Why is there so much suffering in the world? It’s a question that many people have asked, and as I’ve gone door to door visiting in various places it has been a question that people would want to ask God.
Some people say to me, “Everything happens for a reason”; and whilst I agree that there are of course reasons and events behind everything thing that happens, I don’t agree with what often lies behind that belief. Usually when people say that “everything happens for a reason” they basically mean that what has happened was meant to be. It was God’s will; but I don’t agree. Muslims would agree because they say that everything that happens is Allah’s will.
When a Tsunami hit Japan in March 2011 killing 15000 was that God’s will? No! When a coal waste tip slid down the mountainside in Aberfan in 1966, killing 144 including 116 children, was that God’s will? No!
Does everything happen for a reason? No. But I do believe that in everything that happens, God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). When life is hard God is at work. When suffering comes, as it will come to us all, God is at work. When there seem to be no answers to our questions God is always at work for the good of those who love him.
The author and Church Minister Ray Ortlund says this: ‘Sometimes there is no way to get out of suffering; but there is a way to get through suffering, because God is the ally of sufferers.’ He also says that ‘trust in God, not [an explanation] from God, is the pathway through suffering.’
Why is there so much suffering? Tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the brutal killings in Syria, bereavement, sickness, depression, loneliness and severe temptation remind us that suffering is global, and local and personal.
Philosophers and theologians have grappled with this question through the centuries without ever really discovering a completely satisfactory answer; but it is a stumbling block to belief in God for some people; so we need to try to understand the issue better; and as always, as the scriptures encourage us, to be ready to give a reason for the hope we have - to others (1 Peter 3:15).
Before we go any further it’s important to draw a distinction between suffering for Christ, suffering for the sake of Christ, and all other kinds of sickness, disaster, illness and suffering. To suffer for Christ is to be persecuted, perhaps even martyred for professing and living out faith in Jesus. It is to suffer for the way of Christ, the way of the cross (Philippians 1:29). Today’s Bible reading began like this: ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us’ (Rom 1:18). St. Paul was referring primarily to persecution.
Next Sunday evening our study of the beatitudes arrives at Matthew 5:10 where Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
When the New Testament refers to suffering it is nearly always on account of persecution as a result of living a life of faithful discipleship, following Christ; and that kind of suffering demands its own talk or even a series of talks; but that’s not my main purpose today. I am primarily, but not exclusively, referring to other kinds of sickness, pain, bereavement, loneliness, and human disasters. The type of suffering that leads some people to say, “Surely if there was a God he would not allow these things to happen.”
Having made that distinction, I think it is helpful to say something about two false teachings that exist in parts of the worldwide Church. One says sickness is due to personal sin, the other says suffering is a gift.
The so-called prosperity gospel, which is especially prevalent in some parts of the USA and some parts of Africa, says that God wants to bless you, to make you rich, and to bless you always with good health and old age. Nothing too shocking about that, perhaps, but it is a false gospel because it teaches or encourages that sickness, poverty and poor health are a sign that God is not blessing you. It is a false gospel and a return to a teaching that existed in parts of Judaism during the ministry of Jesus and in the Old Testament. On one occasion Jesus healed a man who had been born blind and his disciples wanted to know whose sin had been the cause of the man’s blindness. Whose wrong-doings were to blame? And it is a trap that sometimes we fall into, blaming ourselves or blaming others or trying to work out a black and white reason behind sickness or disappointment or poverty. Jesus said neither the man’s Father nor Mother had sinned but it was a case where God could be glorified through the man’s healing (John 9:2).
The Old Testament book of Job was written to counter a wrong approach to personal misfortune. Job was once rich. ‘He was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil’ (Job 1:1). He had sons and daughters, and a huge, successful farm. On one day Job lost his thousands of animals, all of his servants, and all his children in 4 separate disasters. Job’s response was to tear his robe and shave his head (1:20) as a sign of grief and bereavement; but he also got down on his knees using words which we find in Matt and Beth Redman’s song of worship – Blessed be your name. Job, filled with grief, and worship, said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised” (1:21). Next, Job became seriously ill ‘with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head’ (2:7). His wife told him to curse God (2:9) and his friends tried in vain to identify sins committed by Job that had led to such terrible suffering and illness.
The book of Job is not so much about why God seems to allow suffering. It is much more about how we should respond to it.
A second false teaching about suffering is that it is a gift to be thankful for. Please remember that I’m not talking here about persecution, or suffering directly as a result of living a life of faith in Jesus Christ. Suffering in that respect is a blessing according to Jesus; but a false teaching is that sickness, loss, grief and disasters should be received as a gift, sent by God to test us, or to develop us or improve us. It is true that God can, and does, work in all of those situations for our good, but that does not mean he has given them to us as a gift. Sickness, pain, tears and disappointment will all be wiped away forever one day and God is in the business of using us to wipe them away now. So I do not find anything in the Bible to support the belief that God sends sickness and other suffering for our benefit or as a gift. He is at work in them and through them but he does not send them.
So, in that case, why is there so much suffering and where does it come from?
