Redemptive Suffering

 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  (1 Peter 1:18,19)

Thoughts: Suffering can and often is redemptive.  Here are a few small examples: The mother who stays up late nursing a sick child through their illness;   The doctor who goes to the hospital in the middle of the night to deliver a baby;   The kidney donor who gives a kidney so their cousin can live;   The teacher who loses sleep night after night grading papers so her students will know what they did wrong and improve;   The soldier who puts himself at risk to protect his people- or takes the grenade so the squad will not all die;   The person who gives up something for themselves so they might give financially  to others in greater need.  Such small examples of denying self and taking up a cross point to the greatest example of redemptive suffering.  
        The passage above talks about our lives being empty.  This emptiness is not resolved by silver and gold.  The real emptiness is resolved when Christ came to set us free from our sin by giving Himself as a payment for sin.  As 2 Corinthians (5:21) puts it- "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God."  Or as Christ Himself put it, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45).  Christ's death was a redemptive ransom.  It was a payment for our emptiness, giving full meaning for our lives.  God came to set us free and died to set us free that we might live.  If God did that for us- we ought to perceive our eternal value.  We have a reason to live- and the emptiness of meaninglessness and lovelessness is gone.  We are not redeemed by a million dollar ransom but by the God who made the Universe- who made all we see.  His value is far greater than anything that any king, any government can give.  We are redeemed from an empty, meaningless, worthless way of living.  We are given an eternally meaningful, purposeful way of living. We are bought with a price.  His suffering for us is not to be taken for granted.  But truth is, we take the mother who stays up late, the doctor who goes in the middle of the night to help, the kidney donor, the teacher, the generous person for granted. How much more do we take the Greatest Redeemer for granted!

Prayer: What thou my Lord hast suffered was all for sinners' gain: mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain.  Lo, here I fall, my Savior!  Tis I deserve thy place; look on me with thy favor, and grant to me thy grace.
[From "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" Ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux]

In fiction, The Mockingjay, Katness Evergreen takes her sister's place in the deadly Hunger Games so that she would live.  Taking the place of another to set them free even if it means your own suffering is the type of Redemptive Suffering of Christ.