The problem of suffering

While I often cringe at seeing many people making an idol out of ‘personal comfort’ I’m just as distressed when I do it myself. The false notion that God wants His people always “healthy, wealthy and comfortable” is appealing — who likes pain anyway?

At the same time, even those who focus on the resurrection and Christ’s victories cannot deny His SUFFERING as portrayed by the Catholic crucifix and by movies such as “The Passion of the Christ.” God the Son suffered, not only on the cross but just living on this mucky planet. Try to imagine the contrast of life on earth compared to the perfections of heaven where there is no hunger, fatigue, weeping for friends who die, sorrow for sin, agony in a garden or the desolation and pain of bearing the sin of the world and the pain of being put to death on a cross. Jesus suffered.

As for us, the OT speaks of suffering in humanity without a clear explanation of the conflict between good and evil. Many passages hint that this will intensity in the latter days. In a general sense, some of human suffering is retributive, either a punishment or the result of sinful choices. Some suffering can be educational or an example for others; we do learn from mistakes. Also, suffering can be vicarious and redemptive in that God uses it for His eternal purposes. This emphasizes that God remains sovereign, even in our sinful and messed up world.

The supreme OT example of vicarious suffering is the Suffering Servant of described in Isaiah 52:13–53:12, a passage that points to Jesus Christ . . .

Isaiah 53:5–6. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The NT recognizes the same basic purposes of suffering yet puts emphasis on the good news of Christ’s vicarious redemptive suffering which reconciles God and sinners. While Jesus suffered in many ways, He saw that all of it was in the predetermined will of God. He taught His disciples that He “must suffer many things and be rejected . . . and killed.” He also rebuked Peter for his inability to accept the idea of a suffering Messiah. No doubt that Jesus suffered.

The NT writers speak of suffering as naturally befalling Christians as it befell Christ. Paul knew that he would suffer for the name of Christ. Jesus’ example of learning obedience from what He suffered is our model that we might “rejoice in various trials” as God uses them to bring us to maturity. We are also told:

Matthew 5:11–12. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Hebrews 2:18. “For because (Jesus) himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

1 Peter 2:20–23. “For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

1 Peter 4:1. “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Reading through the Bible helps me see that suffering is part of God’s plan, even though I don’t like it very much. Yet Jesus’ suffering is a motivation and model for endurance and godly, upright living. While my suffering is not redemptive like His, I am “called to his eternal glory in Christ, after I have suffered a little while.” Besides that, “no suffering can compare to the glory that awaits me.” It may be difficult to discern God’s purpose in any suffering but I have His assurance that He knows what He is doing, that He will use it for good in transforming me into the likeness of His Son, and that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen!