[The Paschal Mystery] Part Two: How did Jesus “Bear and Carry” Our Griefs?
Perhaps to understand this mystery better, we need to reframe the problem. To unburden your load, and let Jesus carry it for you, you may need to view it differently. Jesus probably sees your issue from a divine perspective, certainly differently than you do. Try to see the difficulties from His point of view.
For example, your pain and sorrow may stem from your fear of death. Maybe you are fearful about the death of yourself, or another person, or even of an object or life goal. Don’t think “death”. Shift your perspective and think “resurrection.”
When Lazarus was dead and in the tomb, Jesus said to the disciples that his friend was sleeping. Then Jesus promised the people that Lazarus would be resurrected. They struggled with believing that. And we struggle when we are suffering. Its hard to believe there is value in the pain, or that something “good” is going to result.
Why could Jesus promise life to Lazarus when he was dead, and had been dead for four days? Its easy to say Jesus could do that because he is God, and he is the Resurrection and the Life.
But let’s make this real: Jesus knew that a seed had to be buried, and die, in order to come to life. He always sees problems as experiencing the process of germination. Jesus focuses on the cycle of life: of life coming out of death, of seeds creating trees, of Good Fridays preceding Resurrections.
In the kingdom of God, as we see it here on earth, there is a cycle we experience: life ends up in death, which in turn leads to life.
Consider Abraham offering his promised Issac back to God as the sacrificial lamb. Think about his emotional struggle to release his only son to God. Once Abraham did that, God showed up with the sacrifice (ram stuck in the thicket), and gave the Father Abraham words of affirmation. (“Now I know, Abraham, that you fear God.”)
Consider Joseph in prison for twelve years, and then being released to become second in Pharaoh’s kingdom, and able to save his family from starvation.
Consider the Israelites who were first taken into captivity, but then freed to return home and rebuild their beloved temple, even though it was 70 years later.
Consider Daniel being locked into the lion’s den for an all-nighter, and then emerging unscathed the following morning, and leading his king into a relationship with God.
In summary, to manage our suffering we need to look at the problem from Jesus’s perspective. The Creator saw the emptiness and ruin on the earth and filled it with life through his spirit. Jesus saw death as always knew somehow it would lead to life. So when we see suffering in the history of God’s people, let us remember it is always followed by God’s glory.
Thank you, Jesus.
In Christ,
