Memra 17: On the Sufferings of Our Lord Who Became Through Them an Example for Us

Memra 17: On the Sufferings of Our Lord Who Became Through Them an Example for Us On the sufferings of Our Lord, which became for us an example through them, that you might suffer with him and also be glorified with him. Therefore, when you read in the New Testament, understand the sufferings from the signs, and you yourself suffer as Our Lord suffered, that you may be glorified as Our Lord was glorified. For you suffer with Our Lord, because also today, when you suffer, he suffers with you, as the Apostle said: after Our Lord suffered and was raised, you suffer with him and also be glorified with him. Is it not known that Our Lord suffers secretly with you? He is healed, yet his healings do not cease, and he suffers with those who suffer and are healed. You see how he suffers secretly, as Our Lord said: whatever harms you, harms me, and whatever honors you, honors me. For openly, before the time when Paul said this, he had suffered. And when he said that Our Lord would come again, he suffers openly. This, then, is not the case; rather, those who give themselves to sufferings, Our Lord is with them, suffering secretly with them.

What then, when you read, "He who is pure cleansed the lepers, and opened the blind, and straightened the crooked, and strengthened the weak, and sweetened the bitter waters, and healed the sick, and cut down the barren like trees, and stretched out the tongues of the dumb"—these are the signs that our Lord performed for those who do not believe, that they might believe. For those who believe, however, signs are not required, but rather his sufferings are required: that he was perfected, and suffered, and died, and was glorified. If, then, you believe that Jesus is God, you do not need signs, nor should you inquire how and why; rather, come to the sufferings and to the love, and behold, it will be revealed to you how and why these things happened. If a person thinks he knows something, he does not yet know anything, as he ought to know. But when he loves God, then he knows. You see that it is through love that a person knows everything. Because you see that the signs which cannot be performed by humans, our Lord performed; if the humility of his suffering seems deceptive to you, because it is not fitting for God, then know from his signs that he is Lord, and understand that he is not lowly and humble in that way; rather, he teaches you to be humble and lowly like him, so that when you have become humble like him, you will be exalted as he was exalted. Know, then, the sufferings from the signs. These are the sufferings of our Lord: when he gave his cheek to the one who struck him, and spoke with him peacefully, and prayed for him.

If then you constrain your nature, and you pray for the one who strikes you, and you are equal with him, you suffer with the Lord and you are praised with him. Another suffering. The Lord, when he is enslaved and washes the feet of the one who betrays him, and delivers him to death, and becomes a companion to his murderers, and the Lord places and stands before him like a servant, and washes the feet of that blind man before he washed the feet of his friends. For the mystery of the disciples was Iscariot the betrayer, and Simon the head, and it began with Iscariot and ended with Simon. If then you know who are your betrayers and your sellers and the companions of your murderers, and you constrain your nature, and you place them, and you wash their feet, and you make them equal before the feet of your beloved ones, and you do not reveal to them that they are your blind men, just as the Lord did not expose Iscariot, except that he said that one of you is a Satan and his hand is with my betrayer in the dish, lest his disciples stumble and say: How did the Lord say that he does not know who delivers him to death? And they would have known what those things were, and the Lord would have departed in body. But for you, it is not possible to be just, and it is not possible to stumble in this, that you do not reveal your betrayers. And see that the Lord did not expose, but he made known that he knew everything.

