Everyone knows that Christ died for our sins. But did you know that Christ also died for our pain?
Christ died for our sins. Not because God was angry at us but because He loves us and could not stand to see us in a state of sin.
But God also could not stand to see us suffering. And He could not stand to see this world suffering. So to help us, He suffered with us. Because then not only would God be able to help us through our suffering, but we would then have the comfort of knowing that we do not suffer anything that God, as Christ, has not suffered before us and along with us.
And when Christ suffered and died, He suffered and died for all time. Not only for his day, but for our day too. He is suffering right alongside you as you suffer.
And for all time- including the past. For once Christ suffered and died, Christ would know that experience for all time- including in the past, thousands of years before he chose to be born into this world as Christ. He suffered for people in ancient Uruk in ancient Sumeria over three thousand years before He chose to be born on this Earth as Christ. For once God experiences something, He always knows it. In the present, in the future- and in the past. God always knew the experience of suffering for us as Christ. He has always suffered right alongside us. And He told us in the past that He would be willing to suffer and die for us- in the Book of Isaiah, in the myths of Isis and Osiris, in innumerable myths like those of Isis and Osiris, where as Osiris or as Hadad He told us that He was willing to die for us- and that He could not be conquered by death. That He would rise from death. That He would be Reborn. He let us know, time and again, of the promise of what He would do for us.
Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson