The Problem Of Impassibility

The Gospels tell us that Jesus suffered greatly in His earthly life, and Jesus Himself prophesizes about His suffering as we read in the Gospel of Luke. “The Son of Man [Jesus] must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Yet the fact that Jesus suffered presents a dilemma. The dilemma rests on three propositions: that Jesus is God, that God is impassible, and that Jesus suffered. From these three propositions, the difficulty comes into focus. If Jesus is God as He claims and as Catholicism affirms, and if God is impassible, how can Jesus, as God, have experienced suffering?

In order to address this difficulty, I will examine what theology means by impassibility. I will then discuss some of the evidence on which the belief that Jesus is God rests. Finally, I will suggest that the hypostatic union provides an answer to the problem of impassibility.

Impassibility

In attempting to comprehend God’s nature, Catholic theology has identified certain traits or attributes associated with the Divine. Among these attributes is that of impassibility.

Succinctly put, Divine impassibility refers to the belief that it is impossible for God to experience suffering or death. The basis for impassibility lies in God’s immutability: God does not change. 

To explain Divine immutability requires recognizing that God is, as Saint Anselm put it, “A being than which no greater can be conceived.” Said differently, God possesses every perfection of being. Since change presupposes some imperfection (otherwise, change would not be necessary), a being having every possible perfection cannot be subject to change. Furthermore, change is relative to time, and God exists outside of time (that is what eternity is). Therefore, it is manifest that an eternal and perfect God is changeless. 

Yet suffering is a state of pain that all living things naturally seek to avoid. What one seeks to avoid cannot be innate to one’s nature but rather a deviation from the idealized state of being. And what is a deviation from a thing’s idealized state of being, but a change, which, as was said above, cannot be attributed to God? Therefore, it must be concluded that God cannot change and, subsequently, is immune from suffering.

Is Jesus God?

Owing to the various ways that people approach it, the Bible can be understood very differently. Still, within the subject of Divine impassibility, it is not necessary to prove the existence of God, only whether Jesus is God and whether He suffered. As such, the Bible provides the data required to examine these two questions. 

To provide enough evidence to be (I hope) persuasive, I will cite two examples showing that others thought Jesus is God, followed by two instances where Jesus Himself states that He is God. 

The first example is the sublime prologue to John’s Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As John writes, this “Word” becomes a human being, “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John’s prologue might very well be the essential description of who Jesus Christ is. 

The term “Word” to refer to Jesus is the result of translating the text from Greek into English. “Word” comes from the Greek term “Logos.” Logos is the reason and creative principle by which God orders the universe. Additionally, using the term Logos to refer to Christ allows for a distinction between Jesus and the other members of the Trinity while still maintaining that Jesus is God.

If I replace the term “Word” with Christ, the prologue to John’s Gospel becomes “In the beginning was the Christ, and the Christ was with God, and the Christ was God.” Therefore, in the Incarnation, we have the remarkable event whereby God took to Himself a human nature (John 1:14). 

The second example whereby someone acknowledges that Jesus is God appears in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. In response to Jesus asking the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 

So much for what others thought Jesus to be. What does Jesus think Himself to be? Two examples should suffice. 

At the close of Mark’s Gospel is the depiction of Jesus being questioned by the Sanhedrin (A Jewish council). At one point, Jesus is asked, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?” Jesus answers in the affirmative, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man [Jesus] seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Because Jesus’ response equates Himself with God, He is accused of blasphemy. (See Mark 14:61-64).

The Gospel of John portrays the second example indicating that Jesus claimed He is God. In a discussion with the Jewish authorities, Jesus states unequivocally,” I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30). In this verse, it is impossible to conclude that Jesus is not claiming equality with God.

Thus far, I have endeavored to explain Divine impassibility and show that Jesus is God. This brings me to the problem at hand. How can an impassible Jesus suffer?

A Solution To The Problem Of A Suffering God

The mystery of how an impassible Jesus suffered lies in the doctrine of the hypostatic union. 

Hypostatic comes from hypostasis, a Greek word translated as one substance. Within Catholic theology, the hypostatic union refers to the existence of two natures, one Divine and one human, that exist in the person of Jesus. In the Incarnation, God takes for Himself a human nature while retaining His Divine nature. 

Because Jesus possessed a human nature, He experienced everything common to humanity: birth, hunger, thirst, joy, sorrow, laughter, pain, isolation, rejection, and death. Simultaneously, Jesus’ experienced none of those things in His Divine nature, owing to the impassibility of the Divine nature. Therefore, it is no contradiction to state that Jesus is the impassible God and that Jesus suffered.

Conclusion

“Jesus wept” is the shortest verse in the Bible and yet speaks to a great mystery, how can an impassible God experience sorrow and suffering? 

Without question, evil and suffering are perennial thorns in the side of religion. And it seems that these thorns extend even to the Incarnate Lord. While I shall not claim to have exhausted the issue, in this article, I have sought to explain the problem of impassibility and suggested that its solution lies in the hypostatic union; of a God that became man and made His dwelling among us.