A few months ago, Justin Moody, Ben Crow, and I were in California for a chaplain training event with the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
We hopped in an uber and started making conversation with our driver on the way to our hotel. We found out she used to be in the Army, so we let her know we were all military chaplains—which she was intrigued by.
In the course of our conversation, somehow it comes up that I was doing PhD work studying trauma—which she also was super intrigued by (bookmark that). As the conversation goes on Ben started to ask her spiritual questions and began to share the gospel with her.
She basically held to a vaguely spiritual view that all religions are pretty much the same—what matters is just being a good person. And she told Ben he seemed like a nice, good person. She was shocked when Ben told her his good deeds were not enough and God would be justified in sending him to hell. She circled back to this idea that all religions are pretty much the same—many paths moving toward the same goal.
Ben pressed her on that and said that doesn’t fit with what Jesus’ exclusive claims about himself and his teaching. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life.”
At this, she grew uncomfortable. She was cool talking about spirituality and religion, but as soon as Ben mentioned the name of Jesus and his exclusive claims, she grew uncomfortable.
That’s the pivotal question that we all must wrestle with. That’s the question Jesus asks of his disciples: Who do you say I am? (Matt 16:13–15)
Well, at this point she changed the subject and looked in the rearview mirror and said “I want to hear from you– you’re studying trauma. How do we heal the inner child?”
That’s an odd question. Really, it’s loaded with all kinds of presuppositions. “Healing the inner child.” All this is just fascinating to me. She grows uncomfortable with the exclusivity of Jesus– but then she’s willing to listen to the guy studying trauma– the “trauma expert.” What does trauma theory have to say about all this?
I don’t remember my exact response. I remember saying something like this: The Bible tells us that God created us in his image—and that means every human being is of equal dignity and value, we had original righteousness, and we were designed to reflect God’s goodness in the world, but that image has been damaged by sin and evil in the world. Trauma results from evil in our fallen world; and I told her that healing and restoration of the image of God in us will only be accomplished by Christ as we’re united to him through faith.
Now, I don’t think she expected more Bible. But she listened. And this is really instructive for us. I’ve found trauma to be a remarkable touchpoint for evangelism.
Here was somebody who would probably identify as “spiritual-but-not-religious,” and yet she was willing to listen to my perspective on the healing and restoration of trauma.
This makes sense. We live in a therapeutic age. Trauma is the buzzword. As Christians, we have a great opportunity to bring Scripture to bear on this contemporary cultural concern. How does the Bible speak to this? People who otherwise wouldn’t be interested in Bible are suddenly willing to put up with some Bible because in their minds they’re looking for some nugget.
Ultimately, I think her question reveals that her worldview is impoverished. She talked about going to her therapist (nothing wrong with that per se). But there’s something left unanswered.
In her words, we’re all seeking to “heal the inner child.” But it seems to me that her worldview doesn’t have the resources to adequately supply her with an answer.
Tim Keller said it like this: “The secular framework, however, has nothing to give the wounded conscience to heal it.”
My response to her question– in brief form– was a theology of trauma––a brief description of how the Bible speaks to the reality of trauma.
I would argue that the Bible’s response to trauma is a package deal. She was willing to listen to my views about trauma because she wanted to glean some insight, to mine the riches… but what the Bible says about trauma comes with an entire worldview—a certain conception of God, creation, sin, salvation, restoration, etc. It’s a package deal. We don’t get to be pick-and-choosy with it.
This morning, I want to provide you with a brief introduction to what the Bible says about trauma. To do that, we’re going to look at 2 Corinthians 1:3-11.
Before we turn there, let me clarify a few points.
First, one of my goals is that I want to help you see that the Bible is fully sufficient to respond to trauma. Trauma is not something new that the Bible is insufficient to address. If we say the Bible is insufficient to respond to trauma, then we’ve lost the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. And we have a deficient God. We’d be saying there is something in God’s world that God can’t ultimately deal with. We have to look to something outside of Scripture to find healing/salvation, etc. I think that’s entirely wrongheaded. (Don’t misunderstand- I’m not saying we can’t learn from other disciplines).
God in his mercy pours out his common grace in the world. Common grace is distinguished from saving grace. Common grace: favor God grants to all people, believers and non-believers alike. Rain, for instance. Jesus says God sends rain on the just and unjust (Matt 5:45). That’s a common grace. Saving grace: favor God grants to save, sanctify, and glorify believers.
Common grace teaches us we can learn things about God’s creation through various academic disciples: science, math, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, etc. So, I do believe it’s consistent to gain true knowledge from other fields.
However, as we glean insights from things outside of the Bible, it’s important for us to ask how those insights are consistent with what we find in Scripture. We always need to bring it back under the authority of Scripture. That’s primary.
We begin and end all our theological reflection with Scripture. We must think with the grain of Scripture. Scripture provides us with the framework to interpret the scientific insights from the other academic disciplines.
