Suffering

In the wake of the terrible devastation that hit Haiti last week, my thoughts have been drawn increasingly to thinking about suffering. It is difficult to comprehend that while I live in such relative wealth and luxury, hundreds of thousands of the poorest people in the world (and certainly the poorest period in the Americas) suffer a terrible blow when their lives are already extremely difficult. I wrestled with these thoughts even more since in the past week I have received several unanticipated and extremely generous gifts. Here I am, already with so many things and blessings receiving even more when people who have nothing to begin with experience utter devastation. It tears my heart in two. On the one hand, I want to praise God for the things that have taken place in my life, while on the other hand I question God and ask why such a thing would happen.

This is a difficult question and one that makes me deeply uncomfortable. While I don’t think the logical problem of evil is a problem for God, the emotional and intuitive problem is deeply troubling. It is obviously possible that God has a reason unknown to us for allowing such things to happen, but in the wake of the suffering that comes from evil such a thought seems hollow and mercilessly ad hoc. It is interesting to me that throughout the Bible, there never is an answer given as to the purpose or why of suffering.

Just looking at the life of Jesus is almost shocking in regard to suffering. We have a man who for probably 30 years lived an invisible life in Nazareth. For 30 years people died, endured sickness and oppression, experienced injustice, and the Son of God remained silent. This isn’t even God in heaven appearing silent, this is God incarnate dwelling as an unknown among us for three decades before beginning his ministry and began healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and raising the dead. If Jesus really can do such things, why didn’t he do them sooner? Even when he did perform these miracles, Jesus acknowledged that there were others who were sick and did not receive healing. This seems shocking and immoral. If this is the great physician and he is aware of the need, then why doesn’t he go and meet it?

Instead of bringing an end to suffering, Jesus’ response is much different. He enters into it. He suffers alongside. He experiences injustice, scorn, pain, abandonment, and ultimately an excruciating death. God’s response to suffering is not to end it but to humbly dwell in it along with us. The response is not to end pain, but to experience it. It is a response of empathy and humility and gives us a different picture of God than what we are used to. Instead, we are confronted with a God who suffers. As seems to be the case so often throughout scripture, our propositional and existential questioning is met only with the person of God. This is so strange and frankly often seems deeply unsatisfying. Still, I must admit I do find comfort in a God who suffers and understands suffering. Perhaps evil may be a metaphysically irreducible feature of existence; I don’t know, and God seems silent on this question. It’s something that I grapple with and find on the one hand incredibly frustrating and on the other incredibly beautiful.