh’s house, but over the cross. And this time it’s not Egypt’s firstborn who died, but God’s firstborn son. His only unique son. Now, leading up to this point, as we move back in the story to the beginning of this account in 26, we see a number of things taking place leading up to this sort of pinnacle moment when Jesus dies.

He gives his life. He is the sacrificial lamb, which then, because of his blood, is going to secure forgiveness and redemption and deliverance for all people. But leading up to this, a number of stories happen along the way. In this journey to the cross, he’s anointed at Bethany with a woman who comes in and breaks this flask and begins to anoint him, and he’s predicting again what’s going to happen to him, saying she is preparing him for burial. This then leads into Judas being pinpointed as the betrayer in the Last Supper, where he institutes this memorial of the new covenant that’s going to come. He then goes to Gethsemane and he’s praying there before with intense prayer before this moment is going to come, and he’s arrested.

There’s a trial that happens, and all of this then leads up to the sacrificial death of Jesus. Sometimes this is referred to as the passion, the suffering that Jesus took upon himself for the good of all humanity. There’s all sorts of things we could do with this text and working through Matthew 26 and 27, but mostly what I want to do this morning is take some lessons for us as we look at the story of Jesus on his way to the cross. This is a lot of what we’ve been doing as we’ve worked through the Gospel of Matthew, and we’re almost to the conclusion now. We have one more sermon after this on the Gospel of Matthew. But I want us to take some lessons that we learn from Jesus, the way he acts, the things that happen in his life, as he’s leading up to this momentous occasion where he is an accomplishing the will of God, going to give himself for all of us and for all of humanity.

1. Faithful Obedience Often Involves Walking a Very Hard Road

The first of these, lesson one, is that obedience, faithful obedience, often involves walking a very hard road. Jesus comes into Jerusalem knowing that he would not leave.

In fact, as I already referenced, he has predicted his death multiple times up to this point. He’s told his disciples, though they don’t quite understand, that he is going to be taken.

As he’s pointing out, the Passover’s coming, he says, the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. He knows. And yet he still comes into the city. He still interacts with the rulers and the leaders who want to kill him. He’s fully aware of what is coming. Over and over again, the story lets us know. He during the Last Supper says, one of you is going to betray me. And there’s this whole account of each of the disciples saying, Is it me? Am I the one who’s going to do it? And of course, then Judas comes and he pinpoints Judas. And again, the disciples don’t seem to understand, but Judas gets it and he leaves, and now he’s going out to betray the Son of God.

Jesus is fully aware. And yet he continues to walk this path to the cross. Maybe most notable is when he’s in the Garden of Gethsemane. And over and over again he’s praying. We’re told in all the accounts, he essentially says the same thing multiple times. And though it probably is not the exact same words each time, it is essentially the same message. If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

Or maybe it’s the other side of that. I’m trying to follow God, I’m trying to do what’s right, and yet these things are going wrong in my life. Life is difficult and hard. Why is that? It’s because God’s highest goal, his highest end is not to make sure that my life is comfortable and easy. That’s not really what he’s working for. He’s not seeking out my comfort and to make sure this earthly life is all going to be okay, and I never face any struggles. In fact, sometimes we’re told in Scripture, He’s even willing to test us, to see if our faith is actually solid. We see that a number of times within Scripture. I think it happens within Job as well. And the simple reality is obedience, faithfulness to God doesn’t just mean that everything’s going to go great.

Now, there’s certainly general wisdom we find in places like Proverbs. When we do things the right way, things tend to go well. This is just general wisdom, but that’s not always the way it works. And quite often we know in life things don’t go great. How do we handle that? I would suggest to you, like many other things that we do in life, that we look first to the Savior. As a fundamental evidence, a foundation of how we face life and we deal with difficulties and we walk through darkness. We realize that the very center of our faith, the very essence of who we are and what we believe, hangs on the reality that an innocent person faced death for the good of all humanity, something he did not deserve.

