Why Did Jesus Suffer?
In 1857 there were some archaeologists in Rome who made a fascinating discovery. They were investigating a building in Rome that had first been part of the imperial palace of Caligula. By the end of the First Century the building had been turned into a boys boarding school — so it was basically a First Century Roman high school — and these archaeologists discovered in this building the oldest known pictorial representation of Jesus’s crucifixion. It was carved into one of the plaster walls; dates back to around the 100s.
It’s a drawing of a man on a cross with a donkey’s head, and there’s a young man looking up at him, and then under the drawing, these words in all caps: “Ᾰλεξᾰ́μενος σέβεται θεόν” — Alexamenos is a young man’s name, call him Alex, and the phrase says — Alex worships his God.
Going by the historical evidence we can say that Alex is the first Christian who we know was bullied in high school. This drawing was graffitied on a wall in this school to mock Alex because he was a Christian — which meant that he worshiped a God who was crucified…and that was considered absurd.
Getting to the Big Question
We know from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians that the reality of the cross was nearly impossible for people to accept. The idea that the Messiah would be crucified was something that Jewish people stumbled over, and it was something that Greeks — or Greco-Roman boys like Alex and his peers — would have thought was foolish. Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 1:23,
“[The cross was] a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles”
It made no sense to people that a Savior would die; and it especially made no sense that a Savior who claimed to be God would suffer and die.
People thought that was absurd, and that’s a really big deal. Because think about this:
The central claim of the gospel — the good news of Christianity — is that Jesus, the Son of God, suffered and died on a cross to save sinners. And that claim, the heart of our faith, was nonsense to most people when the Book of Hebrews was written.
Which means, part of the pressure on these first readers to abandon Jesus was this popular mindset. It was that, first off, there’s no way that God would become a man. And then secondly, even if such a thing were so, there’s certainly no way that God would become a man and suffer.
That was the thinking in the air. And so Hebrews Chapter 1 says, “Oh, Jesus absolutely is God become man.” And now Chapter 2 is going to say, “And Jesus suffered.”
That’s the focus of verses 10–18, and like Pastor Kenny said last Sunday, this passage is wonderfully dense. There are several of single words and phrases worth our time and meditation, and we could spend weeks on this, but for today, I want us to look at this passage as a whole and I want us to see that Chapter 2 is mainly answering one big question. And that’s the question: Why did Jesus suffer?
That’s the main question behind these verses, and I wonder if it’s something you’ve thought about before. Have you ever wondered why the cross? Couldn’t God have saved us another way? Did Jesus have to die? Why did Jesus suffer?
Well this passage answers that question. We’re going to see at least three reasons. Here’s the first.
Jesus suffered …
1) Because it was by God’s design.
The first time suffering is mentioned in the Book of Hebrews is in Chapter 2, verse 9:
“[Jesus, who humbled himself to become a man, was] crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.”
And right away those are not two ideas we’re used to seeing together — being “crowned with glory and honor” and then “the suffering of death.” Those sound like the exact opposites and yet the writer of Hebrews says that the crowning came through the suffering. It was crown through cross. Look at the end of verse 9, Jesus suffered so that:
“by the grace of God he [Jesus] might taste death for everyone.”
And if we just stopped here at verse 9 we would know something very important. We’d know that the suffering of Jesus was the path to his glory and it was intentional. Those little words there in verse 9 “because” and “so that” imply purpose. God was doing something at the cross. We need to start here. Does everyone see that in verse 9? The cross was not an accident.
Now in verse 10, the writer of Hebrews is gonna drive this point home. In verse 10 he starts to build the case that the suffering of Jesus was not only intentional, but it was right. He says this plainly in verse 10.
“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
Look at those first four words: “for it was fitting.” Or, in other words, it was appropriate. It was right. That’s what the word means. It does not mean tragedy or mistake or fiasco or accident. As horrible as the suffering of Jesus was, the writer of Hebrews wants to be clear that it was the way it had to be. And to emphasize this point, look how he refers to God.
He says, verse 10, “he, for whom and by whom all things exist.” We know he’s talking about God here and he could have just said “God,” why does he describe God with this phrase?
Well, when you hear that phrase, what do you think? He for whom and by whom all things exist.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear He for whom and by whom all things exist I’m thinking about Somebody who can do whatever they want, right?
