Suffering

We all suffer. Some to a greater degree than others, that is obvious when we look at the world around us. The magnitude of suffering from the loss of a loved one (child, spouse, parent, close friend) or the torture of a child inflected by their parents which may lead to death or psychological baggage that will be carried throughout this life, that is always tragic. I will remember what Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote in Brothers Karamzov; “This poor child of five was subjected to every possible torture by those cultivated parents. They beat her, thrashed her, kicked her for no reason till her body was one bruise. Then, they went to greater refinements of cruelty — shut her up all night in the cold and frost in a privy, and because she didn’t ask to be taken up at night (as though a child of five sleeping its angelic, sound sleep could be trained to wake and ask), they smeared her face and filled her mouth with excrement, and it was her mother, her mother did this. And that mother could sleep, hearing the poor child’s groans! Can you understand why a little creature, who can’t even understand what’s done to her, should beat her little aching heart with her tiny fist in the dark and the cold, and weep her meek unresentful tears to dear, kind God to protect her? Do you understand that, friend and brother, you pious and humble novice? Do you understand why this infamy must be and is permitted? Without it, I am told, man could not have existed on earth, for he could not have known good and evil. Why should he know that diabolical good and evil when it costs so much? Why, the whole world of knowledge is not worth that child’s prayer to dear, kind God’! ..."Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance - and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions [speaking about a precious little girl who is abused daily by her own mother]? Tell me, and tell the truth?

Last night in our small group Bible study we got on the discussion of; why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? This is no easy thing to answer ( especially with no warning or time to prepare, but this is the real world where we should be ready for questions as common as that), the people in the group all shared in the grief of loss and the doubt in God that sometimes results of suffering.

In responding to that we should always do so in a kind, gracious, and gentile manner. We know that questions such as that come from a dark place within the soul where pain, regrets, and hopelessness resound. Even at the death of Lazarus, Christ wept for the loss of life. This is no matter to take lightly or just from a theological, philosophical, or logical perspective. With the common catastrophes happening all over the world, many people are searching for answers. Jesus Christ the sovereign God of eternity cared for the suffering of the people and is always compassionate for those who are suffering.

Mary came to Jesus and said; “ Lord if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.” Isn’t that the same reaction that we all have in the midst of pain; if God would have just come through for us, we would not have suffered in this way. We all know the rest of the story, Jesus came to the tomb four days after he passed, and raised him up from the dead.

When Jesus saw the grief that they all shared and was moved to weep for them as well. This is a glimpse of the goodness of God and his love for all of creation. To know that God cares enough for us to be moved and share in our suffering is substantial in our relating to others in the midst of suffering. We should note that Jesus didn’t correct Mary in her drawing an assumption of Christ not caring enough to be there when Lazarus died. There is a time and place for that, but at the breaking point it is helpful to know the sufficiency of God in all those times, but it just doesn’t feel that way. Lazarus would die again, he would not live forever, but what we have seen was; a glimpse of the power of Christ to restore what was lost for all whom believe on Him.

From a theologically perspective as a Christian we know that this world was subjected to futility(Romans 8:20-22), from the invasion of sin into the world from the first man, fueled by all of the rest of humanity thereafter. The result of humanity’s fall into sin, is the reason for suffering. In other words all that is wrong in the world is a product of man’s own devices (some obviously contribute more than others). When I see a tragedy such as what has happened in Japan, or when I think of the death of my father at the age of 42, it is not only a reminder of the tragedy of the event, but an in your face reflection of the horror of the sin that I struggle with everyday. That leading to knowing that God is not abstract in all of this, but even though what I get is well deserved, what he received wasn’t. To have the full measure of God’s wrath dumped on Him for what others have done, was such a degree of horrifying execution that no mere person could ever bare. To understand that God cares, to know that he weeps with those who are suffering (even if they are wrong in their perception of Him), to know that he

bore the final weight of judgment that we deserve, this should not only help us through, but should completely change our lives. This is the hope that will carry us all though a life for those whom seek His face.

For the atheist there is no reason for suffering. It is the cruelty of chance, nature, and meaninglessness. The honest atheist will say that we cannot truly know what is good or what is wrong. It would be understood as relative to the individual, until there would be a conflict in each individuals perception of what would be good in their own eyes. We all live under an umbrella of knowing what is generally good and what is not. Where does that come from? How do we know? The atheist philosophically will tell you that we can’t know, but he will never live that way. For he cannot, he is in total contradiction between what is reality, and what is not. The Christian life is not in contradiction, but in the stark reality of knowing what is good, and what is evil universally. For to know God is to know what is good, without knowing what is good we should never know what is evil. Since we all know God, we know what is evil. Therefore God is good, and working all things out for those that love Him.... Romans 8:28