And in his faithfulness and in his obedience, he willingly walked a path that was not comfortable, that was not easy. And what we understand is that obedience, though it does not give us ease of life and comfort, it doesn’t guarantee that. It does give meaning to the sacrifices that we make and the suffering and the difficulties that sometimes come our way. Willingness to walk the hard road strengthens faith. And we need this for all sorts of situations in life. We can just look at the story of Jesus Himself right here and realize that sometimes we face very similar types of things. Sometimes people who don’t like us will attack us. Sometimes they’ll find ways to make our life difficult and purposely make life hard for us.

We see this happening with Jesus, right? They’re conspiring against him. They’re finding some way to take him down because they just don’t like him. He presents some sort of problem. They’re envious, they’re jealous, they hate him, whatever the thing is, they don’t like Jesus and they want to take him out. And then there’s this other sad reality that goes hand in hand with that, and that is that sometimes friends will betray you. I’m not saying this to be ugly or mean. It’s just reality. It’s part of human experience that we are not perfect. Sometimes we do things wrong, and all of us have been guilty of this at some point where we say something we shouldn’t have said about somebody, or we go against someone who’s supposed to be our friend, and Jesus himself is experiencing this with his own disciples who he has trained for the last three or so years, and yet in the moment, the critical moment, they all run away.

They leave him there alone.

The very people who you thought would support you and be by your side abandon you in your moment of need. Sometimes, on the other side of that, people we never expect walk hand in hand with us through the trials. And so there are positive sides to some of this. There are the good sides of some of these struggles that we face, which I think is part of the strengthening and proving process of our willingness to be obedient even as we walk down difficult roads. But even though enemies attack at times and friends betray, the message here is that the way of Jesus is worth it. It was worth it for Jesus to face all of that, to despise the shame, to go through the difficulty, to accomplish the will of God, and then ultimately be exalted to his right hand, a promise that he makes to us as well.

If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we too will be exalted. I’ve talked in the past, Justin reminds me every once in a while about my dislike of how we sing, trust and obey. I don’t dislike the song. But there’s a verse that we often leave out that is so central to everything we’re talking about right now that I want to read the words to you. And I think it’s maybe the most powerful verse of the entire song, and we often skip it. That’s my complaint. But we never can prove the delights of his love until all on the altar we lay. For the favor he shows for the joy he bestows are for those who will trust and obey.

But what’s going to happen when we have to lay it all on the line? When we’re called to give it all up, then what? That’s when faith is proven. And that’s when we truly find joy and peace in the Messiah, when we’re willing to walk the same path that he walked, and we’re willing to give it all up, whatever that might be, for the joy that comes and the peace that comes through being in the Lord. So faith is proven through struggle. James make the same point following the message of Jesus when he says the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. He says, when you look at the trials, the things that you go through, the difficulties you face, count it all joy. That doesn’t mean it’s good.

It doesn’t mean terrible things suddenly become wonderful things. That’s not the message. When we face darkness and difficulty, just because some good things can come from it, and we can find joy in those good things doesn’t mean suddenly bad things are now good. That’s not the message. But what it does mean is that we can find comfort and peace in the Lord. Knowing that everything that we’re going through now is temporary. It is the testing ground that’s going to strengthen my faith. And who knows whether this occasion, something I’m going through now will then help me later on. Or it’ll be for the good of someone else. We look to the life of Jesus, don’t we? Consider him, it tells us in the book of Hebrews.

When we’re going through difficulty, he says, look at the cloud of witnesses around you, but also look to Jesus, the author and founder of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame. This is for the good of all. It was for the forgiveness of sins, it was for deliverance, but it’s also an example for us to look at that.

2. Sometimes Silence Is More Powerful Than Words

And in some way and in some form, that will be required of me, and it will be required of you if we are obedient to the Lord. Amen. And maybe that we struggle with our family, or maybe that we struggle with friends, or with co-workers, or whatever it might be, because of our beliefs and the things that we profess. But in somewhere, in some form, in some way, there will be difficulties that come. Because we take a stand in believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we put our faith and we declare that our hope is in him. The next one is a little odd, I think, as I was working through this. I think of it as being kind of odd because this is not typically how we think about our belief and the way we should demonstrate it.