God is the origin and the end of everything that is, which means he has the authority to do whatever he pleases. Remember who we’re talking about! This is God! He is sovereign over all. The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that in his sovereignty God was pleased to save sons and daughters through a Savior who suffered. The cross was by God’s design. It was fitting. It was right. The cross was the right way for God to save his people.
That’s the first answer to the main question here: Jesus suffered because it was by God’s design. And now the writer is going to elaborate this point even more.
Jesus suffered because…
2) Because we suffer.
And this is really the main answer to the question of why Jesus suffered. The writer of Hebrews spends most of his time here and belabors this point. I want us to see this.
Verse 10,
“It was fitting that God, for whom and by whom all things exist, in brining many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
“Perfect through suffering” What does that mean? Well, that word for perfect is not talking about moral perfection, but it’s the idea of completeness, and in particular this is completeness as the founder of their salvation. Another way to say it is that this is about the completeness of Jesus’s vocational role as founder.
That word founder is important. It could also be translated “pioneer” or “leader.” The word is used four other times in the New Testament, twice by Luke in the book of Acts and twice in Hebrews, and the word is always in reference to Jesus. And commentators say that here in verse 10 it’s 100% an allusion to Moses (who gets mentioned just a few verses away at the beginning of Chapter 3).
The idea is that just like Moses was the founder/leader of God’s people in the first exodus-salvation, Jesus is the founder/leader of God’s people in the final exodus-salvation — and part of what it means for Jesus to fulfill that role of founder/leader is suffering.
The Job Description
One way to think about it is that when God wrote the job description for the founder/leader of his people’s salvation, that job description included suffering. Suffering completes the founder job description.
Imagine this for a minute.
Imagine there’s a job description for Jesus as the founder of our salvation. It’s a one-page document, and there’s a handful of bullet points that list out the responsibilities and duties of the role, and suffering is one of those bullet points.
But, it’s actually a sub-point to a larger bullet point.
The suffering of Jesus is by God’s design — it’s a bullet point on his job description as the founder of our salvation — but the suffering is actually included under the larger bullet point that Jesus became a man.
Part of becoming a man, part of truly sharing in real humanity, meant that Jesus had to experience suffering.
That is the main argument the writer of Hebrews is going to make here. He is going to say this over and over again. And so get ready. I’m telling you now. The focus of this passage is that Jesus really did became human and he really did experience a humanity like ours — and because as humans we suffer, Jesus experienced suffering.
And it’s amazing in that the way the writer continues to argue that Jesus suffered is by saying that Jesus was really human. The writer of Hebrews makes the argument for why Jesus suffered by showing that Jesus was really like us.
Look at verse 11. Jesus is fully God and fully human, and he really does know what it was like to be human.
All of One
Verse 11 says:
"For he who sanctifies [that’s Jesus] and those who are sanctified [that’s us, those who trust in Jesus] [Jesus and us, we] all have one source."
In English translations we add that word “source” but it literally just says “all of one.” The idea is that Jesus and us are together. We’re the “same family.” We are all of one. Which means we have true solidarity. And that is why, end of verse 11, he (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them (us) his brothers. We’re going to come back to that sentence, but for now, just see that Jesus affirms our solidarity. He says, Yes, we’re of the same, we’re together. And this is such an important point for the writer of Hebrews that he gives us three Old Testament quotations to support it.
And we have to look at these quotations. This is gonna take a minute, but I have to show you this. If you appreciate the Bible, this is for you. If you don’t really care about the Bible yet, just hang on, okay.
Old Testament Support
With each of these quotes in verses 12–13, the writer of Hebrews has in view their original context. I think he wants us to hear the quote and then remember what’s going on in the places where the quote comes from.
Verse 12:
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
This quote is Psalm 22, verse 22.
Psalm 22 is one of the most widely quoted Messianic psalms in the New Testament. This is the psalm that Jesus quoted while he was on the cross. You’ve heard this before. The psalm begins,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
That’s Psalm 22, verse 1.
The psalm is mainly about the Messiah’s suffering, but it also points to the Messiah’s future exaltation. Those are the two parts to the psalm, and the turning point in the psalm, where it goes from suffering to exaltation, happens in verse 22 — which is the verse that Hebrews is quoting here.
