Life is not fair. It just isn’t. The playwright MacLeish has his character “J.B.” scream out something we are all afraid to say, but it might be true: “If God is God, He is not good; if God is good, He is not God.”
What an awesome thing to think, let alone speak! “If God is God, He is not good; if God is good, He is not God.” The man in the play, J. B., is a thin disguise for the Biblical character Job, who experienced in a short span more misery, disappointment, and pain than most of us will get in a lifetime. J. B. is struggling with the nice, neat theology he was given as a child – the one that says, “Just believe Jesus, and everything will be all right.” J. B. doesn’t think so. With his business collapsed, his family at his throat, and his friends yapping like dogs at his heels, he doesn’t think everything will be all right. And so his awful cry: “If God is God, He is not good; if God is good, He is not God.”
Think about that. That’s heavy duty. It means that if God can make this go away, and doesn’t, then He must not care. Or, if God cares, but cannot take the pain, then He doesn’t have any power and isn’t worth worshipping. Have you ever thought like that? Not out loud, I expect. Most of us just won’t let ourselves say anything quite that radical. But I’ll bet we’ve felt it. I’ll wager we have felt, in moments of distress and pain, that life is not fair. And maybe that God is either out of it or doesn’t care.
Else why would it be that good people suffer and bad people get the goodies? Else why would it be that callous, sinful, spiteful people pile up wealth and power, and the real saints, the salt-of-the-earth people, end up with sickness, debt, pain, and injustice? Else why would it be that so many things happen to us, and we feel powerless, we feel abandoned and alone? Just this week, it seems like I’ve heard that story in so many different ways – just this week, among us, people finding things unraveling, and they cannot stop it! Why is it that life is not fair? And what is God going to do about it, if anything?
The city had been tense all week. From the moment when word had spread through the streets that the famous teacher was on his way, strong feelings had run like rivers through the lanes of Jerusalem. The teacher, the one who had worked wonders up and down the length of Galilee; what would happen here when the priests and Pilate’s powers put the pedal to the metal against him? What could we expect?
Some said that when the teacher would arrive in Jerusalem, God would break open the very gates of heaven, and send legions of angels to rout the Romans. Enough reason to spread palm branches and shout “Hosanna” as he rode in! There are always people who keep on hoping that God will do something spectacular, there are always people who look for miracles.
Others said no, God won’t deal with the Romans. God will deal with the Temple and will put down its high-and-mighty, money-grubbing priests. The teacher Himself had promised to tear down the Temple with His own hands and then build it again in three days! Now that would be worth seeing! There are always people who feel that somebody is to blame and somebody should be punished. Life is unfair, so somebody has to pay!
But still others smiled cynically and suggested that this city had seen Messiahs come and Messiahs go, and that this one would be no different. This one would, like all the others, promise the world and deliver precisely nothing. This one would, like all the others before him, stir up hot-headed young men always ready for a fight – why, one of his disciples is in the Zealot movement, another one is a big blustery fisherman who would just as soon punch you out as look at you, and a third is a slimy fellow with an assassin’s face and a greedy look toward your purse. The pundits of Jerusalem, who knew everything days before it happened, just knew that this fellow would meet a quick end, like all the others. There are always those who put pain on the sidelines and refuse to expect anything. All they know is that life is not fair and that’s all there is to it. Period, end of sentence.
And so there they were, all lined up. The hopeful, the cheated, the cynical. All sorts of people for whom life had not been fair. They lined the streets to watch the end for another of those haggard beggars. The procession rounded a corner. You could see him now, the teacher. Staggering under the load of a great beam of wood. Stumbling barefoot over the uneven paving blocks in the street. Sweating under the rising sun of an April day, just getting warmer. Half-blinded by streaks of blood in his eyes, dripping down from punctures made by a twist of thorn-twigs pushed down on his brow. It’s a long way from here to the place of a skull. Can he make it? Will he be able to carry this load? It’s not fair to make a man carry the instrument of his own execution; but then life itself is not fair. Nothing is fair. Maybe God is not fair.
The crowd murmured; the man under the wood fell to one knee. “Get up”. The centurion was brusque and heartless. “Get up”. The poor wretch tried, and sagged to both knees. He was clearly exhausted, unable to keep going. “You there!” Quick as lightning, Simon saw the centurion’s massive hand pointing. “You there. African man! Come here. Pick up this wood.” Simon felt his heart race, felt a rush of blood to his face; his lips started to form words that would not come. The officer pointed again, then reached out and grasped Simon’s arm. “I said jump to it. We need you here. Carry this cross. You’re going to Golgotha with it.”
