For most of us - probably all of us – here this morning, this question is not some academic exercise. We’ve all experienced suffering. We’ve all been through something that causes us to ask “Why me, Lord?”
We had been married for 5 years, and were expecting our first child. Debby was 10 weeks pregnant. We were excited! We were moving to Cape Town to be near Debby’s parents. Debby had gone on ahead, while I was still in London finishing up at work and church. And then I got a phone call. The baby’s dead.
I was staying with friends from church on a sofa-bed in their lounge, I was a sick as a dog with gastric flu, I was 10000kms away from my wife with still another two weeks to go before I could see her, and my first child had died in the womb - and Debby was extremely sick because of it. It was not a high point of my life. It was deep waters.
You have probably gone through something similar. Maybe it is the death of your first child, or a stillbirth, or an abortion. Or maybe it’s watching a loved one get sick and suffer with cancer or some other disease. Or have them fade away with Alzheimer’s. Or Parkinsons. Or suffer with M.E.
Perhaps it’s a loveless marriage. Or an abusive relationship. Or loneliness.
Or even deep frustration with yourself. Why am I like this? Why do I annoy people so much? Why do I take pleasure in hurting others?
Or perhaps it’s experiencing some great disaster – like the recent typhoon in the Phillippines. Or living through war. Some of you have had run for your lives, leaving everything you knew and loved behind. One of my friends, Johnny, left his country running for his life. His best friend was running next to him – until he got shot in the back and collapsed. Johnny just carried on running, running, running until he found refuge in South Africa, about 3000kms away.
Is there any hope? Is there any answer in the Bible? And is that answer REAL. Can I feel it here? Not just some theory in my head – but deep at the core of my being – is there comfort?
Well, there are countless stories of Christians under great persecution and suffering who respond with compassion and love. How do they do that? Their love for God grows under suffering. They radiate love, even while being beaten, sometimes to death. How is this possible?
Bishop Hugh Latimer in England in 1555 while being burnt alive with his best friend, Ridley, says “Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in England as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out.”
How is this possible? There are three things that these Christians had a firm grip on.
1. A firm grip on God’s sovereignty
2. A firm grip on our sinfulness
3. A firm grip on God’s grace.
1. A firm grip on God’s sovereignty
Sovereign means “in charge, in control”. It is having supreme power to rule. When we speak of God’s sovereignty we speak of his absolute control over everything that happens. A breath is not taken, a hair does not fall outside of his control. Is 42:5 God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth.
In fact, it is only by his power that the universe is sustained. Hebrew 1:3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. The universe, life as we know it, is sustained (kept going) by his word.
And Acts 17:24-26 says that God’s rule extends to all the nations: 24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
He is in control.
Some of you have come here today angry with God for suffering in your life or in the lives of those closest to you. Why me, Lord? Why them Lord? Why?
That’s a good question. And you’re asking it of the right person. Why, God, is there suffering? We are supposed to ask that question, we’re supposed to ask it of God, and we are supposed to listen to His answer.
The Bible is very clear: God is in control of this world. He is sovereign.
Many Christian or semi-Christian groups have made a real mess of this question of suffering. Let’s take the Jehovah’s Witnesses as an example. This is a group that claims to love the Bible – but when the Bible disagrees with their own ideas they simply change the Bible. It’s a cult, a false religion. They say this: “Earthquakes, wars, famines, and disease – these are some of the things that Jesus foretold would mark the “conclusions of the system of things” in which we now live. Of course, those events are not acts of God. Neither Jesus nor his Father, Jehovah God, is responsible for them.”
Shame, poor God, we need to defend him. It’s our fault, they say, not his. Naughty us. Good God.
That’s their answer? If God’s shoulders are not broad enough to bear the problem of pain, then what use is that God? Who needs some bearded old woman standing on the sidelines wringing his hands and going “oh no”.
How could you believe any promises of salvation, any deliverance, any relief from suffering from such a weak God?
“Jehovah” doesn’t seem to be able to fight his way out of a paper bag, let alone defeat sin, defeat death, hurl the devil and his army into the lake of fire for all eternity, and rescue men and women from eternal torment. We need Rambo, not Mr Mom! We need the hero who can break into the enemy camp, punch the baddy in the face, and rescue all the prisoners. “Get to the choppaaa!”
No, in the Bible we meet a God who is GOD. Who is sovereign, glorious, and dangerous. He is dangerous to those who cross him, rebel against him, refuse to obey him. But to those who turn to him, who ask him for forgiveness, he is their strength and hope, their very life.