In Psalm 22, David, the psalmist, says that on the other side of the Messiah’s suffering, the Messiah will testify of God’s name to his brothers, who are then called in the next line “the congregation” (which is the word for church). So Psalm 22 shows that the Messiah suffers; he endures through suffering; and he has brothers. And the writer of Hebrews is like “See!”
Then in verse 13 both of these quotes are from Isaiah 8, verses 17 and 18.
The context of Isaiah 8 is that the people of Judah are under threat. The Assyrian army is going to attack them, and the people are terrified. They’re in a panic. But God says to Isaiah, Hey, don’t be afraid like everyone else. I know this is hard. I know there is suffering, but I’m going to bring you through the suffering.
And so Isaiah, in response to God, in Isaiah 8, verse 17 he says, Okay, I will wait for Yahweh.
“I will hope in him.”
And the writer of Hebrews quotes that verse. It’s a verse about hoping in God in the midst of suffering — but then listen to the next verse.
In Isaiah 8, verse 18, the very next verse, Isaiah says,
“Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts.”
What does that mean? Well, in the context, a little earlier in the Book of Isaiah, in chapter 7 and the beginning of 8, Isaiah has two sons, and God gives them both special names to symbolize the faithful remnant of God’s people who trust God and endure through suffering.
So in verse 17, Isaiah speaks of his own faith. He says,
“I will put my trust in him [in God].”
Then in verse 18 he says that it’s not just his faith, but it’s a faith he shares with the children God gave him.
So Isaiah is saying: I have a shared hope through suffering with these children from God.
And the writer of Hebrews wants us to know that Jesus says that about us.
In verse 14 the word “children” is used again and what’s implied here is that we are the children of God that God gave to Jesus as his brothers.
The write of Hebrew is saying again that we’re with Jesus together. We’re all of one.
Familial References
And I want to make sure we get the familial references clear.
I was having a conversation about this with a kindergartner just this past week. I was driving down the road and he casually mentioned that God and Jesus were brothers, and I was like hold up. It led to a good conversation about the Trinity and how we relate to the Father and Son, and this passage actually shows us.
The metaphor of family is important here, and we are called two different titles. We who are saved, those of us who trust in Jesus, in this passage we are called “sons” and “children” in verses 10 and 14. And we’re called “brothers” in verses 11, 12, and 17. Each of those mentions are about us. And just to be clear:
When we’re called sons or children, that’s in relation to God the Father. We are the children of God. We are the sons and daughters of God the Father.
When we’re called brothers (which implies brothers and sisters) that’s us in relation to Jesus. We are the brothers and sisters of Jesus.
God is our Father. Jesus is our brother. That’s important if we’re going to understand this passage.
Verse 14 tells us that Jesus, therefore — because we are God’s children and Jesus is our brother — because we share in flesh and blood, Jesus partook of the same things.
The Same Things
So, see, it comes back to this solidarity. It’s simple. Jesus was really like us, which means he experienced the same things we do. Because we, his fellow brothers and sisters, because we are flesh and blood and sweat and snot and fingernails — because we are that, Jesus experienced that. He partook of the same things, verse 14, and the “same things” includes suffering. The rest of verse 14 and 15 then focus on our mortality.
We could spend a whole sermon just on this point, but for now I just want to highlight that our mortality and suffering go together. Death is a result of suffering. Remember back in verse 9 the phrase is the “suffering of death.” Death is a threat that hangs over us all. It reminds us that we are not invincible, but we’re bound and confined and lower. And if Jesus really became a human then he must experience that. And he did. That’s what verse 16 is saying.
Jesus didn’t come to save angels; he came to save humans. Mortals. He helps the offspring of Abraham. People like us.
And because of that, verse 17 — because Jesus came to save real people, his brothers — “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect…”
I told you it was the same argument over and over again. This is the same thing we saw in verse 10. The suffering of Jesus was fitting. It was right. Here we see it was necessary. It had to be that Jesus became like us in every respect, even suffering.
Jesus has such solidarity with us, he became so actually human like us, that when you experience hurt, he knows what that is like. He gets us. He gets you.
And that’s what makes him a merciful and faithful high priest, which is how he made atonement for our sins and intercedes for us. And there’s a whole sermon on that, but for now let’s come back to the main question here: Why did Jesus suffer?
Jesus suffered because we suffer. Jesus really did became human and he really did experience a humanity like ours — and because as humans we suffer, Jesus experienced suffering.
