The Pain Redemption

“This is going to be more painful than you could ever imagine.”

Jesus turned from where He had been sitting at His Father's feet, and looked up at His face. He carefully considered His Father's words as His mind went into the future. After a time, He replied. “Yes. That flogging and crucifixion will test my physical limits in human form as the sacrificial Lamb.” He paused, glanced down at His perfect hands thoughtfully, and then back up. “But if that is Your plan, I will manage to endure it.”

The Father put His hand on his Son's shoulder and looked deeply into His eyes. Eternal gaze flowed into another tributary of Eternity. “I am not speaking of the crucifixion.”

“What then?”

“The greatest pain Your brothers and sisters on Earth now experience is not physical.”

Jesus directed His thoughts to the past, his Omnipotent consciousness turning deliberately though the pages of mankind's history. It was history He had participated in.

He thought of all the different kinds of pain the first sin had brought into Their perfect creation. A flood of carnage, deterioration, sickness, and perversion had been released when Their best friends Adam and Eve had exchanged sweet Divine friendship for a carnal saccharine lie. That one sin started a downward spiral that spun deeper and deeper into a cesspool of darkness and evil that now affected every life form from its beginning until its death. That inevitable death was the ultimate price of sin, owed by everyone and everything.

Jesus remembered how devastated He had been when His best friend Adam traded their daily companionship for that cesspool, in essence throwing their friendship into it like so much garbage to be swallowed up. He had been shocked to see Adam not only turn on Them, but also lash out against Their friend Eve, Adam's soul-mate and lover, and try to blame her for his own mistake. She in turn blamed the deceiver. Then with their mutual trust and respect destroyed, those two were at odds for the rest of their days. He remembered how that betrayal begat more betrayal when just a few years later Adam and Eve's son tricked and murdered his younger brother out of jealousy. He recalled how their descendants carried on the tradition until the present day when it seemed everyone on earth could go from so-called love to hate in a human heartbeat.

And then He knew. His eyes and thoughts met that of His Father's. “Is it...?” He swallowed and cringed.

“Yes.”

“And is really worse for them than for Us?"

The Father sat back and considered. “From My perspective, probably so. Unlike Us, they cannot live or feel in any time but the present. When hurt, their emotions, in the present tense dimension, quickly consume their bodies and their minds. This emotional pain instantly fills their tiny internal reality, making it a suffocating prison. Many never escape.”

He paused. “But that is only My perspective from here. You will have the opportunity to find out first hand what human emotional pain truly feels like.”

“All kinds? I am to experience every one?” Jesus drew back, pondering. “I know the prophesies We gave to Isaiah tell of My rejection by Israel as a whole, but I guess I wasn't thinking of how that would actually feel when coming from family and friends.”

The Father's expression was inexorable. “Yes. You will experience rejection and hurtful questioning from siblings that share Your human mother and grow up with You. You will be doubted by the same neighbors that greet You and ruffle your hair every morning of Your childhood and adolescence.” He paused. “And You will have both a deserter and a betrayer in Your inner circle of friends.”

Jesus was quiet for many measures. Then He asked, “Will I know which ones?”

The Father replied slowly. “As an adult, You will still be Divine in Your knowledge. In the fulness of time, when You start Your official season of ministry You will know their weak and evil hearts and yet still be Yourself, and give Your friendship to them.” He hesitated briefly. “The same way We do now, as much as We can with them in their fallen state.”

“Only their rejection will hurt Me more while I am a human.” The statement hung as a question.

“Definitely.”

Jesus sighed deeply. “Why is feeling all that emotional pain necessary?” He knew the answer, but desired to hear it in Word from His Father.

The Father spoke passionately. “Your primary mission is to show them how much We miss them, and the fellowship we had in the garden, the fellowship they were created for. Show Our passion for personal relationships by choosing friends. Then hang out with them, and share Your time, Your secrets, good times and bad times, laugh together, cry together, eat together, be hungry and tired together. You will worship Me together, pray to Me together, serve Me together. And then You will pledge each other loyalty and lifetime friendship. In short, You will show them everything good that has ever been in Our hearts for them from the beginning, and that is now being restored through You, the perfect sacrifice.

And during all this, You will also know the emotional agony of some of those closest friends hurting you. Some will simply let You down, many will leave You, others turn against You, still others will lie and deny they even knew You, and one...”

Jesus looked up knowingly. “And I have to treat him just like all the others.”

“Yes. And fully feel and fully bear the pain of his betrayal, as one of Your best friends. And then, after the fulfillment of all the prophesies, after Your resurrection and return home, when Your brothers and Your sisters left on earth cry out to You in the throes of their emotional pain after being cheated on, lied to, lied about, turned on, turned out, and turned against,

You will be the Savior and the High Priest who comprehends first hand their emotional agony. You will not know it in theory, or from a safe Divine distance, but having lived through it all as the Son of man with a human heart, Your perfected Divine heart will go out to them and they will be comforted.

You will remember what it felt like to have a family member, a best friend or a trusted religious leader who is supposed to be representing Me talk about You behind Your back, insult You to Your face, lie to You and about You.

In short, You will understand them, and the effects of sin on their lives, far more intimately than We do now.”

The Father stopped, and his eyes grew soft. “I love them so much. I can't wait to have them back, as close friends, the way it used to be. And when they come back, I want to heal all their pain; spiritual, physical... and emotional. That's why I'm sending You to redeem them.”

Strength and resolve flowed into Jesus as He met His Father's gaze. He drew a deep breath.

Then He grinned and stood up. “Well. That sounds like fun.”



Hebrews 2: 17-18: "Therefore, it was necessary for Him to be made in every respect like us, His brothers and sisters, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since He Himself has gone through suffering and testing, He is able to help us when we are being tested."