How Suffering Works
November 21, 2010
Listen to this message on itunes or on our website, http://www.connectionschurch.ca/sermons/
"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life."
Or so the story goes as we like to tell it.
But if God loves us, and has such a wonderful plan for our lives, why then do we experience so much pain and suffering in our lives and in this world?
The bible does promise that God loves us and has a plan for us. But the bible is also pretty clear, and the reality of life confirms, that the plan includes seasons and areas of suffering. In fact, the bible talks a lot more about suffering than our happiness. In fact, the bible is abundantly clear on this: faith does not promise the elimination of suffering, but instead, our faith commitment will result in more suffering, just as it it did for Jesus himself, and his disciples, and his followers in the early church, and his followers today who are giving their lives, literally, for the gospel.
The real promise of the bible: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life and part of that wonderful plan is going to include some measure and certain seasons of suffering. That’s what we’re talking about today.
CS Lewis, who spent the first 31 years of his life as a devote and thoughtful atheist, meaning, there is no god, eventually came to believe. "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; that night a most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." Lewis began writing books on faith, in his spare time, that have become some of the most enduring and helpful insights into God and the Christian life as it intersects with the culture. One of those books is called “The Problem of Pain.”
He observes the way in which many set up God for a fall. Either God is all good, but not all powerful, and therefore unable to end suffering. Or God is all powerful, but not all good, and simple won’t do something about our suffering. The first god is no real god at all, and not worthy of worship. The second god is capricious and cruel and not worthy of worship. For many people God has fallen.
I want you to experience the logical conclusion of this approach to suffering and God. This is a video that came out in the 90’s when I was in college. The quality is not the greatest, but what it communicates will be very clear. But let me be very clear, this is not what we as a church believe about God, but this is what some who experience suffering conclude about our God. So this may be hard for you to watch, but sometimes hard things help us to grow...
“Dear God,” by XTC
I won't believe in heaven and hell.
No saints, no sinners, no Devil as well.
No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
You're always letting us humans down.
The wars you bring, the babes you drown.
Those lost at sea and never found, and it's the same the Whole world 'round.
The hurt I see helps to compound that
Father, Son and Holy Ghost is just somebody's unholy hoax,
And if you're up there you'd perceive that my heart's here upon my sleeve.
If there's one thing I don't believe in
It's you....
Some conclude that it’s just too hard to believe in a God who can’t do something about suffering, or who won’t do something about suffering. So God is not worth believing in.
But the real problem now is that the simple rejection of belief in God does nothing to make sense of, eliminate or even alleviate our pain in any way. Not believing in God, CS Lewis observes, does nothing to make sense of the problem of pain as we experience it in our lives. In fact , it makes it harder.
Here’s how: Pain and suffering can be explained by removing God from the equation. It goes like this: if there is no god, there is only the material world, and what unfolds in it. And we only label what is “natural” as suffering or evil: earthquakes strike and kill tens of thousands, tsunamis devastate hundreds of thousands, volcanic ash covers nations, toxic mudslides wipe out communities, and children, perfectly healthy, beautiful little boys have their umbilical cord wrap around their neck, and in what seems like a senseless, horrible, terrible accident, die. And the answer without god is simply, “That just the way of our world, and for some reason in our world, we have thoughts, we have feelings, we have emotions that simple labels these things as pain and suffering.”
In this world view, the real problem is actually our perception. All these things are just the way of the world, who are we to even call them tragedy, to label it suffering, to claim it’s wrong. By what standard, by what basis is it wrong? Your feelings? Your emotions? You plans? Get over yourself. It’s the way of the world.
So Turning on God, rejecting God does nothing to help us deal with the reality of the pain and suffering that we experience in our lives. It only leaves us alone to deal with the reality of the pain in our lives.
Thanks be to God the bible teaches us about a very different God. A third way. A way that I believe makes sense of the suffering in our world, gives glory to God, and gives us hope in the midst of the suffering in life.
