The Patience, Long-Suffering and Mercy of Jesus Christ

The Disciples

In John 16:32 right before Judas betrays Jesus, Jesus tells the disciples, “…But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with Me.” This word absolutely came to pass, not just for Peter, but for all of the disciples (Matthew 26:56). But the very next verse says that everything He is telling them is to give them peace. Jesus had every “right” to be angry that the disciples, His close friends according to John 15, would dare to abandon Him in His darkest hour. But instead, Jesus is warning them before they do it that they will abandon Him, and rather than telling them how horrible of a sin that is--which it is--He encourages them before hand so that they “might have peace”. That’s patience, that’s long-suffering, that’s the mercy of my Jesus.

Now let’s deal specifically with Peter. We usually dis on Peter and say that he was coward. But Peter, though proven wrong, was being completely sincere when he told Jesus, “I will lay down my life for You”, just like he was being sincere when he told Jesus to call him out to walk on the water, and just like he was sincere when he made all of his other outrageous statements and promises that he fully intended on keeping. He meant what he said, and he believed he would do it! But Jesus, knowing Peters heart better than Peter did, responded, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” This must have not only devastated Peter, but also confused the junk out him. He probably had a very hard time believing what Jesus just said to him, and I’m sure he was embarrassed. But Jesus told him that he would disown Him 3 times before the night was over, and then in the next statement Jesus makes is, “Do not be troubled, Trust in God; trust also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”
This is the patience, long-suffering and mercy of my Jesus.

So one minute Peter is defending his Master against a troop of soldiers and cuts a guys ear off, the next minute he is denying that he even knows Him to a girl that worked at the gate of the high priest’s court yard, and the other 2 denials are soon to follow. The bible says that when he denied Jesus the 3rd time and heard the rooster crow that he ran away and wept bitterly. Then we see Jesus restore Peter in John chapter 21 in a beautiful dialog between Jesus and Peter.
That’s patience, that’s long-suffering, that’s the mercy of my Jesus.


Judas Iscariot


Jesus had such a strong love for all of his disciples, including Judas.
In John 12:3-8 we see Mary, Martha’s sister, washing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. It says that the fragrance filled the whole room. Judas makes a comment that sounds godly… “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?” As spiritual as this might sound, the next verse says that he didn’t say this because he cared about the poor, but because he handled the money bag and helped himself to it when he wanted something. Jesus, God in the flesh, knew this. Yet He didn’t expose Judas’ sin to everyone there. His response was, “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of My burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me.” Wow! Jesus must have known Judas’ motives, and Judas’ response probably challenged the other disciples and made them think that Judas was really godly. But Jesus did not expose Judas. Jesus probably pulled Judas aside and confronted him on multiple occasions about stealing the money. Any business man, preacher, godly man, with any sort of wisdom would counsel you to at least demote, if not fire someone if they are stealing from you, especially if they are stealing from the ministry. After all, all the money Judas stole could have been used to feed the poor. But Jesus being fully aware of Judas sin was not bitter or sinfully angry with him. In fact, in Jesus’ response to him He answered him about the poor, not exposing his motives to the rest of the disciples. He was giving him time to repent. That’s patience, that’s long-suffering, that’s the mercy of my Jesus.

In John 13:4-17 Jesus washed the disciples feet before the evening meal was served. Jesus did this to show what it means to serve and love each other. So God in the flesh washed the disciples feet--the filthiest part of a person. Judas was included in that. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer! Any normal human, even if they didn’t fire or demote Judas, would have at least had some sort of bitterness toward him. Even if they didn’t say anything, it would have showed on their face when they respond to him and would have made the disciples know that Jesus had something against Judas. But He never did that… in fact, it seems like the disciples had a lot of respect for Judas:

After Jesus finished washing the disciples feet, verse 21 says that He became "troubled in spirit and testified, 'I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.'" This statement freaked out the disciples and they wondered who it was. So “the disciple that Jesus loved” leaned back against Jesus chest and asked who it was that would betray Him. Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then He dipped the bread and gave it to Judas and said to him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” All the disciples heard Jesus say that, they saw Jesus give the bread to Judas, then they watched Judas walk out of the building immediately… I’m thinking, “Duh! Apparently it’s Judas.” But for some reason the disciples didn’t think that at all. They actually thought that Judas going to go give some money to the poor. The only way the disciples could have reacted this way is if they respected Judas so much, that they could never think it was him. That must mean that Jesus never gave them a reason to believe he would do such a thing. He never reacted with bitterness or anger, nor did He even hint toward Judas’ hidden motives to the rest of the disciples when He could have.
That’s patience, that’s long-suffering, that’s the mercy of my Jesus.


The Pharisees and Religious Leaders

We already know all of the junk that Jesus patiently dealt with on a daily basis from the Pharisees and Priests either challenging Him about the fact that he would dare heal someone on the Sabbath day, or questioning Him about His Authority, His power and who He claimed to be, or accusing Him of being a false teacher, being motivated by Satan and being a sinner. But let’s specifically deal with Jesus and the religious leaders during His trial and crucifixion.

