The Healing Cross

Wounds That Heal: Bringing Our Hurts to the Cross
By Stephen Seamands
InterVarsity Press, 2003
(180 pages, $15.00, paperback)

reviewed by Elizabeth Hopkins Mickle

In Wounds That Heal, Stephen Seamands shows how Christ and His cross serve as both the model and the means for healing the deep emotional and spiritual consequences of sin. He argues that Christ “experienced the full range of human suffering” and, drawing on Isaiah 53, tells us that the Lord even took upon Himself the particular sufferings of sins committed by and against us. Through the cross, Christ can help us to bear our pain and be healed.

In Part One, “The Cross and the Damaging Effects of Human Hurts,” Seamands details the various forms of human suffering, describes how Christ in the Passion experienced each of these, and demonstrates how the crucified Christ can help us to bear our sufferings. He follows the same general pattern from chapter to chapter: he begins by describing one person's hurts through an anecdote or image drawn from history or popular culture; he then enumerates the various manifestations of a particular kind of hurt; finally, he describes how Jesus experienced the same kind of suffering and how we can learn from and lean on Him.

The types of human suffering discussed include rejection, of which he defines six forms; shame, including nakedness and the worship of false gods; God-forsakenness, including the apparent abandonment by and disappointment in God; powerlessness, caused by “compassion deficits” and leading to destructive behavior patterns and addictions; and demonization, which he is very careful to distinguish from demon-possession and about which he is emphatic that it is never the root problem but is a consequence of human sin and should never be looked for until all other issues are resolved. The comfort of knowing that we do not bear our burdens alone prepares us for the healing process detailed in the second part.

Part Two, “The Cross and the Path to Healing,” shows that the Crucified Savior not only helps us get through our moments of terrible suffering, but He also demonstrates in His reaction to the abuse and suffering of the cross the steps we must take to be healed of the lasting consequences of sin. In most of these chapters, Seamands employs essentially the same structure as in Part One: he tells a story of how an individual who had experienced terrible suffering makes the choice to be healed; he describes the pertinent step of healing as demonstrated by Jesus on the cross and gives details of how to apply the lesson in our own lives; and he points us back to the cross, for it is only at the foot of the cross that we gain the strength to do the difficult things necessary for our healing.

The path to healing Seamands draws from the cross moves from fully experiencing and not running from our pain to forgiving those who have hurt us through loving our enemies and ends with our wounds being transformed into “radiant scars” that God can use to help others. Seamands never pretends any of this is easy but emphasizes that the most important thing is to be willing and, when we are not, to stand at the cross and ask God to make us willing.

As Seamands writes, “On the one hand, bringing our hurts and wounds to the cross is quite simple....On the other hand, bringing our hurts to the cross is complex.” The same can be said of Seamands's book. While he employs a simple style and structure, he deals with some complex ideas. This simple-complex tension functions well through most of the work, but there are a number of instances where the simplicity of the language belies the complexity of the thought, and a less-than-careful reader may not notice that he is asserting an interpretation that needs to be supported by biblical evidence.

For example, Seamands takes Isaiah 53:4-6 and 1 Peter 2:24 to mean not only that Christ bore the consequences of our sins, but that he actually experiences every individual sin and suffering in exact detail, that (to use his example) when a girl is sexually abused in a satanic ritual, Jesus Christ Himself is sexually abused in a satanic ritual. Perhaps this is true (though I am not at all sure that it is), but it seems to me to be stretching it to derive this from three small verses in Isaiah and one in 1 Peter; yet Seamands presents this as a clear-as-day, non-negotiable doctrine. Other examples include his assertion in Chapter 4 that each one of us is responsible for Christ's crucifixion, not because of sins generally but specifically because of anger at God, for which he provides no evidence at all, and his statement in Chapter 3 that Adam and Eve's first response to the shame brought on by their sin and knowledge of their nakedness was “hesitating,” which I do not find in the relevant passage of Genesis 3, nor does Seamands explain where he got this idea.

Despite these concerns, Wounds That Heal, when read with discernment, can be a very helpful resource, and the thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter make it an excellent choice for private reflection or for group discussion. In his introductory chapter, Seamands writes, “Although I have written this from the perspective of a pastoral theologian, not that of a counselor, my prayer is that...this book will help you bring your hurts to the foot of the cross,” and “I pray that considering the cross and its relation to human hurts will cause you to grasp its wonder-working power as never before.” All things considered, this book is well designed to accomplish both goals.

Elisabeth Hamill Davis, ca. 1905
From For Each Day A Prayer