Second, I need to provide you with a definition of trauma. I’ve been using that word a lot—and one of the problems with this word is that is not often clearly defined. I need to clarify what I do and don’t mean by trauma.
Trauma is not a synonym for an unpleasant experience. Trauma is not the same as grief or suffering. Trauma is a particular type of suffering, but not all suffering or grief is necessarily traumatic.
I think the word is overused today and that’s become problematic. If everything is trauma, you empty the word of its content and it becomes meaningless. Because the word is overused today, some people tend to be dismissive of the concept altogether as if trauma is a fiction—which I believe is also entirely wrongheaded.
Here’s a basic definition: Trauma is any overwhelming distressing experience that results in negative long-lasting effects on your attitudes, behaviors, and typical day-to-day functioning.
I’ve read someone who likened trauma to the aftermath of a hurricane: “after the storm is always here.”
Trauma is the pain that does not go away long after the initial event is over. Typical symptoms can include hypervigilance, intrusive memories/flashbacks, diminished sense of self-worth, feelings of powerlessness, etc.
Now, the definition I just gave is purely secular—“horizontal.” As I’ve read and studied trauma, definitions in the medical and psychological field do not mention the spiritual impact of trauma. Where’s the “vertical” dimension?
As Christians think about trauma, I think it’s important to think theologically about trauma. And we don’t do that by just slapping a bunch of Bible verses onto medical literature on trauma.
I say that trauma affects the whole person who is made in the image of God. Every aspect of who we are as God’s image bearers is impacted by trauma: our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our relationships, our sense of agency/control, our sense of right and wrong, and even our relationship with God.
As we think about trauma, we need to think beyond just the medical aspect of it. We need to think through how trauma impacts the whole person who is made in God’s image. Not only do we need to think about how sin devastates God’s image bearers, but we must also reflect on God’s saving work through Christ and the restoration of the image of God in us as we grow in Christlikeness.
Sometimes, in culture, trauma is spoken about in a fatalistic manner. This horrendous evil happened—and there’s really not much we can do. But the Bible requires us to set trauma within the biblical story that moves from creation, fall, redemption, to new creation. It’s not fatalistic. Rather, through the Spirit, we grow and are transformed as we move toward hope.
We must consider the reality of trauma in light of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. This is the ground of our Christian hope.
Because of the gospel, we groan in hope, longing for the redemption of our bodies, when all things will be made right in the new heavens and new earth.
With those clarifications in mind, let’s go to our passage this morning 2 Cor 1:3-11.
Before I read, let me give you a little context. Paul writes this letter to the Corinthian church to commend his ministry to them. Some in the church had rejected his leadership because of his sufferings. They thought if Paul was an authentic apostle, then he wouldn’t be suffering as he has.
Paul writes to demonstrate that his sufferings are what mark him out as a true apostle– one who suffers as Christ’s ambassador. A major theme of the book is God’s power and work through affliction. We’ll discuss this in more detail, but Paul writes this letter shortly after an extremely distressing experience. We don’t know what it was—so it would be speculative to say with 100% certainty that it was “traumatic.”
However, as we’ll see, there’s good evidence in the text to believe that Paul recently experienced an excruciatingly painful event that caused great psychological and/or physical distress.
Let me read our passage.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.[a] 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,[b] of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
I want to highlight four themes that I see in this passage. Taken together, this passage provides a robust biblical response to the reality of suffering and trauma. Here are the four themes:
1. Comfort/Encouragement
2. Affliction
3. Deliverance
4. Prayer
1. Comfort/Encouragement
As I mentioned, Paul writes as somebody who has recently experienced severe affliction. He opens this passage and models for us a Christian response to suffering: he moves from despair to hope. He moves from sorrow to joy by trusting in God by praising him.
v. 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.”
The word here for comfort is the same root word for encouragement (paraklesis), which also is the same word used elsewhere in Scripture to describe the Holy Spirit (paraclete).
Paul models for us a Christian response to suffering by praising God for the blessedness of Trinitarian comfort. God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ comforts us through the Holy Spirit (implied).
It’s important to notice that Paul’s movement to joy doesn’t require him to erase or ignore the pain of affliction. Notice that he praises the Triune God for the comfort he receives in his affliction. Verse 4 says the God of all comfort, “who comforts us in all our affliction.”
It does not say, “who comforts us in the absence of affliction.” He comforts us in all our affliction.
Joy is enduring happiness that transcends circumstances. Joy and comfort can exist simultaneously with sorrow and affliction. So, it is possible to experience sorrow and comfort simultaneously. Paul later says in chapter 6:10 he was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”
Christians are not Buddhists who think that pain is an illusion. Rather, God meets us in our affliction and provides comfort with his presence.
You’ll notice in vv. 4–7 there is a rich double sharing going on. A sharing of comfort and a sharing of suffering. The point is–– we stand in solidarity with Jesus’ sufferings. When we suffer, we need to look to Christ, who suffered for us but now lives and reigns as King.
