It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom
everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through
what he suffered (Hebrews 2:10).
The age old question asks, If God is all powerful and
all loving, why does he allow suffering in the world? The problem is any
answer we come up with is insufficient in the face of actual suffering. Knowing
why we suffer could never take away our suffering.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that God the Father used the
suffering of his Son Jesus to make him perfect. This is not to say the Father
caused the suffering, but that he used the suffering in a positive way. If the
role of suffering in Jesus’ life was to make him perfect, could it play the
same role in ours?
There’s no use fantasizing of a world without suffering,
because there’s plenty to go around in the world we have. In the future? Maybe…
but for now it’s a fact of life, a given.
When we suffer, we have basically two choices. We can either
rail against the heavens, blaming God for our pain, or we can fall into his
comforting arms, surrender our will to his, and allow him to do his perfecting
work in our lives. It’s going to be painful either way. The question is: Will
we suffer for a purpose, or
will we suffer for nothing? If God the Father perfected his Son through
suffering, he can do the same for us.
Everyone suffers, but we don’t have to suffer for nothing.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
How has God used suffering
to perfect you?
Okay, this has kind of confused me. Wasn't Jesus perfect when he went to the cross? If so, how would suffering on the cross then perfect him if he was already perfect? Also, on the cross Jesus took on all of our sins, thereby making him anything but perfect.
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