Jesus experienced severe, physical pain. It’s easy to gloss over this, but no other religion has a god who suffers physically. Indeed, that would be a picture of weakness, not power – why would anyone want to worship a suffering God?
Well, I would.
I wrote this article for Preach Magazine, and it was picked up by Christian Today so you can read it for free! It’s one close to my heart and something I’ve been thinking about for some time.
Just preaching that ‘Jesus died on the cross because of our sin’ can be dangerous: here are three other aspects of the cross that wounded people need to hear.
Link is also here https://www.christiantoday.com/article/preaching-the-cross-to-wounded-people/131317.htm?fbclid=IwAR1-ve2uCeH2JCl3YHc2ytxyZV55Y4VFxum9dxwNrp6Y8N1Kz1y-1qDtuLI
P.S. I’ve been terrible at writing regular newsletters, but I’m planning on sending one in the next few days.
This is one of the most incredible articles I’ve ever read on ministering to Christians who are hurting.
In Ezekiel 34:4-5, God judges Israel’s spiritual leaders because, “You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.” (Meaning those among His chosen people who were suffering physically and emotionally and spiritually.) He expects us to reach out to these people with His compassion, not to tell them repeatedly how far they fall short of His high standards.
Several years ago a brother in Christ made the sad but accurate observation, “Whenever someone from church is going through a tough time, they just disappear.” The Sunday school class member who struggled to remain free of the nonChristian faith of her childhood, the newly widowed thirty-something, the couple filing for divorce. The weak, the sick, the injured. Were they strengthened or healed or bound up by the church? Apparently not. When trouble came, they left.
But how do we strengthen, heal, and bind them up? Your suggestion that “to preach the comfort of the cross to hurting people requires looking afresh at Jesus’ death” is right on target. I’ve received a lot of comfort from taking this kind of look, but your three ways of doing it have deepened my understanding even further.
Paul also shows us how to minister to these hurting people in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, where he tells us, “you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.” And Galatians 6:1, where he says to “restore him gently.” I don’t always know when to admonish and when to offer support, but according to the Bible what I do must be done in love and with the goal of restoring a fellow believer’s relationship with God.
(Adapted from my blog at https://thosewhoweep.blogspot.com/2018/08/strengthening-weak.html.)
I was so relieved when you were invited to contribute to the licc site and am grateful to be in touch with your mailings to be able to read your reflections on what it means to suffer and experience God’s love in difficult circumstances. I thank God for your present experience together with your background as a lecturer in theology gives credence to what you say and hope that others who do not have that experience of weakness will really hear what you are saying.
Thank you.
I am sorry that you are suffering so much … yet thankful that you are using your experience of suffering to support others.
God bless you