By Glenn Penner

On April 5, 1943 a young Lutheran pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested by the German Gestapo along with two of his friends for being involved in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.  While Bonhoeffer was a pacifist, he became convinced that it was his duty as a Christian to oppose the horrendous evil of National Socialism and the madness of Hitler. 

Nine months before his execution in Flossenburg on April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to a friend in which he made an interesting observation concerning suffering and the presence of God in the world when he wrote: “Only the suffering God can help.“

In Isaiah 40:18 the prophet had asked, “To whom, then, will you compare God?  What image will you compare Him to?” Every religion in the world is, in a sense, an attempt to answer this question, as men aspire to describe their idea of Deity.

To the Israelites, Isaiah’s question was rhetorical.  There simply is no one to whom God can be compared; no image (mental or physical) that will adequately reflect His being.  Any image is inevitably misleading.

With the revelation of Jesus, this abruptly changed. Suddenly God supplied His own image.  The question “To whom will you compare God?” suddenly had an answer.  Those who want to see what God is like can see Him in Jesus.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4 and Colossians 1:15 Jesus is called the image or icon (eijkwvn) of God. In other New Testament passages, this word was used to describe an idol or an image.  Jesus is described as the representation that God has chosen to reveal Himself to man. 

In even more explicit terms, the author of Hebrews 1:2-3 writes that Jesus is the “exact imprint” (carakthvr) of God’s nature and the radiance of God’s glory. The force of carakthvr (from which we get the word “character”) is that Jesus is the exact reproduction of God.  When you look at Jesus, you see what God is like. Those who want to know what God is like can see Him in the person of Jesus.  

But what do people see when they look at Jesus?  What kind of God does He reveal?  In Isaiah 53 we read, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. . . . Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isa. 53:3-4).

While Isaiah 53 (as a chapter) primarily emphasizes the sacrificial work of the Suffering Servant on behalf of mankind’s sin, Matthew quotes these verses in 8:17 in reference to His ministry before He goes to the cross. 

Matthew records that as a result of the healing ministry of Jesus (vv. 1-16), the prophecy of Isaiah 53:4 was fulfilled, “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”

In Matthew’s mind, he sees the prophecy of Isaiah 53:3-4 fulfilled in Jesus’ incarnation rather than the atonement, as He heals the sick (8:1-16).  
 
In other words, by coming and living among us, Jesus took on all aspects of what it meant to live in a fallen world.  As He saw the suffering of people, his sympathy was so intense that he actually felt their pain and weaknesses.  He saw the burdens that many carried, and He stepped under the load with us and helped carry it.

Jesus continues to do that with His people today, especially those who suffer persecution because they follow Him.  When Israel was in bondage in Egypt, God not only saw their plight and heard their groaning (Exodus 2:24) but Isaiah 63:9 says “In all their affliction He was afflicted.”  W

hen the Lord struck down Saul of Tarsus on the dusty road to Damascus, He asked this man who was the cause of so much suffering amongst His people, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4).  In this statement, Jesus declares His solidarity with His Church when they suffer for His sake.

When His people suffer, He suffers.  That is the meaning of the word sympathy. Sympathy is not merely feeling sorry for someone.  It means to share the feelings of another, to have the kind of relationship whereby whatever affects one also affects the other.

In the truest sense, God sympathizes with us in our afflictions (Hebrews 4:15).  John Stott, in his wonderful book, The Cross of Christ puts it this way:  “It is wonderful that we may share in Christ’s suffering; it is more wonderful still that He shares in ours.  Truly his name is ‘Emmanuel’ ‘God with us.’”

When it comes to the problem of pain in the life of the child of God, the Lord is much more than a God who watches over us.  He is Emmanuel.  He does more than feel sorry for us; He gets involved.  As Deuteronomy 31:8 says, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you or forsake you; do not be discouraged.”

____________
 
Glenn Penner was the Chief Executive Officer of The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada. Author of “In the Shadow of the Cross: A Biblical Theology of Persecution and Discipleship” (Living Sacrifice Books, 2004) which has been translated in ten languages including Farsi, Spanish, Chinese and Russian.  He taught biblical theology of persecution and discipleship in numerous countries in North & South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. He went to his eternal reward on January 26, 2010.

Used by Permission: The Voice of the Martyrs exists to glorify God by being an effective and reliable source of information and support of persecuted Christians around the world. www.persecution.net