Jesus Christ was a man of suffering, and One who was acquainted with grief. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Isaiah 53:3). “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). But have you ever wondered what was His most painful experience? We will have to ask Him when we meet Him in the Kingdom. But we can speculate as to what it possibly was.
Was it His temptations? Christ certainly was tempted. He experienced every temptation that every human being has ever experienced. He was tempted in all points as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Temptations are stressful. Christ resisted unto blood (Luke 22:44; Hebrews 12:3–4). But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Was it the slander He endured? Slander is hurtful. It is motivated and driven by hate. It causes pain. Christ endured His share of it. He was called a glutton, a winebibber and a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34). Some thought that He was empowered by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons (Luke 11:15). Some said that He was born of fornication (John 8:41). That is a hurtful taunt, as one cannot choose through whom one is born. But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Was it the Pharisees’ envy? Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees and a ruler of the Jews, told Christ, “Rabbi, we [Pharisees] know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). The Pharisees knew that Christ was come from God. But, they were dishonest in pretending otherwise. An example of their dishonesty is given in Matthew 28:11–15, where they bribed the soldiers to say that His body was stolen by His disciples. Why such opposition to Christ? Pilate put his finger on the pulse of the matter, “For he knew that because of envy they had delivered Him” (Matthew 27:18). Solomon asks, “Wrath is cruel and anger a torrent, but who is able to stand before jealousy [envy, KJV]” (Proverbs 27:4)? But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Was it His rejection by the people? Christ wept over the people’s rejection of God and His way (Luke 19:41–44). We feel His pain, grief and longing as He cries out: “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD” (Matthew 23:37–39). But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Was it betrayal by His handpicked disciple? Betrayal is a very difficult thing with which to deal. David described how he felt about his betrayal (Psalm 55). Judas, Christ’s betrayer, was a trusted disciple. He was the treasurer, he kept the money bag (John 13:29). A treasurer has to be a trusted employee. So betrayal by such a one must be particularly painful. Then, to add insult to injury, Judas called Christ Master [Rabbi, NKJV], as he betrayed Him and even kissed Him (Mark 14:45). But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Was it His disciples abandoning Him? In Christ’s darkest hour, His disciples fled. Mark fled naked (Mark 14:51–52). Peter, despite his boast (Mark 14:29; Luke 22:33; John 13:37), denied His Savior (John 18:15–27). However, we read in Matthew 26:56: “Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Could it have been the crucifixion? This undoubtedly was an indescribably horrific experience. Christ asked His Father three times to spare Him from it (Matthew 26:39, 42–44). But, thankfully for us, He submitted, willingly, to His Father’s will (v. 39). He said that His heart was exceedingly sorrowful as He faced His ordeal (Mark 14:34). He was hit in the face, spat upon, crowned with thorns, beaten, made to carry His own cross part of the way, nailed to the cross, then speared in His side, and out flowed His blood to pay for our sins (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19). Christ’s love for us cannot adequately be expressed in words. Read also Isaiah 53. But was this Christ’s most painful experience?
Possibly Christ’s Most Painful Experience
Read in Mark 15:34: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out [from the Greek boao, to shout] with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” Even God the Father forsook Christ! And it was because of our sins being placed on His Son. What awesome pain for the Lord Jesus! The One with whom He had spent eternity also turned away. Christ was so close to His Father that He declared that They are One (John 10:30). The Father was His support system. He declared that He could do nothing without His Father (John 5:19, 30, 8:28).
Some speculate that Christ did not know that this would happen. However, Scripture indicates otherwise. Psalm 22, a prophecy about the crucifixion, opens with, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” So Christ, knowing that His Father cannot look on sin, must have known that, at some point, His Father would forsake Him, when our sins were placed upon Him. But it was such a horrific, shocking, lonely, agonizing and painful experience, that He cried out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Christ had deep feelings after experiencing the pain of being forsaken by His Father. Notice which words He felt would be appropriate as His very last words to His disciples, before He ascended to heaven—as recorded by Matthew: “‘and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen” (Matthew 28:20). Christ experienced the pain and agony of being forsaken, and He promised by His power and authority that He will never put us through that. This is our confidence, guaranteed by our High Priest, our Elder Brother, our King and our future Husband, that once we do not turn away from God, He will not turn away from us! EVER! What a promise, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”