Suffering and the Cross: The Suffering of Jesus and the Calling of the Believer
To understand Christian suffering, the cross must be placed at the center. While suffering is a reality that can come to anyone in the world, the suffering of believers only finds its true meaning when it is connected to the cross. A life that seeks to avoid suffering is fundamentally different from a life that embraces it, and the cross of Jesus marks the line between the two. His suffering was not mere misfortune, but obedience to the will of God, the heart of redemption, and the doorway to a new way of being human.
The Gospels do not merely record Jesus’ physical pain. The whipping, the mocking, and the crucifixion were indeed excruciating, but the more essential suffering came from being forsaken by people, betrayed by His disciples, and abandoned in the silence of God. “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”—this cry, a quotation from Psalm 22, was not just citation but a cry of deepest anguish. In that moment of what felt like divine abandonment, Jesus experienced suffering at its most profound level—the very suffering of the believer.
Jesus’ suffering was not because He lacked power. In fact, He could have avoided it—but He chose not to. In Gethsemane, He prayed, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” but He concluded, “Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus chose suffering. It was not passive resignation but active obedience. His suffering was a decision of faith, fully surrendering to the will of the Father.
Believers are called to walk this path of the cross. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” The cross is not only Jesus’ burden—it is also the believer’s path. Suffering for the believer is not random misfortune, but the inevitable road for those who follow Jesus. It is not meaningless pain but a confession of participation in the way of God’s kingdom. The cross does not romanticize suffering, but it reveals the love of God and the faith of humanity in the midst of it.
Today, many Christians fear or avoid suffering. The world upholds success, comfort, and stability as ideals, and sees suffering as failure or weakness. Even the church sometimes promises only blessings and prosperity, tempted to overlook the cross and its suffering. But Scripture is clear—the way of Jesus is the way of the cross, and that way goes through suffering, not around it.
The suffering of a believer finds meaning only in union with Christ. Paul says, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings.” This is not a pursuit of suffering for its own sake, but a desire to be more deeply united with Jesus. Suffering makes us resemble His suffering, helps us feel His love more vividly, and aligns us with the order of God’s kingdom, not that of the world.
This journey of suffering is inconvenient and costly in human terms. Denying oneself, accepting losses, speaking truth at personal cost, and standing with the marginalized is not easy. But in those very places, God’s will is fulfilled. Living a cruciform life is not about public display but about being fully seen before God. The world calls it weakness, but God calls it strength. The world says it’s a loss, but God says it contains life.
The path Jesus walked did not end suffering—it redefined it. His journey turned meaningless pain into redemptive history, and abandonment into proof of love. Believers are given this same lens. The world cannot explain every moment of pain, but God speaks through it: “I am with you, and your pain is not in vain.”
In suffering, believers return to the cross. Jesus’ suffering was for us, and remembering His pain makes our own pain not wasted. Faith means looking to the cross and following it. And it is never a solitary path—Jesus walked ahead of us, and at the end of that path is resurrection.
The cross is not merely a symbol of suffering, but the path to life. It was the instrument of execution and shame, yet it unlocked the kingdom of God. The world saw weakness in the cross; even the disciples did not understand it. But Jesus did not flee from it. He gave Himself wholly to fulfill the Father’s will. That suffering was not pointless—it was the concrete expression of God’s deep love for humanity.
Likewise, the believer’s suffering is not merely to be endured but to participate in the sufferings of Christ. In 2 Corinthians, Paul lists floggings, imprisonment, shipwrecks, hunger, and insults—and yet, he boasts in them. He met Christ more clearly in suffering and experienced God’s power through his weakness. For Paul, suffering was not a reason to doubt God but a way to trust Him more.
Jesus’ disciples each took up their own crosses. Peter through martyrdom, John through exile, Paul through persecution. None of them avoided suffering; they revealed God’s glory through it. For the believer, suffering is not an exception but an essential part of following Christ. There is no discipleship without the cross, no calling without pain. The road is narrow and lonely—but it ends in life and resurrection.
The cross shapes how we live. To follow it is to shift the center of life from self to God. It means denying self, submitting to God’s will, and choosing Jesus’ way over the world’s. This is not mere moral living—it is a reorientation of being. The Christian no longer lives by self-preservation or self-promotion but by giving, losing, and choosing others’ good. The world may not notice this path, but God works through it.
Modern society struggles to accept the way of the cross. In a world of competition, speed, and outcomes, denying oneself and embracing suffering seems foolish. But the order of God’s kingdom is different. The lowest is the greatest, the servant is the chief, and life is found by giving it away. The cross shows this most clearly. While the Christian lives in the world, they live by a different law—God’s law.
Suffering becomes the place where faith is proven. Faith isn’t just spoken; it’s revealed in real situations—unexpected loss, unjust wounds. Faith shines not only in crisis but in everyday choices to carry the cross—accepting discomfort, laying down ego, choosing love. These are not duties for the specially called—they are daily decisions for every believer.
So the cross is not just Christ’s—it is ours. It is a burden no one else can carry for us. For some, it’s illness; for others, broken relationships or social cost for faith. Even if the cross is heavy, we do not despair—for Jesus walked that road first. Because He suffered, our suffering is never lonely.
Just as Jesus’ suffering did not end at the cross, the believer’s suffering does not end in despair. The cross is a symbol of death—but also a door to resurrection. Suffering is not an end, but a turning point, where God’s work begins. Through it we are refined, we learn endurance, and from that endurance springs hope. God draws us deeper and wider into His love through suffering.
This generation of believers must relearn suffering—not as a relic of the past but as the living way of the cross we are called to walk today. The church must not reduce suffering to a dusty doctrine but recover it as the essence of the gospel. There is no gospel without the cross, no obedience without pain. But the path is never wasted. At the end of it stands our Lord, holding every tear we’ve shed.
Maeil Scripture Journal | Special Series