Jesus suffered because it was by God’s design.
Jesus suffered because we suffer.
Now the final point.
Jesus suffered…
3) Because now he is able to help us.
This is verse 18. And it follows the same train of thought we’ve been looking at. You can see that verse 18 begins with the word “for.” That tells us that what the writer is about to say is serving as a grounding to what he’s said previously. And I think it makes the most sense to understand verse 18 as a grounding statement to this entire section. Verse 18 sorta summarizes the entire argument.
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Because Jesus has experienced real humanity, even suffering, he is able help us in our humanity.
A couple key words here are “tempted” and “help” — and how we understand “tempted” is going to guide us on how to understand “help.” What kind of help is he talking about? At one level, we could keep this very general. It could be a very general kind of temptation, and therefore a very general kind of help.
But, consider this: in light of what we’ve seen in these verses, and because we know the main exhortation of this book is about endurance, I think the writer of Hebrews is thinking about temptation more narrowly.
Jesus was tempted in general, in all kinds of ways, but he was especially tempted to abandon God, to neglect his calling, to shrink back because of the pressure. We know this from Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness and his agony in Gethsemane.
And instead of abandoning, neglecting, and shrinking back — what Jesus experienced, because he withstood those temptations, was suffering. And he suffered all the way through to the other side of faithfulness. He never gave into sin, including the sin of apostasy, which means, he can help you. When you’re pressured to abandon God, when you are tempted to to forsake faith, Jesus can help you there because he’s been there.
And — here it is, get this: because Jesus can help you in that big, most serious of temptations, he can help you anywhere.
Several years ago when our oldest daughter was a toddler, I remember she was just at the age where she could change her clothes and dress herself. One day I heard her screaming from her room, in a panic, “Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me!” So I go and run and open the door, and apparently she had been taking her pajamas off and somehow got twisted up and her shirt was stuck over her head. She wanted Jesus’s help.
And because Jesus can help her endure in faith, he can help her with pajamas. And he did. I was there, found both sleeves, and pulled it over her head. I think Jesus answered her prayer. He helped her.
I love that word “help.” It’s so earthy. So practical. It can be so particular or general. I need help with the transmission in my van, and I need help as a pastor, and as a husband and a dad. I need help all over the place. I need Jesus’s help all over the place. And so do you. We need his help everywhere, to believe, and to live, and to do anything.
And have you ever wondered what Jesus thinks about that? What does he think about us needing his help all the time?
There’s something wonderful here. Jesus can help us as humans because he knows what it’s like to be human, but unlike humans, because Jesus is also God, he doesn’t get weary of helping us. There’s never a moment when we cry to him for help and he thinks “Not again.” In fact, it’s the opposite. We cry to Jesus for help and he thinks, Oh, I get it. I know. I’ve been there. We’re together.
And of that togetherness, verse 11 says that Jesus is “not ashamed to call us brothers.”
I think this is a little theme we’re going to see in Hebrews. In a few different places we read what God our Father and what Jesus our brother thinks of us. How does he view us?
Jesus has been here. He’s seen it. He’s experienced it. He knows what we’re up against. He’s been tempted like us, and he knows we’ve failed a thousand times where he never did. What does he think of us? Ask that question about yourself: What does Jesus think of me?
Hebrews 2:11 says he’s not ashamed to call you his brother. He’s not ashamed to call you his sister. He claims you, openly, in front of everyone, no matter the pressure or the popular mindset or what someone might graffiti on the wall, whatever it is you’re going through, Jesus is not ashamed of you. He claims you.
He hears your prayers and thinks: “My brother!” “My sister!” I can help you.
That is why he suffered.
And that’s what brings us to the Table.
The Table
This morning as we receive the bread and the cup, I want to invite you to ask Jesus for help. In a room like this, with all the souls in here, only God knows what we have going on. There are hard things, heavy things. There’s hurt and confusion and doubts. There are particular things and general things. And whatever they might be, whatever you’re going through, ask Jesus to help you. Because of who Jesus is, because of what he’s done, because he’s been there, would you ask him for help?
Let’s just take a minute and do that now.
Lord Jesus, because of who you are, because of what you’ve done, because of what you tell us in your word, help us. Amen.
And now at this Table, we remember the death of Jesus for us and give him thanks. He has saved us. He claims us. Let us revel in his salvation.
