A Small Account of Suffering
As I read the gospels, I’m amazed by how many people Jesus delivered from suffering, most often from disease or demon-possession.
But for the people I know and pray for, His Kingdom doesn’t seem to deliver people from disease and death as often as I would expect.
Why?
Not for lack of power. I know people who have been touched by His power in unmistakable ways.
But why so rarely?
In some cases, I think I can tell why. In this stage of history, the one between Creation and the Judgment, God often appears to avoid overpowering people who rebel against Him (Rev. 22:11). That accounts for suffering that comes from people who choose evil.
But what about disease?
Why doesn’t God always heal?
There are some standard answers.
To discipline us.
- To help us mature.
- To make us depend on Him.
- To help us become more wise.
- To teach us things we couldn’t learn otherwise.
- To help us learn to care for others more effectively.
Those are often associated with passages like James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-7, 2 Cor. 1:5-7 or Hebrews 12:7-11.
I think those standard answers can be misleading for a couple of reasons.
Reason 1: God isn’t the Source of all suffering.
God does send suffering sometimes (see Hebrews 12, Deut. 8:3, Psalm 107:10-12), but He can’t possibly send all the suffering we encounter. Otherwise God would be responsible for our pain when evil people sin against us. God doesn’t tempt anyone to evil (James 1:13), so He can’t be the source of that pain.
So God is not the source of all suffering. Some suffering He merely allows (or doesn’t prevent).
Reason 2: Not all suffering has a particular purpose.
Those standard answers can be misleading in another way. They can imply that every bit of suffering we encounter has a purpose, something in particular God is working on through the suffering.
That is a hopeful implication. It would be nice if it were true. But while pain can help people grow, it often doesn’t. Suffering can make people more spiritual, but it doesn’t always. There are things you can’t understand until you’ve lived through some pain, but living through the pain doesn’t guarantee that you will understand those things.
So again, why?
To quote Evan Welcher (source), “I tread lightly on the mystery of what God is doing through the suffering of a broken world,” even as I offer a small idea that helps me a little bit:
It seems like God normally treats our choices with the dignity of allowing the choices to have consequences. And I think that’s a good thing, even though those consequences can be both painful and harmful.
The presence of disease is one expression of that principle. God dignifies Adam and Eve’s choice to rebel by allowing their choice to have its appropriate consequences—a fallen, suffering, diseased Creation.
Personhood and freedom
*
Another feature of personhood is a degree of freedom. As Kinlaw says, “There is no necessity in God.” God isn’t compelled to do anything He does; He chooses to love because love is consistent with who He is, not because someone or something is making Him love. He chose to create because He wanted to.
Of course, we are limited, so we are often compelled. But there are no situations where we don’t have some degree of freedom. Even in a concentration camp, Victor Frankl tells us that he saw people choose things without compulsion—some would share a scrap of food, while others would escape harm by pushing someone else into harm’s way. The image of God shines through.
Freedom and suffering
Freedom is only freedom if a choice freely taken can have consequences.
If you tell a toddler not to touch the scissors, and then you lock the scissors in a cabinet, the toddler doesn’t really have a choice about whether to obey. She could decide to try to get the scissors—she could scheme and probe—but her decision wouldn’t have any consequences. She is not free to obey.
Adam and Eve had a choice. God could have put the forbidden fruit tree on the moon or in the center of the earth. But He gave them the dignity of a real choice—a choice that has consequences.
The consequences of their choice have broken the earth and its inhabitants. It’s really bad out here, man.
As bad as the brokenness is, though, it’s a testament to the dignity of God’s image in us: Creation is broken because He has given humanity a degree of freedom—because we bear His image. Creation is broken because He has dignified us with dominion over His works (Psalm 8:4-6).
I don’t mean that people who suffer from disease are suffering the consequences of their own choices. That’s often not the case! I mean that people who suffer from disease may simply be suffering the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion.
And of course, rebel children of Adam and Eve cause suffering too—for example, the Bayer Company, whose negligence led to the death and injury of over 500,000 people in the Bhopal disaster. God seems to dignify even evil actions by allowing them to have consequences for people who did nothing wrong.
The Suffering Son
I cry out to God to have mercy on people I know who are suffering, to let Jesus’ victory over sin and death deliver and heal them.
But if He doesn’t, I remember He is dignifying Adam and Eve’s choice by allowing some of its consequences to continue. It seems so ludicrous—He actually values human freedom!
And He is with us—He has suffered. He has taken the worst upon Himself. Suffering is one of the consequences of their choice, but Jesus’ death and resurrection are some of the consequences too.
How? Because His sacrifice wouldn’t have been needed if they hadn’t sinned.
At the appropriate time, He will bring an end to suffering and sin.
His ultimate victory over death and evil will come, and it will come because He has suffered (Rev. 5:6-9). Jesus has taken the consequences of Adam and Eve’s rebellion into Himself, and those consequences have already begun to bring about their own undoing.
Comments
Post a Comment