Echoing HopeSample

Taking on Our Suffering

Sometimes we want to associate Jesus with the God “up there” so that we can keep him at a safe distance from the muck and mess of our daily lives. But we miss half of Jesus’s significance—and his understanding of our suffering—when we miss his humanity. 

Paul the apostle recorded a powerful hymn about how God in Jesus left behind his divine advantages. In his letter to early Jesus-followers living in the city of Philippi, he wrote that Jesus “emptied himself…becoming like human beings” (see Philippians 2:5–11).

The writer of Hebrews also spoke to the reality of Jesus’s humanness: “we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin” (see Hebrews 4:14-16).

This changes everything about how we suffer. Did Jesus experience the same sort of human struggles that we face in a messy world like ours? Yes indeed. When Jesus was on his way to be betrayed and eventually crucified, he agonized and prayed while sweating drops like blood (Luke 22:44). The crisis of being human in the world overwhelmed Jesus with anxiety. But rather than act out of step with his humanity, Jesus embraced the pain of humankind by taking on our suffering through the solidarity of crucifixion. 

In my own journey, anxiety is a real struggle. For a long time, I simply tried to ignore it. As I look at the human Jesus, sweating out his stress and asking God to take away his cup of suffering, I see my own life. But where I want my anxiety to simply disappear, Jesus owned the fact that it wouldn’t be that simple. He courageously held all that pain as he carried his cross to the deadly hillside.

If that is what Jesus had to do with his suffering, rather than stuff it inside or make it magically disappear, then maybe there’s freedom in walking through it rather than around it. I’m finding that there exists a freedom through anxiety and suffering rather than a freedom from it. Jesus taught me that, through his humanness.

As you read the Scripture passages for today, consider what character traits you desire Jesus to grow within you. Close your eyes and imagine your life as you lean into those traits. What changes in your heart? How does your posture and attitude transform as you confront daily challenges or deep hurts?