In one of the sometimes overlooked scenes before the crucifixion of Jesus, we see him experience something inhuman. A battalion of presumably 600 soldiers strips him, mocks him, spits on him, and strikes him repeatedly. Then they led him away to be crucified (Matt. 27:27-31). It leaves us asking a poignant question, “Why would God do this to himself?”
Coping with Trauma
Trauma is a Greek word that means “wound.” Earlier, it described something physical. But now it applies to a wounded body, heart, or mind. When we are unfamiliar with trauma, we can either suppress its power or succumb to it.
There are so many unhealthy ways to cope with trauma, instead of relying on God’s power to overcome it.
Normalising: “Why add trauma upon trauma? All this happens to all of us all the time.”
Minimising: “Don’t waste time looking back. Look ahead. God is doing a new thing.”
Undermining: “All this trauma talk is secular talk. You need to have faith, like a Christian.”
Spiritualising: “You are already healed. Just believe it, receive it; don’t need to talk about it.”
Self-motivating: “I am stronger than this; I will grit my teeth, shake it off, and get on with it.”
Despairing: “Everyone looks so happy, but I know I’ll never be whole again.”
Self-medicating: “Work, food, sex, shopping, binge-watching—I’ll do anything just to feel something.”
Self-isolating: “You can’t trust anyone. No one gets me. I’m safest when I’m alone.”
Familiar with Trauma
The soldiers were most likely non-Jewish men with no love for the Jewish people, let alone the “Jewish king.” Their mockery was no mild insult. All of it was an effort to humiliate and dehumanise him.
It goes to show how Jesus is familiar with trauma—not detached or indifferent.
Years ago, Stephen Fry famously went on a viral rant against God, “Bone cancer in children?! What’s that about? How dare you! How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil.”
The real force of his complaint is not its reasoning but its emotional impact.
Jesus is familiar with trauma—not detached or indifferent.
In the Bible, Job raised similar questions, “Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands, and favour the designs of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?” (Job 10:3-4)
Yet it appears Stephen Fry and Job briefly shared the same assumption: God is outside, looking in—unaware or uncaring of what it feels like to suffer. He is a passive witness or active instigator of suffering on his creation.
But here, in Matthew 27:27-31, Jesus faces oppression. He is a passive receiver of suffering from his creation. He is despised by the work of his hands.
As the writer of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
It shows us the most important thing about suffering and the nature of God: You can hate suffering and love God at the same time.
Recognising the Work of Christ
Jesus told his disciples about his suffering to come (Matt. 16:21). Moreover, the Scriptures declared it long before it happened (Isa. 53:2-6). Yet nobody recognised his work—not the most religious people in the temple, nor his nearest and dearest friends.
In fact, Isaiah said: “with his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).
Trying to heal trauma all by ourselves is like performing brain surgery on yourself in the middle of an earthquake. We put ourselves on the path to healing by recognising the healing power of God and applying it to our deepest wounds.
But what does this healing actually look like?
Healing is an Event and a Process
The most important thing we need to learn about healing is that its an event and a process at the same time.
“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
You can hate suffering and love God at the same time.
A doctor can reset a broken bone in a moment but it can take months to heal. Similarly, trauma can break our souls so that healing begins by trusting in Christ but grows in us—slowly, steadily and progressively. It is part of what we call sanctification, working out our salvation, or being transformed into the likeness of Christ (Phil. 2:12, 2 Cor. 3:18).
In the context of God’s means of grace, his healing process involves being known and being loved at the same time.
The Trauma Behind All Trauma
There is a single trauma behind all our trauma.
Powerlessness is the mark of trauma. But trauma does not create powerlessness as much as it exposes it (Eph. 2:1, Rom. 5:6, 8:3). The first wound in human history was not to our souls; it was to God’s heart (Gen. 6:6).
So Jesus is not simply familiar with the trauma of the crucifixion. He is familiar with the wound of seeing us turn away from him and settle for less than him. That is the trauma behind all trauma, which God sent Jesus to heal.
It is why Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
God does not simply employ his power to heal our grief. He first heals our natural instinct to turn away from him. In Christ, we receive the power to turn to him and submit our trauma to him, instead of blaming him.
The Healing Power of God
The soldiers did not have the last word in the story of Jesus. They persecuted, crucified, and buried Jesus. But God raised him from the dead. To receive Jesus is to receive the same power of God that raised Christ from the dead (Rom. 8:11, Eph. 1:19-20, 3:16-19).
Because he lives, we also will live (John 14:19).
As the apostle Paul beautifully wrote, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 1:16-19).
