My counselor threw her head back and laughed as I excitedly described my discovery that Jesus is trauma-informed. I had never heard this taught in church, never heard it in a sermon or teaching, yet there it was. Yet, it almost felt like a theological no-no to declare it. But, He is. And He was before “trauma-informed” even became a thing.
I discovered this truth while reading the story of the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-7. In vs. 5, it says Jesus lays the sheep on His shoulders. My Bible notes that the sheep was too weak to return on its own. As I read, I wondered why Jesus didn’t beat the sheep to keep it from running away in the first place. Because doesn’t He want our obedience? Doesn’t He demand it? I also wasn’t sure why Jesus wasn’t mad at the sheep for getting lost.
As I thought about the questions I had, I reflected that perhaps He didn’t get mad at the sheep because He understands that sheep get scared at times and run off. Maybe, I thought, He loves the sheep and is just relieved to have found it. He doesn’t beat the sheep into submission because that’s not love. He wants the sheep to want Him- He doesn’t force or coerce. He loves and welcomes.
And He goes after other lost sheep because He loves them. He is kind, not angry.
As I thought about all of this, I thought of a verse I recently had read that I was curious about. Matthew 12:20 (and Isaiah 42:3) says, “A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not quench.” My Bible noted here that “Jesus the servant compassionately cares for those who have been abused.” I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I don’t know that I had ever heard a sermon about how Jesus compassionately cares for those who had been abused, and I’ve been in the church for a long time. But, here it was in my Bible’s study notes. Webster’s definition of compassionately is “having or showing compassion.” The definition of compassion is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ features together with a desire to alleviate it; sorrow or the capacity to feel sorrow for another’s suffering or misfortune.”
After looking up these definitions, I asked Jesus, “What does it look like for you to compassionately care for those who have been abused? For me?” Before I had even finished writing my question, the thought occurred to me, I think You are trauma-informed. And when I researched to truly understand what being trauma-informed is about, I realized that if anyone is trauma-informed, it’s Jesus. His approach to people emphasized safety, compassion, and agency over shame and behavior management, which is what being trauma-informed is all about.
He showed me He gets me. And not just that He gets me, but He gets my trauma responses. He understands even better than I do my triggers and He doesn’t shame me or judge me for them. He doesn’t rush me to find healing and He walks with me through the process. Better than anyone, He understands the effects of trauma.
I’ve never much liked the idea that He was with me during all the awful things that happened to me. I couldn’t reconcile with the thought that He was in the room with me, watching while my father and other men did horrific atrocities to me. But that’s how I saw Him. I believed for years that He was just watching all the things and that made me see Him as a sick pervert. But, recently, He showed me something different.
After reading Psalm 5:4, which says He is “not a God who delights in wickedness,” I finally asked him to show me what He thought of all the things that happened to me and how He felt about them. Without missing a beat, He told me it broke His heart and that He experienced it all with me. He told me I didn’t go through it alone and He wasn’t sitting by, watching. No, He was experiencing it with me. And He is angry at all the people who hurt me.
I couldn’t believe what He was telling me, but I knew it to be the truth. He experienced all of the abuse with me. Not only does my Jesus understand how trauma affects me, He lived it with me. I can’t say that of anyone else in my life. Only Jesus. Only Jesus experienced all the trauma with me.
And He is trauma-informed.
If you have walked through the valley of trauma, know Jesus gets it. He gets you. He experienced it all with you. And more than anyone, He knows how it affects you. He compassionately cares for you.
