"And Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." Mark 8:31

The Bible says that Jesus suffered more than any man. His sufferings did not begin when He was beaten and crucified - He suffered afflictions His entire life. Isaiah 53 prophesies of how He was well-acquainted with pain and suffering.

 Some find it fashionable today to blame God for the horrendous suffering in the world. Some boldly proclaim that if God exists He is either powerless to stop the suffering or is apathetic about it. As Christians, we understand that God not only cares about the suffering but has not spared Himself. Jesus, the Son of God, gave Himself to suffer more than any human ever in order to end all suffering and pain at the appointed time.

Man brought suffering and pain into a perfect world by choosing sin. Suffering is a part of the curse of sin. If we want to see the cause of suffering all we need do is look into a mirror. If we want to see the solution to suffering we need to look to the cross. It was there where Jesus defeated Satan but suffering will rule until Jesus comes in glory to establish God’s Kingdom on the earth.

Until then, Satan is the ruler of this world. God made man in His image to one day be gloriously transformed, spiritually born into His divine Family. It was necessary for man to be tested - God will not grant eternal life to someone He created to be a son without proving them to be faithful.

One day while I was contemplating why we suffer and experience so much pain I heard God’s Spirit say, -"Because I made you in My image. . .you experience pain because I do. . .it is a part of My divine nature in Christ who has shared in the sufferings of man"

Pain is the evidence that something is wrong. Pain and suffering in the world is evidence that there is something wrong about the world. The problem is - the world has chosen sin and submitted to it’s evil ruler. In our selfishness we have all helped to bring pain and suffering into our world.

In the perfect world before sin and the perfect world soon to come, pain is not needed because of the absence of sin. But in a wrong world pain is valuable and needed.

Occasionally a child is born without the ability to feel pain. This creates tremendous challenges for the child and the parents. The child is completely reckless with their body and experiences many broken bones, burns and cuts during their early years. It may be difficult to watch your child suffer pain but it is much more difficult to watch them destroy their body because they feel no pain