From the Shepherd’s Nook: Jesus and Pain (by John Frye)

From the Shepherd’s Nook: Jesus and Pain (by John Frye) May 2, 2014

Jesus waded deep into the chaotic waters of human pain. Rather than breezing painlessly through his 33 years as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity incarnate, Jesus doggedly sloshed through the ubiquitous misery of human lives.  Matthew’s Gospel is intent on showing how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. It is Matthew who had a penchant for writing, “And by this the Scriptures were fulfilled…”

Pause at Matthew 8:16-17. “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases’” (see Isaiah 53:4). This verse is about Jesus’ active exorcizing and healing ministry, not about his death on the cross. This ministry of Jesus and Old Testament validation is before Jesus’ cross death. This is healing in Jesus’ ministry, not in his atonement.

Imagine the dusty, 1st century scene in Capernaum near the shore of the Galilee Sea. The sun is setting. The Sabbath is ending, so people begin working by bringing the demon-possessed and diseased to Jesus. Surrounded by hundreds of bodies with smelly, infectious flesh, some screaming, others with oozing wounds and sores, bleeding gashes, fevers and heart-breaking cries of pain, Jesus sets about to conquer the curse of sin and death. In my seminary days, I worked as an orderly in a hospital and it was bad enough in the antiseptically clean emergency room as people came in bloody pain. What Jesus faced is almost unimaginable. All the misery that the first Adam bequeathed to the human race by his disobedience, Jesus the Messiah liberated people from by his compassionate obedience. Demons met God; sickness met wholeness; death met life.

Matthew writes of this event, “This is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53.” Usually when a Jewish writer quotes part of a verse, he intends the readers to think of the whole context. In this case the entire text would be Isaiah 52:13-53:12, known as one of “The Songs of the Suffering Servant.” I’m convinced that Jesus’ ministry was shaped by these Servant Songs in Isaiah (see, for example, R.T. France, Jesus and the Old Testament).  Jesus was a person characterized by sorrows (Isaiah 53:4 NIV). The word “sorrows” means literally “pains.” The word “familiar with” means “closely acquainted with through diligent involvement.” Jesus was neither emotionally detached nor clinically remote. He was physically, hands-on, emotionally, wholly engaged with the full range of human suffering and pain.

There were physicians in Jesus’ day. Luke, the gospel writer, was one. Jesus, as you recall, was a carpenter, a teknon. More likely he was a stone mason. He was a layman. He wasn’t a professional religious guy. I am not a medical doctor and probably you’re not either. If you are, God bless you. Yet, being medically trained is not a prerequisite for engaging the suffering of the world. Jesus did not have to go to the places of pain; he was born into the middle of horrendous human misery. What hinders us from engaging pain?

Suburban materialism may be one of the greatest threats to the Gospel of the kingdom of God in the USAmerican church. It is the number one narcotic against Christ-like engagement with this pain-filled planet. Our entire planet is becoming more like Jesus’ country every day (see last week’s post). N. T. Wright suggests that we go to the places of greatest pain in this world and first of all pray; then work in Jesus’ name and in the power of the Spirit to bring kingdom healing and wholeness. My place is Ukraine. I yearly visit that headlines-making country to encourage the vibrant, missional church there. Ukraine’s unrest creates good soil for the truth of the shalom of God in the gospel of the kingdom. Pray.


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