Why do Western Churches focus so much on the Death, Pain and Suffering of Jesus?

I would say because those events separate Jesus from the rest of good people that have lived on Earth before. I mean, it's not bad that we talk about all the good things Jesus did but his passion and resurrection are special.

I don't think it's necessarily wrong that they focus on it. In Jesus' death, pain, and suffering, people who are also experiencing a lot of death, pain, and suffering can find some comfort. It is much more comforting to have a savior who also understands and has experienced these things.

Also, a sidenote: I live in the US which is VERY western and I think a lot churches here actually focus too much on the joyful and "positive" stuff rather than the more painful stuff. I think we should focus on the more painful stuff because culturally I think we tend to either ignore pain and pretend it doesn't exist or we are too desensitized to it.

The death is the beginning......I would not be alive, had He not died. It should be focused on until completely understood. And when understood....we wont have to die again....as death has been concurred......

Because the death burial and resurrection is the gospel, it is your salvation and my salvation. Satan was defeated at the cross, and at the cross is the rubble of all our sins piled up, it took His blood to accomplish that. It's not because Jesus was a nice guy and went around doing nice things. But rather that He died for our sins that we might not perish. His doing nice things was a sign of His glory and power but it's not our salvation and Jesus Christ is all about salvation. Without the death burial and resurrection ( the Gospel) we all still go to hell. So that is why we emphasize this, and also celebrate it.

UnseenSaviour said:

Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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I suppose they can concentrate on whatever they think is helpful, though I am a westerner and was unaware that there was such a focus. I would like to see a focus on what he taught.

UnseenSaviour said:

Why do Western Churches focus so much on the Death, Pain and Suffering of Jesus?

Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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You are on the right track by exploring this idea. We are living in days of severe darkness like never before (the light coming into the world was rejected by it, choosing such darkness as to condemn the righteous and release a murderous rebel, bringing a greater condemnation upon it than would have applied if the light not in fact come at all - consider Matthew 21:37-38, Proverbs 17:13, John 12:35 and John 15:22 with Matthew 12:41).

While the work that Jesus undertook through the cross is a total triumph for our sake (1 Corinthians 15:55), the cross has never been seen by The Holy Spirit as a thing to be glorified (even the highly developed theological work of Hebrews 12:2 states that He "despised the shame of it").

So I would suggest to you, that you should feel encouraged by this toward your pursuit of faith, as in the expressions of Philippians 2:12 and John 20:29.

"Loved ones, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God, for: many false prophets have gone out into the world, and this is how you shall know them. The ones who confess Jesus Christ coming in human flesh: that spirit is from God; but the one who does not confess Jesus Christ is the spirit of the antichrist".

FYI, it is because we do not wrestle against the flesh and blood, such a person who is made blind by the spirit of the antichrist has been taken captive by having yielded to abandon the truth and to follow demonic doctrines instead (see 2 Corinthians 4:4 and 1 Timothy 4:1, and 2 Peter 2:1).

Keep this in mind, because we are temples of The Holy Spirit: we are to offer ourselves to follow Him only (James 4:4), as a holy sacrifice that is pleasing to God (2 Corinthians 12:9), not being conformed to the world (but being transformed) - because it must be without a doubt whenever we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, that God raised Him from the dead and that He who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world.

Therefore, our wrestle is not against our blind brothers and sisters, (as though their flesh and blood consciously desires to do the devil's work), but it is the devil himself (aka "the thief" - John 10:10). We wrestle against him for their salvation (Zechariah 11:4-5), because he has already taken them captive to do his will and the end of their present path is to be burned (James 1:13-15, Hebrews 6:7-8, Mark 4:18-19, John 8:44).

‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’ But he replied, ‘An enemy did this.’

"Therefore stay alert; for you do not know what day your Lord is coming."

UnseenSaviour said:

Why do Western Churches focus so much on the Death, Pain and Suffering of Jesus?

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It's not just Western churches, it's all of Christianity.

The most important things about Jesus are that he was God in human form, and that he died and was resurrected in order to save us. Listen to Paul summarise the Christian message in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6:

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

We celebrate this every Sunday, and especially at Easter time.

