The cross-theologian understands that faith is the "evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1). For God, therefore, to reveal himself to man he must hide himself beneath the cloak of that which seems to nature, reason, and experience most ungodly. But the cross-theologian can see Job, clothed with ashes and moistened with ooze from his sores, and declare that suffering man to be closer to God than Satan who stood in the glorious, exalted throne-room of Yahweh. The cross-theologian views the sufferings and trials of believers not as divine punishments for sin but as holy relics to be treasured and received with glad and thankful hearts. (5) Job, therefore, typifies not only the suffering Christ but exemplifies the suffering Christian. He is a theologian of the cross.
Job: Type of Christ and Paradigmatic Disciple
It was not without reason, therefore, that the church fathers spoke of Job and his sufferings as a type of Christ and his sufferings. Gregory the Great (540-604), for example, says of Job: And therefore it behooved that blessed Job also, who uttered those high mysteries of His Incarnation, should by his life be a sign of Him, Whom by voice he proclaimed, and by all that he underwent should shew forth what were to be His sufferings; and should so much the more truly foretell the mysteries of His Passion, as he prophesied then not merely with his lips but also by suffering. (6)
In his innocent suffering, final vindication, and priestly intercession for those who had wronged him, Job showed forth the pattern of the One in whom he believed. In both Job and Jesus the theologian of the cross sees paragons of how God makes himself known to man.
For that reason Job is also the paradigmatic disciple. As St. James says, "As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful." (7)James holds up the "endurance" of Job as exemplary. Earlier in this epistle, James had encouraged his suffering readers using similar language. "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (1:2-4).Job is the model sufferer not because of a stoic acceptance of pain, but because of his certain hope of final, eschatological vindication. He was a man who came to a true knowledge of the purpose of suffering and found therein true knowledge of God-the God who hides himself in suffering, trial, shame, and lowliness in order to reveal salvation, life, and peace. From Job we learn what it means to live the theology of the cross