ABSTRACT
For centuries, Christians have chosen to emulate and imitate the suffering of Christ; they have also been admonished to do so patiently. Christian thinkers have found significant models and praise for suffering in the Scriptures, the New Testament, and the Hebrew Bible as well. They have appropriated and interpreted the “suffering servant” passages in Isaiah (Isaiah 50:4–9, Isaiah 52:13–53:1–12), as well as certain of the Psalms expressing suffering, as indicators pointing to Christ and his death on the cross. Jesus himself, according to the Gospel of Matthew, uttered the words of Psalm 22:1 on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christians have read the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament retrospectively and in a supersessionist mode to locate numerous foreshadowings of Jesus’s death on the cross, heightening the emphasis on suffering in the Bible. In the Gospels, Jesus frequently warns his followers that they will be persecuted, and he reminds them in Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The epistles often speak of suffering, as in Philippians 1:29: “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,” or 2 Timothy 1:8: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,” or again, 1 Peter 3:17: “For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”
