The Jesus Who Understands: Women of Hoima

In Hoima, we gathered with women around Isaiah 53 and did something beautifully simple: we sat with Jesus. Before asking Him to heal us, strengthen us, or answer us, we turned our attention toward Him. Isaiah describes Jesus as “a man of suffering, and familiar with pain” who was “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:3–5). Together, we slowed down long enough to see the Jesus described in those words. We saw His rejection. We considered His wounds. We remembered His suffering. And in looking at His brokenness, we discovered something deeply comforting about our own: we have a Savior who can identify with us.

So much of our relationship with Jesus can become centered on what we need Him to do for us. But that day, we ministered to Jesus. We loved Him, worshiped Him, thanked Him, and allowed our hearts to be moved again by what He endured for us. Then something beautiful happened—as we sat with His suffering, we found ourselves able to receive from Him. The women could bring their own pain before a Savior who was not distant from suffering or unfamiliar with sorrow. Jesus did not save humanity from a safe distance; He entered our condition. He knows rejection. He knows grief. He knows what it is to be wounded. There was no need to explain pain to Him before receiving His comfort.

By the end of our time together, Isaiah 53 was no longer simply a passage we had studied; it had become an invitation to encounter Jesus. We sat with Jesus. We ministered to Jesus. We received from Jesus. And we were empowered by Jesus. We came face-to-face with the beautiful mystery of the Gospel: the One who understands our brokenness is also the One who has the power to redeem it. His wounds do not make Him a weak Savior; they reveal just how far His love was willing to go to reach us. In seeing the brokenness of Jesus, the women of Hoima were reminded that there is no broken place in us where He is unwilling—or unable—to meet us.