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Surely the death of Jesus on the cross was not merely to free us from worrying about our sins so we might enjoy our lives to the fullest. How would such a trivial purpose pertain to the great majority of people in this world who never attain even rudimentary physical security? There must be more to this life than completing a bucket list of experiences, and there must be some point to human suffering in this life as it relates to the life to come. How exactly this might be requires some unpacking.
Let’s begin with the Ten Commandments. The first five have to do with honoring God, and the second five have to do with honoring one other. Jesus and the rabbis of his day thus held that the Law and the Prophets in their entirety are summed up in two injunctions: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). What underlies the first injunction is a profound trust in God, and what underlies the second injunction is a profound empathy for others. These are precisely the two qualities notably absent in the account of the fall of Adam and Eve as well as in all subsequent human history.
Surely suffering (whether personal or vicarious) is the only effective means by which we can meaningfully grow in either respect because suffering tests us to the core. My suspicion is that, in addition to our serving as priests of the Gospel to this world, we are to be growing with respect to these two qualities for the purpose of some unspecified service that awaits us in the world to come.
We meanwhile need to trust that God has greater empathy than we do and that there is some justification for the misery daily visited on the helpless. And to anyone who reports rarely experiencing any suffering, I recommend living sacrificially for others and investing everything but what it takes to get by in the spread of the Gospel.
