Vicarious Suffering

*Informal essay done for my Intro to the New Testament class.*

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Vicarious Suffering

First, what is vicarious suffering? I had never heard of it until I read about it in the textbook. Auburn University provides this definition (as it relates to Jesus’ vicarious suffering): “In one sense the sufferings of Christ were vicarious; they were in man's behalf as are the mother's in behalf of the child. But they were not instead of man. They were in no sense substitutional. Love suffers for its object, and in a sense experiences vicarious sufferings.” So, this definition is almost useless if you have no idea what vicarious means. 

You may have a vague idea about vicarious: it means alive, exciting, like, really feeling life, you know, living in the moment, but usually you talk about someone “living vicariously through another person”...so there is a vague clue, but really, what does it mean? Well, Google to the rescue, right? And now you know my thoughts about the word vicarious. What is the dictionary definition of vicarious? It means: “experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.” So, basically, you imagine experiences happening to yourself based on another person’s actual experiences. Like a book or movie that makes you imagine yourself in it. There is, however, a secondary definition: “Acting or serving in place of someone or something else; substituted.” Now, this secondary definition certainly makes a lot more sense than the first one.

Alright, so to sum up vicarious suffering, we would say: that the suffering of Jesus’ (or any other ‘vicarious sufferer’) are in behalf of someone else, the sufferings are not substitutional (even though that definition does say ‘substituted’). 

Jesus’ death to save others was not a new thing. In Jewish history there were several others who died to save others. During the Maccabean Revolt a man sacrificed his life to kill an elephant so that others lived. Other descriptions in the Maccabees describe the torture that Jews went through when they refused to give up their religion. The notion of this suffering for someone else was coined as ‘vicarious suffering’ by Christians.

There have been many, many more ‘vicarious sufferers’ throughout the years of Christianity. There have been countless martyrs, countless abuses toward Christians. The tortures, the deaths, the insults, the snide remarks, the mean glances, the shunnings, the shamings, all these things have Christians endured for their faith, these are vicarious sufferings. Each Christian will vicariously suffer in his own way. I am in no way saying that Jesus’ and the martyrs deserve less credit for their sufferings (God forbid I am faced with what they faced), but the little insults each day, the sidelong glances (America’s way of subtly shaming a Christian, and sometimes it is much more than subtle), to the recently converted Christian in Iran (who literally faces death for her choice), these are all examples of vicarious suffering.

To suffer is natural; the Bible warns Christians that they will suffer for their faith (John 15:20), but not just for their faith, for Jesus. Many Christians face death, the ultimate sacrifice, and are willing to give up their lives for Jesus, on behalf of their fellow Christians. These are the ‘vicarious sufferers.’ May God give strength to them and to the ones he continues to call.

* Like with all these essays, any reference to the textbook is from Bart Ehrman's "A Brief Introduction to the New Testament" 3rd Edition