Dying to Live: A Response to the Mystery of Human Suffering

Part III - The New Testament and the Christian Development

Editors Note

We express our gratitude to Sr. Elise Saggau for permitting Stauros, USA to publish this edited version of her extensive study of human suffering. This is the third part of the series. In Part I Sr. Elise examined suffering from the context of the contemporary experience and in Part II she reflected on the Old Testament view of suffering. Part III emphasizes the New Testament and, in particular, the gospels. Sr. Elise explores suffering in the light of the Paschal Mystery--the suffering, death and rising of Jesus. She also assesses the Church's role in ministering to a suffering world. We regret that space does not permit us to reprint this entire paper nor does it allow us to print the biblical references. We ask that you have your Bible with you as you read this paper.

Introduction

The exilic literature points to a time when God's saving mercy will come upon his people in unexpected ways. Second Isaiah provides sources for the development of a messianic expectancy. Many people felt that the messianic expectation found its fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth. The life of this man deeply affected his followers, but it was after his death that the spiritual power of this remarkable person took hold of his disciples and shaped them into a religious body that would grow in unimaginable ways. The movement called Christian, impelled by the powerful memory of this man and empowered by the faith which his message inspired, would discover in him a new source of hope for humankind. The beliefs growing out of this lived faith would become a new way of articulating the very meaning of being human. New light would be shed on the mystery of human suffering because of the way Jesus of Nazareth lived and died.

The Historical Witness of Jesus: The Life Lived for Others

"Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things?" (Luke 24:26). That question encapsulated a dilemma which faced the early Christian community. The community had to grapple with the fact of Jesus' human suffering. There were no clear and simple answers. The tradition would continue to pose the question and to propose a spectrum of more or less inadequate responses to it. But all four gospels leave us a very concrete account of the passion and death of this man, Jesus, each creating an interpretation of these events according to the needs of the communities they served and the personalities and faith of the writers. What seems quite clear is that Jesus really did suffer and die.

The question then is, does the suffering of Jesus offer any kind of illumination for the task of seeking meaning in the universal experience of suffering? For this task we must reach back to the historical life of Jesus. Our means of reaching back are through the accounts of those whose memories were radically influenced by what happened to him and to them after his death. The only access to the historical Jesus is through media which are shaped and determined by an experience of faith.

The life of Jesus was a life-lived-for-others. It is only in the context of understanding this life that any understanding of his suffering and death can be achieved. The public ministry of Jesus was totally dedicated to service. His compelling motive was to proclaim the imminence of the Rule of God. Preacher and teacher, his energies and talents were lent tirelessly to this proclamation. The poor and afflicted flocked to Jesus to have their ills healed, but even more folk crowded around to hear the words of hope that filled them with new confidence. Jesus received all, rich and poor, clean and unclean, whole and broken, calling them all to the self-same response: "Repent! For the Rule of God is at hand!"

Jesus' selfless ministry disturbed those closest to him (Mark 3:20-21, 6:30-34). He set new precedents when he included Levi, a socially-despised tax-collector among his closest friends. His compassion drew him into relationships with women in ways that shocked his disciples as well as the Pharisees (John 4:4-42; John 8:1-11; Luke 7:36-50). But perhaps most significantly, Jesus shared table-fellowship with any number of social outcasts and persons of questionable religious status (Luke 5:29-32). Like the prophets of old, he cut through the constraining forces of conventional religion to offer the people a refreshing, yet challenging, image of a God who was different, at once more loving and more demanding than the tradition had represented.

Jesus, like Jeremiah, was quickly recognized as being a threat to the religious institution of his time by his faithfulness to his mission. Early in the gospel accounts we find negative forces rallying against him. A changed view of God necessitates a changed view of the human. And a changed view of the human necessitates a change in human institutions. Those with investments in these institutions sometimes have a sense of what threatens the status quo on which they rely. Such was the case in the historical context of Jesus' life. His breakthroughs in religious understanding and ministry were seen by the religious leadership as endangering the religious and social structures of his day. Like Jeremiah, like the Suffering Servant, his faithfulness to his mission could have only one possible historical outcome--destruction by the self-interested powers which ruled his society. Illuminated by his deep grasp of the Scriptures, Jesus seemed to sense the destiny that lay before him if he continued upon this path. Nevertheless he resolutely set his face towards Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), a man with few illusions and an unshakable commitment.