There’s an interdependent logic going on: God comforts us in our affliction. We comfort others in any affliction.
But crucially, it’s not just comfort that we make up or generate on our own––No. It is God’s comfort at work through us which comforts others.
v. 3–4: the “…God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
From beginning to end, the comfort is from God. Those prepositions are important: Through, in, and by God. What does this mean? The comfort is thoroughly God’s! From top to bottom.
This is a rich passage and there are many other aspects to vv 4–7, but I’ll just highlight one implication: Christian community is one of the primary means through which God comforts us.
From top to bottom, the comfort we receive is from God. But how do we receive this comfort? Through community. We receive comfort from others as we weep with those who weep.
Trauma researchers repeatedly highlight the importance of community and social relationships in restoring a sense of meaning and connection. That’s an essential component in the restoration and recovery from trauma.
Our social relationships are a central component of what it means to be made in God’s image. This of course also emphasizes the role of the church in the restoration of trauma.
This is why small groups are so integral to the ministry at River. We don’t “believe in” small groups because we have a program to run. We believe in small groups because we believe that the community of the church is a God-given means of grace to experience God’s comforting presence. I’ve seen God at work in my small group this year– and I know you have too.
2. Affliction
The second theme in this section is affliction. For us, it’s important to ask what is the nature of the affliction Paul refers to? He refers to affliction four times and suffering four times in these few verses.
Before Paul wrote this letter, he had almost gotten swept up in a violent riot in Ephesus––some of his friends did get swept up in it (Acts 19). Some scholars think it’s possible Paul was imprisoned at Ephesus shortly before writing this letter.
There are two lists in 2 Corinthians of Paul’s sufferings (Ch. 6 and 11). And I’ll admit, when you read the lists, it’s easy to read over them quickly and not ponder the immense degree of suffering and excruciating circumstances Paul endured.
But listen to these and imagine yourself in these circumstances.
This is from chapter 11:24–28:
24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. [That would’ve been 2/3 of the lashes on his back and 1/3 of the lashes on his torso]. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned [This was a form of capital punishment. When they stoned him, they drug him out of the city thinking he was dead––Acts 14]. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers [these are probably insurrectionists], danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[a] in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Paul boasts in his weaknesses because he is convinced God’s power is displayed in his weaknesses. Paul is at a critical point in his ministry. He’s writing as someone who’s experienced unimaginable suffering.
But in chapter 1, we don’t know to what exactly Paul is referring when he mentions “the affliction we experienced in Asia” (v. 8).
What is clear is that whatever happened is still very fresh on his mind. The word he uses for “affliction” is a word that can mean “inward experience of distress, affliction, trouble.”
I think the affliction was some form of violent persecution that has caused both physical and psychological distress. So, it’s very plausible it was a traumatic experience.
He goes on in v.8 to describe the severity of the affliction: “For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.”
This was an overwhelming experience that was beyond his ability to handle.
The word Paul uses for “despair” in this verse is used only one other time in the NT (2 Cor 4:8 “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair”).
But it’s at this juncture – in his utter brokenness – in overwhelmingly deep despair, where Paul sets his mind on the reality of gospel hope. He points to resurrection.
Which brings us to our third theme.
3. Deliverance
V.9 “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
Paul is not giving a comprehensive answer to what’s often called the problem of evil or the problem of suffering here. But he does see purpose in it. He sees God’s providence at work– even in the midst of this recent harrowing experience, he sees that God is calling Paul to trust him. This suffering is driving him to a deeper level of trust.
Paul is at the limit—physically, emotionally, psychologically. He has nothing left in himself to give. But he sees that God is at work in the midst of these circumstances so that Paul would not rely on himself but on God who raises the dead.
In v. 10, Paul speaks of God’s faithfulness. God has been faithful to deliver us in the past and we are confident that he will deliver us again. “He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”
This passage comes to a fitting close with our fourth theme:
4. Prayer
v.11 “You also must help us by prayer…”
Paul is inviting them into partnership. As they join in prayer with him for his deliverance many other people in the region will benefit from his ministry, and they in turn will render thanks to God.
This section comes full circle. It began with praise and thanksgiving to God, and it ends with prayer.
Conclusion
I believe God has given us this passage to serve as a model for the Christian response to suffering, including traumatic suffering. In the midst of severe affliction, Paul reminds us of the importance of praise, worship, prayer, Christian community. In the midst of Christian community, we are to remind ourselves of our great confession––our belief in the God who raises the dead.
How do we apply this passage this morning?
Our gathering is itself an application and outworking of this passage.
God has given us his Word and his people and his Spirit. These are the means through which we experience God’s comfort.
We, the church, the people of God, gather, to praise God through song, to pray, to listen to the Spirit-empowered proclamation of God-breathed Scripture; and in the midst of all of that, we remind ourselves of the reality of the gospel. We remind ourselves of our great hope—the resurrection.
That’s how we’ll seek to apply this passage—we’ll remind ourselves of these great truths through song.
Let me pray for us.