But it’s interesting that sometimes silence is more powerful than words. And we see this at the cross. Certainly, Jesus said plenty throughout his ministry, and he was not afraid to say the things that need to be said. But I think another lesson that we learn as Jesus is making his way to the cross, and he’s facing unfair accusations and people attacking him this reality that silence doesn’t equal weakness or defeat. It may appear that way sometimes. It may feel that way to us when we choose to go this road, but in doing so, we’re following the path of Jesus Himself. Sometimes in the midst of severe trial and difficulty, the very best thing to do is just remain silent. This is very hard to set up before I go too much further.

And that is that Jesus had already made himself clear. He had done plenty of speaking. He had said many things. And so it’s not like he never said anything, and he always stayed quiet, never defended himself or anyone else. That’s not really the point. But in this moment, he chose to remain silent, which I don’t know if it’s bothered you, but that bothers me sometimes when I think about the story. Why is it? That he just wouldn’t speak up, that he wouldn’t say something. He has all this power at his disposal, and in fact, he mentions that right at the arrest. When Peter lashes out and begins to try to defend him, and Jesus says, put your sword away. Don’t you know? I could call 12 legions of angels.

If I wanted to, I could stop all of this right now. He has the power, he has the ability, and yet he stays silent. And certainly I understand part of that is that he’s allowing the will of God to be accomplished through the evil intentions of mankind. And so part of this whole account and story is Jesus allowing men to do what men want to do, even though he could have stopped it. Jesus taught openly in the temple, day after day. He makes this point in chapter 26 and verse 55. When they come to arrest him, he says, Hey, what’s happening here? Why are you doing he’s pointing out the irony in the situation? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.

Why are you doing it secretly now at night? Why are you doing this underhanded way of now coming and arresting me? Pointing out the malicious nature of what they’re doing. He declared his identity to all who would listen. He’s the Son of Man, He is the Son of God, He’s the Messiah, He’s the King. Over and over again in the Gospels, we see him making it very clear who he is. He even confronts leaders very openly in chapter 23, as we saw a few weeks back. And so it’s not that Jesus was unwilling to speak when it was needed. But in this moment, he found no need. It seems to me that Jesus is not refusing to speak because the truth is unclear. He is silent because the truth has already been rejected.

What’s the point in speaking now? As Pilate uncovers their intentions, their motivations are from envy, they’re from jealousy. It’s not really about what is true and right anyway. So Jesus finds no need to speak here. He refuses to play their games, motivated by such ill intent. False witnesses speak. They pile up accusations. And he remains silent. Pilate even wants Jesus to defend himself. Don’t you hear all the things they’re saying against you? Aren’t you going to say something about it? Pilate knows he’s innocent. He’s trying to help Jesus out. He tries actually numerous times to help Jesus. He’s not interested in Pilate’s help. But I think beneath this is the reality that he is entrusting himself to the Father’s plan, to the Father’s timing and his justice.

Even though Jesus won’t speak in this moment, he says very little. He remains silent through most of the trial and the accusations. I think it’s important for us to notice that God’t mean that everybody goes away thinking that he was guilty. And all the things that are being said about him are true. Of all people in the story, the centurion who is there by his side proclaims the truth that it seems others are missing. Truly, this was the Son of God, he says.

Silence here is not about avoidance, it’s discernment. Jesus said earlier in his ministry, do not give dogs what is holy. Do not throw your pearls before pigs, Matthew chapter 7 and verse 6. Sometimes the situation is just not worthy of argument. Particularly when it is clear that no one’s going to change their mind. And the reality is they weren’t going to listen to Jesus. That wasn’t their goal. Their goal was to take him down by any means possible. And so for us, I think at times we need to understand that silence can be a sacrificial act of trust in God’s justice. I don’t have to seek justice for myself. I don’t have to make sure that everybody knows that I was right or that somebody else was unfair.