Passion/Death of Jesus

The passion narratives describe the extreme sufferings of an innocent man, a man whose life had been one unbroken act of love and service to others. He who healed the many, who raised the dead, who spoke with authority, submits meekly to his own unjust condemnation, torture and execution. Notable in all accounts is this unresisting attitude, the dignity of his stance, the suggestion that though the destructive forces are overpowering him, nevertheless his passivity is somehow his chosen way of responding--a free human being fully engaged in the human experience of suffering and dying. Jesus' passion is portrayed as being in continuity with his life--the unconditional acceptance of the full meaning of that life with all its consequences. This is not to say that Jesus fully understood this meaning or that his insight into his own reality minimized the darkness of the hour that had come upon him. The gospels give evidence that the event of this persecution dismayed him, filling him with fear and despair over the seeming failure of his mission and the untimely cutting off of his life. (Mark 14:32-36).

Even more, the evangelists indicate that, like Jeremiah, Jesus' final thoughts were haunted by the incredible possibility that the God in whom he had trusted had ultimately deserted him (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34). It is the moment of pure unconditionality. There are no assurances, no light. There is no promise of reciprocity, no reward. It is love's moment--surrender as a pure act of faith and trust; hope against hope. "Once again Jesus cried out in a loud voice, and then gave up his spirit" (Matt.27:50). This simple phrase subtly changes the passivity of Jesus into the climactic act of his life. The moment of senseless defeat and meaningless destruction is suddenly illumined. It is the moment of his glory.

Resurrection

To interpret Jesus' death as life-giving can only be the fruit of an experience which follows the desolation of his crucifixion. Jesus' friends and disciples saw only the complete shattering of the hopes they had placed in him. Their dreams for the restoration of Israel died on the cross with this man who had filled them with glorious expectations. How then can we explain the resurgence of life and hope and power that seized this fearful group. Within days of this senseless execution, these same followers were proclaiming for all to hear the saving power of God made available to all in and through the person of Jesus (Acts 3:12-15; 19-20).

The followers of Jesus witness to an experience of his living presence among them. Resurrection is the only word that describes this experience. Jesus lives! And his new life among them fills them with power, hope, zeal and unshakable confidence. It is in the light of this experience that the early community remembers the things Jesus did and said. The events of his life take their meaning from his glorification. They have salvific significance for all who open their eyes, ears, hearts to receive this message. The writings of the first century Christian community are records of their reflection on the meaning of Jesus. They are records of a gradual development from viewing him as a man favored by God with a special mission of his own to viewing him as a person in whom God takes place so fully and unreservedly that he must be acknowledged by the divine title, Lord (Phil. 2:10-11).

Theological Reflections

In the subsequent three centuries the Christian Church would struggle to find a way to articulate its faith in the salvific significance of Jesus Christ. There is an implicit tension in this task. On the one hand there is the utter gratuity of God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son" (John 3:16). This concept corresponds roughly to the creation-based theology of the Old Testament which sees God as utterly faithful. It emphasizes the divinity of Christ. On the other hand, there is human freedom and responsibility to be reckoned with. This view corresponds to the Mosaic-covenant tendency in the Old Testament tradition. It is evident from experience that humans do make choices and that these choices matter. The gracious gifts of God can be and often are rejected by human subjects. Emphasis on this view images Christ as the perfect human responder to God, using his freedom to achieve a model human life.

Balancing these two tendencies maintains a kind of life-giving truth. To see human life as pure gift is to recognize its transcendent nature. It moves us to a response in hope and gratitude, recognizing that each day offers new and unpredictable possibilities. To see human life as a responsibility for which each must ultimately give an account is to recognize the gift of human freedom which truly makes each one's life unique, a creative instrument in building up the world.

