When Hope Screamed: The Glory of Christ in Suffering

Hope in the New Testament is often connected to the resurrection and the life that is found as a result of being “in Christ.”

This hope is not simply a vague and wishful longing for a better future, but rather is rooted in the certainty of God’s character and his plan of redemption.

Just as Christian hope is only found in Him, in a real sense, it ultimately is Him. Hope at the most profound level is not an abstract concept but a living person.

In the Old Testament, the notion of hope is closely associated with the Lord himself. Yahweh is the “Hope of Israel” (Jer 14:8; 17:13; 50:7), and the foundation of the worship of God’s people is the hope found only in the Lord.

In his letters to the churches, Paul makes a similar identification. In Col 1:27, he explains that “God willed to make known” to his saints “the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” As he begins his first letter to Timothy, Paul makes this equation in simple and startling terms. He asserts that he is an “apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope” (1 Tim 1:1).

The highest hope of a believer is Jesus himself. Thus, holding on to hope involves clinging to the promises and person of Christ.[1]

Jesus is our Hope, and one day Hope screamed. The fact that Jesus suffered throughout his life is not something that we tend to think about or dwell upon. Our tradition sometimes even intentionally obscures this element of Jesus’ humanity.

The passion of Jesus begins at his birth. The “little Lord Jesus” did in fact lay down “his sweet head” away in a Bethlehem manger, but the “little Lord Jesus” who “no crying he makes” is a Jesus who never existed. Rather, Jesus drew his first breath among a people who would ultimately put him to death. As John says in the prologue to his Gospel, Jesus is one who came to his own, and his own did not receive him (John 1:11).

As a small child, Jesus fled from forces that sought to murder him, and years later he stood before a court of his kinsmen who handed him over to a Roman ruler on trumped up charges of treason. He grew in “wisdom and stature” (Lk 2:52) and into a “man of sorrows” who was “well acquainted with grief” (Isa 53:3). As he tells his disciples at key points in his ministry, the “Son of Man is going to suffer” (Matt 17:12).

Throughout the Gospel narratives, Jesus experiences and speaks about his own suffering. As the Gospels progress, they move steadily toward the consummation of Jesus’ suffering in Jerusalem. Luke in particular highlights the high cost of this journey toward the cross.

On the mount of transfiguration, Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about “His departure which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk 9:31). Soon after this, Luke records that “when the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51). Until they get there, Luke takes pains to chart the progress of this journey, as discipleship takes place “on the way.”

As they press forward, the disciples frequently fail to understand that Jesus journeys toward Jerusalem for the purpose of humiliation rather than exaltation. Jesus warns them that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected . . . and be killed and be raised up on the third day” (Lk 9:22).

Later, he gravely states, “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men” (Lk 9:44). Luke makes it crystal clear that as Jesus heads to Jerusalem, he heads also to the cross.

As this final journey ends, the humiliation of Jesus’ incarnation reaches an apex on a hill outside the city. There the “King of the Jews” replaces the crown he had lain aside in Bethlehem with one made of thorns. Though severe and horrifying, the physical suffering of Jesus was only one element of his passion.

The biblical writers take care to emphasize also that Jesus was bearing the full wrath of a holy God. Through his work on the cross, Jesus redeems a rebellious people and fulfills the purpose for which he came, to “save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). These physical and spiritual elements converge on the cross, as Jesus accomplishes his ultimate mission on earth.

All of the Gospel writers note the meaning and intensity of these final moments of Jesus’ crucifixion. Mark records that “Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last” (Mk 15:37).[2]

His last words were loud and agonized.

His final breath was a scream.

Notes:

1. Along these lines, Nancy Guthrie, Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose & Provision in Suffering (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 11, writes of her own experience with suffering: “Holding on to hope, for us, has not been a vague, sentimental experience. . . . I am not holding on to hope in terms of a positive perspective about the future or an innate sense of optimism, but rather holding on to the living person of Jesus Christ. I am grabbing hold of the promises of God, his purposes, and his provision, and refusing to let go.” Guthrie’s little compilation is full of encouraging quotations (see my review of this book).
   
   
2. The parallel Gospel accounts depict a similar scene. Matthew recounts, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit” (Matt 27:50). Luke notes that “Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’” (Lk 23:46). John notes with finality that Jesus, “knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the Scripture,” said, “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30).

This is an excerpt from a section of a journal article, “When Hope Screams: Learning How to Suffer as Sons from the Book of Hebrews.” This reflection will continue in the next post but if you would like to read the whole article itself, see here.