Also you, when you know your killer, that he is not equal with you among many: if you say, “My killer is not equal with me,” do not speak his name and shame him. And see how much our Lord constrained his disciples, that he said to them, “Speak his name,” and he did not say, “to shame him.” When that one who was privy to his secret constrained him, who had entered into his secret before his companions, and our Lord was relying on him that he was like him in heart, and he made known the secret to the shamer, until even Judas said, “Is it I, Rabbi?” and he exposed himself, while our Lord did not expose him. When you have done thus for your accusers and your betrayers, then you suffer with our Lord and you greatly increase. Another suffering. Our Lord, when he healed the ear of that one who took a sword and came to kill him. If you constrain your nature, then, and you do what is good for the one who desires to kill you, thus you are perfected. Another suffering. Our Lord, when he said in prayer: “Father, forgive them, those who pierced my head and struck me with reeds and slapped my cheeks with a slap, and gave me vinegar and gall in anger and with cursing, and hung me on the cross in wrath, and pierced my hands and feet with nails, and stabbed me with a lance in enmity.” Also you, if you constrain your nature and you say, “My Lord Jesus, forgive them, those who did evil to me, as they did to you, Lord of both worlds,” you are greatly praised with our Lord. Another suffering.

Our Lord, when he said to his disciples: “Come, let us go to those who stoned us yesterday,” and he taught them humility. They said to him: “Our Lord, the Jews were seeking to kill you.” He said to them: “Come, and do not remember at all the evil that they did to you from evening to morning.” And his disciples were amazed at him and said: “Let us go and die with him, so that we may live with him. If, then, you die with him, you will not be troubled after a little while, and you will be above death.” For until death, he who suffers is constrained by these sufferings. These are the sufferings that are like them. If you bless the one who curses you, and love the one who hates you, and pray for the one who persecutes you, and forgive the one who wrongs you, seventy times seven in a single day. This is why our Lord said: “Do not be angry at all with the one who sins against you.” And if you are not persuaded, because you think that you cannot completely refrain from anger, he said: “Let all these follies be forgiven in one day.” How much more, if it is in your mind that when these four hundred and ninety follies are completed, you will be angry with the fool, you would be like one who from morning to morning, night and day, and if your fellow man wrongs you four hundred and ninety follies, so that the sum of them would be seventy times seven, if you can find after these follies all these follies night and day, it is fitting for you to be angry with him.

If then you do not take offense at the foolish, nor at five or ten, has it not become known to you that your Lord is sick with this word, that you should not be angry at the foolish? For this is what it means: that he loved them and repaid them with good things instead of evil, and he washed his feet and prayed over him. Then you are perfected: when you give yourself to the one who seeks to kill you and to trade with you, and you become all things to all, and you teach sinners and the erring, and it does not separate you from the impure and the wicked, and from those in whom there is the weakness of sin, and you heal all who come to your hands, like a good physician. If you suffer thus, blessed is your soul, for your heart is purified and you see your Lord. For thus Stephen did, and he said in prayer concerning those who stoned him with stones: that this sin should not be counted against them because of me; that you should not think that your Lord prayed only for his murderers. And all the apostles: these said to those who were tearing their garments over them: "Brothers, you are men; you are shamed and you live." For the sake of God, we ask of you that you be persuaded. And while they were killing them, they were praying for their murderers, as your Lord did for his own. And when they went to kill them outside the city, they stood and exhorted them to live, and even gave themselves to death.

And when they saw the one who was crucified, they were astonished and taught while being crucified. Glory to our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for the sake of humanity, and they suffered with him in that. He alone suffered, and it became for you a companion to be likened to him and to suffer with him in that, and to walk in his likeness. Glory to him, and blessed are you. My Lord, do not be angry with you and with them, but with you and with them rejoice in your person. If, however, you wish to know these mysteries, do not cease from praying and from asking every person, and do not despise anyone, for the one whom you despise knows the truth and will interpret it for you. And you become humble and you bow down before God and before all humanity, like a man who goes to a distant place or to a certain city, and does not despise either a child or an old man, nor a cripple, nor one whose face is disfigured, nor does he despise a woman, but asks everyone he meets to set him on the path to where he wishes to go. So also you, who wish to go to the heavenly city, do not despise anyone, whether small or foolish, but ask with humility until you find someone who will show you the heavenly way, so that you may go to the heavenly house and enter into the presence of God who will delight you.

Finished is the seventeenth memra on the sufferings of our Lord, which became for us through them an example.