So, if God is in control, if he allows these things to happen, how can we believe in such a God? Isn’t it better just to say “I can’t believe in a God who allows....” That seems like a rational response, it may even be a common response- but actually when you think about it, it is the most bizarre response!
It’s like a kid being disciplined by his Dad – I don’t like what my Dad is doing now so I will decide he doesn’t exist. Fingers in ears, eyes shut. But Dad is still very real! You’ve also wished away the one person who can deal with the problem of pain.
Because wishing away God doesn’t solve the problem of suffering. It makes it worse. Remove God, and all of life becomes meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Then we are no more than, as Richard Dawkins said, the product of selfish genes.
It leads to living for today – grab what you can because you only live once. Look out for number one. And, ironically, that kind of self-focussed living always ends up causing suffering.
We see it in our own society – so many people in relationships only for what they can get out of it. What kind of relationships does that produce? Ones where people are at war, pulling and tugging and manipulating to get the most out of the other person. It’s the get –rich-quick of relationships. And it doesn’t work.
Turning our back on God, pretending he doesn’t exist, doesn’t help matters at all, but leads us further in the wrong direction. No, the question of suffering must be laid at his feet, and I think the more important question, the question we really want answered: is there any hope? Any relief?
By the way, if you want to know why we can trust what the Bible says about God, go onto our website and read or download to listen to last week’s talk on “Can I trust the Bible?”, the first in our short series of Big Questions. www.rockchurch.no
No, God is there, and he is in control. Why then are things so bad? Why does he allow these terrible things to happen?
Before we can get to the hope, the rescue, we have to make a stop at the next thing these Christians filled with joy even in terrible circumstances understood. They had a firm grip on God’s sovereignty, and they had:
2. A firm grip on our sinfulness
Rom 3:10–11 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God.”
We don’t believe that. We think that we are morally neutral people – or even good people – who stand at crossroads and choose. Maybe we’ll admit we’ve made some mistakes, but because we are L’Oreal people living in a make-believe L’Oreal world, we think “we’re worth it”.
The truth is that we have rebelled against our Creator. Everything we do is an offense to him. Our problem is that we think we are good people who deserve that everything goes our way. We refuse to admit that the problem in our lives might be us.
I think it’s quite easy to see that there is a problem in the world. That people act terribly around each other. That our default seems to be conflict. Across the world, in every town, there is conflict. In every family, there is conflict, fighting, arguing. No matter which race, which language group, which religion, which area, which gender – there is conflict. Put humans together, they will fight.
We see it. But when it comes to ourselves, we suddenly don’t! It’s like the driver survey in the UK where more than 80% of the drivers rated themselves as “above average skilled” at driving. My driving’s perfect, it’s everyone else that’s at fault!
That conflict is caused by sin. And sin is trying to take God’s place. “I will rule my life, my way”. And so when you don’t do what I want you to do, then there is conflict. Because you’re pretending to be God, and I’m pretending to be God – so when we meet, who’s going to be God?
In that sense the answer “suffering is our fault” is correct. We have sinned, we have tried to rule the world and ourselves our own way - and sin has released all sorts of terrible consequences.
We live in a marred masterpiece, in a cracked universe. Like a shattered windscreen the cracks of sin are everywhere. Our world is broken. Our hearts, the very core of who we are, are broken.
And there is no way for us to see our brokenness – other than by seeing our brokenness. Like a cracked pot – you don’t know it’s cracked until the crack is visible.
And so God gives us over to our sins in order that we might SEE that we are sinners, and so repent and believe. Rom 1:18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all the sinfulness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. How? V24 explains So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.
God allows us to sin, to experience the consequences of our sin, in order to reveal to us our brokenness, our rebellion and our need for a saviour. CS Lewis aptly described pain as God’s megaphone to a deaf generation. Our fingers are in our ears and God will shout to get our attention!
It’s like being a father. There are times when you let your children do something or experience something that you know will hurt them (for a short while and in a limited way) in order to teach them a much more valuable lesson or save them from a much worse experience. My Dad said that I used to always want to touch the fire. They warned me repeatedly, but that just added fuel to the rebellion – closer and closer my hand crept. Until he grabbed my hand and held it close to the fire. “No, Daddy, no!” “Do you understand now how dangerous that is.” Big eyes “yes Daddy”.
The embarrassing thing is that I was 15 at the time! (haha!)
This is what we see with God. His view is on eternity – eternal salvation. There is a reason Jesus, the most loving man who ever lived, spoke about hell and judgement more than any other topic, and said if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. (Matt 5:29-30). It’s meant to shock us. It’s meant to wake us up. What does this momentary and light suffering matter compared to the weight of glory in eternity!
