At the Hands of Others

I love the crucifix, the visible reminder of all that Christ suffered on our behalf. Artists have rendered this image in many different ways, from the very abstract to the terribly realistic. It is the awful, ugly image of the truest, most beautiful love.

Crucifix by Janis Joplin

Contemplating Christ on the crucifix this morning I thought about all he suffered on the cross, and how that is different from what he suffered in the wilderness – the 40 days of fasting and prayer. Fasting, prayers, works of charity create a kind of suffering: self-imposed disciplines that humble us, help us realize our physical weakness and turn our attention toward God. But the cross is all about suffering at the hands of others.

We have all suffered at the hands of others, although it is a stretch to call some of it suffering. People inconvenience us, annoy us, are rude to us, cut us off in traffic! The daily indignities of our encounters with others provide lots of little opportunities for grace, both the grace that God gives to navigate the human landscape (so we do not get annoyed or upset) and the grace we give to others when they trip us up (so we do not react in kind).

But some people have truly suffered through the actions of other people: they are abused, threatened, neglected, wounded, starved, killed. What do we do with that? What do we do when we are the ones at the receiving end of cruelty, arrogance, brutality, or spite? What do we say to people we know who have been through physical or sexual abuse?

I do not have the perfect answers for those questions. But I think that the crucifix gives us some clues. The crucifix reminds us that Jesus knows. Jesus knows not only what it is like to experience pain (and hunger and sorrow), but to have that pain come at the hands of others. He knows the shame of being at the mercy of someone else’s actions, of having his body mistreated, his wishes ignored, his dignity annihilated.

Jesus does not run from us when we become victims of someone else’s actions, as sometimes others do. Jesus is fully present with us no matter what our life experiences are, and fully aware of what those experiences cost us in terms of joy and freedom.

But there’s more! God takes Christ’s willingness to accept death at the hands of sinful humanity and uses that to save the world. Resurrection follows death.

Since Jesus redefines the meaning of suffering, through his death and with his loving, living presence our painful experiences also can be transformed. Any suffering we have been through can become a precious gift we bring to God, which he can use to save the world.

It is a profound mystery to me that God can look on the ugliness of human actions and transform not the action but the effect into something meaningful, beautiful, and useful. That, to me, is the paradox and promise of the cross.