Daily Devotions
Luke
Luke 18:31-34 "SUFFERING IS SURELY ONE OF THE HARDEST LESSONS TO UNDERSTAND"
Day 228 – Luke 18
Text: Luke 18:31-34
SUFFERING IS SURELY ONE OF THE HARDEST LESSONS TO UNDERSTAND
Jesus taught His Disciples many hard lessons of faith and life. Let’s take a look at some of the lessons He taught.
1. He taught His followers many lessons related to Discipleship
a) They must be prepared to make sacrifices in following Jesus.
b) They must be able and willing to take up the Cross daily .
2. He taught His Disciples how to pray
a) His personal prayer life was a true inspiration.
b) The specific lessons on how to approach God, how to persevere in faith etc were most instructive and revealing.
3. He taught His Disciples how Doctrine and Life cannot be separated
a) When one only preaches but does not practice, one ends up with hypocrisy.
b) When one focuses on doctrine alone, the result could well be self-righteousness.
There were many other lessons. In some of them, Jesus had to correct His Disciples for their lack of faith, for their lack of in-depth comprehension etc. None of the lessons Jesus taught was easy.
The hardest lesson was yet to come. Arguably, one of the hardest lessons for anyone to learn must be on the issue of suffering! We may even speak of a built-in self-defence mechanism where we avoid suffering at all cost. Despite this natural sense of aversion to suffering, Jesus nevertheless had to teach His Disciples that suffering was a very real part of life. They would have to face the reality of suffering simply because they were His Disciples. The best way to teach them about how to cope with suffering would be to show them how He would cope with suffering.
“HE WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE GENTILES…” Luke 18:32
Jesus was fully prepared for pain and suffering. His mind and spirit were prepared for suffering because of the impact of the Scriptures in His life. Jesus cited the prophetic literature of the prophets. They were spokesmen of God. Their prophetic utterances fed the soul of Jesus and also prepared Him so that He accepted His pain and suffering as something totally within God’s Will.
Jesus wanted His Disciples to know exactly what would transpire shortly. The more the Disciples were taught, the more they would be prepared. The more they discussed this subject, the more familiar they would be with the prophetic Scriptures. Jesus taught His Disciple in measured tones, at different intervals, adding one piece of knowledge upon another, until the whole picture was formed.
One of the things that would happen to Him was that He would be delivered to the Gentiles. This statement might have astonished the Disciples. The Jews had their own courts of law. The Jewish judicial courts were empowered to deal with many issues. Most of the time, the Jews preferred to resolve their difficulties in their own courts of law.
Seldom would they turn to the Gentile court of law. Only when a person has committed a major crime would he be turned over to the Gentile or Roman court of law. In almost all cases, only when a criminal is charged with a crime that deserves capital punishment, would he be delivered to the Gentiles.
How could Jesus speak words like these to the Disciples? What did He mean? What crime did He commit that would see Him being delivered to the Gentile court of law? As far as the Disciples knew, their Master was innocent. He could not be charged in the lowest of courts, for He was perfectly sinless!
“AND WILL BE MOCKED AND INSULTED AND SPIT UPON…” Luke 18:32
As the Disciples listened to Jesus explaining about how He would suffer, their hearts must have been wrenched! Who would dare to mock their Master? Who would have the audacity to insult their Teacher? Who would be rude and insane enough to actually spit upon Jesus?
How could Jesus even think such thoughts? How could the Disciples listen to these words without shuddering, without seeing tears come to their eyes? How could Jesus teach the Disciples such lessons?
Surely, Jesus could not, need not go through things like that? Would their opponents, their enemies, go so far as to hurt Jesus in this manner? These thoughts were just so unthinkable!
Jesus was the Messiah, wasn’t He? He healed hundreds! He fed thousands! Always, He showered love upon all who came to Him! How could anyone do anything so wicked to such a Person?
“THEY WILL SCOURGE HIM AND KILL HIM…” Luke 18:32
Sadder words came. Finally Jesus said, that the Gentiles would go one step further. They would scourge Jesus! The word “scourge” must have brought terror to their hearts.
Did they hear Jesus correctly? Did He really say “scourge”? The Roman scourge was well known. They created a whip that had several “tails”. At the end of each tail would be a piece of metal like a fishhook. Each lash was calculated to draw blood. Did Jesus say that He would have to be scourged by the Romans? The Jewish court did not use a scourge. They would flog or cane a person severely, but the scourge was something most people feared!
How could Jesus speak of being scourged? The final outcome would be inevitable. Their Teacher, their beloved Master would be killed!
The hearts of the Disciples must have closed up as they heard these words! How could they accept these words, even if they knew that their Teacher had always spoken nothing but the truth to them, all the time!
It is one thing to talk about general suffering, it is quite another to describe torturous suffering! How could anyone be expected to accept such a teaching? The Disciples “understood none of these things” (Luke 18:34). They were not quite ready or able to comprehend the whole truth about suffering just yet. It takes a whole lot more spiritual maturity to be able to accept such difficult teachings!