There is No Such Thing as Redemptive Suffering

If you are sick and suffering, you may be wondering why me? “I have faith; why am I still sick if God heals the sick?” “Why am I not healed?” When we pray and do not see results, we start to reach for answers.  We are driven to make sense of it and are tempted to believe in what we call “redemptive suffering.” We begin to think, “Well, maybe God’s will is for me to be sick,” or “maybe God has a higher purpose for me and sickness is part of it,” or “maybe I am called to suffer in order to save souls!” We start to think, “Maybe God doesn’t heal after all.”

You are not alone. I too used to wonder about whether or not God cares about our lives here on earth. Do I just have to suffer? Am I paying a price for my sins? Is God using this to teach me a lesson? These thoughts and ideas come from the pit of hell. Do not fall for them. The devil wants you sick, and he wants God to get the credit for your illness. God’s word is true no matter what you or anyone else believes or experiences. We tend to have faith in our circumstances or in what we are experiencing, rather than the Word of God. We have faith in what others have experienced, and in our symptoms rather than in God’s Word. We as a body of Christ are in the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and we give God only one or two hours a week. It’s not enough to build our faith and drown out the lies. We tend to believe what we can see and feel rather than the truth. God’s Word is the truth. We are to have faith in God’s word. Let’s try to have more faith in God’s desire and will to heal than the disease that threatens us. My Friend Kathleen McCuistion said, “We have more faith in the lethality of cancer than we do in God’s faithfulness to heal.”

The Bible says:

• Proverbs 4:22 “To my words be attentive…“For they are life to those who find them, bringing health to one’s whole being.”
• Psalm 107:20 “Sent forth his word to heal them, and snatched them from the grave.”
• Exodus 15:26 “I am the Lord who heals you.”
• Exodus 23:25 “You shall serve the Lord, your God; then he will bless your food and drink, and I will remove sickness from your midst”
• Psalm 103:3 “He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.”
• John 10:10 “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might “have life and have it more abundantly.”
• Matthew 8:16-17 “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
• Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by His wounds, we are healed.”

To see and download my full list of healing scriptures to read and pray CLICK HERE.

God sent his Son to save us, heal us, redeem us and deliver us from every evil, not to harm us. Check out Jeremiah 29:11 from the Catholic Bible.  The truth is that God wants us well, but because we have a hard time believing this, we will search for other answers. The reason we don’t believe that God wants us well is that we just don’t know Him or His Word. How will we know that He is our provider if we aren’t reading His Word? We won’t know that He is our healer; we won’t know that He is our protection, our strong tower, our champion, our shield, our ever-present help in time of need.

We all want to believe that we have a purpose, that even our suffering illness must have a purpose. “I can’t be sick for all these years and it not be for a reason.” We want to find meaning in our suffering. Redemptive suffering is a teaching that a growing number in the church subscribe to because it gives people a sense of purpose in the midst of their suffering. People want to feel holy and redemptive suffering proponents teach that you are holy by offering up your suffering for the sake of others’ sins. This is false, and this teaching they call redemptive suffering delivers a false hope. There is no holiness to gained by being sick. Nothing, as a matter of fact, can make us holy, only Jesus does that for us. He makes us Holy. We cannot earn holiness through our actions and neither through suffering illness. Suffering illness is not the “cross” Jesus wants us to bear.

Suffering for His name’s sake, however, is the suffering we are called to endure. This is a good or right way to suffer. This is true redemptive suffering. We are called to suffer persecution like Paul did, not sickness. Don’t let the words of Paul be twisted.  Now, do we find Jesus when we are sick? Yes, many do, in fact. There is something about pain and agony that makes you call out for Jesus. Many lives are changed when sick, but tragically many are not and they fall right back into the same trap and mess they were in at the start. Many believe God is teaching us a lesson by causing us to be sick. This is not true, though many lessons are learned when we are sick. When we are sick our ears and eyes are wide open to the word of God. Suddenly we become hungry for God. God is always trying to get us to incline our ears toward him, we don’t have to be sick to hear from God. If sickness is the only way you will turn to God then maybe you will have to suffer sickness.  God is always speaking and hoping we are listening and following him. You don’t have to be sick to hear from God.

Redemptive suffering, according to Wikipedia, is a belief that “human suffering, when accepted and offered up in union with the Passion of Jesus, can remit the just punishment for one’s sins or for the sins of another, or for the other physical or spiritual needs of oneself or another.” However, nothing can be further from the truth. There is no Scriptural or Catechetical basis for this teaching. None whatsoever! Redemptive suffering is a teaching that says it’s okay to be sick; just offer it up. This is not God’s way. You can’t offer up your sickness for something else or someone else. Jesus did that for us. Jesus offered himself up for the punishment of sin. He took the punishment due us. There is no punishment left for those of us who are “IN CHRIST.” Discipline, yes, punishment, no.

