The Suffering Saint

We want life to be easy. No great challenges. Nothing for which we have to bear responsibility. No need to suffer the consequences of our own actions. “I shouldn’t have to suffer; ever.” That seems to be the unofficial credo of our era. So when we do suffer, we fall into the “Why me” syndrome. When we do suffer, as inevitably happens in this life, we tend to either fall into self-pity or go into attack mode. Maybe that suffering is due to no fault of our own, or maybe we are responsible for it, or maybe it’s through a combination of factors, some of which we contributed to, that we’re suffering. No matter. We seem to figure that having to bear any kind of pain is just the worst thing that ever happened. So again, it’s either the spiral down into self-pity, or the attitude of: If I’m hurting, someone else is going to have to pay!

How unlike Jesus. He understood that suffering was part of his calling. The words of Second Isaiah helped him to interpret the events and the direction of his life:

“Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4).

It’s not that the prophet was somehow seeing six centuries into the future. He was probably referring to someone or some group or some nation in his own time when he spoke these words. But the words had an enduring quality because they speak of a reality of every time; of every era: suffering, sometimes terrible suffering, redemptive suffering is a reality which is found in every age and every place. Indeed, the notion that suffering can be redemptive is an eternal principle. So these words spoke to each generation over those six centuries, and that’s why there had become scripture by Jesus’ day, and he found in them a reference point for his own life. And the early church likewise found in these words an explanation for the inexplicable manner in which Jesus died; they found words that helped them to make sense of the senseless tragedy of Jesus’ death.

And here’s the toughest part: God placed that burden of suffering upon him. That sure grates upon our “life should be burden free” sensibilities. Whatever theological position we may claim for ourselves, most of us have inherited the feel-good God which emerged out of late 19th and early 20th century liberalism at its worst. We tend to think of God as some kind of Sugar Daddy in the sky from whom only nice things come. But the scripture is very clear: the Suffering Servant of Second Isaiah was “struck down by God.” “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” It’s not only the joys of life but sometimes also the burdens of life that are given to us by God in order to accomplish some greater good somewhere down the road.

Greatness is measured in one’s ability to endure suffering. The great leaders of history knew much joy, to be sure; but they also bore incredible burdens. One thinks of the grief borne by Abraham Lincoln, who endured the pain of a nation tearing itself apart while God placed on his shoulders the burden of somehow pulling it back together. And John A. Macdonald, caring for his invalid wife and disabled daughter, bearing the burdens of political scandal, while somehow serving as midwife for a great nation. And remember the single mom down the street; enduring suffering and exemplifying greatness in her own way, as she provides for her family and bears the burdens of her children and somehow manages to help them grow in wisdom and in stature.

There was a time when leaders endured suffering. Now they just threaten their opponents with law suits. There was a time when people accepted the painful consequences of their own behaviour. Now they either offer a non-apology or look for a central bank to bail them out, or cry, “Why me?!” But those who bravely and stoically bear the burdens that have been placed upon them; they, like Jesus, know that suffering can be redemptive. They know that sometimes it is God who places the cross upon our back. For the pain of a cross is often prelude to the joy of an empty tomb.

Text: Isaiah 53:4-6

A Good Friday Reflection

Offered by Bruce D. Ervin

21 March 2008