Suffering and the Christian

The final part of my suffering series is now upon me, and I have been meditating all day about what to say.  Sometimes we as Christians, as our Pharisee forebears that came before us, judge others on account of their suffering.  We look at those less well off than us and judge that they have done something to deserve their lot in life.  We consider the plights of those around us to be centered in their own sins.  Indeed, the Pharisees believed that calamity was a sure sign of sinfulness in the life of the victim.  If they suffered such tragedy, surely there was a reason.  Perhaps it was this same belief that led John to ask the Lord whether the blind man or his parents had sinned to cause his blindness in John 9.

What does Jesus say about the root of suffering?  Does Jesus indeed affirm this belief?  I would lead you to a passage in Luke where the LORD is addressing a group of people who had just brought Him word about some Galilaeans who were killed by Roman soldiers in the midst of offering their sacrifices:

There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  And Jesus answering said unto them, “Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?  I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:1-3, KJV)”

Did you catch that?  I think that is about as succinct an answer as we can expect.  Did those Galilaeans die at the altar of the temple because of their evil?  No.  Okay.  There.  Jesus had a point to what He said to the listening crowd, and the point was this:  Repent.  Pure and simple.  Our suffering, our pain, and ultimately our end is irrelevant.  What is relevant is whether or not we see our need for a savior and accept Him.  Ultimately, all injustice will be set right, paradise will be reestablished here on earth, and we will all stand in the presence of the LORD.  Our suffering will be long forgotten.

Our suffering is not always based in our sinfulness.  Yes, there are prices to pay for some of the things we have done, but calamity is not rooted in our sinfulness.  Sometimes tragedy and suffering may have absolutely no connection to anything we do.  Let us consider Job:

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. (Job 1:1 KJV)”

Job was blameless and upright.  He served as the priest of his home.  God bragged about Job’s faithfulness to Satan.  However, a few chapters later, God had taken away everything that Job had at the behest of Satan.  His friends came over to hang out, and instead of making things better, they rubbed Job’s face in his pain.  It was his fault, they said.  He had some kind of hidden sin that needed to be confessed.  Job held steadfastly to his innocence despite his friends.  What do you think happened next?

To put it lightly, Job experienced the divine.  To more realistically phrase it, Job and his friends got an earful of God as He explained that neither Job nor his friends could understand why Job had suffered so.  In the end, Job is repentant of his attitude, his friends are left tattered, and Job is left to say

“I  have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee.  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:5-6, KJV)”

In the end, Job never got an explanation for why he suffered so much.  He was blessed by God to the point where he had more than he had lost, but the one thing he never got was an answer.  In truth, he came to the point where he didn’t need one.  He saw the Lord.   That was enough.  Earlier in the book, Job stated that he knew his redeemer lived.  Now he had seen his redeemer.  The suffering was no longer an issue to Job because he had seen the face of the Lord.

Maybe you are suffering right now.  Maybe the pain is unfair.  Maybe, like Job, you are even at the mercy of those who claim friendship and all the while stick you with barbs of accusations and betrayal.  If you are there, know this:  no matter how we look at suffering, no matter how much I try to say or how much you glean from elsewhere, you will never answer the question of suffering fully.  However, there will be a day when we meet our redeemer.  One day, every tear will be wiped away, every pain stifled, and then, only then, will we fully understand why we went through the pains and tragedies of earth.  Until then, I propose that we draw closer to our Creator.  In Him do we find purpose, a balm for the aches and pains of life here on earth, where the whole of creation is yearning for redemption.  In Jesus will we find that our suffering, though we may never know this side of heaven why we did, was a defining moment in our lives that placed us on a path of obedience to His word.

If you are at a place in life where troubles seem behind you, I offer some advice.  One, watch out.  We are not done with suffering until eternity.  There will come a time when you are on the receiving end of pain and hurt.  Second, if there is someone around you in pain, reach out to them.  Comfort them.  Let them know their heart is precious to you, and let them use your shoulder as a place to rest and gather strength.

“Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4, NKJV).”

Reaping and Sowing

David Berkowitz is a very interesting person.  Here is a man who cut down numerous young people in the prime of their lives in brutal fashion, who was finally brought down by the police.  While in prison, Berkowitz accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior, and has subsequently asked not to be paroled and has not been attending any of his hearings.  Mr. Berkowitz has been involved in the ministry actively, and serves as a counselor now for troubled inmates.  He has obviously made an incredible change in his life, turning against his former self, ridding himself of occultic influence, and instead has grasped the suffering LORD of the cross.