1. At the start of the Bible, Genesis 1-2, it is clear that suffering of any kind was not part of God’s created order. Before humanity took the decision to rebel against God there was no suffering in this world. Further, in the last book of the Bible it is clear that when God restores or recreates the heavens and the Earth ‘He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain’ (Revelation 21:4). In between times, John Stott summarises the current state of affairs like this: ‘According to the Bible suffering is an alien intrusion into God’s good world, and will have no part in his new universe. It is a satanic and destructive onslaught against the creator’. This is especially made clear in the book of Job, which is well worth a read, and it was clear from Jesus’ ministry - he went about ‘healing all who were under the power of the devil’ (Acts 10:38).
2. Much, but not all, of our current day suffering is due to modern day sin. Sickness and death entered the world when humanity rebelled, but I am now talking about personal, day to day sin, or misuse of our freedom. If I drink too much and drive a car dangerously, causing an accident, that is my personal sin. God loves us as a perfect parent, and he has given us free will. We can choose to love God or not, but only love out of free will is true love. If God forced us to love him and love each other by taking away our free will, that would not be genuine love. If a parent, or a marriage partner, misuses freewill and abuses a child or their spouse, that is due to personal sin.
Many of our wars and disasters are due to the sins of others. Some of the starvation in our world is due to unequal food distribution, caused by civil war or hatred, or greed or sin of some other kind.
Even the Coal disaster at Aberfan I mentioned earlier was not a ‘natural’ disaster. Lord Justice Davies found that the Coal Board was responsible - corporate sin!
In Nicky Gumbel’s book Searching Issues he quotes a letter from a woman who had contributed to the Aberfan disaster fund. She wrote, ‘I raged against God, but then I realised it had happened because of man’s greed and incompetence.’
So whilst it is true that some suffering is caused by personal sin (ours or someone else’s), we must remember from the book of Job that it is not true that all personal suffering is due to personal sin.
3. Some of our suffering is due to our sensitivity to pain. Misfortune is made worse by the hurt that we feel, both physical and emotional; but Philip Yancey writes, “Thank God for inventing pain. I don’t think he could have done a better job. It’s beautiful.”
What did he mean? He said this because our pain sensors give valuable warning signals which are essential for survival. Nerve reactions must hurt for us to be able to protect ourselves.
4. Some suffering is caused by the world in which we live – so called ‘natural’ disasters. Whilst most human suffering is caused by human sin, and some estimates put it at 95%, there is also a great deal of suffering caused by the convulsions of our world. Science explains how volcanoes erupt, how earthquakes and tsunamis occur, and how violent weather develops; and the Bible describes this in today’s reading like this: ‘The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time’ (Rom 8: 19-22).
It can be argued that people should not live in the more inhospitable parts of the world, but people go on living there, often encouraged by governments.
And many people have no means to move.
It may also be argued that humanity plunders the earth in an irresponsible way, making some disasters far worse such as the Tsunami in Japan followed by the problems with the Nuclear reactors on the beach; but even then, we are left with a world that is both beautiful and calm, and wild and dangerous.
It is a world created perfect, but jilted out of perfection by rebellion against God, first by Satan, and then by humanity; a world that eagerly waits to be restored, or rebooted, when God brings this part of time to an end, and creates a new heaven and a new earth.
But how do we respond to suffering in the meantime?
First, we all need to look in and look up. Look into ourselves and be honest about our own sin, and the suffering our own sin causes. My sin causes me to suffer, and it causes other people to suffer. I need to repent of that, look up, and be changed by Christ.
As we deal with sin in our lives and allow Christ to forgive and deal with sin, and change us, our homes, our families, our church and our world will change.
Second, we must get deeply involved in situations of suffering. We must not ever point a finger, saying, “It’s their fault. They brought it upon themselves. They declared war. They drank too much. They took drugs. They had an affair. They blew all their money.” God does not treat us like that, and the scriptures clearly tell believers to get involved. In the parable of the Good Samaritan two religious men walked on by with their noses in the air; whereas a Samaritan, with some strange religious views did the right thing and was shown to be the true neighbour. Controversially, I could say that modern-day Samaritans might be Mormons, or Christians with odd beliefs, or people that believe in God but don’t show up at church. If they meet the needs of someone in distress and we do not, who is doing the will of God?
Third, remember and ponder on the cross. For it was at the cross, that in Christ, God suffered. As Jurgen Moltmann the German theologian put it, he is the crucified God. Jesus knows what it means to suffer. He knew hunger. He knew bereavement, weeping at the grave of his good friend Lazarus. He knew physical pain as he was whipped, beaten and crucified; and he knew spiritual, emotional pain as he cried out, quoting Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” – a Psalm that later reiterates faith in God, even though circumstances are dire.
Fourth, know that sometimes we will suffer for Christ, for his name, for our faith in him, for following him.
Fifth, remember that ‘in all things God works for the good of those who love him’ (Rom 8:28). Out of evil God can bring good. Out of bereavement God can bring new perspective and new life. Out of personal failure God can bring forgiveness and reconciliation.
At the end of time, billions of people were seated on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly, not with cringing shame - but with belligerence. "Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?" snapped a young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror, beatings, torture, [and] death!" In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no crime but being black!" In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: "Why should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault." Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering He had permitted in His world. How lucky God was to live in Heaven, where all was sweetness and light. Where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred.
What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said. So, each of these groups sent a leader, chosen because he had suffered the most: a Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the vast plain, they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever. Before God could be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth as a man. Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured. At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die so there can be no doubt he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. When the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered a word. No one moved. For, suddenly, [everyone] knew that God had already served His sentence.
Let’s pray.
