Scripture Reflections

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Col. 1:24)
 
This verse from our reading from Colossians on Sunday is both staggering and perplexing (at least on the surface). There are two ideas present, both of which should make our heads spin. The first is the idea that Christ’s own suffering lacks something and that Paul’s suffering is filling up that lack. The second is that Paul’s sufferings have some benefit for the church.
 
First, this statement could be said about any Christian who suffers because of following Christ—Paul isn’t unique. But how is that Christ’s suffering lacks anything? And how does our suffering in the name of Christ benefit the church?
 
The answer is that all who turn to Jesus the Messiah in faith and are baptized into him are made a part of the Messiah. We are joined to him and made one with him. That means that he has our lives in him, and we have his life in us. Given that we are joined to him, our sufferings are now his sufferings—everything we suffer he suffers with us. This truth was seared into Paul (as he was going to Damascus to persecute Christians) by Jesus, who asked, “Why are you persecuting me?” It isn’t just that Jesus takes it personally when his followers suffer; instead, he is suffering in and with them.
 
If you imagine all the Christians that have ever been and all who ever will be, and then imagine the concrete amount that all of those Christians have suffered and ever will suffer in the name of Christ, you are imagining the totality of Christ’s sufferings. When Paul says, “I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions,” he is saying that he is contributing his part to that whole. Christ’s afflictions aren’t lacking in the sense of inadequacy—the cross was sufficient for all the sins of the world. Instead, they are lacking simply in the sense that many of Christ’s sufferings occur in his followers, and some of those haven’t happened yet. Paul is saying, in effect, “Everything I am suffering in the name of Christ is part of Christ’s suffering, and boy, I am adding to the total right now, while in prison!”
 
Because no suffering strikes Christ that he doesn’t turn into a means of redemption for others (the basic pattern of the cross), all the suffering of Christ (including the parts that occur in our lives) becomes a part of his means of redeeming of the world. The end result of this is that anything we suffer because we are following Jesus (everything from giving up an hour’s sleep to pray for someone to being mocked for maintaining Christian honesty and love to being violently persecuted) is happening to Jesus in us, and all of it is used by him to bring about the reconciliation of the entire cosmos to the Father. For the Christian, there is no such thing as empty suffering—all of it occurs in Christ, and all of it is used by Christ in his glorious work.
 
In Christ,
 
Steven+