JESUS’ LIFE WAS TOUGH. He was misunderstood, ridiculed, betrayed, abandoned, abused, beaten, wrongfully accused, and executed. Jesus’ suffering was so bad that he prayed for God to step in with an eleventh-hour stay of execution. Mark says that “horror came over him.” Luke writes that Jesus was “exhausted,” pushed to the limit (Luke 22:45).

Yet under these circumstances Jesus handed himself over to God and “learned obedience” (Hebrews 5:7-9). He didn’t automatically do everything right because he was God. Jesus had to learn to hand his human will and longings to his Abba when things didn’t go as he wanted. He had to learn to trust God and risk on God’s goodness all the way to the very end.

Ann Voskamp writes in One Thousand Gifts, “Out of the darkness of the cross the world transfigures into new life… It is suffering that has the realest possibility to bear down and deliver grace.” In Gethsemane Jesus didn’t pretend that everything was fine. He was vulnerable, weeping, and dependant on prayers of friends who let him down. So when a friend betrays you, don’t stuff your pain. Go stand with Jesus in the garden and say, “I know how you feel, and I am here for you.” Imagine Jesus turns to you and says, “I know what’s happening and I’ve got your back. Let’s stick together here.” When your temptations are so private you want to isolate yourself, go find Jesus in the wilderness and sit with him as he contends with temptations to escape a hard path. Jesus lived through a huge miscarriage of justice. His trial was rigged. His crucifixion unjust. When life hands you unfairness, Jesus invites you to be in solidarity with him and his own sufferings. You don’t have to face sorrow alone. Jesus wants to share it.

Paul writes in Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” Knowing resurrection power sounds awesome. Still, every life comes with the opportunity to “fellowship in Jesus’ sufferings.” We can get to know the “man of sorrows” and taste the cross. We can stand in solidarity with Jesus’ pain and find a greater capacity for deeper giving and receiving. Suffering on its own won’t ennoble. But suffering united to Jess can enlarge our heart, our empathy, our compassion, and our ability to be vulnerable and knowable.

In your joy and pain join your heart to Jesus. Empty your sorrow in his wounds, and let Jesus fill your “holy vacancy” with himself. Because at the center of the universe is a cross, and God is hangin there in solidarity with a broken world for love of you.

In the seventeenth century Madame Guyon wrote, “God gives us the cross, and then the cross gives us God.” Is there a better picture of solidarity than Jesus hanging on the cross in solidarity with our brokenness and in solidarity with God?

The cross is the “great reversal.” It is the “violent grace.” It is the paradox at the center of the universe that holds our pain. None of us are free to chooses whether or not we suffer. But we are free to choose bitterness or solidarity with Jesus. Donna Shaper writes in her online blog Stillspeaking Daily Devotional: “Jesus used his wound as a kind of authority, to show people he had ‘been there and done that.’ Some of just nurse our wounds and don’t put them to use…. The choice is ours. Grave-digging is a low paid occupation. Rising, now that is a job with benefits.” We can choose solidarity in Jesus’ suffering and rise. Our wounds can be transformed just like into his sacred wounds that honor God.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. How do I tend to react when life is unfair? What do I do with the pain?
2. Where am I most easily triggered? And how does that trigger put me in touch with God or out of touch with God?
3. What is it like to fellowship in another’s suffering?
4. Describe a time you felt solidarity with someone?

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

1. Take time to read through one of the Gospels. Imagine you are there among Jesus’ disciples. How would you like to support Jesus as his story unfolds? Talk to Jesus about this.
2. Choose an event in Jesus’ life that mirror and experience in your own: unjust accusations, betrayed by friends, being misunderstood by family or colleagues, becoming exasperated with others, facing temptation, and so on. As you read the story of the event, imagine Jesus sharing your suffering. Pray deeply into this solidarity with him.
3. The world is broken and full of need. What can you do to put you in solidarity with someone’s brokenness? For example, visiting a nursing home, a prison, a shut-in; serve at a homeless shelter; provide resources through the Christmas Shoebox or OneBag Initiative. What can you do to “offer a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name”?