Deac's Dialogue

Epiphany Lutheran Church

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Deac’s Dialogue

March 2010

As the Lenten season is upon us, it brings me to thoughts of suffering, both that of Jesus’ suffering and our earthly suffering. Suffering is an intrusion into our lives. It may appear in the form of sickness, and sickness is the common experience of all humanity. Suffering can affect our physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being. It affects us personally as well as socially.

Jesus suffered too. He endured suffering for us. He not only suffered physical pain upon the cross, he experienced suffering prior to that event. We find that Jesus was in extreme anguish in Luke 22:44: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Christ was suffering from within and it was visible. In addition, Christ may have experienced a feeling of loneliness while the disciples slept. Did the disciples understand the anguish Christ was experiencing as he prayed on the Mount of Olives? Who ministered to Christ as he walked among us and shared the agony on this earth? The disciples’ lack of understanding for what Christ was experiencing in the Garden of Gethsemane may have left Christ to suffer in his loneliness.

Of course, the suffering that Christ did for us on the cross was not only physical, but also spiritual. The spiritual suffering that Jesus experienced can be understood in his words in Mark 15:34: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I understand this cry to reveal how deeply Jesus felt his abandonment by God.

In today’s world of suffering, how many of us have wept or felt such loneliness that we cried out in search for God? Crying out to God in the depths of one’s need is an act of faith and an occasion in which the hidden God who answers prayers draws closer. Who is going to go to the wilderness of the soul with someone as they are crying out? Who will know something of how the sick person feels?

Jesus offered healing and compassion to those in need. To the widow of Nain whose only son had just died, Jesus’ heart went out to her (Luke &:13). Jesus touched the untouchable, showing compassion to the leper who was pleading to him in Matt 8:2-4. His compassion led him to feed the hungry multitudes and to give sight to two pleading, blind men (Matt.15:32 & 20:29-34). In reading several events of Jesus’ healing touch and compassion, I came to another realization – Jesus did not demand repentance of someone prior to healing them. He never demanded that the sick repent first. His call to repentance was directed to everybody. With the sick, his first care was to afford consolation, relief and healing.

I view Jesus as the ‘wounded healer.’ He became human in order to communicate with humanity. He participated in sorrows of the wounded and brought wholeness to our brokenness. We live for a purpose and that is to praise God and allow Him to be at the center of our being. May the examples of Jesus’ relationship with mankind show us how to carry out his ministry through us with faith and compassion.