Bishop Robert Barron says that redemptive suffering is putting up with suffering for doing what is right. This, he says, is acceptable in God’s eyes.

Can Redemptive Suffering Save Us?

Can our suffering redeem or save someone else?

We cannot pay for someone else’s freedom from punishment. This is impossible. There is no such thing as redemptive suffering. Jesus is our Redeemer and the only Redeemer. We cannot redeem ourselves let alone anyone else. If we could we wouldn’t need Jesus. Each person has to turn to Jesus themselves and receive from Him the free gift of healing and life. He cannot and will not use your suffering for someone else’s good. This is vital that you hear this. Let me be clear; I am not saying that God doesn’t use what you are going through to bring you to Jesus or even bring others to Jesus. God will turn ALL THINGS for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). God redeems all things. God will use anything to get you to Jesus. If sickness is the only way you will turn to Him, then sickness is in your future. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Jesus came to earth to redeem us, to win us back from the fruitless life we had before knowing and receiving His gift of life, true life, abundant life, both now and forever. He came to reclaim us as his own, because we could not do it ourselves. We were all enslaved to sin and fear and anxiety and disease, but God sent his Son to purchase freedom from slavery to sin and all its consequences.

When we celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday or every day as some do, we celebrate His passion, (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus) and remember what He did for us, so we will receive it and live free of condemnation and guilt and punishment.

Adam sold us into slavery to the devil. Jesus calls the devil “the prince (or ruler) of this world” (John 14:30). We inherited this slavery. We were kicked out of the Garden with Adam, who won this slavery for every living person. It’s called Original Sin. When they got kicked out, so did their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, and so on. God promised Adam and Eve death if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve died spiritually that day and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden so they could no longer partake from the Tree of Life. You and I have no access to that life anymore. BUT through CHRIST…

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus redeemed or bought us back from slavery. Jesus brings us back to life, back to freedom, and back to the tree of life.”

God doesn’t put sickness on us for any reason. However, we invite sickness when we doubt God and begin to complain and worry and become fearful. These are open doors for sickness and disease to enter. No wonder, so many of us are sick and remain sick. Sin and unforgiveness open the door to sickness. There are so many obstacles to healing, DOUBT, SIN, UNFORGIVENESS, EXCUSES, COMPLAINING, THE DEVIL… to name a few. These can come between us and the gift of healing God has already decided to give us. God is not keeping healing from us; we are. We keep healing away by allowing these obstacles to remain. God is not putting up obstacles; He has torn them down! He has removed every obstacle to healing at the Cross.

Don’t let these obstacles dominate you or block God’s healing. They are not in your way. Sin has been dealt with at the Cross, anxiety, depression and fear have been dealt with at the Cross. Jesus took them on himself and left nothing for us to carry. Unforgiveness, complaining are simply decisions you have to make to enter into his love, mercy, joy, healing, and deliverance.

God is not causing you to be sick nor is He asking you to be sick to save someone else.

The devil has been spreading sickness and disease and blaming God.

Jesus delivered the crippled woman in Luke 13, from Satan and set her free from a spirit of infirmity that kept her bent over for 18 years. It was not a sickness she needed to carry; it was simply a vicious attack from Satan. Why keep something the devil gives you. The devil not only wants you sick, but he also wants you to believe it is from God.

Luke 13:16 “This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” Acts 10:38 “….How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

Instead of admitting we lack faith, people would rather be considered holy and long-suffering and endure sickness for a “higher cause.” Just admit you lack the faith to believe. Admit it and get more faith.  I know I am tempted over and over again to endure symptoms simply because I don’t want others to know I don’t have faith. This is pride and arrogance on my part. The good news is we just need more faith. Agree that you may be the reason you are not healed and not God. We all doubt. You are not the only one. You are not alone. We just don’t have faith, but the good news is that faith is available to us.

This is sooooo hard for most of us. We can’t understand or wrap our minds around the fact that someone who has suffered all their lives didn’t have to. I hear this all the time, “How dare you say my grandmother did not have enough faith; she was the holiest woman I know.” It is not just your grandmother, but the whole community she surrounded herself with, that lacked, not only faith, but knowledge and understanding as well.

