But many have suffered more than Jesus Christ did on the cross

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I sometimes think the Cross must be only a symbol of awful suffering. And the outstretched arms another symbol of utter vulnerability, hence love.
Because some poor unfortunates have suffered longer and worse than Jesus Christ. Not to diminish the suffering of crucifixion of course. But what about children suffering long term sexual abuse? Women too. Long term torture too horrendous to go into details here.

It’s enough to know that God and Jesus Christ surely know what suffering is all about. And if we ever suffer, no matter the magnitude they can be with us to comfort us and reassure us, that the suffering is not wasted and will one day make sense to us.
 
I thought about that, too; heck, other crucifixion victims took days to die, rather than a measly few hours! But it’s not true. No one has ever felt the wrath of God like Jesus did, He who took our sins upon His shoulders. He who was in the very form of God–who knew fellowship with God, unbroken by sin–was cast away from God’s presence and made a curse. No one has ever suffered like Jesus did; no one COULD have suffered like Jesus did.
 
Its not like a suffering competition and Jesus is the winner. I think we are challenged to think more deeply than that.
 
You and I could easily be whipped, forced to wear a crown of thorns, and be nailed to a cross - the thieves did as much, and lived beyond Christ.

Can that be all?

In the metaphysical realm, Jesus was paying for all massacres, world wars, abortion, murder, rape, robbery, assault, theft and every other sin that would ever occur.

Remember that He looked heavenward and groaned when He was healing. Even healing did not arrive free of cost.
 
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heidi_storage said:
no one COULD have suffered like Jesus did.
Click to expand...
I wanted to echo this, as well. Jesus lived in continual and perfect unity with the Father, and that was broken I think at the Garden of Gethsemane. Hence the reason he was so distressed he was sweating blood. More than any physical pain, emotional pain, or social pain felt by the cross, was the spiritual pain of that separation.
 
Jesus didn’t come to compare His suffering to ours- He just came to suffer for us.
 
At the first Passover, when the dead lamb’s blood was dripping from the doorpost and lintel, and the dead flesh of the lamb was in the stomachs of the Jews, the angel went by the house and passed by, saying, “death already has been here, no need for me to stop at this house.”

At the new covenant, we eat the flesh of the Lamb of God, and also drink his blood.
Since the Father and Son eternally pour out themselves, their whole being, into one another (the Holy Spirit), we now can take part in this, since we have consumed this Bread from Heaven, and this Living Water, his blood.
Jesus gave his life to give us food to eat and drink to drink - so that in the eternal Love of the Father, when he pours his whole being into the Son, he now does it where his Son’s Body is (which we have consumed and which body we now are - we are the Body of Christ because what we eat we have become), and we now participate in the reciprocation of pouring life into one another that happens in God, in the Trinity. We are participating in the Trinity. In this New Passover, God stops at the house where, under the “roof” is the Body and Blood of the Sacrifice, so that he can pour his life into this Body and Blood.

In eternity, the Father and Son can pour their whole being into each other eternally without ever running out of love to give. Eternal reciprocity of Self, of Love, into the other for the other to have.

Creating us, God poured his whole being into each and all of us.
In Justice of reciprocity, as humans, when we pour our whole being out by living our lives, we are dead.
There is justice, but we are dead - no longer present to receive love from God eternally (our sin left us in this boat).
But Jesus, being Son of God and Son of Man, dying as a man poured out his human life, and gave us his flesh to consume, and then still being Divine, received the Love of his Father, even in his Body, and in us who consume his Body and Blood. He sees the body of his Son in us and he says, “Here is my Son whom I love, Here is my Love, my Spirit, my Son - arise.” And we are now eternally participating in the love of God, in the Life of God.

When we die, it is justice of giving our life back to God who gave us his life so we could BE.
When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we are granted grace to do eternal Justice, eternal reciprocal Love, with God - eternally giving our being to him and his creatures, and eternally receiving his Life.
John Martin

 
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How? The following things happened to Jesus during the crucifixion-

Spat on

Mocked

Beaten

Forsaken by God

nails were in His hands and feet

But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Jesus died a very gruesome death and it was for us.
 
Jesus suffering must be seen in the context of who and what He is. He is God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Everything is His and heaven is His footstool. He does not have to become human much less to die. Yet, that was what He did.

Suffering in not just the pain but also what a person loses. Jesus was willing to go through all that, and for what? So that some puny human beings would be saved from the sins that they willingly and deliberately committed. Why? - because He is a God who loves us.

Christ’s suffering can only be seen through this lens to understand its enormity.
 
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Our Blessed Lord did not merely suffer during His Passion. As the Man of Sorrows, He suffered from the moment of His conception until death.
 
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