Part 9 – Christ: A Man of Sorrows
Jesus was acquainted with social sorrow. He was called the son of Beelzebub and I’m sure the illegitimate child of a fallen woman because He was virgin born. And some of the keenest sorrow that Jesus ever experienced was religious sorrow because He suffered without the gate and was nailed to the cross with hammers of religion. He suffered race sorrow because He came unto His own and His own received Him not.
He was outside the political gate and was called no friend to Caesar. His own friends went back and walked with Him no more and He said to a little handful of those that remained, “Will ye also go away?” But His sorrow blazed to a climax when He was crowded off of earth and refused in heaven with a crown of thorns and hands nailed to the cross: And to the tune of jeers and mocking, He looked toward heaven and found no Father and cried, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
And so, denied, rejected, and betrayed on earth and rejected in heaven, Jesus surely was the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. But His faith never faltered as He made two great statements, “It is finished,” and “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” And there’s no better place to commit and to commend your life and all of your hope than to our heavenly Father who watches over us.
When sorrow comes, let me suggest that you read the Bible and pray and then sing and praise and stay around God’s people. My memory goes back to a mother who was excellent in comforting others in time of sorrow, and yet, she was acquainted with grief in that her only two daughters had gone to be with the Lord.