We, as a body of believers, do not know what the Word of God says about healing. Instead of praying in faith with family and friends, we tend to despair and doubt along with them. We need to be like the four stretcher-bearers in Luke 5:17-25. They believed in Jesus for the sake of their friend. It’s not just our faith but the faith of the community for healing. When our faith is weak, the community’s faith should be strong, yet people are perishing, the Bible says, for lack of knowledge.

Jesus is Our Redeemer and Our only Redeemer.

Definition of redeem according to the Meriam-Webster online dictionary

• to buy back: repurchase
• to get or win back
• to free from what distresses or harms: such as
• to free from captivity by payment of ransom
• to release from blame or debt: clear
• to free from the consequences of sin

Colossians 1:14  “In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”Ephesians 1:7  “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”Matthew 20:28  “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”Galatians 4:5  “So that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”Galatians 3:13  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'”—Hebrews 9:15  “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant…”

We have been purchased (redeemed) at a great price. The price was Jesus’ blood. There was no other payment possible. Only His blood could cleanse us. He was the Lamb of God. The unblemished or perfect lamb of God.

1 Peter 1:18-19 “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

Redemptive suffering teaches that we can unite our suffering with the passion of Jesus. This, I think, is the cruelest piece of this teaching. Of course, we do. We unite everything, our entire lives to the passion of Jesus Christ. We are His. We unite the work of our hands to him, our thoughts to him, our words to him, our families, etc. We dedicate to Jesus our very lives. We are His. We are completely united with Christ in his death and resurrection. We were crucified with Him, we were buried with Him, and we rose with Him (Jesus) through our Baptism.  Redemptive Suffering does not bring you closer to Jesus nor does it unite yourself to Jesus. Your faith and love unite you to the passion of Jesus Christ.

The Catholic Catechism says CCC 1010 ….. “through Baptism, the Christian has already “died with Christ” sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this “dying with Christ” and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act: It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. Him it is I seek – who died for us. Him it is I desire – who rose for us”… Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.”

Sickness is a curse that Jesus canceled. Don’t receive it and embrace it.

Galatians 3:13* “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”*

One day I was praying for a young friend who was sick, and I prayed, “Jesus, let me take this for her. Give this to me to carry because I have the faith to fight and rebuke this. I know I can stand against this disease. I believe I have faith in you to overcome this.” Jesus answered me right away. I heard His voice say. “I did that. That is my job. That is why I came. Don’t rob me of my glory.” Jesus was saying, don’t take that from me. It’s mine. I carried it. I bore it. I already did it. You can’t carry it any more than she can. Don’t steal my glory.

The curse of sickness and disease is no longer ours to bear as children of God in Christ Jesus. He became cursed, afflicted so we could be healed and free. Jesus took our sickness and diseases so we could be free of them, not keep them or embrace them. Redemptive suffering suggests we embrace the curse and not hope for the blessing.

Matthew 8:16-17* “When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: “He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.”*

Jesus ALREADY TOOK IT. He is not deciding to take it or thinking about taking your disease; He already did at the Cross. IT IS FINISHED!!! That is what we celebrate every Eucharist, the finished work of Christ. When sickness is chronic, we begin to think it is something we have to live with and put up with. Our imagination tells us that this condition serves some higher purpose we should embrace. Jesus healed everyone. Jesus never said no to anyone who asked him for healing. The Bible says over and over that He healed them all. He even healed everyone brought to Him. The difference between them and you and I, is faith. They believed. Don’t quit and give up trusting God to heal you just because it hasn’t happened yet. If you truly believe God wants you sick, then don’t take medicine and don’t go to the doctor.

Sickness is Not a Cross you have to bear!

We grew up hearing “Offer it up” and “Carry your cross.” I want to introduce to you today that SICKNESS is not something we want to embrace. It is not something we are meant to live with and put up with. Contrary to popular belief, sickness is not a cross you have to bear. You can’t bear it. Sickness and disease, mental illness, and pain is unbearable, which is why Jesus bore it for us. The Bible is clear about this, and the evidence that God wants you healed is overwhelming. Jesus took our infirmities, the Bible says, and carried our diseases.

Matthew 8:16-17  “When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, 17 to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: “He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

As Catholics, we sometimes believe the myth that if we endure depression or disease we will somehow become holy and earn rewards in heaven or pay our way out of Purgatory. We have been lead to believe it is a cross we may have to bear.

In the passage above, it says that Jesus healed them all. All who were brought to him or came to him were healed. Many were brought to him that night, it says, and He healed them all. Jesus has no favorites. Jesus never said no to anyone in all of the Gospel readings. If He didn’t say “no” then, He is not saying “no” now.

