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"The Pathos of God"
In the world of Jesus and the early church, the ancient Greek philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, sought to picture God as the ideal, immutable, unmoved by any emotion, unaffected by anything or anybody outside of God, incapable of feeling, an impassive God. They were offended by the gods of Greek mythology who regularly exhibited the worst of human behavior, but on a grander scale. They were capricious, envious, vengeful, petty and punitive. For the philosophers, anger, hate, envy were alien to God. So were love, compassion and mercy. They also taught that the worshippers of God must be likewise dispassionate, unperturbed by any emotions, and free from trouble, fear, anger and love.
But that is not how we have come to know God, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures or the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, we come to know the God who feels deeply and is deeply engaged in human needs and suffering, the God who is very much engaged in God's whole creation, and who does not abandon us to the woes of life, the tragedies, losses, disappointments, the pathos of life. The God of pathos suffers with and suffers for his people and his whole creation. The cross of Christ is the greatest expression of the pathos of God, entering into suffering; so that we are not forsaken there. Forgiveness & healing, compassion & love, grace & mercy, these are the pathos of God. And God invites us into the same, to share in the pathos of God by sharing in God's suffering and God's joy, rejoicing with those who rejoice, and weeping with those who weep.
Page Last Updated: March 18, 2003
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