Tragedy to Therapy

“Also thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters, That he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears?”

Ezekiel 24:25-26

The burdens of a congregation of people will soon belong to Ezekiel. How will he become the listening ear, the compassionate look, the strong shoulder for so many?

I used to wonder how my elders could act so calm in the middle of tragedy. How they could keep their composure when someone was frantic, or pray so tenderly when someone’s life was fragile. Was it age that gave them the edge? Was it a course they took in college? Or was it just… a gift?

I know there have been many situations I have been called into where I was entirely in over my head. So many expectations, so many strong emotions swirled about, as though every conversation lasted an eternity, and every word so precisely weighed amounted to so little. I have left those sessions after a few hours, and felt decades older if not in body, then certainly in my soul.

What was it that those old saints knew that I didn’t?

The Doctor Is In

Ezekiel was about to be flooded with patients. God’s punishment- long predicted and suddenly executed– would leave the families of Israel dazed, wounded, and wondering why. The Lord had sent tearful melancholics before to warn them of God’s punishment (Jeremiah 13:17) but it is now the phlegmatic visionary who must tell them why.

Ezekiel had spiritual insight. He recorded scenes from Heaven that only John the Beloved could much later appreciate (Ezek. 1-3). Ezekiel had unwavering obedience to that spiritual insight. He lay for 430 days as an illustration of the coming siege on Jerusalem. He shaved his head and beard as a peculiar testament to God’s severity and mercy (Ezek. 4-5). Ezekiel had also audaciously preached to compel, warn, and even condemn his own people (Ezek. 6,8, 11-14). He shrank not away from confrontation. So much so, that God cast him as the mold for his prophets, the watchmen (Ezek. 33).

Yet even Ezekiel was not prepared for the aftermath of Jehovah’s sentence. After the terrible invasion in 586BC, there would be bereaved fathers and mothers, orphaned boys and girls, widowed husbands and wives by the score. They had rebelliously scorned the word of God, and there would be casualties– there always are when you live for the flesh.

Every one of those dazed and wounded men would look for an answer, and the only one left to tell the truth was faithful Ezekiel. He who had been the prophet of doom, now must become the therapist.

And how he would become that therapist was even harder than the why that the Israelites sought.

How and Why

Let’s look at the doctrine of this before we finish the illustration.

The New Testament certifies to the believer that he will have comfort. Even more, he will have the Comforter, the Spirit of Jesus Christ to commune with every trial and pain. The believer is also placed into the church, a congregation of those who have had their faith tested and proved. It is in view of these two blessings that Paul writes.

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

You may need to reread that, as I did, to grasp just how sweet and sharp that promise is. Paul’s insight from the Lord was these simple thoughts: all men get hurt. God promises ‘I will comfort you if you hurt.’ ‘You hurt because I, your Saviour, hurt.’ ‘As your Saviour, I want to live through you to comfort someone else; therefore you must hurt so you will know how it feels.’

My soul grieves AND rejoices over this truth, because it has helped me so many times in my life. Let me show you through the life of Ezekiel.

Before Ezekiel could understand how to comfort, he would learn how to hurt.

“Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.”

Ezekiel 24:15-18

My soul, how it hurts even to read those words! Yet it was through the breaking of the heart God made the man! His disability turned into his capability. His weakness became strength.

He comforted, because he was hurt.

The Vicarious Saviour

How closely does one resemble Jesus Christ when they suffer for another.

• “In all our afflictions, he was afflicted.“
• “He was wounded for our transgressions.”
• “He was bruised for our iniquities.”
• “The chastisement of our peace was upon him.”
• “The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
• “He [God] hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
• “For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.”

Jesus Christ’s crucifixion is the only death that can save us from death. Saved followers of Christ now are entrusted with the ministry of weeping with those who weep. For from time’s birth til its demise, the greatest comfort, understanding, and sympathy will come from one who bears scars. You cannot give therapy until you’ve been given tragedy.

"Has there ever been in the history of the world such an example of enduring patience as we find in the Cross? Some of you suffer physical distresses, some of you have lifelong ailments, and they make you fretful. Sometimes you think that God has given you a cup too deep and too brimming. Sometimes you see the world laughing and romping on the highways of life, and you look out of the window while seated in invalid’s chair. Oh! I want to show you One who had worse pains in the head than you have ever had, whose back was scourged, who was wounded in the hands and wounded in the feet, and suffered all over; and I want that example to make you more enduring in your suffering, and to make you say, “Father, not my will, but thine be done.” You never have had any bodily pain, and you never will have any bodily pain that equaled Christ’s torture. “It behoved Christ to suffer,” that he might show you how physically to suffer."

~T. DeWitt Talmage, "Vicarious Suffering," circa 1890

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