"Suffering...... like man"?

[AndyF]

If a being is called to suffer like a man should suffer, then being a man what can we infer about him and his suffering that he will receive?

The state of the souls of common man is one where he has reached a milestone of his Faith, but has not reached full maturity (2Cor2). Those who are fortunate and graced with full Faith would not be representative of the common men of the general populace, and would be disqualified based on those grounds. Therefore his Faith has not reached full maturity.

   His physical torment would be typical.

Anxiety: Is it reasonable to say anxiety may/would be a problem as well?. For instance the general populace would probably fear of the unknown, or perhaps if he were religious would be concerned about the acceptable state of his soul.

Effects of social class: Would a common man be more concerned with the beyond than say a king who knows he is destined for the realm which he is the owner.?

Reassurances: Does familiarity provide comfort? Does knowing what lies ahead and who he is destined to see help alleviate some of the suffering?

 So can we conclude that this man may not suffer like any man would/could suffer, but suffered as much *has it was possible* for him to suffer.?

Thanks.

AndyF

 

[Hlafdige]

We know that our Lord took on our nature and lived among us, and thereby redeemed us. „What He did not assume, He could not redeem“ – this was the argument of Gregory of Nyssa defending against Apollinarius the doctrine that Jesus had a human mind as well as a human body. It follows that He was (physically, mentally, emotionally) capable of suffering as human nature is, and that He in fact suffered – not, however, that He shared every specific suffering (much less that of „the common man“ or average person – who is that anyway?) nor that He had to do so in order to draw our suffering into His redemptive work. Paul even states the opposite case: we complete what is lacking in Christ‘s afflictions (cf. Col. 1:24).

Nor was our redemption dependent on Christ‘s suffering as much as it was possible for him to suffer. No one took His life from him, He gave it freely (John 10:18). His smallest act in our nature was merit enough to make up, many times over, for all our sin and fragmentation.