An Empathetic God

    Jesus is seen as the suffering servant who was crucified on the cross in a brutal death and betrayed by his closest friends in the later chapters of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Along with the most extreme suffering, there is a polar opposite side of popularity and glory. He was the favorite student at the temple and wise beyond his years. People listened to him and he confidently stayed steady in the praise. His character of being fully God and fully man did not waver in these times of being noticed for his incredible qualities that grew in their site. He also knew he was going to be rejected and suffer betrayal and death, but none of this changed the way he lived in the moment with these teachers, along with those who loved him. Even with the knowledge of the intensity of suffering to come, he was faithful to grow in favor and love authentically the very people that would turn their backs on him. There was a very distinct moment that his rejection and suffering started, and it was in his hometown where he grew up and the community he had built. This was right after he was pumping with the Holy Spirit so obviously after his Baptism and being temped in the desert for forty days in Matthew chapter four. When he started his ministry in Luke it speaks of how he was first seen as glorified: “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” (English Standard Bible, 2017, Luke 4:14-15) Soon after this, he was in his community synagogue speaking and teaching scripture as he had done many times before. He speaks the prophecy of Isaiah sixty-one of the Messiah and claimed that this was fulfilled in this very moment. They were enraged over this supposed lie and his community, teachers, those who he had grown in favor with turned against him: “When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.” (English Standard Bible, 2017, Luke 4:28-30) This mountain is called the Mt. of Precipice, also known as the leaping mountain, seen on tours in Nazareth. It is a sheer drop off cliff with rocks at the bottom that would surely kill a man and crush his body. In an instant, the people he had connected with, won the favor of, trusted, built their furniture painstakingly for hours, been taught by and taught for all of his life had betrayed him. Not just that, they were so intensely enraged that they desired to see him crushed and killed on the rocks below. They were so chaotically reactive that he passed through their midst and walked away without their notice. He was alone as the shouts of those he held dear and held him dear had broken in one sentence of teaching. Rejection, treachery and cut off were his cup now. Throughout his life, suffering and glory were a part in polarizing intensity and his suffering stemmed from his love and relationship with people. To the degree he loved was the degree he was hated, rejected, and crucified. 

In the International Bible Commentary, it speaks to the words and actions of Jesus saying: “The mighty works of Jesus were signs through which those who had eyes to see might behold the glory of God dwelling among men through his son. In him every other revelation which God had given of himself was brought to fulfilment and culmination; to see Jesus Christ was to see the father.” Macdonald (1985, p. 589) Jesus was quoted to be a man of many sorrows in Isaiah fifty-three. If he was seen as the very fulfilment and culmination of God the father, then even without reading the rest of the Bible it is apparent that God is also full of many sorrows. When looking at scripture, God is a grieved, angry, emotionally distraught being as much as a loving, patient, and kind being. Jesus was polarly both of these portraying that suffering in itself is not a punishment from a God that does not care, but a part of loving and fallout of relationship in the brokenness of the world post Eden. If Jesus is a perfect fulfilment of God, then this proves the fact that suffering does not come inevitably from sin, but to even the perfect, most loving being that exists. It is written: “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (English Standard Version, 2017, 1 John 1:5) When suffering happens, it many times shakes people between faith and doubt in a loving God: “Because suffering and shake faith at its core, it is common to find disparity between expectations and experience. The scene of contemporary faith is increasingly strewn with critical stories of believers turned atheist, in large part because faith is believed to be incompatible with the realities of real-world suffering.” Peterman (2016, p. 125) This does not take into account that God himself is a suffering God even in his perfection. His redemption plan all along has been to redeem all of the pain and bring beauty from the deepest darkness. Jesus came and suffered in order for this plan to be perfectly in place for suffering to be turned into ultimate glory: “…momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” (English Standard Version, 2017, 2 Corinthians 4:17) There are many reasons for suffering on this earth, and Jesus suffered both physically, mentally, and emotionally. He was rejected, tempted, betrayed, anguished, angry, throwing over tables and sweating blood. The picture of a Caucasian smiling with perfect teeth and a peaceful countenance does not depict his whole experience and minimizes his anguish. His life was side by side with suffering and glory, but his perfection never in question. If this is true of the image of God through his son, then the argument that suffering is from an unloving, merciless God comes from lack of understanding his experience and range of emotion. To say that suffering stems from sin alone would be to say God himself has sin. To be a Christian is to depend on the fact that Jesus was the image of God fulfilled and sinless. Therefore, to suffer is not to sin. To suffer is not a punishment from God, but the experience of having a heart and soul. The measures to which people suffer are to a degree that he understands and desires to comfort no matter how gruesome. He sees, he longs to comfort and to heal. He longs to sit with people in their pain and then ultimately bring healing and better understanding for others that are suffering: “Yahweh can absorb our frustrations; he does not fret before our questions; he is able to respond to our concerns. We must never forget that what ultimately shapes biblical lament is the faithfulness of God who hears and acts. He does this with dealing with everything from feelings of betrayal to persecution, from fear to loss and death, to the sense of being under judgement and beyond.” Kapic (2017, p. 40) God is a being of empathy. Without that key factor then how would he be a place of refuge, safety and healing that the Psalms so extravagantly portray? 

