Sharing in Suffering

Last week I talked about suffering, and how we are chosen to share in the suffering of Jesus, and how God uses our suffering to develop us and make us more like Jesus. I think that there is a flip side to this coin of suffering. Not only do we share in the suffering of Jesus, we share in each other’s suffering as well.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. I Corinthians 12:27

We are one body, connected to each other through the head, which is Christ, and through the uniting of the Holy Spirit. When you suffer, I feel it. When I suffer, I can count on you to help alleviate my suffering.

One worldview was stated on Facebook as, “Everybody is going to hurt you. The trick is to find the ones worth suffering for.” I understand this. We’re human. We hurt each other. But I don’t want to suffer for just anybody. I want to make sure you are worth it. I am so glad Jesus didn’t feel that way.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8

Jesus thought we were worth suffering for, even though we weren’t worthy. We are part of the body, and so we suffer, whether the other is worth it or not. Still we try to avoid suffering, and so we relegate it to a few and tell them they are called. Henri Nouwen says, “Our society suggests that caring and living are quite separate and that caring belongs primarily to professionals who have received special training. Although training IS important . . . caring is the privilege of every person and is at the heart of being human." (Henri Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift) Rather than shuffling each other off to the Pastor or the counselor or the doctor, we are called to do more. We are called to compassion, to feeling deeply and to going through life together. We are instead called to suffer together, to use our own suffering to help others and to participate in each other’s suffering through prayer.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

To participate in the sufferings of another means that we open ourselves up to their pain. When we pray for each other we open ourselves up to the pain that only the Holy Spirit knows fully, and we share in that pain because we share in the same Spirit. When one member suffers, we all suffer.

Sometimes when I say I will pray for you, I do it quickly, trying not to understand what you are going through. I have told you, I don’t like suffering! God is slowing me down, reminding me that sharing in the fellowship of prayer is to allow myself to feel what you feel, to experience the depth of what you are going through. If not for the fact that we are all sharing this together, I’m not sure I could stand it. I would be overwhelmed. Instead I can take your suffering and lay it at before the throne of Jesus, knowing that he understands and will provide the strength we need.

We suffer together knowing that God has made us one. It’s a blessing with a kick. Relationship is worth it. It’s a reflection of the very nature of God. It draws us further up and deeper in. It binds us together. We are one body, and in suffering we begin to live like it.  

Participants in Suffering

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about suffering lately. Not on purpose, mind you. It just seems to come up in my Bible study and in my reading. That’s exactly what has me a little concerned. I’m not a big fan of suffering. Five degrees too hot and I’m whining. Five degrees too cold and I’m pulling out the wool socks. I’ll do most anything to alleviate my suffering.

My suffering is nothing compared to what some people live with. I have one friend on dialysis. She knows suffering. Another friend has cancer. Seven hundred people have died from the Ebola virus. They know suffering. Christians in Syria and Iran and Libya are being put to death for living their faith. They know suffering. Children die from lack of clean water. Girls are stolen from their families for the desire of an education. Children are abused and misused. Young boys are sold into slavery as expendable soldiers.

We all suffer, some more than others. I think its safe to say that nobody likes it. Suffering makes us uncomfortable. It makes us doubt God’s love for us, or our own competency.

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials… James 1:2

God seems to view suffering differently than we do. He doesn’t seem to see suffering as a bad thing, but instead of a tool for our development. He seems to see it as a temporary thing, keeping in mind the future he has in store for us. That future can help us endure anything, just as it helped Jesus.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:2-3

Jesus knows suffering. When he asks us to endure, he knows what he’s asking. When he allows suffering in our lives, he walks beside us, helping us endure. When we think we can’t, he reminds us that he has already overcome, and that he will use it for our good. Our suffering will never be wasted.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2 Cor. 4:7-10

God allows suffering so that he will be glorified, so that others will witness and be drawn to him, and so that we will mature and become more like him. We have been chosen to share in his suffering in order that we may also share in his glory. It is an honor to suffer, and in suffering for him we share in his death. It is an act of gratitude and worship.

How do you suffer? People are watching. What do they see? Do they hear my whining and complaints? Or do they see someone who is bowed down in submission before her Savior? Will I allow God to work in my life, even if it involves suffering? Will I offer my suffering as a sacrifice of praise?