Series: CRUX Started: 3/9/2014 Devotional for Thursday, March 20, 2014 He Suffered under Pontius Pilate Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him (John 19:1) Irenaeus lived during the second century and was one of the most significant thinkers and leaders of the early church. He was a student of the great bishop Polycarp who was said to be a student of the apostle John. The significance of the student– teacher relationship can be heard in this brief excerpt from Against Heresies (c. 180 AD) If he did not really suffer there was no grace . . . and when we begin to endure real suffering he will clearly be leading us astray in exhorting us to endure scourging and to turn the other cheek, if he did not first endure the same treatment in reality; in that case we should be ‘above our master’ . . . but as he, our Lord, is our only true master, so he is truly the good and suffering Son of God, the Word of God the Father made the Son of Man. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, cited in Bettenson, The Early Christian Fathers, 107). In Irenaeus’s day there were some sincere, very intelligent Christians who simply could not accept the fact that the Son of God died the excruciating and ignoble death of crucifixion. Jesus’ death on the cross presented them with an uncomfortable theological problem. They dealt with the problem by maintaining that the “human” Jesus was crucified while the “divine” part of Jesus was somehow taken to God before things got really nasty. Irenaeus would have none of it. Jesus is the suffering Son of God. He did not escape the cross by leaving the husk of his body on the tree while spiritually whisking away to the heavens. Jesus was there in his fullness. All of him: feeling every lash of the whip, every nail, the tongue cracking thirst. Jesus suffered. The name Pontius Pilate is spoken every time Christians speak the words of the Apostles’ Creed. Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Of course, it’s not Pilate that we remember in our creed, but the very specific ways in which Jesus suffered. Like those early Christians against whom Irenaeus aimed his pen, we cannot avoid or dismiss the sufferings of Jesus. If we treasure every compassionate act that Jesus did, every parable he spoke, every miracle he worked, but rob him of his afflictions and his cross, we rob ourselves of hope. As Irenaeus wrote, “If he did not suffer there is no grace.” His sufferings matter precisely because we too suffer. The path of every affliction we will ever experience has already been walked by Jesus. What does suffering look like in your life today? Does the reality of Jesus’ suffering change what you are experiencing? What would it mean for you to enter into the suffering of others? Prayer: Lord Jesus, we’re thankful that you entered fully into the experience of suffering; we’re thankful that you understand fully the sufferings we experience. Help us to find you in the midst of our own afflictions. And when our days are bright and blessed, grant us grace to follow your example by entering into the suffering of those around us. Amen. Mark H. Crumpler Pastor for Teaching and Spiritual Formation markthis.blogspot
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 10:45:47 +0000
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