One with Christ:The God Who Shares in Our Hurts and Happiness

There haven't been many times when I've been genuinely angry, but the end of Fall 2012 was one of them.  For one of the first times in my life, I was consistently in over my head with schoolwork and I couldn't keep up.  I also had several volunteer responsibilities, personal frustrations, and demands on me without many rewards.  I was angry because I was hurting and there wasn't a way to change my circumstances for quite some time.

It is no mystery that life doles out its fair share of pain.  It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, strong or weak.  The ache of the world has a way of finding your heart as people die, relationships crumble, isolation grips you, dreams go deferred, and a whole laundry list of other bruising maladies creep their way into your soul.

In the midst of my troubles, I was asking an age old question that most every believer has asked at one time or another: where are you God?  I am perennially puzzling over this question.  I find myself in good company, however, when I read through the pages of Scripture.  The characters and authors of the Bible were no strangers to the sting of life, to feeling like God was absent.  Yet through reading the Scriptures, I have come to believe that God was right there experiencing my anguish with me, walking with me through my difficulties, even when I couldn't feel his presence.

The Old Testament often showcases the pathos of God.  God is deeply wounded when Israel commits idolatry against him, even likening it to adultery (Ezekiel 16; Hosea 2).  God is filled righteous anger toward those who abuse the marginalized (Isa. 58; Amos 2:6-16).  God  is mercifully present to those who are disappointed and depressed (Gen. 21:8-21; 30:31-35; 1 Kings 19).  Scripture further says that Jesus, God-in-flesh, was a man of sorrows, that he bore our sins and suffered for us for our salvation (Isa. 53; 1 Pet. 2:18-25).  Jesus has demonstrated to us that God is well acquainted with our suffering, that God is not afraid to go through suffering himself.  It is not as though God never suffered before Jesus came.  The cross, rather, is the ultimate revelation to humanity of who God has always been, and it shows us the unfathomable depths of God's unconditional, sacrificial, suffering love.  It is God's great show and tell to us that he knows pain and is willing to go through it so that we can be rescued from the evils that plague us and experientially know God's life, love, and light.

But did Jesus suffer only during his time on earth?  Is he done with pain, enjoying piña coladas at the sunny right hand of God, high-fiving angels Gabriel and Michael for all time?  I don't think he is, at least not yet.  In fact, I think Jesus, though now raised from death into eternal life, still experiences both joy and suffering, and through his church in particular, because he is deeply, personally, mystically a part of us.  He experiences those things with us, because Jesus is united to us and we are united to him.  I think this is part of what it means to be one with Christ, to have Christ "in you" (Col. 1:27) and to be "in Christ" (1:28)- -we share in the divine life and Christ shares in our lives.

Let's look at some pieces of the New Testament concerning this issue.  Consider the oft quoted Matthew 25:31-46, the separation of the sheep and the goats.  King Jesus says to the sheep that whatever they did for "one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me," (25:40, NIV), and to the goats he says that whatever they "did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me" (25:45, NIV).  I think that the identity of the "brothers" in this passage is not every poor and needy person in the world, but rather Christians.  My friend David Hull put it well in an e-newsletter he sent out this January:

Nowhere in the New Testament is such language [familial, brother/sister language] used to refer to all people in general.  In fact, earlier in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus asks the question, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" (Matt. 12:48)  He then progresses by "pointing to his disciples, (saying), 'Here are my mother and my brothers!  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'"

I still think Christianity is a religion of mercy and justice for all, I just don't think that Matthew 25 is the best text to use to advocate for that (see Luke 10:25-37 for a better one).  If we're right in this interpretation that Jesus is referring to Christians specifically in Matthew 25, then the gospel-writer is saying that Jesus so identifies with his people that whatever love and grace we show or fail to show to each other in the church, we are doing that to Jesus himself.  We are one with Christ, and he is one with us.

Think also of what Jesus says to Saul when he throws him off his mount on the Damascus road: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4, NIV).  Now Paul didn't find the risen Christ out in a field somewhere and throw rocks at him.  Saul was "breathing murderous threats" (Acts 9:1) against followers of Jesus, trying to quell this new movement by throwing Christians in jail (Acts 9:2) and giving sanction to their deaths (Acts 7:58; 8:1).  Saul was persecuting Jesus because he was persecuting Jesus' church.  Jesus' inquiry to Saul shows that he is in such close solidarity with his church that their persecutions become his persecutions.

This same Saul had a drastic conversion experience with Christ and later became known as Paul, author of the majority of the New Testament.  In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Paul notes that every Christian has been baptized into Christ's body (a metaphor for the church) by the Spirit, so that now "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it" (1 Cor. 12:26 NIV).  Does not Christ, who is the head of this mystical body (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:15-16), go through these experiences along with his church?  Does not the bridegroom (Jesus) and bride (the church) share each others' joys and tribulations, since they have been made one (Eph. 5:21-33)?  Does not the Father, who is perfect in love (Mat. 5:43-48), ache when his children suffer, especially when they reject him?

And then there's the enigmatic phrase that Paul writes in Colossians 1:24- -"Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church" (NIV).  In this passage, I do not think Paul is saying that there is a lack of efficacy in the atoning work of Jesus, which is complete.  Could it be that Paul is saying that Christ is still taking on the afflictions of his people, that our distress in some mysterious way falls on him?  Perhaps.

This line of interpretation also brings up questions about eschatology and the nature of Jesus' present resurrected and ascended state.  I contend that by his resurrection, Jesus personally defeated death and will never die again (1 Cor. 15:42-44), though he is still working to completely defeat death (15:23-26).  He has been highly honored and exalted (Eph. 1:18-23; Phil. 2:9-11; 1 Pet. 3:21b-22) in his resurrection and ascension.  However, I have not been able to find a text that says he is not currently suffering now that he is in his resurrection body.  I argue that Christ is rejoicing and suffering even now as people accept or reject him, as they live in the love of God or the pride of self, as they encounter sublime blessings or heart-wrenching wrongs.  In fact, the final judgment seems to be the critical moment when everything is set right and there is no more pain, death, or crying (Rev. 20:11-21:8), not necessarily Christ's resurrection and ascension.  For us also, it seems that we may not be through with pain even in our own resurrection (though it is closely paired with the final judgment) or in the intermediate state (which is the state of consciousness in-between our death our resurrection), although, as Paul notes in Phil. 1:23, it is "better by far" to depart this life and be with Christ.  How else could the martyrs cry out for justice if there was nothing to cry about in the presence of Jesus in paradise (Rev. 6:9-11)?  The final judgment is the gateway to the fullness of the New Creation breaking in, the final step in God restoring life to what he intends it to be.

In all of this, I am arguing that because of God's outreaching grace, we get to share the life of God in Christ by the Spirit, and God shares in our lives, the highs and the lows, because he has so deeply attached himself to us.  This adds a deeper dimension to Jesus' promise to be with us always.  Are you filled with joy and happiness?  God is the source of joy; he shares your elation and celebrates with you.  Are you confused and needing direction?  The Holy Spirit knows your needs and intercedes on your behalf to the Father.  Are you down in a dark valley?  Jesus experiences your hurt with you and yet is the means of transcending and moving beyond it.  We serve a God who is presently encountering our pain with us, and yet in love is working for the good of us and those around us, bringing about new life and transformation through Christ's resurrection power.  In God we have one who completely empathizes with us, gives us strength, and is our hope for victory and bliss.  To be one with Christ and one with the Body of Christ are great blessings.  The communion, joy, strength, and goodness of the Trinity flows through us, and we have the privilege of embodying this divine life in community as the church for the sake of the world.  God's "with-ness" with us is quite special indeed.