{"id":364,"date":"2025-03-27T14:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deeperstill\/?p=364"},"modified":"2025-03-27T14:43:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T18:43:56","slug":"how-jesus-teaches-us-to-respond-to-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deeperstill\/2025\/03\/how-jesus-teaches-us-to-respond-to-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jesus Teaches us to Respond to Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Is There Anybody Who Has Not Experienced Suffering?<\/h3>\n

Everybody has.\u00a0 Every one of us has experienced suffering, including Jesus.\u00a0 It would be one thing to have a teacher who never experienced what they were teaching, but his parables aren\u2019t just stories or theories.\u00a0 We can trust Jesus as our teacher, and not just because he\u2019s God incarnate, but also because he\u2019s been through it.\u00a0 He not only sees our suffering, he understands it.<\/p>\n

Jesus knows how we respond to suffering.\u00a0 He knows our desire for control.\u00a0 When something happens beyond our control, we want there to be a reason and we want somebody to blame.\u00a0 We even go so far as to blame people for their own suffering.<\/p>\n

Why do we do this?\u00a0 When we are faced with suffering, why would we respond with fault-finding?\u00a0 This is a temptation that I face as a mother.\u00a0 When my son is running through the house, and his toys are everywhere, he might trip and face-plant onto the hardwood floor.\u00a0 I want my first response to be love, and to ask, \u201care you okay?\u201d.\u00a0 Sometimes that is my response, but not always.\u00a0 Sometimes my response is \u201cthat\u2019s why you shouldn\u2019t leave your toys lying around\u201d, or \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t run so fast\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019m tempted to do fault-finding first, as if that is what\u2019s needed first.<\/p>\n

A Different Way Of Responding<\/h3>\n

\u201cAt that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, \u201cDo you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them\u2013do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Then he told this parable: \u201cA man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, \u2018See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?\u2019 He replied, \u2018Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down<\/span>.'\u201d Luke 13:1-9<\/em><\/p>\n

In this Gospel lesson, Jesus references two different groups of people who suffered.\u00a0 And remember, there was no newspaper, so these events must have been very widely talked about.\u00a0 Jesus says that those who died in these tragedies were not worse sinners than anybody else.\u00a0 It\u2019s sad that Jesus has to teach us this, because the crowd had already begun to judge them, not based on their lives, but based on their suffering.<\/p>\n

Jesus teaches us a profoundly different way to respond to suffering.<\/p>\n

A Tree in the Hands of the Gardener<\/h3>\n

Once there was man who planted a fig tree.\u00a0 When he sees that it bears no figs, he says, \u201ccut it down, it\u2019s wasting the soil\u201d.\u00a0 Notice how quick he is to find fault with the tree, but not with how well it\u2019s been taken care of.\u00a0 Even though this man is the vineyard owner, he doesn\u2019t seem to know what the tree needs.\u00a0 He sees the suffering, but he doesn\u2019t understand it.<\/p>\n

Then the gardener comes, and he not only sees \u2013 he understands.\u00a0 He boldly says to the man, \u201clet it alone\u201d.\u00a0 He offers to tend to and fertilize the tree.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t just do this for a day, he offers to nurture it for a year.\u00a0 If it doesn\u2019t bear fruit after being loved for a year, then they\u2019ll cut it down.\u00a0 But this is a bit of a trick, because the gardener knew what the tree needed.\u00a0 This tree is going to be just fine in the hands of this gardener.<\/p>\n

This is how Jesus responds to suffering, and not just in this parable.\u00a0 Jesus tended to people.\u00a0 He fed them, healed them, cried with them.\u00a0 This is not just alleviating suffering through meeting needs, it\u2019s also loving people enough to care.\u00a0 Loving people enough that instead of turning away from their suffering, you move towards it.<\/p>\n

\"Fig
Fig tree photo from Canva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Being A Resilient Witness<\/h3>\n

This love is resilient enough to be a witness to suffering.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just that we don\u2019t want to suffer, we don\u2019t even want to see suffering.\u00a0 This shows up in the story when the vineyard owner doesn\u2019t even want to see the tree anymore.\u00a0 This was like Mary watching Jesus die on the cross.\u00a0 She had no control over anything except herself, but her presence alone and her refusal to turn her back on him was a defiant act of love.\u00a0\u00a0 Just being willing to see it, to be a witness, is one step towards love.\u00a0 We can\u2019t get our hands dirty if we\u2019re not even willing to look.<\/p>\n

This the kind of love that Jesus offers to us.\u00a0 This is the love that sees your suffering and doesn\u2019t turn away.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s love that sees your suffering and does not judge it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same love that sees the suffering of your neighbor, and the person begging for money on the median.\u00a0 This love sees the suffering of people in the world who are decimated by war or by cruel policies.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the teacher and the lesson is love.<\/p>\n

That might sound like an oversimplification, but it\u2019s actually not simple.\u00a0 Sometimes Jesus teaches about love, and he calls it forgiveness.\u00a0 Sometimes Jesus teaches about love, and he calls it feeding, or clothing, or housing people.\u00a0 Sometimes Jesus teaches about love, and he calls it praying for those who persecute us.\u00a0 It\u2019s not simple, it has to be intentional.<\/p>\n

A Dirty Hands Kind of Love<\/h3>\n

And I\u2019ll tell you, as a mom, love stinks.\u00a0 It is literally stinky sometimes.<\/p>\n

Love is stinky when God calls us to spread manure around somebody else\u2019s tree.\u00a0 Love is also stinky when God calls somebody else to spread manure around our tree.<\/p>\n

We take turns, because everybody is somebody in the story.<\/p>\n