The Problem of Pain

I am currently running a Saturday morning breakfast Alpha Course.  We chat over coffee, eat breakfast and then have a short interactive talk about an aspect of the Christian faith.  It's a lot of fun.

Every church runs Alpha slightly differently; my church inserted a talk on 'suffering and wholeness' several years ago, a talk which isn't in the Alpha book, but clearly should be.  I decided to tackle the topic by looking at a range of different responses we might make to pain and tragedy.  The terrible events of the previous week focused my mind somewhat: the horrendous shootings in Orlando motivated by homophobic hate; the savage murder of Jo Cox by a man who seems to be a white supremacist with significant mental health problems.  What are the different ways Christians try to process these kinds of events, along with the many smaller, lower profile but equally devastating disappointments, losses and hurts we suffer ever day?

'If we pray, God will save us'

There are places in the gospels where Jesus seems to teach that God will grant us whatever we ask for in prayer.  For example:

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Luke 11:9-10 NLT

It's hard to know what to make of verses like that when life has gone pear-shaped and our prayers have gone unanswered.  I happened to be driving on the M25 with the radio on when the attack on Jo Cox was being reported on Radio 4's PM, and I was so deeply shocked that I started praying that God would preserve her life.  When they went live to the police press conference we all discovered that she had already died from her terrible injuries.  I don't know whether anyone else was praying for Jo before she died, but I know that many people pray fervently for the recovery of people they love all the time, and that sometimes their prayers go unanswered.  It doesn't seem to be true to say that, if we pray, God will save us.  I have known occasions when I or others have prayed and people have made apparently miraculous recoveries - it does happen - but not always.

"All our prayers are answered, just not always in the way we want" 

Well, apologies to anyone reading this who finds it a helpful response, but I think it's an insult to all those who have prayed desperate prayers for help.  God understands what they are asking him for.  To say that God has answered a prayer for healing with someone's death for mysterious reasons of his own is I think to misunderstand his character.  I think it is better simply to acknowledge that some prayers remain unanswered than to try to get God off on a technicality.

'Just trust God'

How many times have I been told to trust God!  Trusting God is a good thing to do.  Consider these well known words from Proverbs:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

Trust God, yes, but here's the thing: what does it mean to trust God?

Trust God and it will all be OK?  Well, clearly, sometimes it isn't.  The long-awaited blessing is not given to us.  The difficult situation does not go away.  The much-loved friend does not get better.  What does 'trust God' mean then?

Trust that God will give us the strength to cope with whatever comes?  Maybe.  I've often heard it said that God never gives people more than they can bear, but I don't think it's true.  I think people are sometimes given far more than they can endure, but if it doesn't kill them, they just have to keep going.

Trust that God cares?  Trust that he is with you?  That might be a better way forward.  No matter how terrible the situation, God is with you in it and is feeling your pain, not distant and unfriendly but down there in the mud.  Maybe that's the kind of trusting in God that might help.

Trust that one day God will put an end to suffering and death for good?  Sometimes that's where I end up.  We are speechless in the face of some tragedies, like the Orlando shootings and the murder of Jo Cox, and looking forward to the time when God will wipe away every tear seems like the only hope on offer.  

'Everything happens for a reason'

Sorry folks, I don't buy this one either.  God isn't mean.  

Job is an Old Testament character who suffers a series of terrible tragedies; almost everything he loves and values is stripped away.  His friends try to 'comfort' him by finding meaning in his suffering, coming up with reasons why God might have let it happen, but in the end God shows up and tells them they're wrong.  (He also makes things a lot better for Job).

I think perhaps it's a natural human reaction to look for meaning.  Almost my first response to the news of the attack on Jo Cox was to ask why?  Why on earth did he do it? What was the motive?  We all want answers.  Some people who call themselves Christians (thankfully a very small number) have found meaning in the Orlando shootings by claiming that the gay people that died deserved it.  In due course, we might get some answers about both of these terrible cases; we might come to understand the warped motivation that justified both terrible acts of violence in the minds of the perpetrators.  But many of our everyday sufferings seem meaningless.  

I do believe we can make meaning by responding to tragedy in a positive way, which is not the same as God letting something terrible happen so that something good might result.  I remember a representative from The Suzy Lamplugh Trust coming to give an assembly at my school years ago.  The Trust was set up in memory of Suzy Lamplugh, a young estate agent who went to meet a client at a property she was selling one day and never came back.  The Trust campaigns for better awareness of personal safety issues and educates people on the sensible precautions they can take.  A positive outcome arising from a terrible tragedy, which might prevent other tragedies.  But not, surely, the reason it was allowed to happen in the first place.

'Clearly there's no God'

Some have responded to devastating loss by concluding that there is no God.  I don't judge them.  I can't be sure how I would react in their situation.  Perhaps for them it is easier to accept that God is not there than to understand why on earth he would let them suffer so terribly.  There but for the grace of God go I.

'One day, God will make all things new'

Sometimes, the only comfort to be had comes from looking to the future:

"I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.””

Revelation 21:3-5 NLT

The Bible teaches that, one day, Jesus will return to judge the earth, and he will set all things right.  Things are not OK now, but one day they will be.

'When we suffer, God suffers with us'

 Following the horrors of World War Two, some 20th century theologians started reflecting on the suffering of Christ on the cross and saw there a fresh aspect of God's radical identification with human beings.  It seemed to them that as the Son of God was born a human, suffered and died on the cross, God himself came to experience pain and even death.  In this way, they argued, God placed himself on the side of those who suffer.  God understands their situation from within.  God provides a story of suffering with which others can identify.  God states his protest against the forces of oppression and darkness in our world and invites us to work to bring them down.

“Though [Jesus] was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Philippians 2:6-8 NLT 

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.  About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").

Matthew 27.45-46 NIV  

Of course, while this is comforting, it doesn't really explain why God lets such terrible things happen.  But in the face of appalling tragedy, I find it much easier to love and worship a God who has been there himself.