Is Suffering a Guarantee in the Christian Life?
I’m a big fan of the animated movie, The Iron Giant. It’s the unlikely story of a curious young boy who befriends a colossal metal robot. The robot is geared for destruction, but its friendship with the boy calms the creature and causes him to exhibit sincere love and selflessness.
At the end of the film, the army, in its fear of the robot, launches a nuclear attack. In their haste, the frightened military leaders fail to realize that they have actually set a nuclear missile to detonate and destroy the very land that they seek to protect. The Iron Giant, in a moment of self-sacrifice, flies into the air, and – with a smile on his face – collides head on with the missile. The town is saved by the self-destruction of the giant.
As I write this, a good friend and church member is standing near the shores of Richland Chambers Lake in Central Texas. She’s waiting to hear word about her Uncle and his Grandson, who were fishing in the lake yesterday, but have been missing since early afternoon. It’s been nearly 24 hours since they vanished, and search crews have, as yet, been unable to find them. Their boat has been recovered, but there is no sign of the two men.
How do we account for these kinds of things? If we serve a good God, how can this kind of senseless tragedy be part of God’s ultimate plan? Either he is good, but not powerful enough to stop suffering, or He is powerful enough to stop suffering, but not good enough to practice His power. He can’t be both good and powerful if suffering still exists, can He?
The only way to reconcile ultimate goodness and power with suffering is if that which is ultimately good and powerful does what we’d never expect… Suffers. If God – The Iron Giant – flies headlong into the oncoming missile of destruction, we can no longer look at Him as some cosmic masochist, an idle onlooker to the human condition. Instead, we must see Him as not only the most high, but also the most humble and sacrificial. We must not simply see him as impersonal ultimate power, but truly as ever-personal ultimate friend and co-sufferer. He can’t be viewed as the God who lets loved one’s go missing, but as the God who knows the pain of loss.
Suffering is a guarantee in the Christian life because it was the guarantee of Christ. Sure, Jesus suffered terrible punishment and cruelty during the cross event, but his greatest anguish was in his separation from the Father because of the sins of the world. Timothy Keller puts it this way:
The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical death was nothing compared to the spiritual experience of cosmic abandonment. Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. The Reason for God, p. 30
Jesus knows the pain of colliding with the devastation of this world. He faced such pain willingly, and part of following him faithfully means that we, too, will face such suffering. Fortunately for us, the destruction of suffering that we face is nothing compared to the incomparable good that we are promised. Because of the resurrection, we suffer, but “not as those who have no hope” (1 Thes. 4:13).
About the Author
Steve Hayes is not new to practicing theology. He is the pastor of Grace Communinty Church in Corsicanna, Texas.
Robert
I love theology and the challenge of making deep teachings non-boring. Let's face it, most of the time we hear theological teaching, it really is boring. Does it really have to be that way? Nope.
