BEARING!

Last weekend, I was in San Antonio, for the American Academy of Dermatology’s 66th Annual Meeting. The shindig was held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, an impressive 1.3 million-square foot host to about a million conventioneers each year.

So they need to move attendees efficiently from event to event, from one of its 60+ meeting rooms, ballrooms, and exhibit halls, to another. Escalators. Bearing people to and fro, hither and thither, up and down. Bearing old and young, lean and stout, male and female. Bearing heavy loads.

While literally meaning “to bear” or “to carry,” the figurative sense of “bearing” people or burdens, is commonly employed in the Scriptures, as well.

To be sure, the epitome of such bearing was Jesus Christ, the Bearer of sin.

This [Jesus’ ministry]
was to fulfill what was spoken
through Isaiah the prophet:
“He Himself
took our infirmities and
bore away our diseases.”
Matthew 8:17

In the agonizing, staggering, unimaginable process of bearing our sin—His substitutionary atonement for my sin and yours—Jesus Christ also, literally, bore His cross to Calvary.

They took Jesus, therefore,
and He went out,
bearing His own cross,
to the place called
the Place of a Skull,
which is called in Hebrew,
Golgotha.
John 19:17

In turn, believers who have placed their trust in Christ as Savior are to follow their Lord on the journey of discipleship, bearing their own crosses. Jesus’ words are serious—He demands priority; His is to be the position of preeminence in our lives; His and no one else’s. He declared …

“If anyone comes to Me,
and does not hate
his own father and mother
and wife and children
and brothers and sisters,
yes, and even his own life,
he cannot be My disciple.
Whoever does not bear
his own cross and
come after Me
cannot be My disciple.”
Luke 14:26–27

Suffering is an integral part of the Christian’s spiritual pilgrimage. Bearing up for the sake of Christ. Bearing, enduring, persevering ….

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star:
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent.
Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yes, as the master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound? No scar?

Amy Carmichael (1867–1951), missionary to India

Indeed, Paul claimed the borne scar as a badge.

From now on
let no one cause trouble for me,
for I bear on my body
the brand-marks of Jesus.
Galatians 6:17

Bearing in suffering, bearing for Christ, bearing like Christ, also involves bearing the burdens of those in our eternal family—our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Bear one another's burdens,
and thereby fulfill
the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2

This business of bearing burdens is to be carefully attended to within the community of believers, as we follow the example of Christ.

Now we who are strong
ought to bear the weaknesses
of those without strength
and not just please ourselves.
Each of us
is to please his neighbor
for his good, to his edification.
For even Christ
did not please Himself.
Romans 15:1–3

Bearing one another, bearing with one another, let’s bear our burdens faithfully till the end.