In a Covid World: Why Does God Allow Suffering
People ask this question for several reasons including:
i. It may be a personal question: ‘why am I suffering?’ Or ‘why is someone I love suffering?’ For this person, they’re not looking for a technical academic answer. They want someone to be there for them, someone to cry with them and someone to support them.
ii. It may be an intellectual question: something like ‘why is there any suffering?’ This is a genuine and good question. Is there any rhyme or reason? For many the existence of suffering means the God of the Bible cannot be real. The Bible portrays God as All Powerful and All Loving, if he is all powerful and all loving he’d do something to end suffering, because suffering exists an all-powerful and all loving God can’t exist.
This evening we’re thinking about the issue of suffering in a time Covid. It’s a natural disaster, in essence we’re facing something outside of our control like a tsunami, or cancer. Why does God allow this kind of suffering?
The Bible isn’t scared of the problem of suffering. It doesn’t duck the issue. It tries to help us with the tension of experiencing personal suffering whilst trusting a compassionate God, who’s also in control of every detail of our lives. The answer in the Bible could be summarised like this - God is good and He’s all powerful and He has good reasons for allowing suffering.
So, what are those good reasons? We’re going to look at John 11 to help us. John’s Gospel is a biography of Jesus’ life. In John 11 Jesus’ great friend Lazarus is seriously ill, on the point of death. Mary & Martha, Lazarus’ sisters send word to Jesus. They’d seen him heal people, they knew he could make people well, he could even heal remotely, he didn’t have to be there in person. So, of course they sent word to him, they expected him to just click his fingers and heal their brother.
Then we hear about a bizarre turn of events which helps with our question on suffering. We’re told that Jesus loved them, but when he heard Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. Jesus doesn’t go to them straight away. He delayed – why? The reason is he loved them enough to allow them to go through the suffering of their brother’s death to teach them.
1. Suffering teaches who Jesus is.
By the time Jesus arrives Lazarus has been dead for 4 days. Buried, in a sealed tomb, gone. Martha still believes in Jesus but understandably wants to know why he didn’t act! Jesus doesn’t fix her problem – he just calls on her to believe – her greatest need isn’t to have Lazarus back, it’s to believe in Jesus. Jesus teaches them something that’s much greater than even the depths of despair.
This sounds shocking, but it’s actually something we’re familiar with. We let our child cry as they have an injection – why? As they stare at us with eyes accusing us of betraying them, we carry on because the suffering is for their good. Cancer treatments poison bodies, the pain is bitter. It’s awful for parents as they watch their child go through this, but they allow it to happen because they love their child. The harsh treatment is chosen because the parents hope to save their child’s life.
Back in John 11, we’re forced to ask this question: What could possibly be worth this suffering? Jesus’ flabbergasting claim is that he is! John 11:25, “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus wants them to believe in Him, the source of resurrection life, so they might have that life. Suffering teaches them that Jesus is God born as a man to save us for eternal life.
Our first reason, God uses suffering to teach us about Jesus so we would have life.
2. God allows suffering to warn us judgement is real.
This will help answer a linked question – is our personal sin directly linked to our personal suffering? Sin is the Biblical word which describes our rejection of God’s right to rule us. Each of us are guilty of this kind of sin. We’re in good company because Jesus was asked this exact question in - Luke 13, and he answered, “Those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-- do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
Those who approached Jesus were convinced that there was a direct link between those who suffered and their sin. But Jesus shows that we shouldn’t make that link. He does, however, use these examples of suffering to warn the people of future judgement. He lovingly warns them that they stand in a perilous situation, facing the just judgement of God for sin, unless they repent.
CS Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our consciences, but shouts in our pain. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world’. God is shouting at us through suffering to repent and be saved from his righteous judgement.
3. God allows suffering because it gives us hope for a better future.
Jesus isn’t aloof or separate from our suffering. Back in John 1, Jesus is with Martha and Mary outside their brother’s tomb. Jesus wept! He was with them in their suffering.
We can laugh with anyone. But we cry with those closest to us; and the bond is strongest when their suffering connects with ours. In Jesus, we find the one person who knows all our heartache and all our pain.
But we don’t just want someone who can empathise with us. We want someone who can deal with our suffering. Jesus claimed to have power over life and death. And then he proves he does. John 11:41, “Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" – And he did – a rotting corpse brought back to life. Jesus’ power over death is absolute.
Pain and suffering in this life are horrible, but for a Christian there’s hope and optimism. The future will be very different. The raising of Lazarus back to life is an illustration of an amazing future life, beyond death, for all who believe in Jesus.
Revelation 21 describes our future like this, “Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth…" God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Don’t you wish for a life like that. It’s like on a dark, wet January evening, during a lockdown, caused by a pandemic, thinking wistfully of a summer holiday, on a warm Mediterranean beach. We’re going through suffering, but we can look with hope to a better future.
And we can do so with supreme confidence because God is both all loving and all powerful. On the cross, Jesus Christ endured terrible suffering to guarantee a future, without suffering, in the new heaven and new earth. The cross shows us that God’s incredibly loving because His own son died, in our place, to save us from judgement. And Jesus’ resurrection is the proof that he is all powerful and able to deliver the perfect future of Revelation 21. That future with no more suffering.
The all loving, all powerful God has good reasons for allowing suffering
- Suffering teaches us who Jesus is
- Suffering warns us judgement is real
- Suffering gives us hope for a better future
Do please get in touch with us at King’s Church, Walton if we can help you if you’re suffering, or if you have any questions you’d like us to answer.
This article was significantly helped by the brilliant book – Confronting Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin – available here - https://www.10ofthose.com/uk/products/25020/confronting-christianity