Claim 1 of 8 · Case 06 · Problem of Evil
The Christian scriptures present God as entering human suffering himself rather than standing apart from it.
One claim from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Backed by 4 pieces of evidence
The Gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus
This is the clearest picture of it: God in the flesh does not treat grief as beneath him or as a problem to be talked out of. He shares it. For a hurting person, that is a more honest starting point than any explanation.
The book of Isaiah, the suffering servant
A suffering God is not a late idea invented to soften the problem of evil. The picture of a rejected, sorrowful servant sits deep in the Hebrew scriptures, long before the cross, which gives this answer historical roots rather than convenience.
The letter to the Hebrews on a sympathetic high priest
This gets at the heart of it: presence. Sympathy here is not pity from above. It is fellow feeling from someone who has been through it, which is what makes this different from a God who merely permits suffering and watches.
The Gospel of Mark, the cry from the cross
It is one thing to say God is present in suffering. It is another to say God has felt forsaken inside it. That is why we can tell a suffering person that God knows what abandonment feels like, and mean it literally.