UnseenSaviour said:

Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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We just had Easter. This is the day Jesus arose after being crucified. It's a once a year event.

UnseenSaviour said:

Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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You make it seem like Jesus' death and suffering is a "negative side"; but in Christian thought Christ's life, death, and resurrection are held together--none of it makes sense without the other. Christ's arrest, crucifixion, and death are not a tragic end of a noble life, but the destination and trajectory by which His life was lived. Jesus lived the cross before dying on it. Jesus' way, His teachings, everything He taught and stood for and was about culminates in His humiliation, suffering, and death upon the cross. But the cross isn't a bad thing, for one because the resurrection means He has overcome death, He has overcome the cross and what it stood for as an instrument of fear, oppression, and death.

An ancient Christian hymn known as the Paschal Troparion reads:

"Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life!"

Note that line, "Trampling down death by death". This is essential to make sense of the Christian religion; because we don't teach that Christ's suffering and death is a tragedy, but instead a subversive victory. The death of Jesus means, paradoxically and subversively, the death of death itself. So the Christian looks upon the crucified and risen Jesus and declares that death is dead. Christ Himself having destroyed and undone the power of death by and of His own person, which is precisely why as Christians we believe that, in Jesus, we have not only forgiveness of our sins in this life, but also the hope of eternal, everlasting life in the age to come, in the resurrection. Because Jesus rose, we also shall rise.

"If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." - St. Paul in Romans 8:11

"For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." - Jesus in John 6:40

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." - St. Paul in Philippians 3:20-21

The sufferings of Jesus aren't about fetishizing pain and suffering; but about recognizing the subversiveness of it, to quote St. Augustine, Victor quia Victima, Christ is Victor because He is a Victim.

-CryptoLutheran

dreadnought said:

We just had Easter. This is the day Jesus arose after being crucified. It's a once a year event.

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Every Sunday is a kind of "little Easter".

-CryptoLutheran

ViaCrucis said:

Every Sunday is a kind of "little Easter".

-CryptoLutheran

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Every Sunday is a lot of things.

UnseenSaviour said:

Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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Hi Sir,
Well it is because we recognize Jesus as the Savior. He has saved us. That begs the question, what did He save us from? Of course the answer is He saved us from "sin and death" that we suffered as a result of the Fall. It necessarily follows then, "How did He do that?" By the instrument of the cross where He fulfilled the Law to completeness and bore our sins to create a new man out of the old. This new risen man is Christ Himself and by His indwelling Spirit we too shall rise. Don't get me wrong I love the stories about Jesus' life and His teachings, which are all amazing and good. They draw me, even as they draw Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus that have not heard much about Jesus. But the heart of the Gospel is the cross and the resurrection.

• 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

And so the Christian Church from its earliest days has made the crucifixion and resurrection the centerpiece of the Gospel of Salvation.

• 1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
• Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
• Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?

In Christ, Patrick

UnseenSaviour said:

[thread title included]
Why do Western Churches focus so much on the Death, Pain and Suffering of Jesus?
Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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Because most of western Christianity is reliant on the Satisfaction Theory and/or Penal Substitution theories of the atonement.

Because in the cross we find the greatest expression of God's love for lost mankind.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
(John 3:16 NASB)

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
(John 15:13 NASB)

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
(Romans 5:8 NASB)

Jesus, the sinless Son of God, suffered and died at the hands of His own creation, not for anything He deserved, but so that we who believe in Him would be redeemed from the curse of sin and death, and might be reconciled to the God who loves us enough to give Himself for us.

UnseenSaviour said:

Should they focus more on the positive side of how Jesus actually lived his life?

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You would and will not reside with God in heaven without Jesus atonement for sin.

It is great to follow Jesus example of His life and we should. But if not for sin atonement, our eternal life after death would be without God.

Not my wish for myself

Jesus left us His example via the cross and things he suffered.

Remember Rev. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral? He was a pastor who intentionally wanted to focus on the positive aspects of Christian thinking.