Big Questions . . . Living Answers

“If God Is So Loving And Powerful, What Is He Doing To Deal With Evil And Suffering Now?”

Last week we looked at why God allows pain and suffering in this world, and why the whole idea of pain is actually valuable in a fallen world rather than being an argument against the existence of a powerful and loving God. But this question remains. What has God provided for NOW to comfort those affected by pain and suffering? Pain is a way for God to get our attention and tell us that all is not right in this world and in our relationship with Him – ok – but has God provided a way for us to be comforted in the midst of our pain?

Philip Yancey put it this way as the title to his book on pain, “Where Is God When It Hurts?” In the midst of pain and suffering, what has God provided to the sufferer? A retired pastor in Hollywood California told of a man in his church who put it this way, “God, if you have a plan for my life, where were you last Thursday?” As fallen humans in a fallen and groaning world, we often need to know where God’s comfort is NOW, while we are in the midst of suffering. What’s the answer to that question?

I have witnessed well meaning but hollow answers people have given to friends and family over the years as they grieved over lost ones or experienced other forms of pain and suffering.

- God needed him more than you did.

- I guess God wanted another angel. (see Denver Post article – 8/3/01)

- It’s a matter of faith. God is trying to teach you something in this. You just need more faith.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 – “All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles . . .”

How? How can we find comfort from God in our troubles?

e.g. Jack Welch – famous former CEO of GE - USA Today – 9/6/01 – Felt “cheated, angry, and mad at God for taking my mother away.” He quit going to church. What could have made a difference in his life at that time? What could have comforted him instead of leaving him distraught, alienated and broken-hearted?

What we find in the Bible is a clear answer from God, saying . . .

I. I am there for you in the cross.

Author Robert Coles recorded a modern-day complaint against God from a migrant farm worker and mother. She told her story, and I will read parts of it: “Last year we went to a little church in New Jersey. . . We had all our children there, the baby included. The Reverend Jackson was there, I can’t forget his name, and he told us to be quiet, and he told us how glad we should be that we’re in this country, because it’s Christian an not ‘godless.’ Then my husband went and lost his temper; something happened to his nerves I do believe. He got up and started shouting . . . He went up to the Reverend Mr. Jackson and told him to shut up and never speak again – not to us, the migrant people. Then he did the worst thing he could do: He took the baby, Annie, and he held her right before his face, the minister’s, don’t remember what he said, the exact words, but he told him that here was our little Annie, and she’s never been to a doctor, and the child is sick . . . and we’ve got no money, not for Annie or the other ones or ourselves. Then he lifted Annie up, so she was higher than the Reverend, an he said why doesn’t he go and pray for Annie an pray that the growers will be punished for what they’re doing to us, all the migrant people . . . And then my husband began to shout about God and His neglecting us while He took such good care of the other people all over. . . Then he told the reverend he was like all the rest, making money off us, and held our Annie as high as he could, right near the cross, and told God He’d better stop having minister’s speaking for Him, and He should come and see us for Himself, and not have the ‘preachers’ – he kept calling them the ‘preachers’ – speaking for Him. He stopped . . . and came back to us, and there wasn’t a sound in the church, no sir, not one you could hear – until a couple of other men said he was right my husband was . . . and everyone clapped their hands and I felt real funny.”

Nothing I can say this morning would solve the immediate problem faced by this migrant worker. But in his zeal, the angry man unwittingly pointed to Christianity’s primary contribution to the problem of pain and suffering. Holding his own child in front of the preacher’s face and near the cross, he demanded that God come down and see for Himself what this world is like. The fact is, God did come. He entered the world in human flesh and saw and felt for Himself what this world is like. David sometimes wrote Psalms where he questioned why God was ignoring him and his pain. Jesus put a stop to that kind of speculation about God. God came down to earth in Jesus the Son. The Bible tells us that He was tempted in every way we are, yet was without sin. He was lonely, tired, hungry, attacked and hated. Apparently, His physical appearance was not a big help either. The only description we have of Him in the Bible is from the Old Testament book Isaiah – a prophecy (Isaiah 53:2-3). There it says He had no beauty or majesty that we would be attracted to Him, nothing in His appearance that we would desire Him. If fact, He was like one from whom men hide their faces. When Jesus first began His ministry, people sneered, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” He was considered just a hick from the country. Throughout His ministry, Jesus seemed to be more comfortable around other social rejects like tax collectors, prostitutes and lepors. Jesus’ neighbors, whom He had grown up around, once tried to kill Him. His own family questioned His sanity. His followers were a motley crew of fisherman, uneducated peasants and other fringe citizens. But in the end, even these would forsake Him when He needed them most.

