Have you ever had a doctor or nurse ask you, “On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s your pain level?” Imagine if someone asked Jesus that question. What would His “pain level” have been in His last hours?
We think about Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane, His mistreatment in the trials, the vicious Roman scourging and His excruciating crucifixion. The pain that Jesus endured was immense! We can read it, but our imaginations cannot even fathom it. But, after He was raised from the dead, He was “all better,” right? No more pain? He was 100%?
The Bible does not detail His post-resurrection pain level for us, but consider this. Jesus was raised in the same human body in which He died. It was not a “new and improved” body. It was not an “upgrade.” It was the same body that had been beaten and killed. He told His disciples that He was not “a spirit,” for He was still a man of “flesh and bones,” and He ate with them (Luke 24:37-42). More than that, He showed them the wounds on His hands and feet (Luke 24:39-40), and He had Thomas “reach” his “hand” and “put it into [His] side” (John 20:27). What do we learn from that?
Jesus’ post-resurrection body still had the same wounds that His pre-death body had. The wounds had likely closed up (hopefully), but the scabs and scars of the dreadful suffering were still present.
Have you ever had a large puncture wound that was in the process of healing? Did it still hurt after the scab started to form? If your hands had been pierced with an iron nail, how would they be feeling afterwards? If your feet had been pierced with an iron nail, would you want to be walking around in sandals on dusty roads? Is it possible that Jesus’ feet were in severe pain? Is it possible that His back, which had been torn to shreds in the scourging, was still raw and very tender to the touch? Is it possible that His side, where a spear had pierced and out flowed blood and water, was not only very sore on the surface but the tissue and muscles underneath were constantly aching and having shooting pains?
I don’t know. The Bible does not tell us to what level Jesus’ body had healed, but it does tell us that the external wounds were still apparent. Is it not therefore likely that those 40 days on earth after His resurrection were still filled with pain as His physical body healed from the torture?
For how long Jesus suffered the physical hurt we do not know, but we do know that He still hurts for us today. As our High Priest, He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15, ASV). He hurts (i.e., sympathizes) with our weaknesses. I wonder, when He looks at us today, what His pain level is…for us.