Suffering of God Himself

"The other side of the sovereignty of God is the suffering of God Himself." --Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Timothy Keller, pg 147, 2013, Penguin Random House, LLC, New York New York, USA.

One of the harder thing for many people to accept is that Christ is fully God, and yet was fully man. Beyond that, the fact that God suffered, and, in my opinion suffered worse than we will ever suffer.

³⁹ Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. ⁴⁰ On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” ⁴¹ He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ⁴³ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.^[a]
45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Luke 22 NIV

 ⁴⁴ It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, ⁴⁵ for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”^[a] When he had said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23 

Very few of us have suffered to the point that the sun has gone dark. Nor that the temple curtains have torn in half. We may feel that it is that way, but it does not spread beyond us or beyond our circle of family who see the hardest moments of suffering. 
I have felt moments of suffering that make it seem as if the earth itself could not possibly still exist--that all has fallen away to leave me standing in a black smudge. Yet the suffering I faced and face has never darkened the sky. 

Being aware of the amount of suffering that Christ underwent in those days leading up to crucifixion can help us to believe that He does know what we face, and understands the emotional portion of suffering. The Triumphant Procession into Jerusalem must have had such a tinge of sadness, in the sense of knowing that time was growing short until the time of suffering was completed. 

When I was a child, and actually I still do, I hated going to the dentist. At least at this point in my life, however, I no longer count down the days until that dreaded appointment for three months before hand. I would literally be a basket case the week before, and feel physically numb the last three days. Dental procedures filled me with such dread and terror that I cried that last week, cried the whole drive up to the dentist. And yet while the outlook was dark for me, it was not for the sky. That makes the suffering of God pretty intense that the sky darkened, the earth shook, and that curtain (I believe it was 8 layers thick) tore. 

A human has to be extraordinarily stressed to drip blood in the sweat--few of us ever see such a level of stress. Christ died much sooner than was expected. If you compare the Gospels, the soldiers were going to speed up the process, so broke the legs of the others being crucified. This sped up the strangulation effect of crucifixion, because they had no support to try to breath. The soldiers found Christ already dead, so stabbed Him with a sword---finishing up prophecy that He would not have any broken bones. Pilate, when questioned for Jesus' body by Joseph of Arimathea, was surprised He had passed away already. I believe that the amount of stress and suffering that He underwent possibly sped up the death process...giving us pause at how much misery He faced.

 14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^f And by him we cry, “Abba,^g Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Rom 8 NIV

We are sons of God through our adoption, full heirs (which means first born sons' rights as heirs). A full, firstborn son, a beloved one. Christ HAD to die, for His sacrifice was the only perfect sacrifice ever to be had. A heifer, a pigeon--all those blood offerings were temporary. Christ, being perfect and full of the law, being the Word, the Spirit and God all in one, was the only sacrifice that would ever be long enough, deep enough, wide enough, perfect enough and full enough to cover us through a lifetime of wickedness. We then can commune more deeply with God. 

We see tastes of the Kingdom of Heaven---(  “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21)---for do we not see and meet new people and think that they are of us? We see the peace and enjoyment, love and laughter that we will have in the fullness of glory. We taste the Spirit within us, He does not leave us, though we may ignore Him or "forget" Him.  We, because of the depth of His sacrifice, His suffering, allows us to have the comfort of His presence. We are given a new garment, no longer covered in the blood of murderous thoughts, we can be freely communicated with. 

It is an important thing to consider the depths of what His suffering meant and means---how harsh it may have been, how it leads us today into being able to be more in His presence now and in the future of eternity.