Love Hurts

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” —C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

What Jesus endured in pain and suffering He endured out of love for us

Jesus didn’t come to us like a Hollywood Hero, but as a Suffering Servant

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. —Isaiah 53:2-3

What Jesus endured for us was necessary, chosen, expected, and completed

What Jesus endured was necessary, to deal with our sin

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way.
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. —Isaiah 53:4-6

What Jesus endured was chosen by Him, not forced on Him

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. —Isaiah 53:7

What Jesus endured was expected by Him

The Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21, Mark 12, Luke 20)

> God knows that answering our cries for mercy and saving our souls will cause him more suffering than ten thousand women in labor.
> We will betray him. We will resist him. We will fall away on many levels. He will pursue us, he will discipline us, accept us back, and forgive us.


He will ache as we bring untold misery into our lives through our disobedience because now he is watching a daughter or a son ruin their worlds. Every act of rebellion, every unkind word we utter to others, every self-sabotage is like one more dagger thrust in his side. We’re his children. He can’t stop caring. —- Gary Thomas (Author of Sacred Marriage, etc.)

What Jesus endured was completed – He saw it through

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth. —Isaiah 53:8-9

What Jesus endured He endured so that many could be justified

Yet it was the LORD’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. —Isaiah 53:10-12

What might God want to say to us through Christ’s love and suffering?
• Appreciate the depth of Jesus’ love for you
• Be willing to move in the direction of loving those who are hurting
• Don’t succumb so easily to petty grievances
• Move on from false expectations that “love” always means “easy”
• Look to Jesus to help you with your suffering and pain

Takeaway ¬– “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25)