Chapter 23: His Suffering

When Jesus walked upon the earth, He was truly man—and the passion for His mission consumed Him. The Scriptures call Him a man of sorrows. He was rejected, mocked, and even denied by His closest friend. He wept more than once, and in the garden of Gethsemane He entered an agony so deep that His sweat became like drops of blood, as He faced the climax of all He had come to do.

It is worth pausing on this, because we can be so dazzled by His miracles that we forget His tears. The same Jesus who healed the sick, cast out devils, calmed the storm, and turned water into wine also wept with those who wept. He was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He did not save us from a distance, at arm’s length, untouched. He entered our suffering and drank it to the dregs. Consider what the Scriptures record of His sorrow.

A Man of Sorrows

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not (Isaiah 53:3).

Isaiah wrote these words seven centuries before the birth of Christ, and yet they read like an eyewitness account of the cross. This chapter of Isaiah—the great “Suffering Servant” song—is quoted more often in the New Testament, as fulfilled in Jesus, than almost any other passage of the Old Testament. The Servant is despised, wounded, and led like a lamb to the slaughter; and He does it all for us: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).²⁵⁶

Jesus Wept

The shortest verse in the Bible is also one of its most profound: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). He stood at the grave of His friend Lazarus—knowing full well that He was about to raise him—and still He wept, moved by the grief of Mary and Martha and by the whole weight of death’s sorrow upon the human race. And He wept again over a city that would not receive Him: “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it” (Luke 19:41). These are not the tears of a distant deity but of a Savior whose heart broke over the suffering and lostness of the people He came to save.

Here is a comfort we must not miss: our God is not unacquainted with tears. When you weep, you do not weep before a Savior who cannot understand. He has stood at the graveside. He has looked upon a hard-hearted city and wept. “In all their affliction he was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9).

The Agony of Gethsemane

Nowhere is His suffering more piercing than in the garden of Gethsemane, on the night before the cross:

And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:41–44).

What was this “cup” that made the sinless Son of God tremble and sweat blood? It was not merely the nails and the thorns—many mere men have faced torture and death with composure. It was something infinitely heavier: the cup of the wrath of God against sin, which He was about to drink to the bottom on our behalf. The Old Testament speaks again and again of the “cup” of God’s judgment (Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15). In Gethsemane, Jesus looked into that cup—saw all the sin of the world about to be laid upon Him, and the holy wrath it deserved—and His human soul recoiled in agony. And yet He prayed, “Not my will, but thine, be done.”²⁵⁹

There, in the deciding of it, our salvation hung. Had He risen and walked away, no one could have stopped Him. But love held Him to the Father’s will. He took the cup from His Father’s hand and resolved to drink it—for us.

Mocked and Afflicted

From the garden He was led to a night of shame. Those who held Him made sport of Him:

And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him. And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him (Luke 22:63–65).

The Creator was struck by the creatures He had made. The One who would judge the world was blindfolded and taunted. And through it all He bore what Isaiah had foretold:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7).

He could have called ten thousand angels. He could have answered every accusation and silenced every mocker. Instead He was silent—“as a sheep before her shearers is dumb”—because He had come to be the Lamb, and the Lamb does not resist the slaughter. His silence was not weakness; it was love under perfect control, refusing to turn back.

Denied by His Friend

And there was a wound sharper than the soldiers’ blows—the wound of a friend. Peter, who had sworn he would die with Him, denied three times that he even knew Him:

And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter… And Peter went out, and wept bitterly (Luke 22:60–62).

Notice the detail Luke alone preserves: “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter.” In the middle of His own trial, bruised and bound, Jesus turned and looked at the man who had just denied Him—and that look broke Peter’s heart and sent him out weeping. It was not a look of condemnation but of sorrowful love; the very look that would one day restore him. Even in His suffering, Jesus was seeking the lost.

Put it all together—the sorrow, the tears, the agony, the mockery, the affliction, the betrayal by a friend—and remember: He went through every bit of it, and finally death itself upon the cross, so that you and I could be reconciled to God and become His children. What a price for our salvation! And He paid it not because of any goodness in us, but because of His love, His grace, and His mercy. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

If, as you read this, you long to be reconciled to God—to be born again and become His child—you need not wait until the end of the book. Turn now to Part XIII, where the way is made plain and a prayer is written out for you; then return and continue. For this suffering Savior is calling you home.