And it’s easy to assume that I must defend myself for truth to survive. If I don’t speak up, lies may spread falsely, or false doctrine may spread, particularly when dealing with things like envy and jealousy and hatred, just as Jesus did. It could do more good just to stay silent. And trust the wisdom and the warning of Jesus himself when he says, you will know them by their fruits. Just like the centurion could see truth, and he realized that understand, people will see the truth. And even if they don’t, God knows. As I was reading through this, it just stook out to me in such a big way that one of the hardest parts of following Jesus is learning when not to speak. Maybe it’s harder for me than it is for some of you.

Some of us like to talk. Sometimes it’s important not to speak because we might be wrong. And we need some humility. Sometimes it’s not because we’re wrong, but because the moment isn’t about proving ourselves. Jesus shows us that God does not need us to defend ourselves in order to accomplish his purposes and for truth to prevail. God will use me in whatever way I’m willing for him to use me, and the same for you. But if I were to go away tomorrow, if my life was to cease to exist, I’m absolutely certain that God’s truth would continue to prevail. It’s not all hinging on someone who gets up here to preach. All of you have Bibles. All of you can read, all of you can observe the world.

And yes, I think these are important occasions where we open scripture together and we think about truth. But the reality is there’s all sorts of people who can do that. And I’m not trying to undermine the things that I’m trying to do here and the importance of preaching and teaching. But what I do want us to see, whether it’s for me or for anyone else, is that it doesn’t all hang on me and me being defended and me being justified or any of those sorts of things. It will never hurt me to remember that Jesus is the only innocent man to ever live. And at least on this occasion, he remained completely silent when he was falsely accused.

That’s pretty powerful. I’m not saying you can’t ever defend yourself, or you can’t ever say that’s not true. That’s not the point. But what I am saying is that we should judge those situations carefully and realize sometimes, just as happens here with Jesus, the point is not to defend myself, not to make sure everyone knows, but to trust in the will of God to take place and his truth to prevail. And to depend upon the message and the principles that Jesus laid down for us. It’s not important. It’s not about me, it’s about glorifying the Father. It’s about his truth, it’s about who he is. And that is personified no greater than in the actions and the silence of Jesus Himself, who of all people had every right to defend himself in this moment.

This is just such a difficult thing in our culture. Every single event that takes place, it seems like people feel like they need to voice what they think and their views. Social media is just like a hotbed for this. Right? Have you got on and made your post about this subject or about that subject? And what I have to remind myself over and over is that nobody really cares what I think about this or about that. What social media proves mostly is that mostly what people want to do is make sure everybody knows what they think, even though no one’s all that interested. And so the temptation is to think that I need to let my voice be heard all the time, and yet what probably needs to happen is I need to listen more than I speak.

3. Death Is Not the End

This can be true when it comes to things like church conflict or personal injustices that I think that I’m facing. Sometimes I just need to stay silent and allow others to see the truth for themselves. And then I want to end this on a bit of hope. Because I think that’s what the story is itself. Matthew will not let us see the cross as a quiet ending. Death is not the end. Even the little bit that we read from Matthew 27, it references his resurrection. It just gives us a little foreshadowing of what’s going to come in chapter 28. And although this seems extremely dark, right? He’s falsely accused. Everything that’s happening to him is unjust. He is taken and he is beaten and he’s nailed to a cross despite the fact that he’s innocent, and people all around him know he’s innocent, and yet it still happens to him.

And part of this whole message is when you walk through darkness and difficulty, realize that God can work through the darkness to bring light and to bring life. And death is not the end of the story. Death is the punishment for violating the will of God. Adam and Eve are removed from the tree of life because of their sin.

And I think from that time forward, death has been scary. Death is the unknown. And the Old Testament makes no issue with talking about that. The Hebrew writer tells us that people fear death and they are enslaved by that fear. People today fear death. Isn’t it amazing that God’s plan is that Jesus would come in human form? And the very thing that people fear, he would take on himself. It says, through death, the Hebrew writer says, through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. The very thing that people struggle with sometimes keeps them awake at night, is what Jesus came to accomplish. For the very purpose of giving us the message that death is not the end.

