By His Wounds.... And Ours

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 2:24

Much has been written in regard to the healing power of the wounds of Christ. Indeed, much of Christian theology acknowledges the healing power of those stripes he bore. No matter one’s view of atonement, this much is clear: there is a power to heal that is found in Christ’s sufferings. After all, it was the wounds of Jesus Christ that brought about the redemption humanity, according to most orthodox theology. It was the wounds of Christ that healed the doubt of the disciple Thomas. It is to that beaten figure upon the cross that much of the suffering world looks to for hope. In this Jesus of the Cross, battered and beaten, we have found a priest and pastor who knows our pain. We have found a lamb that will willingly approach the altar. We have found a King who will triumph over our pain and torment by conquering it himself.

Yet, what of our pain? Is it redemptive as well? Does the one who suffers from depression, suffering through the days in his or her dark bedroom, offer something to this world that redeems it. Does the mother, whose son died in a lost overseas war, suffer in a way that brings liberation to the rest of us? Does the young man, whose once athletic body is slowly eaten away by cancer, provide any grace to those around him? The answer would seem to be yes. However, it does depend on how one suffers.

Take Mother Theresa for example. In her we find a woman who will be canonized in all likelihood by the Roman Catholic Church. She was a woman who gave nearly all of her best years to the service of the poorest of the poor (and many of her worst years, as we have come to discover). All the while she held fast to the faith handed down to her, even when it seemed to bea faith of impossibility. It seems safe to say that she came as neat to living out the life of Christ as any modern celebrity of the Church. Yet, in recent years we have learned that she was a woman who suffered with overwhelming and magnificent doubts. Her seeming near loss of faith has been well documented (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/november/13.23.html#related http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/septemberweb-only/138-12.0.html ) so I will not dive into it any further. There is a very real sense, however, in which these personal struggles seem only to strengthen her resolve and her power to heal. After, her death she would come to be eulogized as a woman who had brought healing to the slums and gutters of Calcutta, and to the world at large.

We should take note, however, that it was not her sufferings in and of themselves that brought relief to a city on the brink, but it was those sufferings rightly understood. The deeper the darkness drew in around her, the more tenaciously she seemed to hold to the core of her faith. She, herself, penned, “ I do not know how much deeper will this trial go—how much pain and suffering it will bring to me. This does not worry me any more. I leave this to him as I leave everything else. I want to become a saint according to the heart of Jesus—meek and humble. That is all that really matters to me now” (ibid).

For her then, and for us now, the most powerful prayer we might pray is that of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things … that I may share his sufferings, becoming like him in death" (Philippians 3: 8,10).

In the end we must realize that we are not members of a faith that is the enemy of suffering. Yet, we are members of a faith in which our Lord, Jesus Christ sanctifies it. After all, it was through his wounds that we are healed. It is by our own wounds that we minister (Henri Nouwan would be proud). If we cannot approach our own sufferings with gladness, let us at least approach them with peace. For by His stripes we are healed. By our sufferings we may share in his sufferings. By our suffering in Him we may proclaim what it really is to heal and to redeem.