With a story like that, one is almost convinced that Mr. Berkowitz should be freed from prison and lauded as an example of the drastic changes that can come in one’s life due to the love of Christ.  However, Mr. Berkowitz disagrees, and I actually applaud him for that decision.  There are two reasons I agree with him.  For one reason, from a purely governmental/ethical view, were we to free him from prison, it would render the justice system impotent.  It would create a mockery of everything our justice system stands for.  Even from a biblical standpoint, this would be wrong.  The Noahic covenant established by God and Noah in Genesis 9 calls for the punishment of murderers by the spilling of their own blood.  At least Berkowitz’s lifelong stay in prison offers a resemblance of this punishment.  Otherwise, were he to be released, there would be no backbone in the U.S. justice system.

The second reason is this:  although we can be saved from an eternal death by faith in Christ, there is still a price to be paid for our actions.  By that, I mean this:  “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8, NASB)”  We must realize that, forgiveness from God may give us eternal life, and we may have renewed relationship via repentence, but there is always a price to be paid.  The adulterer may be forgiven, they may be saved, but their right standing before God after their misdeed will not guarantee smoothness in their relationship with their spouse.  The murderer may be awaiting reunion with their Master and Creator, but that does not exempt the criminal court system from passing judgment upon the perpetrator.  We must be ever mindful that forgiveness before God and even before man does not preclude that we will pay a price for misdeeds.

All that to say this:  humans many times do their fair share of creating human suffering.  Sometimes we are guilty of creating our own suffering through our actions.  We may have created a painful situation through our actions or our inaction, and are left holding the pieces.  At this point, we would be well reminded that there is a price to pay for our actions.

Where to go from there?  First, accept that our misdeeds can lead to a lot of pain and learn from that for the future.  Second, realize that while we are hurting from the pain of our own causing, someone else is hurting as well, and that it’s time to pick up the pieces and ask for forgiveness.  Third, realize that restoration of the relationship or penance for the crime will take time.  Finally, use this opportunity to seek out God and truly live in His Grace.  C.S. Lewis said that pain was God’s megaphone.  Respond to that call from God to draw nearer after our sins and misdeeds, make it through the pain of sowing what we have reaped, and pray to God that eventually the process will lead to a closer relationship to Him.

Through one man, life

I have been to many funerals.  Funerals are the most dreadful thing for most people, because if nothing else, they impress upon the attendees the fragility of life and the finality of one’s meeting with the great beyond.  As mourners sing “Amazing Grace,” families weep, and friends bemoan the loss of one of their own, the last thing that goes through everyone’s mind is “that’s going to be me one day.”  Or perhaps, they contemplate the loss of another loved one next to them.  At any rate, the finality of death is a specter hanging over everyone in attendance.

The hardest part for me is knowing what to say.  The angst of the sufferers is etched upon their face, tears streaming past reddened cheeks, resolute determination to make it through the next few moments to face the aftermath of a funeral.  Too difficult, it is, in my opinion, to dish out pleasantries to the mourning, such as is the custom of most Christians.  More often than not, I sit quietly, feeling my own anxiety from the moment and not really in a position to comfort the suffering.

Why do we suffer from sickness and disease?  Why do our lives slowly succumb to the inevitable march of time, until sickness, disease, and fatigue rob us of our abilities?  Why do we suffer the pain of watching loved ones lose their facilities, their abilities, their health, eventually their very lives?  Why do we have to watch ourselves go through the same things?  Why am I losing my hair, why does my body hurt more than it did 10 years ago, and how long will it be until it is my time to succumb to disease and death?  WHY???!!!!

The theological reason is this:  Adam and Eve chose to defy God, and by doing so, doomed all of us to an eventual physical death.  Adam made a choice to defy God, the same choice all of us would have made.  In the words of John McArthur, we are not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners.  Because of our inherited depravity, we all are guilty of failing God and His standard, and as such, are destined for the grave.

How do we comfort those who are mourning death and disease?  We comfort them by first loving them and realizing that we will eventually occupy both possible roles, mourner and mourned.  The second thing we do is tell them the next part of the story.