Now there are several sides to suffering and one side is that of experiencing our own sin and the sin of others. Abuse, mistreatment, betrayal, judgment and more cannot happen without the failings of another or ourselves in an act of these. This in itself is not an angry God inflicting pain, but a fallen humanity in which he sent his son to save in all its depravity and brokenness. He does not delight in the trauma humans inflict on one another. He does not delight in sickness and death. He does not delight in loss. Jesus wept openly over his friend that passed away and the pain of that grief from those who loved him. He knew that he would raise this man from the grave, but the deep gut-wrenching pain of loss from death was not lost on Jesus. Just the moments spent seeing how distraught and grieved brought him tears; he too felt grief despite knowledge of the future. Though he knows: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (English Standard Version, 2017, Revelation 21:4) the anguish and grief he experienced was not pacified by it. The moment of intense sufferings he went through could not be tamed with the knowledge that all tears would be wiped away and that everything would be made new. How much more does the pain run deep for humans who cannot possibly fathom what is to come? How much more suffering for a human without the perfect and all-knowing nature of God. In Hebrews it encompasses God’s understanding of this fact when it says: “Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! So, whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.” (English Standard Version, 2017, Hebrews 4:15-16) In his suffering, God does not turn against himself, but human nature can feel that this all-knowing and powerful God inflicted the pain purposefully and that the shame itself are the thoughts God feels. This is in lieu of understanding and the open door to come to him in the pain. He desires those in the darkest trenches of suffering to come straight to his heart and shame no longer has a place there: “So, how can we respond to others that are suffering? We can learn from our Lord. He stepped into the alarm moments of our lives. He entered the chaos and the noise. He encountered the sin and the suffering of this world and had staying power. We are there with him, all of us bearing the shame of our own sin and the sins of others against us. He did not hide from that shame and rather than despising us, he despised the shame. He is a God that turns shame into glory!” Langberg (2015 p. 139) A key component of the way God encountered his own suffering and the suffering of a fallen humanity is that he did not get lost in the darkness. Though he felt writhing pain and goes to the darkest place with others, unshaken or moved, though emotion filled, does not get lost in the dark and forget his light. He does not become dark with the dark, but brings light to the darkness and desires for humans to follow in his likeness and to depend on his strength to allow them to go to the depth of their own pain, but then to take it a step farther and bear his very image and spirit when in relationship with others that are suffering. He desires humanity to have staying power in the mess and darkness as he does in order to bring ultimate healing to those in despair and pain. He is an empathetic God. He is a God that reflects emotion but does not drown in it. He is a God that is unshaken by the most serious trauma. He is a God who sees those who have committed acts that cause suffering to others as people who have suffered themselves from their own sin and the sin of others. He offers his refuge and redemption in the suffering to anyone, no matter their crimes as he showed during his own suffering on the cross. Jesus was in ultimate betrayal by people encountering their sin, not his own, and physical torment, along with shame. Even in this moment, he listened to the criminal next to him and offered hope. He is not consumed by his own emotion to the point of being unable to listen. He is not consumed by his own hurts from people’s sin to offer grace to a person that had no time left on the earth to change his life. His life was at its end and he wondered if there was a place for him with a glorious and perfect God. Jesus assured him that there was. To suffer is not to have the inability to think of others. To suffer is not to lose the ability to love and to connect. Suffering has a refining and tenderizing aspect to it when through the lens of a kind, good, relational, all redemption God that feels the painful emotions, too. He did nothing to deserve the sins against him, but nonetheless they have happened from the beginning of mankind and the famous moment of fallenness at the apple tree. He has been fiercely set on redeeming all things since that very moment to a condition that tears would be no more. But, he in his desire for tears to be no more he through Jesus’ image of him showed tears are an inevitable experience until that day. 

Now to address the subject of suffering from physical pain and illness the writing of Sveilich touches on an extraordinary piece to this side of suffering: “No one chooses to have chronic illness or experience unyielding pain…disease and pain are turning points that turn us inward and not outward. Humanity tends to view disease as evil; pain can prove a sterling teacher; it can challenge and guide us through periods of unprecedented change, growth, and reevaluation. Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn is to focus on improving ourselves and our own situation despite our limitations. To accept and care for our bodies or psyches as they are now is perhaps the biggest challenge and greatest achievement.” Sveilich (2005 p. 145) There is no taking away or minimizing the hardship of feeling physical and mental ailment. Pain is added when people of faith blame illness on sin and come at a person with judgement instead of understanding and grace. Jesus is seen time and time again going to people with physical illness and mental turmoil that others would not go near and cast away from society. He touched the untouchable; he went to the ones that scared others with their actions that appeared erratic and unmanageable. His attitude toward them was much different than the righteous anger he felt toward the religious sects that alienated these people in shame, blaming their suffering on sin. They were creating outcasts of the ones already in pain only to further their suffering. The pharisees made it seem hard to get to God and even harder when impaired. Jesus made a huge statement when he walked up to these people and spent the majority of his time showing them that he cared. They were worthy of connection, of being seen, and healed. He was showing how much they mattered to God. His anger with the pharisees could be partially that in people’s suffering the religious leaders were twisting the very character and nature of God to a point that people felt he had betrayed them too. Ultimate suffering is to believe that suffering is inflicted on a person by God. The pain can be so overwhelming that a person walks away all together from a faith that there is a God, because it is easier to believe that a God that would do that does not exist. To be a Christian is to find hope that there is a God who sees, feels, cares, acts, and heals. We have a God who put his very son on the cross to redeem and restore the sufferings of this earth and turn them into glory that far outweighs them all. We have a God who has suffered too. We have an empathetic God. We have a God who would use our suffering to help heal and restore by his power those around us. We have a God who understands. We have a God who does not minimize pain. We have a suffering God.