The great mystery of the sufferings of Christ was foretold by the Hebrew prophets and poets. They were inspired to proclaim that the redemption of the human race, our rescue from the dreadful enslavement to spiritual darkness, would somehow come through suffering. Our healing would be through woundedness.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
The disciples of Jesus, once their minds had been opened to understand how all their scriptures were speaking of the Christ (Luke 24:45), recognized those promises as pointing to his cross.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24
To promise healing through the Son’s sufferings assumes that we have wounds. While we might think immediately of the hurts and injuries received as the result of sin, and certainly Christ’s suffering heals those wounds, Paul speaks of another woundedness that has nothing to do with sin. He says that the sufferings of Christ are still lacking in some manner, and need to be completed.
I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. Colossians 1:24
Paul sees an ongoing wounding. What is missing is not the sufficiency or scope of Christ’s sufferings as atonement for sin and the means of reconciliation. Jesus defeats death and offers himself for the whole world’s sin, once for all. The part that is lacking is our own participation, not because we add anything to God’s reconciliation of the world to himself or to his atonement for sin, but because the sufferings of Christ are also the expression of God’s love. Our sufferings, and the wounds that accompany them, do complete what is lacking in us, that is, love. We need to share in the same self-offering love of the cross, and the wounds that come when we do.
Love hurts. There is no way around that reality. We are right to describe participating in God’s love as a share in his afflictions, for we too must accept the cost of love. Christ’s wounds are the marks of love, not only the evidence of cruelty and hate. The wounding we need is the piercing our defenses, the tearing of our selfishness, and the bruising of our neglect with regard to the needs of our neighbors. To have the wounds of Christ, the wounds of love, will be our healing.
As he was wounded for our healing, so we share in his sufferings, being wounded in ways that open us to genuine love and mark us as those who have shared in it. When we are wounded with his wounds, then we are healed. We too must bear the evidence of love, the same signs of love the disciples saw in the hands, feet, and side of the risen Lord. The Spirit himself draws us into the wounds of God that we may be healed.
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:10
Leave a Reply