Originally posted on the #digidisciple blog on 10th May 2012
Things Happen! – Thoughts on Suffering #BigBible @minidvr
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I often wonder about things? How and why they happen. Perhaps ‘cause and effect’. For an atheist ‘suffering’ is just an accident of nature, which might or might not have a scientific or philosophical explanation, but it’s one of their evidences that God doesn’t exist.
Coming from a Christian perspective, we believe that things happen because either God wills them, or because mankind, going against the will of God, causes bad things to happen. ‘Simples’ as the Meerkat says.
However, life isn’t that simple and good and bad things happen all of the time, which cause me to stop and think, either ‘how wonderful’ or more often ‘how awful’, and I ponder on how and why God allows natural disasters and suffering to persist in the world?
It appears that Suffering is the symptom of man exercising his free will and sinning. Sin is anethmae to God, who sent Jesus to rescue man from his sin through his death and resurrection. Our continuing sin, contributes to continuing suffering and allows God’s work to be seen in the word? We haven’t got a good bargain there then!
It seems that God allowed the creation of sin and suffering in the first place? This is the paradox. Cause and effect equal cause and effect in a never ending cycle, until God’s will is done. And it will only be done, when Jesus comes again.
Looking for guidance I find:
Isaiah 55.8 tells us that God thinks and acts on a level different from ours. He sees things from a much broader overview. From our perspective, it’s as though we were putting together a jigsaw puzzle with many of the pieces missing. What part of the picture are we failing to see?[2] God has a plan!
Paul says that “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal: 2.2) and “I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the Church (Coll 1.24). He really underlines it with : “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (Phil 1:29). God’s plan in fruition!
Jesus himself points us towards suffering for his sake. ““I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)God’s will is being seen to be done!
This is all well and good, but when we are seeing so much death and destruction wrought around the world and in people’s lives – how can we reconcile ourselves to the fact the we seem predestined to suffering, with no control over how and why it happens, even if our freewill is used for the good, there are so many others where it isn’t. It is a hard a burden to bear? It’s certainly not the bargain we signed up to, we had no choice in it, it was created for us.
Ah, We’re told that God’s plan includes suffering to allow God’s work to be visible in the world. So, cause and effect is God’s way of helping us to obey the two greatest commandments (Mark 12:28-31). Because these two commandments underpin all of the law given to us through scripture and the biblical stories of the Jews as the chosen people.
I read this commentary:[3]
Ÿ Evil and suffering are real – not illusions. They are ‘intrusions’ into the good world God originally made. The bible tells how when Jesus came to earth he stood outside the tomb of his best friend Lazarus and saw the bereaved sisters: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. (John 11:33) Literally he was ‘angry’ – death was seen by Jesus as a violent and horrible invasion into his Father’s world.
Ÿ Ultimately, suffering is linked to our rebellion against our Maker. It is a reminder that the world we live in is ‘out of sorts’ with God and stands under judgment. ‘Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned–’ (Romans 5:12)
Ÿ This does not mean that every ‘item’ of suffering is a direct punishment from God. This was a question the disciples asked of Jesus about a man born blind: ’Who sinned, this man or his parents?’ Jesus’ reply pointed them beyond the suffering to God’s rescuing purposes in himself – “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3)
Ÿ Both man made suffering and ‘natural’ suffering should focus our minds on ultimate issues, causing us not so much to ask ‘Why doesn’t God do something about this?’ but “what is my response to this? How might I change?”
Finally, some enlightenment. It’s not in fact God’s plan to allow suffering. It’s not God’s plan to allow sin and death. God’s plan was subverted by Man’s free will, and by the actions of Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent, which caused original sin, caused the fall of man, caused mortal death and decay and caused sin and evil in the world. If I change, perhaps others will change. If others change, we may get the ‘wave’ effect we see at large sporting events. The stone cast in the pond, causing the ripples to spread wider and wider. God’s will coming to its true fruition.
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