The Scriptures put it all in a few lean words:
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him …
They compelled a passer-by … to carry his cross. It’s not fair.
Ia
If I had been in Simon’s shoes and had had to lift that cross, I would have complained that life is not fair because injustice just seems to multiply. Injustice builds on injustice, and there is no stopping it. If I had been in Simon’s shoes and had had to lift that cross, I would have complained that life is not fair because it feels like things just get worse and worse, endlessly. Injustice piled on injustice.
Rome’s rule was an injustice in the first place. It was not right that Rome, by force of arms, should impose itself on little Judah. That in itself was injustice. But then it was compounded. They were crucifying this man, with hardly any trial and with no compassion. Injustice upon injustice. Now they reach out and commandeer a man who has nothing to do with the whole business, but who, simply because his African skin suggests that he’s little more than a beast of burden, gets plucked out of nowhere and made to carry the cross. Injustice piled on injustice piled on more injustice.
Oh, if I had been in Simon’s shoes and had had to lift that cross, I would have complained that life is not fair because injustice just piles on injustice. And what is God going to do about it? Nothing, it looks like. Six million Jews died in Hitler’s ovens, and what does God do? Some Jews find it hard to believe that there is a God, just because of that one great fact.
Thousands of African slaves, stacked like cordwood in slave ships, die in the middle passage. And what does God do? Does God hear that cry? Life is not fair, and what is God going to do about it?
Oh, if you could have listened in, just this week – just this one week – on some of the conversations I’ve had. Obviously I can’t go there. I can’t report these things. But in our little congregation, in one little week, story after story after story to say that life is unfair. And I hear you asking, too, what is God going to do about it all?
b
I want to proclaim today that God is doing something. That God is involved when life is not fair. I want to tell you that God is doing something. God is involved. God is using injustice and unfairness to stir His people. God is using injustice and unfairness to motivate His own to make a difference. You and I become the miracle that God works when life is not fair.
We don’t know the whole story, but we do know that Simon’s heart was touched that day. Simon of Cyrene felt a whole lot more than the burden of a ten-foot log on has back. We know that Simon became a follower of Christ and apart of this thing called the church that sprang up behind Jesus. Something grabbed Simon that day and put him into a movement that would attack the injustices of life.
Do you know what the Christian church did? Do you know the record that these Christians set, in just a few years’ time? These followers of Jesus turned around the world of Roman cruelty and brought in real justice. In just a few years, this church attacked dishonesty, undermined capital punishment, worked against slavery, and demanded an end to war! In just a few years, this church changed the status of women, assured life for infants, and built a fellowship across race and class and all sorts of barriers. These Christians turned the very world upside down. They became a beacon for justice, they became God’s instrument for justice.
Simon of Cyrene, who surely must have felt that life was not fair, and thousands of others like him, the poor, the lonely, the despised, and the downtrodden, made up this church. No longer feeling worthless, but made worthy by the one on the cross, they became the instruments of God’s justice. If life is not fair, how does God work? He uses our experience of injustice to motivate us to work for justice. He takes our pain and energizes it into something that makes a difference.
Do not say, “God is doing nothing.” God is at work in all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. God is at work. He is at work through us, for justice.
IIa
But there’s more. If I had been in Simon’s shoes and had had to lift that cross, I would have felt alone. I would have felt that nobody cared what happened. If I had been in Simon’s shoes and had had to lift that cross, I would have been so blinded by my own pain that I would not have known there was anybody else who cared.
One of the things I know about human suffering is that when it happens to us, we cannot see beyond the end of our noses. When we hurt, we just want relief. When we are sick, we just want something for the pain. When we are destitute, we just want one good meal. We cannot see down the road. We cannot see a way out. I remember an international student I used to work with; he would call me nearly every day: would I give him some money, would I write a letter to the State Department, would I find a lawyer, would I find him a job, would I do something, anything. And every day, this student would say the same thing: “Just trying to make it one more day, Dr. Smith. Just one more day.” When we suffer, we cannot see what is coming. We just want relief. We feel alone.
b
But read all of this little story about Simon of Cyrene. Mark calls him the father of Alexander and Rufus. Who are Alexander and Rufus and why are they mentioned? Look elsewhere in your Bible. Paul in the Letter to the Romans mentions a man named Rufus as a leader in the Roman church. We presume it’s the same man, the son of Simon. We presume that Mark would not have mentioned Simon’s sons, Alexander and Rufus, unless they were part of the Christian community. Is it too much to suggest that because of Simon’s suffering, his sons flourished? Is it too much to suppose that because Simon of Cyrene carried the cross and endured life’s unfairness, that his sons caught his spirit and followed Christ?