The Question of God

Jesus Christ is the revelation of the fully human but Jesus Christ is also the perfect revelation of God. When we contemplate Jesus we see someone who surrenders himself freely and unconditionally for the sake of others, who so passes over to the world of the other as to embrace it fully. It is precisely in and through his embracing the full experience of humanness, even unto the apparently senseless suffering and death which ended that precious life so violently, that he shows us clearly who God is for us--the one who has crossed over. Having inserted himself this deeply into the human condition, God will never stand outside of this experience again. The ultimate question which arises is, of course, does God suffer? The answer to this question is discovered in John 3:16 (God so loved the world that he gave his only son) and in Phil. 2:8 (he...emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave, becoming obedient...even to death on a cross). The answer to the question is found in the pages of our newspapers, in the eyes and hearts of all those who, in the midst of incomprehensible suffering, accept life daily as gift and give it freely for others. If God is love, God suffers that exquisite anguish that shares the experience of the beloved other, that truly crosses over, that surrenders to the other in love and care.

The Church's Ministry to a Suffering World

For 2,000 years the Christian Church has been at the task of explaining this good news, translating the mystery of a Suffering Servant into a message of life for those bewildered by the incomprehensibility of their own human experience. Because it is the good news about Jesus, it is the good news about humans, it is the good news about God. It is a sign of hope in situations which often seem hopeless. It is a sign of faith in situations where faith has been betrayed. But above all it is a sign of love, offering the witness of a loving community which reaches out to suffering humanity in the conviction that each person is sister, brother. After the death of Jesus and the profound experience of the resurrection, his followers became aware that they were deeply involved with the meaning of his life. Their association with Jesus incorporated them into his own mission--to proclaim in word and deed the imminence of God's Rule. Jesus' resurrection presence was alive in them by the power of the Spirit, and by this same power they would carry on his saving mission. They came to understand that his mission (a life lived for others) could not be separated from his worship (a life surrendered to God in perfect obedience). They came to understand that it was as a community of faith, identified with Jesus in mission and worship, that they must reach out to an alienated world.

The mission of the Church continues to be this mission, crossing over to the lives of others, calling them to actualize their own best human potential. Through the centuries the Church has experienced, as Jesus experienced, as the prophets before him experienced, the mysterious reality that faithfulness implies suffering and rejection. In every culture and century, the Church has suffered persecution, rejection, ridicule as well as internal dissension and brokenness. The Church is necessarily a counter-cultural movement in a world where the tendency towards selfishness and greed determine to a great extent the lives of persons.

Today the Christian mission faces the challenge of translating what it knows about suffering to a world in which suffering is often viewed as the ultimate evil. Societies which marshal their resources to evade suffering; communities which deny the reality of suffering by closing their eyes to situations beyond their own existences; persons who lose themselves in a fog of apathy for the sake of not having to experience the pain of care--to these the Church is sent to speak again and again the transforming word of God articulated in Jesus Christ. This is not always a word of comfort, for it calls persons forth to take steps in faith. But it is always a word of hope, for it asserts that suffering is not the ultimate experience in the lives of human beings, that God can do more than we can ask, that human freedom is not at the mercy of evil, that the new and unexpected lies ever before us. This message affirms that suffering lies mysteriously at the heart of power, and liberation is the act of God moving in the midst of our deepest reality. It asserts that it is by dying that we live--an unpopular message that yet is the word of life to a world in search of its own meaning.

Summary

Thus it is evident that the Christian movement speaks much and speaks explicitly to the mystery of human suffering. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the meaning of being human and of being divine come together in a unique and peculiarly revealing way. And this meaning is somehow inextricably involved in suffering because the meaning is love. The faith that makes this assertion resolves no mysteries and solves no problems. It is more of a recognition than an answer. It probes the depth of the human experience and finds God there. It is an exhaustless source of energy for humans in responding to the task of living fully the life-for-others.