He Suffered Twice

 

A few weeks ago as the sacrament was being passed I was reading the scriptures that are at the bottom of the page on which the hymn is located.  This particular scripture was found in Luke 23:33,46.  It reads:  33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.  46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
I was sitting with Brock and I mentioned to him that the Savior could not have his life taken from him but that he had to give it up.  This intrigued me.  Why then, did He hang on the cross as long as He did?  Why did He suffer even more when He had already suffered for us in the Garden of Gethsemane?
The next day I was reading an article online and it came very clearly why the Savior suffered on the cross when it seemed He didn't need to.  In the Garden, He suffered very privately.  Each of us suffers in private with things beyond our control.  Fears, anxiety, depression, loneliness, sadness and a myriad of other things.  On the cross the Savior suffered in public.  We too suffer in public with pain caused by death or divorce or addiction or illness, the loss of a job and anything else that is unable to be hidden.  Christ needed to suffer in both places so He could know how to succor us in our time of need.  
How grateful I am to have this knowledge; to know that He suffered not once but twice for me.

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