Life is unfair, yes. But do not say that God is doing nothing. God is giving us as gifts to each other. God is taking what happens with one and is using it to strengthen another. God is using what happens to us in this generation to shape our sons and our daughters in the next generation. God is taking the raw material of our suffering and is refining it in the life of others. Do not say that God is doing nothing. God is giving us as gifts to each other. As God gave Jesus Simon as a gift, so God gave Alexander and Rufus as a gift to Simon. God is giving us as gifts to each other. God is at work in all things for good. It may not show up so much for us as for those who follow us, but God is at work in all things for good for those who love Him and know that they are called according to His purpose.
Over the years so many of you have experienced so much loss, so much, pain, and so much challenge. But if there is any one thing that I’ve discovered, as I’ve been involved with you, it is that in this church we do know that we can be gifts to each other. When there’s an illness, folks just show up and clean house and cook. When there’s a death, some just show up and do what needs to be done. When there’s a conflict, somebody turns up to calm the waters. When there’s a financial shortfall, somebody turns up with a loan or a gift. Wherever there’s a hurt, it seems like God has placed within His church somebody who can heal it.
That’s good news. But here’s even better news. The folks who are doing the healing are usually those who have been hurt themselves. But because somebody healed them, somebody empowered them, they now are ready to heal somebody else.
Oh, do not say that life is unfair and that God is doing nothing. God is doing something. God is giving us as gifts to each other. That’s why we keep on creating new ministries, so that we can be gifts to each other in new ways. That’s why we keep on reaching out with the good news, so that we can be gifts to others. Oh, do not say that God is doing nothing. Say rather that God is at work in all things for good for those whom he loves and who are called according to His purpose.
Oh, if I had been in Simon’s shoes, if I had had to that cross, I imagine I would think life was unfair. I’d have gotten all caught up in what’s happening to me, right now. But if I could have seen my son Alexander and my boy Rufus, and I could have seen that what was happening to me was for their good, I think I could have made it. If I can understand that life may be unfair for me, but others will draw strength from that, I’ll be all right. God gives us as gifts to each other.
III
For, after all, the greatest unfairness of all was the one about to occur on that cross, on that green hill at the end of the road. There, at that place, all the countless centuries of injustice crashed in on the head of the innocent Jesus. That’s not fair. It’s not fair that he who knew no sin became sin, became the dumping ground for all the world’s evil. There, how can my tongue describe it, where shall my pen begin? There, every monstrous evil that wells up from the heart of man, every injustice ever worked against any of God’s creation – all of it, gathered around that cross and weighed in against Jesus.
Unfair? You bet it was unfair. It was not fair that they mocked Him and misrepresented Him. Unfair! It was not fair that one of His friends betrayed Him, another denied Him, and just about the whole crowd abandoned Him. Unfair. You bet it was unfair.
You think life is unfair? You think you have the short end of the stick? He who was tested in every way, and yet without sin, is made to bear the weight of the world’s hatred. Simon could carry the wooden cross, but Jesus had to carry the real load. No Simon can carry this weight; Jesus had to bear it by himself. Oh, nobody else could do it for him. He had to walk this lonesome valley by himself.
But what I know, when I see that cross, is that God is doing something. Life is not fair, but God is accepting that awful truth. Life hurts, but God is absorbing that pain. Life is unfair, but God is with us in our suffering. Life stinks sometimes! But God in Jesus Christ is right down there with us, working beside us, empowering us, and giving us as gifts to each other.
Up Calvary’s mountain, one dreadful morn; walked Christ my savior, weary and worn. And it looks like the most unfair thing the world has ever seen. But I tell you, out of the cross streams mercy for all, forgiveness and love and healing and power. Out of the cross, borne on the back of an oppressed Simon and bearing the body of the Son of Man, comes power. God is at work. Moving us to work for justice. And giving us as gifts to each other.
J. B. was wrong. God is good and God is God. Life is not fair. But God cares. And God is at work. Under the cross:
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
