Re-imagining the lost art of Intercession

This is absolutely fascinating.  I am re-reading a book called Descent Into Hell, which I read in a class in High School called Inklings.  The book is by Charles Williams, a member of the writing group with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien.  I have described Descent Into Hell a bit in the last post but I would like to elaborate on some findings in one particular chapter.  Williams actually talks about intercession!

Here I have quoted an exact passage in which the Christ-figure, Stanhope, speaks with Pauline, who is struggling with fear:

“Haven’t you heard it said that we ought to bear one another’s burdens?”

“But that means—“ she began, and stopped.

“I know,” Stanhope said.  It means listening sympathetically, and thinking unselfishly, and being anxious about, and so on.  Well, I don’t say a word against all that; no doubt it helps.  But I think when Christ or St. Paul, or whoever said bear, or whatever he Aramaically said instead of bear, he meant something much more like carrying a parcel instead of something else.  To bear a burden is precisely to carry it instead of.  If you’re still carrying yours, I’m not carrying it for you—however sympathetic I may be” (98).

Pause for a second and take that in.  Bearing one another’s burdens is something that can actually be done in a tangible form!  This, I believe, is part of the definition of intercession.  Even though, even after spending a year at International House of Prayer University, I do not think that or anything I have ever experienced can come close to truly defining it.  Christ is our true example, as I will get into in a minute.  But actually physically bearing someone else’s pain?!  Reese Howells, I believe, came close when he did everything the person he was interceding for did, including laying on the cold, hard ground.  Can we even imagine?

Williams goes on…

Stanhope insists this is actually a law of the universe!  He declares, “But I’m sure this is a law of the universe, and not to give up your parcel is as much rebel as not to carry another’s” (99).

It clicked for me.  We always have good feelings when we help someone.  If anything, it gets our minds off of our own problems for a little while.  Instead of analyzing this as many people do and finally giving up on doing good (at least, intellectually for a while) because we see no good motive in us, let us think for a moment.  Why do we feel good when we do good?  Because this was what we were created for!  It is actually a law of the universe “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  I think there is much more to this that I still need to ponder for a while.

Furthermore, Christ is our great intercessor.  Hebrews 2:17-18 says, “Therefore he had to be made like his brother in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say “he always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25).  It is a once and for all intercession that was made.  He is also eternally the lamb who was slain, as Revelation describes, eternally interceding for us (Rev. 5:6, 7:10, 7:17).  We can gaze upon the cross not as a past incident alone, but an ever present reality.

I love the depth of understanding Williams gives me about these passages of Scripture!  He even, in his own way, describes our part when Christ intercedes for us.  He does this by having Stanhope tell Pauline what to do:

“When you are alone” he said, “remember that I am afraid instead of you, and that I have taken over every kind of worry.  Think merely that; say to yourself—‘he is being worried,’ and go on.  Remember it is mine.  If you do not see it, well; if you do, you will not be afraid” (99).

This is such a clear way of looking at grace!  It is always there.  But we have to apply it.  This is why we take communion.  We must remind ourselves that Jesus has born and is bearing our burdens!  For those of you who are not Christians, this is why we sing those songs about Christ’s death and resurrection.  It isn’t because we’re trying to convince ourselves it’s true.  It is true whether we believe it or not.  We just have to remind ourselves again.

Williams goes on to describe in detail what his intercession or substituted love or bearing her burden was actually like.  He actually imagined the situation of which she was afraid and took on the fear.  It says, “The burden was inevitably lighter for him than for her, for the rage of personal resentment was lacking.  He endured her sensitiveness, but not her sin; the substitution there, if indeed there is a substitution, is hidden in the central mystery of Christendom which Christendom itself has never understood, nor can” (101).

This truth of which Williams speaks is validated in Scripture.  “He who knew no sin became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  He remained sinless but he bore our sin.  I believe that is the paradox of which Charles Williams seeks to describe.

Christ is our true intercessor but we should strive to be like him in bearing each other’s burdens.  As Williams illustrated, Paul’s command in Galatians 6 to “bear one another’s burdens” can be taken quite literally.  We can even ask the Lord for someone else’s burden, to bear their pain so that they don’t have to suffer it.  Christ is the true Intercessor in that through his body he bore every pain, burden, and suffering and will eternally be the Lamb who was slain. 

Practically, what can we take away from this?  We can acknowledge, as Pauline did, that our burden has already been taken from us.  As intercessors, we can go to a deeper place of intercession and imagine the difficulty of the people we are praying for and, in that sense, ask the Lord to help us carry it for them.  Charles Williams illustrated well some important Biblical truths and opened my own heart up to the possibilities we can reach if we only re-imagined intercession.