1 Peter 4:
12Beloved, do not be surprised at(AA) the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13But rejoice(AB) insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad(AC) when his glory is revealed. 14(AD) If you are insulted(AE) for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory[b] and of God rests upon you. 15But(AF) let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or(AG) as a meddler. 16Yet(AH) if anyone suffers as a(AI) Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God(AJ) in that name. 17For it is time for judgment(AK) to begin at the household of God; and(AL) if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who(AM) do not obey the gospel of God? 18And
(AN) "If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"[c]
19Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will(AO) entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
What is the alternative? God is all good, and all powerful, and we need to understand the reason and role of suffering in the world, while we hold onto the hope of a time when all suffering will be redeemed.
Let’s start with the reasons for our suffering as we find in the bible with this understanding: much of suffering is subjective. There is a very subjective nature to suffering. If I told you that you had a no home, no car, no job, just a tent, some clean water and some food for your family, you would think of it as suffering. But if you told someone in Haiti after the earthquake that their family survived and they would be provided a tent, water and food, they would sing and dance and praise God. So suffering is highly subjective as it is highly contextualized, and personalized.
That said, Here’s how suffer works to come into our lives:
First, sometimes we suffer because of our own dumb choices. We suffer the consequences of our decisions, and our mistakes. If you jump out of a plane without a parachute, you are going to suffer the consequences of gravity, which isn’t so bad until you suffer the reality of the ground. If you are a lousy husband or wife, you are going to suffer divorce, and all the emotional and financial suffering that follows. If you break the law, you will suffer imprisonment.
The only way to redeem this kind of suffering is to learn and lesson, repent, and ask for forgiveness. And please don’t say you’re suffering for Jesus if you are suffering for your foolishness. Our text says don’t suffer as a meddler! I get really angry with Christians who do really dumb things that bring about their own suffering, who then say, “Look at me, I’m suffering for Jesus!”
Second, we suffer because of others choices. We suffer because of what others inflict upon us. We suffer because others, like us, are sinful, selfish, fallen people and sinful fallen selfish people often do horrible things to other people. This is why we have laws, why we have police, why we have wars, because we inflict suffering on other people, because people inflict suffering on us. We suffer because someone drinks too much, gets in their car, and kills our spouse. We suffer because a parent abuses us, and they abuse us because their parents abused them, and a vicious cycle of suffering is perpetuated.
Let me add this- let us never forget that we are often the “other.” It’s our choices and actions that cause others suffering. The hard reality of life, of my life in fact, is that many decisions I’ve made have caused pain and sorrow for other people. We can never say, “Why doesn’t God just root out all evil and sin and suffering in the world, because if he did, he would have to start with me, then you, then everyone else. Because everyone of us has been a source of suffering in the world.
Third, and this is now the big umbrella that covers the first two: we suffer because we live in a broken world. Sometimes, in fact a lot of the time, the source of suffering just traces back down to the fact that we live in a fallen and sinful world, and there will be pain and suffering in this world until Jesus comes back to redeem all of creation. So we suffer because it’s fallen world and we can’t really pin the blame on anyone, because it’s just to complex. We call this original sin, that we don’t have the option but to be born into a sinful and fallen world, that we are sinful and fallen people, and that a huge amount of suffering will be a part of our world and live because of this. We suffer physically because of poor immune systems, we suffer emotionally because we are emotionally bankrupt, we suffer relationally because we are broken people, we just suffer in this fallen world.
When we suffer because we live in a fallen world, we take this as an opportunity to turn to God, to pray for his relief, and mostly, to pray for his return. Everything the world suffers because we live in a screwed up world, pray for Jesus to return and set the world to right!
The bible teaches that God is not the cause of suffering, restrains most suffering, but allows some suffering in our lives for his plans.
In all these areas, we suffer because God allows it. And here’s where we have to get our thinking straight. God is not the source of suffering, but God allows suffering to come into our lives. Now if it were not for the grace and mercy and love of God, I believe we would all be overcome with suffering and death instantaneously. We’d simply be wiped out. However, God’s hand of mercy acts as a giant floodgate stopping the suffering and death that would overcome us all. But suffering and sin do spill over. God is aware of this, allows us, and so God uses this.