In John 18:28 the Jews and religious leaders have taken Jesus before Pilate to have Him executed. But it is absolutely amazing to me what this verse is saying here… “By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.” STOP! Did you see that? It says they didn’t go into the palace because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover! The Passover was a celebration that took place once a year. It served as a memorial for the Jews to look back and remember how God delivered them from Egypt. It specifically refers to the very last plague in Egypt that finally caused Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. God told the Jews to kill a spotless lamb, smear it’s blood on their door posts, eat the rest of it, and whatever they didn’t eat, burn. When the Angel of Death came to each house he would see the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and would pass over that house, but if a house was not covered by the blood of the lamb, the Angel of Death would go into the house and kill the first born of the house. This entire event was a shadow and prophesy that pointed to what Jesus was going to do. He was the perfect, spotless Lamb of God who was slain. And only through His blood are we saved from death; death will Passover us. So the Jews are putting Jesus, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), on trial, trying to execute Him, and all the while they are making sure that they don’t defile themselves and thus not be able to eat the Passover meal, which is nothing more than a reminder of God’s faithfulness and a foreshadow of Jesus Christ… Talk about deception. Jesus told them one time, “You search the scripture for you think they give you eternal life. But the scriptures point to Me.” But they were so blind and so hard hearted that they crucified the Lamb and Son of God while making sure that they could still participate in a celebration that was all about Him in the first place.
'Jesus, please don’t ever let our hearts grow that cold!'

This deception continues beyond Jesus trial on through the crucifixion. John 19:31 reads, “Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.” Jesus just died a verse before this and immediately they started thinking about their religious festivals. They crucify the One that these festivals are about and then they go on celebrating them! How blind. How foolish. Yet Jesus patiently endured all of their accusations and all of their questioning. He endured them all the way to death, asking the Father to “forgive them, for they know not what they do”. He never sinned through being bitter with them, nor through discouraging others to obey their authority. And He even did everything He could to save as many as possible, like Nicodemus (John 3). That’s patience, that’s long-suffering, that’s the mercy of my Jesus.


The crucifixion

The Crucifixion was the greatest level of suffering that anyone could ever imagine. And it was the climax of Jesus sufferings and the primary purpose for Him coming down from heaven. Here are some of the more descriptive parts in scripture that tell what Jesus suffered during the Crucifixion:

Psalm 22 is a prophetic Psalm that shows what the Messiah will go though when He comes:
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving Me, so far from the words of my groaning? …I cry out by day, but You do not answer, by night and am not silent.
…I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.’
…Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
…I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; You lay me in the dust of death.
…A band of evil men…have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”

He went through all of this, receiving the wrath of God for my sin, so that I could be saved and reconciled to God. That’s patience, that’s long-suffering, that’s the mercy of my Jesus.

Isaiah 52:14-53:10 is another Old Testament prophesy about the suffering of Jesus:
“… there were many who appalled at Him--His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness… He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgression, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. …the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was stricken.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked… though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause Him to suffer, and…the Lord makes His life a guilt offering.”

These next scriptures are from the 4 Gospels. They describe the suffering and patience of Jesus on trial and throughout the crucifixion. I almost hesitate to share these because they have become so familiar to us that they are on the verge of becoming trite, if that hasn‘t already happened. But I challenge you to look at this and put yourself there, watching you Savior suffer these things:

In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus is distressed, and asks His disciples to “keep watch, and pray”. He goes off and prays, and because of anxiety He sweats drops of blood. When He comes back, I‘m sure He was more distressed because His close friends were sleeping rather than staying awake like He asked them to (Luke 22:39-46).

Then Judas and a troop of soldiers came with swords and clubs to arrest Him. They asked for Jesus of Nazareth and He said, “I am”, and the whole troop fell down. But rather than fighting back, He rebuked Peter for doing so and said, “Put your sword back in it’s place… Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” And then He allowed them to arrest Him (Matthew 26:47-54; John 18:3-11).

Then He was put on trial and sent from high official to high official, the Pharisees trying their best to have Him executed. He was taken before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilot where He was falsely accused, beaten, mocked, scourged, humiliated, had his beard ripped out of His face, received a crown of thorns (Matt. 26:60-61;Matt. 26:68; Matt. 27:27-31; John 19:1-3)) and “opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7; Mark 15:5; John 19:9).

Jesus, after being flogged with the Cat of Nine Tails, beaten, wearing the crown of thorns, etc., carried His own cross until they found a man name Simon to do it. They offered Him wine to ease the pain and He refused it. They gambled for His clothes, mocked Him, hung Him between two robbers, mocked Him by saying, “He saved others, but He can’t save Himself”; even one of the criminals mocked Him. They wrote the crime He was charged with above Him, “Jesus, King of the Jews”. Then He cried out, “Father forgive them for they don‘t know what they are doing“, and “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:32-55; Mark 15:21-41; Luke 23:26-49; John 19:16-37).

This is the patience, long-suffering and mercy of Jesus Christ, King of glory. Thank You Lord for Your mercy, and for Your patience. Now let’s go and be like Him. AMEN!