"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:4-6
There is an old story about a schoolboy who wanted to give his teacher a gift. He knew that she loved seashells, so one weekend he walked to the ocean—twenty-miles—found a beautiful shell and walked back home.
On Monday morning, the boy gave his teacher the shell. She thought it was beautiful. After a minute, it dawned on her what the boy had gone through in order to give her the gift. She asked him, “You mean you walked all that way to the ocean and back just to give me this shell?”
He replied, “The long walk is part of the gift.”
It's so easy to gloss over Jesus' suffering. Everyone loves a happy ending, and we know that the “good news” of Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate happy ending.... But it's good for us to remember clearly the pain and agony He took on our behalf to provide us with the gift of a restored relationship with God.
We don't want to take for granted Jesus’ suffering: “the long walk is part of the gift.”
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