Luke 22:63-71 - Christ's Suffering Proves God's Love for Us

Welcometo Pastor's Chat today. It's hard to smile as we begin this chat, thinkingabout what took place this past Friday in Texas with the death of so manychildren and others as those devastating floods hit that state. First, let mejust say I was raised in Texas. I was born in Dallas and lived my first tenyears of life in Texas. All my cousins, aunts, and uncles on both my mother'sand father's sides of the family, which were large families, dozens and dozensof cousins, aunts, and uncles, still live in Texas. It's a dear state. It's awonderful place, and our hearts go out to those who have lost these precious,precious children and other loved ones that have died in this flood. Now,I know we all ask that question: Why would a loving God allow anything likethis to take place? The devil gets on our shoulder and gives us the wronganswers to that question and tells us God doesn't love us. God doesn't care.But that's the furthest thing from the truth. There are so many things wecannot understand. I can't understand when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, andafter He and His parents fled to Egypt, Herod the Great went to the same areaand killed all the male children up to the age of two years old, trying hisbest to make sure he killed the next potential king of Israel. It says thatRachel wailed; all the parents there, great wailing took place as this despotkilled all these children (Matthew 2:16-18). I don't understand that this isallowed to take place and be associated with the birth of Jesus Christ comingto earth to save us from our sins, to give us eternal life.  AsI sat in church on Sunday and thought about what has happened this weekend, Ijust wanted to cry. It affects us. I have four granddaughters who have beenwith us the last several days, and they're precious girls. I can't imaginelosing one of them. And yet, with this tragedy in Texas, so many have beenlost, and we wonder why this would happen. Well, let me just answer thequestion by saying we might not understand why. We might not understand why Godwould allow it, but I can tell you this: God has proven His love to us. For Godso loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Romans 5:8 reminds us ofthis: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for uswhile we were still sinners.” Thepassage before us today shows us what love God has given us through His Son,Jesus Christ. "Now the men who heldJesus mocked Him and beat Him. And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him onthe face and asked Him, saying, "Prophesy, who is the one who struckyou?" You can imagine this. Here's the Son of God. Here's the perfect Lambof God. Here is a man who never sinned, neither was there any guile in Hismouth. One who loved the people, cared for the children, healed the sick, raisedthe dead, gave sight to the blind, fed the hungry. Someone who laid down Hislife, came from the glories of heaven, became a human being, lived as aservant, washed His disciples' feet, and they're doing this to Him. They'remocking Him and saying, if you're the Son of God, you should know what my nameis. They mocked Him asking “who struck you”, and many other things that wedon't even know about.  Thenthey all said, "Are you then the Son of God?" So He said to them,"You rightly say that I am." Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. So whenyou hear these cults and others tell you Jesus never claimed to be the Son ofGod, they must be overlooking these verses.Jesusis the Son of God. God loves us. Christ died for us. He went through tremendoussuffering because of His love for us. Don't ever question that. Yes, we canquestion why things happen we might not understand, but we can believe and beassured that God loves us today (John 3:16).  Let'sbelieve this and let's be praying for these families that are going throughthis terrible tragedy in Texas. Godbless!