There’s something after this. There’s a hope that comes even in the darkness of death. The cross represents human evil, but also God’s power to work through evil, to bring light, to give life. Reminds me a little bit of a song I hear occasionally. I heard it not too long ago, kind of just made me stop and think, particularly about things we’ve gone through in our life, and some of you have had similar types of situations you’ve gone through. The lyrics are sometimes sorrow is the door to peace. Sometimes heartache is the gift I need. You are faithful. Faithful in all things.

Because it is that touches our heart so often. When we see the power of God working through darkness, it is that can change us.

And so it is the most difficult times that draw us closer to God. They can help us understand not my will, but your will be done. Darkness covered the land for three hours. This is in the middle of the day. I mean, can you imagine that? I mean, we see eclipses and things like that, so we know kind of from a scientific and all of that sort of standpoint. But isn’t it strange that at this moment, and he’s on the cross, what an odd moment. For this guy who’s been claiming to be the Son of God for years now. And people take him and they beat him and they mistreat him and they nail him to a cross, and while he’s hanging there’s three hours where everything gets dark.

If you’re paying attention at all, I think you’d be scared a little bit. God’s Son cried out with a loud voice, the text tells us, and yielded up his spirit.

There’s all sorts of echoes of the Old Testament. One of these is Matthew 22, where he expresses this feeling of being forsaken. And it appears like he’s forsaken. He appears to be defeated. But also, if you continue reading in Psalm 22, you’ll see it is a psalm of complete trust in God. And in that moment that appears to be dark, where evil has won, where it seems like the Son of God has been forsaken and defeated. The reality is it is at that moment he’s secured victory. The temple curtain is torn into, that is the holy of holies, is opened up. This is access to the presence of God, which is often so restricted in the Old Testament to just the high priest once a year.

But that curtain is now opened, representing this access that we now have to the throne of God, and it is granted through the body of Jesus. And it’s not the ethnic nation of Israel being freed from a tyrannical ruler, but those who put their faith in Jesus being freed from the slavery to sin. The Lamb of God is slain.

Conclusion

The blood of the covenant was poured out for many, he tells his disciples, for the forgiveness of sins, Matthew 26 and verse 28. The question, though, is does his blood cover you? And the Passover, the Lamb’s blood was taken and put on the doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over.

The Lamb of God, Jesus, has poured out his blood for forgiveness. Paul tells us in Romans 5 and verse 9, we have now been justified by his blood. He’s speaking to those who were in Jesus Christ. The next verse, he says, We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. All of this connects to the Passover story in Exodus. Now, pulling this forward in this image, at least it’s one of the images. A text you’re probably familiar with in Romans chapter 6, verse 3 through 4 and 7. He says, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore with him by baptism into death. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

The blood of Jesus is covering you if you have died with him. That’s where it happens. If we die with Jesus Christ, we also will be raised with him, the text goes on to say. And then we will walk with him in newness of life. Just like we die with him and we’re buried with him, we will also be resurrected with him. Death is not the end, the story tells us. There’s more to this. Have you died with Christ this morning? That’s the question. That is the only means by which you access his blood, that you have forgiveness and become part of this new covenant. You can give your life to Jesus this morning. You can die with him. We’re ready. We have water for you to do this in.

This is the representation of being buried with him in a death like his and being resurrected in a resurrection like his. And you can do it right now. That is the means by which God will deliver you from your sins and give you peace of mind. And you can see the story of Jesus coming in culmination in your life as you walk his path, begin to walk his path. And maybe you’re someone who’s already done that and you realize you haven’t been living like Jesus. You see the things he’s doing and the way he’s living, and you’ve given your life to him, but you’re taking for granted the blood that was spilled on your behalf. This is an occasion to make note of that. To change your mentality, to profess again your faith that you want to live like Jesus Christ each and every day.

Can we help you? Why don’t you come now as we stand and we sing?