Official Sufferings of Christ Encyclopedia

 
Christ’s Official Sufferings are connected not so much with the Person of our Lord, but with His Messianic offices. When the Lord came into this world according to the seed of David, He had a people (Israel). He had certain rights with respect to Israel that were denied Him. In this way He suffered officially.
 
Denied a Place of Acceptance. What a welcome He might have expected as the rightful King of Israel! But He was utterly rejected. There was no room for Him in the inn. As He walked the dusty paths of Judea, the hatred of the Jews was progressively aroused until they fully intend to kill. The Lord’s faithfulness only yielded rejection.
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:11)
Here was Jehovah of the Old Testament, the One who had borne with their murmurings and backslidings, now as a man, on earth! He speaks of the reproach He suffered from His own people, for His faithfulness to Jehovah.

“I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” (Psalm 69:8-9)

Denied His Rights as Messiah. Not only was He denied acceptance from His own people, but He was denied the rightful privileges that belonged to Him. In Psa. 102 we have the voice of the Messiah as a man on earth, with all in ruins around Him, and the cross before Him. All that naturally belonged to Him as Messiah was outwardly on the verge of being lost. In His distress He cried out that God would not take Him out in the middle of His life, before He could accomplish the redemption of Israel.
"I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations." (Psa. 102:24)
The answer from Jehovah is precious; "Thy years are from generation to generation." But, as a man, He was cut off (Dan. 9:26), and "had nothing" of those messianic rights that belonged to Him.

"And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing..." (Dan. 9:26)

Watched His Beloved City Seal their Fate. As the rightful Messiah, He suffered in being denied His heart's desire toward the Jews, and in knowing what they were about to lose when His presence was removed from them. He could lament over Jerusalem, that city which He loved. He wept (Luke 19) because His beloved city had said to Him, "we don't want you".

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you, Ye shall in no wise see me henceforth until ye say, Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord." (Matt. 23:37-39)

"And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee..." (Luke 19:41-44)