Numbered With the Transgressors, by Larry Jackson

book review by Carol Lee

"He poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12)

The word compassion is derived from the Latin words pati and cum, which together mean "to suffer with". The true meaning of compassion goes much deeper than the generally accepted definition of a feeling of kindness or sympathy, or some desire to offer help. To borrow the apt words of the late Christian writer Henry Nouwen, compassion challenges us to "go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless." To be frank, suffering is not a concept that is easily tolerated by our rich, self-satisfied North American palates. In fact, our society seeks "happiness" as a life goal: Get a good education. Have an inspiring career. Make lots of money. Get married. Have children. Buy a home. Have an active social life. Be involved in your community. Be happy. It is this one-minded mantra of be happy that has made us, all of us, Christian or not, so instinctively adverse to pain. It is this natural instinct to avoid pain that makes us so uncomfortable with one of the most fundamental aspects of our Christian identity: prayer. And not just prayer, but powerful, intercessory prayer often characterized by intensity, anguish, passionate conviction, pain - by compassion, in the truest meaning of the word.

In Larry Jackson's book, Numbered with the Transgressors, being so "numbered" is to identify with the object of our prayers. It implies such agonized compassion and identification, and yes, suffering. Being "numbered" implies putting aside our natural instinct to avoid pain, to be "happy". Mr. Jackson challenges us to pray like Jesus, with travail, with pain, with suffering. He illustrates this principle of "identification prayer" through the extended metaphor of a woman in labour:

Women who decide to have natural childbirth experience intense pain. Christ's experience with the spiritual dimension of such pain is reflected in His shedding sweat that was like blood. Mark’s account of Christ’s travailing prayer in the garden notes that Jesus told Peter, James and John that His soul was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" (Mark 14:34).

This type of travailing prayer is not an easy thing to do, as it is the type of exercise that often leaves us feeling drained and frustrated, unhappy, especially when we do not always have the privilege of witnessing the fruit of our prayers. In this regard, Mr. Jackson has the boldness to say, "Results always follow a time of intense intercession". He continues by referencing Romans 8:26 in explaining that "the Holy Spirit has the unique job of helping our weaknesses by allowing us to sense what a person is going through, thereby enabling us to pray with greater intensity." By the power of the Holy Spirit and our faithful expectation of results, God will bring fruit, in His timing, in His fashion.

Larry Jackson recounts the first time the Holy Spirit came upon him quite unexpectedly to show him this principle of being "numbered":

One Sunday evening, during a time of prayer for our church…without warning, I began to feel like someone who lived the life of a homosexual… Besides the fact that I had never struggled with my sexuality, I was very happily married…

This incident happened twice before Mr. Jackson came to a realization:

It now became crystal clear that He was using this prayer experience to show me what He wanted me to understand months earlier: how to be numbered with the transgressors, and to identify with them and their lifestyle in intercessory prayer.

My most recent foray into intercessory prayer has led me to question my own prayer life. Why have I not experienced this type of spiritual epiphany as Mr. Jackson has? Just how does intercessory prayer differ from simply praying? My own readings and the input of my prayer mentoring group have enlightened me somewhat, and I have come to the conclusion that true intercessory prayer, prayer where we are "standing in the gap" between the lost and our gracious God, necessarily includes this principle of being "numbered with the transgressors". It is this Spirit-led principle that causes us to travail in prayer, to press in the way Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, to cry out in compassionate understanding the way He did when He learned of Mary and Martha’s pain in losing their brother Lazarus, even though He already knew Lazarus would rise from the dead. On most occasions, I still struggle to muster up enough compassion to pray with some degree of conviction and not by mere habit or duty. Especially when God has blessed us with an abundant, fruitful life, just how does one acquire such compassion for the lost that often manifests itself in agony, tears, and cries of mercy? Mr. Jackson’s words confirm my most recent impressions that spending time with and/or learning about the subjects of our prayers is critical to being "numbered" with the lost. When we see and hear and touch their pain, eventually, we will feel it too, and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it will come pouring from out of our hearts and onto our lips in compassionate, travailing prayer. Mr. Jackson drives home this key point by illustrating how Jesus spent most of His ministry not tucked away safely from sinners, praying from on high; rather, He walked amongst them regularly and reached out to them, and loved them as His own body.

Still, such intense, travailing prayer according to the "numbered principle" is still a challenge to many on most occasions. But by God’s mercy and grace, we might hope to continue with our sporadic efforts with the knowledge that indeed, God is a merciful God, who has greater compassion for His children than we can ever harness in a lifetime. We might, however, begin our efforts by accepting that "happiness" is not or should not be the goal of our lives as Christians; rather, we have the privilege of knowing that true joy lies in knowing and sharing the love of our Jesus through relationship and intercessory prayer. A joy that knows the fullness of the fellowship of suffering.