Suffering is not to be sought, not to be avoided, but a reality of life and can be used as an opportunity. Jesus suffered physically, you will suffer physically. Jesus suffered emotionally, you will suffer emotionally. Jesus suffered relationally, you will suffer relationally. It is a part of this fallen world and it can be claimed as an opportunity. And opportunity for two things- for God’s glory, and our growth.
Suffering will grow you. You will grow in your faith, you will grow in compassion, you will grow in prayer, you will grow in resolve, you will grow in maturity. How many of us have gone through a dark valley? We have suffered greatly, we have hurt terribly, we would never in a million years want to go through that lose, that grief, that pain that persecution, that suffering again. To desire that would be sick and self-loathing. But neither would we trade what we have learned and how we have grown for the world. Some of you know what I’m talking about. You are who you are because of the suffering. That’s because you used if for God’s glory.
Many people, when suffering happens, when crisis hits, they are not ready for it, and it puts them into a tailspin. Many of you have been in that tailspin, you’re still spinning, your dropping fast, your dizzy and disoriented, and you are just waiting for the firey crash. To you I simply have one encouragement- please don’t give up on God, because God hasn’t given up on you. Please don’t turn away from God, but turn to God. Right now, maybe this is your darkest hour, your worst suffering, you tailspin. I implore you, don’t lose hope, don’t lose faith, don’t think for a minute that God has lost you. But now, right now is the time to turn to God who like no other God, will stand with you in solidarity with suffering. To you in that tailspin I want to tell you that God is with you and God can help you. So turn to the God who knows your suffering and pain. And turn this suffering around to opportunity.
This is Our Hope in Suffering: God suffers more than we ever could or will by taking our sin to the cross; by the Holy Spirit He stands with us in our present suffering; in the future all suffering will be redeemed in the resurrection.
A Romanian pastor, in the wake of the intense persecution of the church under communism, wrote, “Christians are like nails- the harder you hit them, the deeper they go!”
When the world hits you, go deeper
When you lose your job, go deeper
When you lose your health, go deeper
When you lose your spouse, go deeper
When you lose your child, go deeper
When you start to lose your faith, go deeper
When you start to lose your hope, go deeper
When you start to lose your love, go deeper
The harder you get hit in this world, the deeper you need to go deeper into Jesus. Because, we do NOT worship a God who knows nothing of suffering and rejects us in our suffering. NO we have a mediator in Jesus who suffered in every way like us, and more!
The world hit Jesus with rejection…betrayal…lies…whips…rods…with stones… The world hit Jesus with nails, and hung him on a cross, where he suffered not only the physical pain, the excruciating pain in his body, he suffered more. He suffered in a way we can never know, and this is the great mercy of Jesus, that he took this suffering we could not bear. Jesus, the Son of God, without sin, perfect and pure, took the weight of our sins, of our world, and he hoisted them on that cross. He suffered the consequences of the sins he never committed, he suffered the death we should endure. And for that moment, in a way we can’t comprehend, he suffered the withdrawal of his heavenly father.
I believe this with my whole heart- the greatest cry of anguish the world has ever heard, the greatest pain and suffering that anyone has ever know, is the suffering that Jesus felt at that moment when he said on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” For that moment Jesus suffered hell- Jesus suffered what it means to be separated from holiness and glory of God. It was metaphysically torn from himself, ripped apart from his own being. It’s a suffering we can’t even imagine because of the common grace of God.
When you get hit, go deeper. When you suffer, go deeper with Jesus. Go as deep as you have to go. Go as deep as Jesus calls you to go. And then God will be glorified in you.
Two kinds of people in this world:
Life is good, so God is good, and I will worship Him.
Or life is bad, God is not good, and I will reject him.
Be the first kind! Go deeper when suffering comes so God can redeem your pain in his resurrection.
