Theology of Suffering: finding a healthy view of God and suffering
Theology of Suffering
…finding a healthy view of God and suffering
This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Easter Week. It’s my first Easter Week in almost 30 years when I haven’t been pastoring a church. I get to simply enjoy it this year. But I still want to take a moment to reflect here on its meaning. You see, Easter Week helps us develop a theology of suffering.
Offended by Suffering
What I mean by a theology of suffering is finding a proper perspective about God and suffering. So often people are offended by suffering, thinking that God is unjust to allow it. Suffering often pushes people away from God, causing some to either reject God or reject the idea of God altogether.
Untouched by Suffering?
At the same time, other people live in a bubble where they think that God won’t let anything bad happen to them. We saw a lot of this thinking in the early days of Covid when people were proclaiming that Christians were safe from Covid because God wouldn’t allow it to touch them.
I never understood why they thought Covid was any different from any other virus, heart disease, cancer, etc. But that idea comes from a bad theology of suffering. And, of course, the tragic side to this false belief is the disillusionment that comes when suffering happens to that person.
God is with us in our pain and suffering
I’ve always told people that knowing God doesn’t save you from pain. But knowing God helps you to manage your pain. It’s good to know that he’s with you and you can turn to him for support and comfort.
I’ve used the simple example of asking people that, if they were still a child, would they want to receive a shot alone in a doctor’s office or be held by a parent for the shot. Clearly, being held is preferable even though it doesn’t change the fact that a shot was given.
Henri Nouwen confirmed my thinking in his book, Compassion, when he said this:
The mystery of God’s love is not that our pain is taken away, but that God first wants to share that pain with us.
God’s first move isn’t to remove our pain but to simply be with us. And in the case of Jesus, that meant to suffer for us…to take on our pain himself… to fully identify with us. Take a minute to reflect on that. It’s stunning.
New life comes from our pain
Nouwen continues by saying…
Out of this divine solidarity comes new life. Jesus’ being moved in the center of his being by human pain is indeed a movement toward new life.
New life comes from pain. Resurrection follows death. Jesus was not limited by his pain and suffering but broke through it and overcame it. He set an example for us in how to view suffering. This should shape our theology of suffering.
God is closer than you know.
If this Easter week finds you in pain, please know that it’s not the end of the world. God has not abandoned you. No, he is closer to you right now than you can ever imagine. I hope you will receive his presence, allow him to comfort you, and help you move toward the new life that awaits you on the other side of your pain.
The truly good news is that God is not a distant God, a God to be feared and avoided, a God of revenge, but a God who is moved by our pains and participates in the fullness of the human struggle. Henri Nouwen, Compassion
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