Wednesday, July 28, 2010
A Suffering Jesus for a Suffering World
Here's an article that I wrote back in January 1999.......
“If your God is so powerful, and so loving, then why doesn’t he do something to end all the suffering in the world?”
This question has been posed to me by many people who are struggling to come to terms with the Christian faith. Maybe God is indeed powerful, they say, but not loving enough to care about all the suffering in the world. Or maybe God is actually loving, but not powerful enough to be able to stop the pain, torture, and hurt that so many people have. But clearly God cannot be both powerful and loving, or else our world would have an absence of suffering, and everyone would be content.
The question certainly does cause me to think more insightfully about God. Why doesn’t God do more to alleviate the suffering of the poor and needy? How can God live with himself when Honduras lies in ruins after Hurricane Mitch, innocent Palestinians and Jews are being murdered by terrorism on both sides, civil war reigns in Bosnia, and so many are homeless in the cruel Toronto winter? How can God look at his creation and say that “it was very good”?
But what if God did do more to soften our hardships? Surely if God wanted to, he could ensure justice, guarantee our happiness, compel us to love. Surely he could have spared the world from Hitler, Stalin, and other oppressors. But at what cost? Why is it that God is so unwilling to influence the world more?
I do believe that if God really wanted to, he could do all that. In a display of glorious power, God could right all the wrongs in the world. But though such a display would enforce obedience, would it result in love? I’m afraid that the answer must be no. If God meddled and coerced all to be right in the world, he might as well have created robots, perfectly obedient, unfeeling objects. But God refuses to interfere with our freedom, because only those who are free to love are capable of love. And that, above all is what God wants. God loves us, and wants our love back, but forced, coerced love is not love at all. And using power to stop suffering and pain is no way to promote love.
What then? Is there no solution? Does God then leave everything in the hands of human freedom? We can see firsthand the trouble that this has resulted in. For humans choose evil, greed, lust, envy, but so seldom choose love.
God does have an answer for human suffering, and the answer’s name is Jesus. Jesus himself, who in the last week of his life went through abandonment, betrayal, scrutiny, rejection, mocking, and crucifixion. Against his suffering, ours pales in comparison. Just picture Jesus in that grotesque position, naked, ribs protruding, gasping for air, blood dripping from his head and hands, dying a slow painful death that ends with his heart rupturing as a result of swollen arteries of surcharged blood. And yet it is not the physical suffering that Jesus must contend with, but the eternal suffering caused by humanity’s failures. An eternal suffering, torturing the human soul of Jesus. Who can imagine?
This is God’s answer to human suffering. Not to automatically wipe out all that is wrong with the world. Not to flick away dictators, oppressors, and criminals in one quick swipe. Not to dazzle us with glorious displays of power. But to take on suffering himself. To make himself weak, vulnerable, at the mercy of other humans. All this to safeguard human freedom, to give us the choice to accept him or crucify him. Surely this then is the answer; the proof of God’s amazing love. By suffering eternally, he made our sufferings temporary, so that one day, we would be free, truly free.
This is the God I believe in. A God that is weak. A God that is humiliated. A God that is despised. A God that is hated. A God that knows what it is like to be human. A God that hangs dead on a cross. Because truly then, this is the God that loves.
“If your God is so powerful, and so loving, then why doesn’t he do something to end all the suffering in the world?”
This question has been posed to me by many people who are struggling to come to terms with the Christian faith. Maybe God is indeed powerful, they say, but not loving enough to care about all the suffering in the world. Or maybe God is actually loving, but not powerful enough to be able to stop the pain, torture, and hurt that so many people have. But clearly God cannot be both powerful and loving, or else our world would have an absence of suffering, and everyone would be content.
The question certainly does cause me to think more insightfully about God. Why doesn’t God do more to alleviate the suffering of the poor and needy? How can God live with himself when Honduras lies in ruins after Hurricane Mitch, innocent Palestinians and Jews are being murdered by terrorism on both sides, civil war reigns in Bosnia, and so many are homeless in the cruel Toronto winter? How can God look at his creation and say that “it was very good”?
But what if God did do more to soften our hardships? Surely if God wanted to, he could ensure justice, guarantee our happiness, compel us to love. Surely he could have spared the world from Hitler, Stalin, and other oppressors. But at what cost? Why is it that God is so unwilling to influence the world more?
I do believe that if God really wanted to, he could do all that. In a display of glorious power, God could right all the wrongs in the world. But though such a display would enforce obedience, would it result in love? I’m afraid that the answer must be no. If God meddled and coerced all to be right in the world, he might as well have created robots, perfectly obedient, unfeeling objects. But God refuses to interfere with our freedom, because only those who are free to love are capable of love. And that, above all is what God wants. God loves us, and wants our love back, but forced, coerced love is not love at all. And using power to stop suffering and pain is no way to promote love.
What then? Is there no solution? Does God then leave everything in the hands of human freedom? We can see firsthand the trouble that this has resulted in. For humans choose evil, greed, lust, envy, but so seldom choose love.
God does have an answer for human suffering, and the answer’s name is Jesus. Jesus himself, who in the last week of his life went through abandonment, betrayal, scrutiny, rejection, mocking, and crucifixion. Against his suffering, ours pales in comparison. Just picture Jesus in that grotesque position, naked, ribs protruding, gasping for air, blood dripping from his head and hands, dying a slow painful death that ends with his heart rupturing as a result of swollen arteries of surcharged blood. And yet it is not the physical suffering that Jesus must contend with, but the eternal suffering caused by humanity’s failures. An eternal suffering, torturing the human soul of Jesus. Who can imagine?
This is God’s answer to human suffering. Not to automatically wipe out all that is wrong with the world. Not to flick away dictators, oppressors, and criminals in one quick swipe. Not to dazzle us with glorious displays of power. But to take on suffering himself. To make himself weak, vulnerable, at the mercy of other humans. All this to safeguard human freedom, to give us the choice to accept him or crucify him. Surely this then is the answer; the proof of God’s amazing love. By suffering eternally, he made our sufferings temporary, so that one day, we would be free, truly free.
This is the God I believe in. A God that is weak. A God that is humiliated. A God that is despised. A God that is hated. A God that knows what it is like to be human. A God that hangs dead on a cross. Because truly then, this is the God that loves.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Elzach Hike
A beautiful day for a hike! The Zwei-Täler Land is something that we've never really explored, and we were pleasantly surprised and the great views it afforded......
An easy 20 km hike - not too strenuous, as one doesn't need to climb too high.....
An easy 20 km hike - not too strenuous, as one doesn't need to climb too high.....
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