The Christmas Sacrifice
[Jesus] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Romans 4:25 NIV
“ [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21 NIV
Do we look at ourselves, our trials, our problems, when we are suffering? Do we live under the circumstances, instead of above the circumstances? Or do we look at the One who knew more suffering than we are able to conceive?
In Table Talk Martin Luther said, “Our suffering is not worthy the name of suffering. When I consider my crosses, tribulations, and temptations, I shame myself almost to death, thinking what are they in comparison to the sufferings of my blessed Savior Jesus Christ.”
There are several things about the life of Christ that reveal His role as the “suffering servant” Messiah. We cannot begin to trace every aspect of this search through His life, but consider these truths:
In Isaiah 53 the sufferings of the Savior are so minutely pictured that one might well read it as the record of an eyewitness, rather than the prediction of a man who wrote eight hundred years before the event.
Observe that Jesus’ life began in the midst of persecution and peril. He came on a mission of love and mercy, sent by the Father. An angel announced His conception and gave Him His name. The heavenly host sang a glorious anthem at His birth. By the extraordinary star, the very heavens indicated His coming. In Himself He was the most illustrious child ever born—the Holy Child of Mary, the divine Son of God. Yet no sooner did He enter our world than Herod decreed His death and labored to accomplish it.
Notice, too, that He assumed a role of deep abasement. The Son of the eternal Father, He became a tiny, helpless infant and was made in the likeness of man. He assumed our human nature with all its infirmities, and weakness, and capacity for suffering. He came as a child of the poorest parents. His entire life was one voluntary humiliation. He came to be a servant and to minister rather than to be ministered unto.
Our Father and our God, accept my humble thanks and praise for Jesus, the provider of my hope and salvation. Help me, like Him, to suffer the tribulations and troubles of this life with trust in You, with patience and peace, with my eyes focused on heaven. Teach me to minister joyfully rather than to expect others to minister to me. In the name of Jesus, the suffering servant. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).