Jesus’ Deepest Pain (by John Frye)

Jesus’ Deepest Pain

The Church has once again recently celebrated the resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the dead. Resurrection in mid-history was a breakthrough concept that stunned the people of God. The lead-up to “He is risen!”is, of course, “Crucify him!”We contemplate the horror of “Good Friday”and the despair of silent Saturday. This year I noticed a resurrection of the medical descriptions of a crucifixion death. A number of blogs and some Facebook entries repeated the ghastly details of what is considered one of the cruelest forms of death known to humanity.

I have no problem with zeroing in on the physical anguish of Jesus’crucifixion experience. Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion, certainly did not restrain from presenting the bloody carnage that a Roman crucifixion inflicted on a human body. It is interesting to learn from medical experts the physiological process of death by a cross. Jesus lived up to the prophecy: he was acquainted with grief (English “grief”translates the Hebrew “pains”).

In the attempts to probe the physical agonies of the cross, we may miss the other dimension of deep pain that Jesus experienced on “Good Friday.”Jesus, the person, not just his body was bashed. Jesus was bashed with words. Demeaning speech. “The poison of asps is under their lips.”Jesus’soul was poisoned as he was dying. “You are a loud mouth braggart!”is how we can understand “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!”(Mark 15:29-30). Verbal assaults attacked what was most valued by Jesus: “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God’“(Matthew 27:43). This probably means, “You are delusional! You were claiming to be God’s Son. We don’t think God cares one iota about you.” The NIV points out that even the two bandits on each side of Jesus “heaped insults on him”(Matthew 27:44).

The Romans were destroying Jesus’body. The religious leaders, bandits, and crowds were destroying Jesus’soul. Mockery. Insults. Vile, demeaning speech. Jeering. Being the butt of others’jokes. Verbalized contempt seeks to murder the soul. This experience, too, is a significant dimension of the passion of the Christ.

Jesus’enduring of contempt is for the African Americans treated to vociferous speech, name-calling, and violence. It’s for young women treated as sex objects and trafficked for money. For women in the workplace ignored or scorned in the company of the “good old boys”club. It’s for the little boys growing up and hearing from angry fathers, “You’ll never amount to anything. You’re a worthless piece of sh*t!”It is for Native Americans trusting in the promises of a new government in a new world and finding out that words—written and spoken—can mean something worse than nothing; they can mean genocide.

There is a dimension of Jesus’ pain unrelated to the Roman scourging, the crown of thorns, the nails in the hands and feet, the sword gash in the side. This dimension of Jesus’ pain is for every drop of verbal poison spewed into the souls of people by the wicked speech of others. Physical wounds in Jesus? No doubt. Yet, also, wounds of the heart and soul. By his wounds, all of them, we are healed.

Some years ago in another state I counseled a young couple who never found any harmony and happiness in their marriage. While they had a boatload of issues, one core issue the wife faced was finding healing for a soul wound. She grew up in a home where her mother’s favorite name for her was “whore.”Like acid to her face was this contempt for her soul. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Thank you for your suffering, Lord, for us. All of it.