Stitches for Open Wounds
This year we're collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles during this season of Lent, the 40-day period prior to Easter. Find this series also published by UChicago's CANA Journal and UC Berkeley's TAUG.
by micah hsu, uc berkeley
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
Philippians 3:10
It is a wonderful thing that the believer is united to Christ. The Apostle Paul everywhere describes the believer not as “Christian,” but as “in Christ” or “with Christ.” He was chosen in Christ, adopted through Him, and redeemed in Him. [1] He was created anew in Christ and continues this new life in Him. [2] Even his mortal body dies in Christ, yet he will be resurrected and glorified in Him. [3] As the branch and the vine, the Christian’s union with Christ is the vascular system for life and godliness. Thus, it seems important to know how we may abide still more closely with Him.
Now, the Apostle here relates a particularly special aspect of our union with Christ. In the new heavens and the new earth, we are told that “there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.” [4] Thus, it seems it is only in this life that we may experientially know the fellowship of Christ’s suffering.
Our Savior was a “man of sorrows.” [5] We are nowhere told that He laughed aloud. His cousin was beheaded, and His mother was likely widowed. His family misunderstood Him, and His hometown rejected Him. Mocked, flattered, abandoned, betrayed, and deceived, He approached His crucifixion with no lack of suffering.
He was tempered with such affliction, yet His crucifixion was marked with still deeper anguish. Do our hearts burn within us as we consider His heart, melting as wax upon the cross? [6] Do our lips quiver when we consider Him parched for thirst, tongue stuck to His jaws? [7] Have our bones ever shaken at the thought of His bones—all out of joint, piercing through His skin, yet none broken? [8]
This is the fellowship of His suffering which we share, if we “count all things as loss for the sake of Christ,” and having done so, actually “suffer the loss of all things.” [9] In both ways, we are drawn closer to Christ in a way specially possible in this life.
In times of relatively little suffering (likely true for most), do we prepare ourselves by counting all things as loss? We must confess that too often, we do not. We choose a fleeting, sinful pleasure over the eternal pleasure at God’s right hand. [10] We grip our possessions tightly as if they were our own, not as borrowed from His hand. [11] If we were to lose everything, or even just that one dear possession, we would be unhappy with God. But to prepare for suffering, we must begin by counting all these things as loss.
On the other hand, in times of much affliction, we feel that we actually suffer the loss of all things. But do we believe that these sufferings grant us a more intimate knowledge of Christ’s sufferings? For by losing much, we are united with Him who lost much for us. Like stitches that close a wound, our sufferings knit us closer to Christ, though not without pain. As Simon of Cyrene, we take up our cross “to carry behind Jesus” [12]—following His footsteps and feeling a fraction of His pain. Fellowshipping with Him in His suffering.
It is only against the backdrop of such anguish that we may feel that sweet relief which is the power of His resurrection. Alone, we could not bear such suffering. But as Christ powerfully sustains us through our affliction, the power of His resurrected life is manifested [13], and our sufferings will “resurrect” to greater blessing at the revelation of Christ. For just as the Friday sufferings of Christ at Calvary so many years ago abounded in glorious resurrection, “our momentary, light affliction is working out for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” [14]
What a comfort to know that our sufferings draw us nearer to our tender-hearted Savior! Our precious Lamb, who was crushed for our sins. Our great High Priest, who is interceding for us even now. Our dear Jesus, who has given us His Spirit to help and comfort us forever.
Micah Hsu is a senior studying Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley. He enjoys naps on the floor.
Sources
[1] Eph. 1:4, 5, 7
[2] Eph. 2:10; 1 Cor. 1:5
[3] 1 Thess. 4:14, 16; 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 8:17
[4] Rev. 21:4
[5] Is. 53:3
[6] Luke 24:32; Ps. 22:14
[7] Hab. 3:16; Ps. 22:15
[8] Job 4:14; Ps. 22:14; Ps. 34:20
[9] Phil. 3:7–8
[10] Heb. 11:25; Ps. 16:11
[11] 1 Chr. 29:14
[12] Luke 23:26
[13] 2 Cor. 4:10
[14] 2 Cor. 4:17