Does Jesus Share in Our Suffering? – Brad Jersak

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Question:

I recently watched your YouTube video entitled “God is Infinite Love!”

On this video, you explain that on the Cross, Jesus didn’t merely suffer like us. He actually took on all our suffering. He felt every shrapnel, every bullet, every rape. I really liked that message.

For me, it’s very important that it’s true, or else I’d have a hard time feeling close to Jesus and feeling like I can trust Him if He doesn’t understand my experience as a woman with mental health struggles, and everyone’s experiences. As much as I need this to be true, a part of me thinks I need Biblical proof. Can you guide me to where the Bible says that Jesus took on ALL our pain and sin?

Response​:

Thanks for the question.

Not that I’m one for ‘proof-texting,’ but this theme is certainly embedded in the Scriptures. Here are a few examples:

Isaiah 53 (MSG) – Jesus’s Bore Our Sins and Our Sorrows

One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

Matthew 25 (MSG) – Jesus’ Experience in the Marginalized

34-36 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’

37-40 “Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—YOU DID IT TO ME.’

Acts 9 (MSG) – Jesus’ Persecuted in the Persecuted

When he got to the outskirts of Damascus, he was suddenly dazed by a blinding flash of light. As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you out to get ME?”

5-6 He said, “Who are you, Master?”

“I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down.”

Notice that this passage in the present tense, even though Jesus is risen and seated at the right hand of the Father. He says that what Paul is doing, Jesus is suffering in his Body the Church.

Colossians 1:24 (possibly) – Jesus’ Share in Our Afflictions

One very strange verse that may apply here is found in Colossians 1:24. Paul states, “I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.”

What could possibly be ‘lacking in Christ’s afflictions’ when he said from the Cross, “It is finished / accomplished?” Certainly Christ completed the work, bearing the sins and sorrows of the whole world for all time. Lacking?

Fr. John Behr has helped me with this by suggesting that we don’t look for what is lacking at the Cross (it’s happened there) but rather, IN US. That is, what was left for Christ to suffer (and what he did suffer) awaits my suffering, so that he suffers what we suffer, when we suffer it. As Cyril of Alexandria said, Christ suffers impassibly, which is to say, he voluntarily enters our suffering or shares in our suffering in co-suffering love.

Perhaps the Message Bible makes it clear:

24-25 I want you to know how glad I am that it’s me sitting here in this jail and not you. There’s a lot of suffering to be entered into in this world—the kind of suffering Christ takes on. I welcome the chance to take my share in the church’s part of that suffering.

These are a few of the texts that lead me to say Christ’s afflictions are not merely analogous to ours, but rather, that he directly experiences our afflictions through his union with humanity and specifically, with each of us.

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