No other religion offers this contribution of an all-powerful God who takes on the limitations and suffering of His creation. In Jesus, God gives us a close up look at how He feels about and reacts to our suffering. Jesus was often deeply moved with compassion. When His friend Lazarus died, He wept. Often, when confronted with sickness, He healed the pain. He touched outcasts, and gave a criminal on a neighboring cross the hope of being in paradise with Him.

When confronted with pain Himself, He reacted like we would, He wanted it to go away. Three times He asked the Father if there was any other way to do what He came to do – a less painful way – but there was not. And then Jesus experienced complete abandonment as He cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”

What is the most common symbol by which we remember Jesus? The cross. We decorate our churches with them. We make them out of silver and gold and where them around our necks. We are somewhat numbed to what the cross is. It is a first century tool of cruel death. It instilled fear in people. We would think it bizarre if someone wore an image of an electric chair or a gas chamber around their neck. But that is what the cross was – a form of public execution. Yet we wear it proudly and with thoughts of love and gratitude. Why? Because the cross offers us proof that God cares about us and our suffering.

It was Phil Donahue, during the prime of his TV show who explained his chief objection to Christianity saying, “How could an all-knowing, all-loving, God allow His Son to be murdered on a cross in order to redeem my sins? If God the Father is so ‘all-loving,’ why didn’t He come down and go to Calvary?” But he misses the point of the Gospel, that in a real but mysterious way, it was God Himself who came to earth and died on the cross. God was not “up there’ watching from a distance. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19) In the cross, God is saying, “I love you.”

Romans 8:35, 37 – “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? . . No, despite all these things, overwhelmingly victory is ours through Christ, who loves us.”

In the cross, God did all He could for free creatures, to eliminate evil and suffering. In the cross, God suffered more than anyone. In the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus, God dealt a death blow to evil and death. God has dealt with evil and suffering, but as free creatures, we must choose in this fallen world to want to be restored to God and live with Him in a perfect world. That place is heaven. God does not force His perfect world upon us. He could not. It would not be a perfect world. A perfect world for free creatures necessitates that we choose it. And the cross gives us that choice and that hope. This world and what God has done in Christ, is the best way – the only way – to get to the best possible world.

So the cross gives hope to those who suffer and hurt in this fallen world. God has suffered too – more than we can even comprehend. Because of His suffering, I never need to look up to heaven and yell, “Are you up there? Do you care? Are you going to do anything about this?”

Jesus is our best possible mediator between us and God the Father because of His own suffering.

Hebrews 5:8-9 – “So even though Jesus was God’s Son He learned obedience from the things He suffered. In this way, God qualified Him as a perfect High Priest, and He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him.”

Isaiah 53:5 – “By His wounds we are healed.” God lifted the curtain for us for a moment. At the time, nobody could see how anything good could come from the death of Jesus on the cross. And yet God foresaw and even planned the result. For in the cross, heaven would be opened up to sinners. So the worst tragedy in history brought about the most glorious result. And if it happened there – it can happen elsewhere, even with us. God can make all things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

II. I am there for you in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:26 - “The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.”

In the Holy Spirit, God is alongside us. In fact, the Spirit is called our “paraclete” (John 14:16,17). That word means “one called alongside to help.” The Spirit of God lives within us as Christians and gives expression to our wordless pain. He is a guarantee of better times to come.

But I must admit, because He is a spirit, He is invisible, sometimes undetectable. And so comfort from this truth comes by faith that He is there. Sometimes we need more than that. So that brings us to the next means of comfort here and now.

III. I am there for you in the church.

Over and over again in the New Testament, we see the phrase, “the body of Christ.” When Jesus left, He turned over His mission to flawed people. He remains the head of the body, the church, but He left the tasks of the arms, legs, ears, eyes and voice to His imperfect disciples; you and me.

