Each and every person suffers at one time or another. You will make sacrifices for another person, for your job or for your health.  These sacrifices of time or money, for the sake of another person can become a point of contention for some people and they make sure everyone knows that they made this or these sacrifices either for your sake or for the sake of someone else.  It can be worn as a badge of honor or a brought up as a reminder to show power.  Sometimes the sacrifices made just sound like complaints or regrets.

Consider if Jesus took this same attitude of complaining or regretting the sacrifice He made when dying on the cross. It is something to reflect upon, to make sure that the sacrifices you make on behalf of another person are not used as leverage in your relationship, rather the sacrifices are made out of love. You never hear of Jesus complaining about His suffering or how sacrificing His life for the good of all people was a mistake.

Instead, you see Jesus modeling what to do when you are suffering or sacrificing yourself, and that is to turn towards God in the midst of His suffering.  God cannot remove the pain, but He will sit there with you through it. The pain Jesus had to go through and His sacrificing Himself had to happen so that the resurrection could happen! 

It is an example of how good can come from sacrifice.  How might your life be different if Jesus didn’t go through the pain of Good Friday in order to restore humanity by raising from the dead at Easter?