Matthew 12:15 “When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he cured them all,” Luke 6:17-19 “And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured. Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.”

What is the Cross Jesus wants us to carry? What kind of suffering do we have to endure?

Jesus calls us to carry our Cross. If the Cross isn’t sickness, what is it? What is the Cross or suffering Jesus calls us to bear.

Mark 8:34-38 “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. 36 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? 37 What could one give in exchange for his life? 38 Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

God calls us to suffer for His name’s sake, not to suffer for the sake of suffering. God calls us to suffer by loving that hard to love family member or co-worker every day. God calls us to suffer by choosing to forgive those who offend us and hurt us and hate us. God calls us to give and do for others when we don’t feel like it. Suffer for the sake of the Name of Jesus. Tell someone about Jesus. Suffer by doing, going, and saying. Visit the sick and those in prison.

Be willing to be excluded, insulted, and hated for telling someone about Jesus. Be willing to be ridiculed, persecuted, and slandered for Christ. Suffer persecution for the name of Jesus.

God calls us to suffer by loving our enemies and doing good to those who hate us. He calls us to bless those who curse us. Are you willing to be a fool, for Christ’s sake?

OFFER IT UP

I am a cradle Catholic, and I too, grew up with “OFFER IT UP.” I still hear my mother encouraging me to “Offer it up.” What did she mean? Are we supposed to offer up our health for the sake of someone else? Is this what it means to “Offer it up to the Lord.”

A friend of mine recently was caring for her father, and after leaving the hospital, she let him lie on the couch, but she became frustrated about having to rearrange the living room furniture to make him comfortable. “Offer it up,” I told her. This is what we are called to offer up. Offer up being inconvenienced, offer up a meal, offer up your time to drive a parishioner to church….. the list goes on and on.

• Offer up your finances, not your health
• Offer up your complaining, not your health
• Offer up a meal
• Offer up time in prayer
• Offer to clean someone’s home or prepare an elderly neighbor a meal
• Offer up television shows in order to pray for others

God Calls Us to Suffer Persecution, not Redemptive Suffering.

• Matthew 5:11-12  “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
• Matthew 10:22   “You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”
• 1 Peter 4:14-19  “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”
• Acts 5:41  “So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.”
• 1 Peter 2:20-21  “But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.”
• 1 Peter 3:14  “But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,”
• 1 Peter 5:10  “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

Bishop Robert Barron has a great video on true Redemptive Suffering. I encourage you to check it out.

Redemptive Suffering

God Does not use sickness to teach us a lesson.

God is always teaching us. God uses everything to teach us lessons. God wants us always to grow in age, grace, and wisdom. Do you, a good parent, use sickness to teach your children a lesson? Do you withhold medicine to keep your children obedient? Of course not. God is a good parent. Know this; God wants you well more than you want you well. God is not withholding healing from you to teach you a lesson. The church does not believe this. This is not a teaching of the church. Why would the church build so many hospitals if God wants you sick?

Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

Do we learn when we are sick? Absolutely. When we are sick, our ears are wide open, and we begin to listen intently and follow God more closely. Sometimes it’s only when we are sick that we are tuned into God, which is why we learn so much when we are sick and are forced to turn to God. God is always teaching us and will use anything and everything to get our attention. Don’t wait to be sick to learn from God.

Don’t wait till you are sick to open God’s word or spend time in His presence. We become teachable when we are in need, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a better way!

IF God is teaching you something, learn it? He is not hiding the answer from you. The most important lesson we can learn from God is this, “HE IS THE ANSWER!” God wants to teach us to cling to Him. We are so busy clinging to the things of this world we don’t have the time or inclination to turn to God.

We are trusting in our jobs, bank accounts, retirement, doctors, medicine, and there is no room to trust God. God wants us to believe and lean on Him.

Does God use sickness to teach us or grow us up? Absolutely. God uses everything to teach us and grow us up. “We know that all things work for good for those who love God…” (Romans 8:28).

God turns everything in our favor if we just hold on and believe and keep believing.

God does not put sickness on us. Sickness is not from God. In the Old Testament, sickness was a punishment for sin. Not anymore. Jesus took all of God’s wrath when he died on the Cross for us. All of God’s wrath was laid upon Jesus. He took our punishment for sin. He bore our sins and the punishment attached to sin. Jesus bore not only our sins but the consequences of sin. Sickness and disease are no longer ours to carry. Jesus carried them for us on the Cross.