That phrase, “the body of Christ,” expresses well what we as the church are to be and do – to be in the flesh what Jesus is like, especially to those in need and who suffer.

2 Corinthians 1:4-5 – “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

Nothing unites the individual parts of the physical body like pain. An ingrown toenail announces to me that my toe is important but is ailing and needs help. Pain forces me to stop what I am doing and pay attention to the hurting part of my body.

In the same way, we members of Christ’s body should learn to attend to the pains of those who are hurting among us. It is easier to avoid those who are in need; the unemployed, the widowed, the divorced, the homeless, the aged, the sick. Yet, ministering to the hurting is not an option for us Christians, but a command from Christ.

1 John 3:16, 18 – “We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters. Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.”

If there is one thing the church should be, it’s a refuge; a place those who are hurting can find someone who will share it and help them and be concerned and pray for them.

Sometimes God performs a miracle to alleviate the pain and suffering of an individual. But mainly, He chooses to rely on us, the church, to help those in need. Why, because if He always stepped in miraculously to reverse the effects of a fallen world, that would be heaven. He is preparing that place for us, but here, in the fallen world, we have to choose, even in the midst of pain, to want to be with Him in a perfect place. In this time, we are His hands and His feet. We are called to comfort the hurting. Instead of asking “Where is God when it hurts,” we need to ask ourselves, “Where is the church when it hurts?”

IV. I am there for you in the hope of heaven.

Romans 8:18 – “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will give us later.”

Romans 8:23,24 – “We Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as His children, including the new bodies He has promised us. Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom.”

A Christian’s ultimate hope is in a painless perfect future with God.

Without this hope, I dare say there would be no real comfort. Paul had this perspective when he wrote the church at Corinth, which was having trouble believing in the final resurrection and heaven. He argued with them in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that if he and others struggled to contend for the Christian faith and suffered greatly because of it – and did this for only earthly reasons (what they would gain in this life), it would be absurd. What drove Paul was a hope in heaven – a painless, perfect world with God. He would endure whatever pain and suffering came to him in this life and hold on to his faith in Christ because of that hope.

It seems some Christians are embarrassed to talk about heaven – as if it is a weak attitude in a modern society. But I say what is weak is a Christian faith without this hope. Without it, as Paul said, “we are of all people most to be pitied.” (vs. 19)

It is amazing what hope can do for a person in pain. Hope can help heal a sick person. Hope can help a prisoner of war endure more than imaginable. Hope can help a disabled person overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. At the same time, when a person loses hope, they often die quickly, their bodies giving in to a mind that no longer sees a bright future.

Earth is a proving ground, a dot in eternity, although it is a critically important dot – an eternally important dot. And a hope of heaven gives us a radical perspective on our present suffering.

1 Peter 5:10 – “In His kindness God called you to His eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.”

2 Corinthians 4:17,18 – “For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.”

Conclusion: Jesus is sitting there beside us in the lowest place of our life, in the midst of pain and suffering. Are you broken? He was broken, like bread for us. Do you ever feel despised? He was despised and rejected by men. Do you ever cry out that you can’t take it anymore? Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with pain. Do people ever betray you? Jesus was betrayed. Do people ever look away from you, ignore you, because of your pain? Jesus was one from whom people hid their faces too. But after Jesus died on the cross and was buried, He rose again, forever changing the meaning of death for those who would put their trust in Him. He gives hope to the hurting. Do you have that hope this morning?

Where is God when it hurts?

- He has been there from the beginning, having designed a pain system that in a fallen world equips us for life on this planet.

- He can transform pain, using it to teach us, form us and turn us toward Him if we allow it to.

- He restrains Himself as He watches this rebellious planet, and in doing so He protects human freedom and dignity.

- He has felt our pain and dealt with it in Christ. He hurt and bled and cried along with us and even took the pain of our sin upon Himself, so we could be reunited with Him one day in a painless perfect world.

- He is now with us, ministering to us through the Holy Spirit.

- He is with us, comforting us through other members of the Body of Christ.

- He is preparing a place for us, and one day this fallen world will end, and those who love Him will see how He worked even in our pain to bring all things together for good.

2 Corinthians 6:1-2 – “As God’s partners, we beg you not to reject this marvelous message of God’s great kindness. For God says, ‘At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.’ Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation.”