You see, our history of redemption did not end with a fruit in a garden.  Our history of redemption took a long trip from the heart of God to a rugged wooden cross on top of a hill in Jerusalem.  As one man doomed us all to death (again, not that any one of us would not have made the same gaffe), one man, the LORD Jesus Christ, saved us all through His offering of Himself on the cross.  Jesus’ death was offered to God as a sacrifice, a fragrant offering pleasing to the LORD, and through it, all men have found salvation from the grave.  True, we will all face death, but even death itself has lost all sting due to the sacrifice of Jesus.  If we are willing to accept His death as payment for our sins, He is faithful to deliver us from death into eternal life.  Indeed, as Paul says,

“the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22-23 NASB)”

We are all waiting for restoration, a restoration that God has promised and that has been delivered by the person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man.  It is a restoration that became part of His plan from the beginning of His plan.  It is a time when God will remove suffering from our lives, when we will be granted eternal health, when we will no longer be slowed by diseases that seem to strike cruelly and unfairly, nor will tragedy and malady strike down youths in the spring of their existence.  Instead, we will live in a truly brave new world, with the LORD as our light, and with the Son as our eternal King.

How do we comfort the mourning?  Comfort them as Jesus would.  Let them know you love them, that they are not alone, and that they are on your heart.  Then, let them know the second part of the story:  Jesus conquered death for us, and though it is scary, it doesn’t need to carry the same weight of finality that it does for those who do not have the hope of Christ.

Suffering for the Glory of God

I feel drawn to expound more on the question of suffering.  I feel that I may have treated it too trivially, so I will be dedicating the next few posts to the question of suffering.

In John 9, Jesus and the disciples encounter a man blind from birth.  The disciples ask an interesting question of Jesus by asking whether this this man or his parents had sinned to cause him to be born blind.  Jesus responded by saying that neither had sinned, but the man was born blind so that “the works of God might be displayed in him (NASB).”  Jesus proceeded to heal the man, who then after a devastating turn of events, went from being newly healed and happy to being kicked out of the synagogue.

I had to struggle with that passage for a while.  How can this really be fair?  Here was a gentleman who had done nothing to deserve this pain, had been reduced to begging by his “lot in life,” and then, when finally given his sight 30 years after the fact, gets kicked out of the synagogue.  How could that really be fair when this guy got the shaft so that “the works of might be displayed in him (NASB).”

Consider this:  how many lives have been changed due to this man, blind from birth, being touched by Jesus?  How many souls have been saved by this man’s simple confession: “Lord, I believe.”  The countless sermons, books, even this blog post that have been written and discussed due to this blind man are staggering.  And to think, one day in heaven, we will be standing with this beggar, now being rewarded by the LORD; some of us will be there BECAUSE OF HIM!!  Consider the brave stand the beggar made before the Pharisees that were demanding he confess that Jesus was a sinner.  Think about the change that went into this man as he, being the former beggar outside the temple, now gave a theology lesson of his own to these legalists.  I am sure that, when we congregate together in eternity with one another, this man will consider his 30 years of blindness but little more than an inconvenience in consideration of the gracious rewards at the table of the LORD.

What does this mean for us today?  In a world that is sure to provide plenty of pain and more than its share of tragedy, there is room for God to take tragedies in our lives and breed in us something that is glorious to Him.  We can look the victims of heartache in the eye, and lovingly, compassionately let them know that they have hope in Christ.  We can be reminded of a blind beggar who met the Master, worshiped at His feet, and became part of ancient scripture to be retold over and over.  Sometimes even out of senseless chaos, the Lord can be glorified.  Maybe it is the change in that person’s life.  Perhaps it is through the response of those acting as the hands and feet of God.  At any rate, we can rejoice alongside Paul when he says that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

The God Question and Suffering

One of the most disastrous questions for a Christian to encounter, even moreso than the questions of evolution, biblical inerrancy, and various other difficulties of the faith, is the question of suffering.  Why do people suffer?  Why does a good God allow bad things to happen to those who are His faithful?  Why, for that matter, does God allow atrocities every day that shatter the hopes and dreams even of those who are not His by word and commitment, but are still His by creation?  When the sobs of the heartbroken and painful mourning of those who weep reach the heights of Heaven seemingly unanswered or uncared for, where is this God who “neither slumbers nor sleeps?”

This question stops more Christians in their tracks, leaves more skeptics continually scoffing at the “love of God” and eats the faith of more people than any other question.  Why do we suffer?  Buddhists and other adherents to eastern religious philosophies maintain that suffering is but an illusion and only once we get past that illusion will we reach peace.  Legalists in the Judeo-Christian background of faith can sometimes point at suffering as the result of something we have done.  Stoics believed that suffering was “our fate” and only by letting go of our feelings can we reach peace.

