Jesus Took on All Human Suffering – Part 1

We sometimes mistakenly think that Jesus’ suffering was only the 6 hours on the Cross. But everything Jesus did was an act of self-giving and humility. Jesus took on all human suffering.

Jesus Emptied Himself and Took the Form of a Man

It’s difficult to imagine how much God gave up to become man. We all know how humiliating human life is for each of us, who are by nature fallen men. But what of our perfect God, the Creator of the immensities of the universe, who managed to squeeze Himself into a form the size of you or me?

Jesus was Born in Humiliating Circumstances

The humiliation of Jesus’ birth extended not only to taking on human flesh but also to being born among the beasts. He who was The Bread of Life and who was born in The City of Bread was born in a feeding trough for beasts. He who is the only Clean and Holy One was born among the filth of the world. He who is man’s true home was born in a homeless condition, and even in birth, the Son of Man had no place to rest His sweet head.

Jesus’ First Shed His Blood at His Circumcision

He who is the New Creation on the 8^th Day, the day of the New Creation, shed His blood for us. This was the same Blood of the Covenant foreshadowed in the Old Covenant, partaken of in the Lord’s Supper, and shed on the Cross for the sins of the world.

“Can Anything Good Come from Nazareth?”

“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” This was the question Nathanael asked when first hearing about Jesus, and which men have asked ever since.

The King of Kings was not only born in humiliating circumstances: He was also raised in them. His entire life was lived in the tiny nation of Israel, chosen by God precisely because she was so weak and small.

He did not grow up in the City of David, where the Temple resided, nor was He raised in the more cosmopolitan and “hip” Judea in the south. Instead, He was raised in the obscure town of Nazareth, whose population would only have been a few hundred.

Nazareth was not only obscure but also despised. Nazareth was in the “hick” region of Galilee, itself despised and part of a notorious curse: “Galilean – fool!” It was because of Peter’s “hick” accent that those in Jerusalem knew at the time of his denial that he was a Galilean who had been with Jesus. But even the despised Nazareth despised Jesus when He preached His first sermon there. For “they rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff” (Luke 4:29).