One of the most impressive things about Jesus is His willingness to enter intense human suffering for us! It’s still what impresses me most about Him. His teachings are amazing, but His model of entering into other’s suffering may be the highest mark of His character. And sets Him apart.

From Gethsemane—He is truly intimately acquainted with all our sufferings. He is that type of God; one who enters through our particular suffering. Because He suffered so intensely—isolation, rejection, and physical abuse etc-He is able to empathize with all of our human suffering.

This is not a God who is floating above human suffering, but one who enters it fully, so can be met in our daily sufferings. That’s one thing Gethsemane teaches us. Jesus was a suffering God, who entered into ours. He knows human suffering, so can be met through it.

He did not, even when given a chance, avoid it, but rather dove into death to overcome it. That’s still one of the most powerful things about His Life on earth to me. He is a God who can fully relate to us in our pain and sorrow.

He knows racism, poverty, physical sickness etc. He is intimately acquainted with any sort of pain we know. That’s a meet-able God! One who is knowable, because He knows us!