And it is momentary and light compared to eternal suffering with no hope of relief! It is limited as well – God allows only a third of the disasters, only a third of the wars, only a third of the famines, a third of the evil in our own hearts to run rampant (that’s clear from Revelation). He holds back the torrent of evil and allows only a small trickle, enough to wake us up to the real danger we face
Is 42:23–25 (NLT) Who will hear these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you in the future? 24 Who allowed Israel to be robbed and hurt? It was the LORD, against whom we sinned, for the people would not walk in his path, nor would they obey his law.
Suffering is for us to learn, to understand. To open our eyes.
Disaster strikes! Why? To wake us up to the eternal danger we face. Like being rugby-tackled by your friend just before you jumped off a bridge – the tackle may hurt for a moment, but he saved your life!
This world we live in is broken – and its brokenness drives us to Jesus. To survive the pain of this world, we need to have a firm grip on God’s sovereignty, we need to have a firm grip on our sinfulness, and, finally, we need to have:
3. A firm grip on grace
I began by sharing the story of my baby that died. It was deep waters. Separated by 10000 km. It is events like this that can break even the strongest of marriages through broken hearts. But Christ was with us. He carried us. Both Debby and I felt his presence so clearly, independantly. He was right there with us, in our pain, in our suffering, just as he has promised. “I will not abandon you”, he says. “I will be with you even to the very end of the age”.
When I think back on that time when we lost our little baby Zoar (that’s what we called him) it is not with grief and sadness but joy. Because God was with us.
You’ve probably heard that Jesus is called “Immanuel”. You might remember that from the Christmas stories. But did you know that it means “God with us”. It’s astounding! Think about it. God became a baby, grew up to become a man, lived life among us, and not as some great man of privilege, but an ordinary man, a working man, a man with mother and father and brothers and sisters and sickness and hunger and emotions and loss and pain. He knows us. He’s right with us in the blood and guts and pain and anguish of life. The incarnation (God becoming man) is supremely important for the answer to this question of suffering. For he is with us.
But more than that. Because him being with us was not simply to identify with our pain, as amazing and wonderful as that is. (Don’t they say a problem shared is a problem halved). He did not come to simply offer a therapeutic shoulder to cry on, so we could sing “nobody know the trouble I’ve seen; nobody knows but Jesus”. No, this is more the undercover secret agent who goes in to destroy the enemy base than the counsellor in her office.
Jesus came in order to die. Jesus came in order to take the punishment we deserve, and thereby unlocking the gate to eternal freedom. He who had no sin took the blow of sin so that we who have sin can be treated as if we were sinless. It’s a swap. Jesus came to destroy sin. And by destroying sin, he destroyed the consequences of sin: pain, suffering, death. All defeated. All under his feet.
That’s why we make such a big deal of the cross. Because we can debate theology all we want, but what matters is the reality of God’s presence with us. That on the cross God is right in the mess of sin and pain with us, that on the cross he has borne our pain, and on the cross won the victory so that one day all things will be set right for those called by him to love him and trust him and who have had their sins covered by him. That can carry us through the darkest of nights.
He can carry us through the darkest of nights.
Is there any hope for me? Is there any hope for my loved ones? And the answer is: there is. But only in Christ.
There is no hope apart from the cross of Christ. But at the cross – oh there is hope, there is comfort, there is joy everlasting. Whatever your burden, bring it to the cross.
Perhaps you aborted your child: there is forgiveness at the cross.
Perhaps you have abused a loved one – emotionally, physically, even sexually: there is forgiveness at the cross. And the strength to make right with the one you have abused.
Perhaps you have gone through terrible pain, experienced abuse, had to flee for your life: there is comfort, there is acceptance, there is love and understanding at the cross.
Perhaps you are worn down by everyday life, depressed, each day grey and dreary as the next: there is LIFE at the cross.
Or perhaps you are a good person, who needs nothing: then there is shelter at the cross from the judgement to come. For the next time Jesus returns it will not be a servant but warrior, and the only reason, the ONLY reason we are still living in this groaning suffering world is so that people like us have time to repent and turn to him. Because once he returns, times up, and there will be no more Sunday school Jesus, but instead the Warrior God who will strike down his enemies and as Revelation puts it: will crush them in the winepress of his judgement. Seek shelter at the cross. Or not, it’s your choice.
God is sovereign.
We are sinners.
But there is great hope: the grace of God at the cross of Christ: There is forgiveness at the cross. There is comfort at the cross. There is life at the cross. There is shelter at the cross. And there is hope, a sure hope everlasting, that suffering is forever defeated at the cross.
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