Eyes Smeared With Blood And Tears He Could Not Wipe Away

"For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." (Hebrews 2:18)

"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)

"For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21)

Christ's suffering accomplished many things, among them what's mentioned in the passages of scripture quoted above. One of the ways Christians should view suffering is in terms of how Christ suffered before us and how he suffered in ways like our suffering. His suffering is unlike ours in some ways, but also like ours in others. I wrote about these themes as they relate to the Garden of Gethsemane in a post earlier this year.

Richard Bauckham recently published a book about an experience he went through a few years ago involving a loss of his eyesight, the blurring of his vision. He wrote, "Later (perhaps on the bus home, I forget) I began to compose a poem based on the thought that the eyesight of Jesus, as he hung dying on the cross, would surely have become blurred, smeared with blood and tears that he could not wipe away." (The Blurred Cross [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2024], 118) It's an aspect of Jesus' suffering that doesn't get much attention. Bauckham quotes the poem he wrote:

I think perhaps that when you hung in pain,
bearing the weight of all this sad world's wrong,
your vision blurred. Could you distinctly see
your mother and your friends?...
Through that blur of blood, that cloud of tears and sweat,
you look with love on all whose sight is dimmed.