What are Christians to make of suffering?  How do we answer that question?  Well, first and foremost, one way to counteract the idea that evil disproves the existence of a loving God is this fact:  In order to evaluate something as “evil,” there must be some standard by which we evaluate what is “good.”  By this I mean that without a standard, we can’t really evaluate evil as evil.  How would we know what evil is if there was no good.  There has to be some objective standard by which we measure “good” and “evil”.  Hence, the argument can work equally well in reverse:  Suffering proves the existence of God because if there is evil, there is good.  Therefore, the presence of good in the world is evidence for the existence of God.

Another way to look at suffering is that, in some ways, humans ARE responsible for human suffering.  Galatians 6:7 states that “God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”  Very logically, there are actions that we partake in that lead to our suffering.  The unfaithful husband who is finally left lonely by his wife, love long dead from stupidity and selfishness, has rightfully reaped from the seeds which he has sown.  The young unwed mother now contemplating the future that she has carved for herself and now a child through her irresponsibility in tandem with the irresponsibility of her young lover has reached this point due to her own actions.  Indeed, some of the suffering we feel is due to our own behavior.

What do we do then, with suffering that is through no fault of our own?  What do we do with the pains that people feel that they never brought upon themselves?  The tragedy of starvation in Africa, the pain of the young mother holding a dying child in her arms, the grief stricken wife burying her husband, all her hopes and dreams dying along with the youthful man?  What then?  Where possibly can God be in that?  Who do we lift our hands to in anger?  Who do we scream to in the midst of all of this?

The easiest answer for the Christian to give and indeed, to hold onto in answer for their own faith is this:  God took the question of suffering, laid it upon Himself on the blood-stained nails of the old rugged cross, and dashed suffering to the ground in defeat.  You see, those who cry can know that Christ Himself, the living Lord and the God of Tears Himself stands waiting there.  He meets you in your suffering, this God of pain, this one and only Messiah.  Our suffering here, the death and despair, the agony and tears, are felt full force by that God-Man that lives for us, interceding moment by moment in front of our Father.  He assures us daily that in the midst of our failings and tragedies He is there, weaping with us, waiting for the time of divine restoration right along beside us.  Mother Teresa, the suffering saint of Calcutta, equated the awful sufferings of this world to no more than “a stay in an inconvenient hotel” when compared to the joys God’s saints will experience in heaven.  It is for the reason that we have this hope in Christ, the suffering messiah, for resurrection and restoration, that Paul says that “you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”

God created a perfect world.  He created mankind in His own image of rationale, judgment, and the ability to choose for himself.  Mankind chose to bring evil into the world.  Despite our culpability in the problem of pain and suffering, God chose to insert Himself into this world, take all of the pain, suffering, and tears of our lives, take them upon Himself, and die with arms wide open.  If nothing else comes out of pain and suffering, there is the loving God who offered Himself as a balm for our pain.  How can you not love this God?

I don’t offer this as a pat answer.  As Christians, it is our call to be the hands and feet of the living God here on earth to salve the pain and hurt of others.  It is our responsibility to do the godly thing when it comes time to intervene in the lives of others.  God has already done has job by accepting our suffering upon himself.  That, I believe, is the only real answer necessary for the question of suffering.

When stuff sucks…really bad

Things sucked for Joseph.  His brothers sold him as a slave, his new Egyptian boss threw him in prison when the boss’ wife fell for Joseph, and he languished in a prison cell while the Pharoah’s butler hung out upstairs enjoying his old job.  It’s kind of hard at that point to say, ‘I know God is with me.’

The crazy thing is that HE was!!!  God was with Joseph every step of the way, through all the crap and suckiness.  Eventually, God blessed Joseph with a new job (Vice President of Egypt, yes, I’m sure it wasn’t called that, but we need something to relate to in today’s age), a wife, and two children that he named to reflect the differences in his life.  God provided for Joseph and used his brothers’ own evil intentions to save the lives of Jacob and his children, thus preserving the lineage of Israel.  I am sure there were times when Joseph hurt from the experience, and I think it would be appalling to not recognize the pain and suffering he went through, but it was all to demonstrate God’s love and mercy for those who love Him.

It’s hard to keep a healthy perspective in the middle of sorrows.  However, we must remember that, according to Romans 8, all things good and bad work together for the benefit of the believer of Jesus Christ.  Bad things are called bad things for a reason.  It’s because they are bad.  God, however, can use even the evil directed against us to edify us, prepare us, sustain us, and to bring glory to Him.  I am still amazed at Joseph’s gracious response to his brothers after Israel died.  That he could be so loving and accepting of his brethren can only mean one thing:  Joseph saw the Lord in his suffering and knew that all that passed was part of His eternal plan.