Suf­fe­ring is part of life as a human being and does not stop at anyo­ne. But who is respon­si­ble for it? The exis­tence of suf­fe­ring is often seen as a refu­ta­ti­on of the exis­tence of God. Howe­ver, the fact that the­re is a God does not fun­da­men­tal­ly rule out the exis­tence of suf­fe­ring. The cau­ses of suf­fe­ring are very dif­fe­rent, but gene­ral­ly have their ori­gin in the fall of man. The ques­ti­on in deal­ing with suf­fe­ring should not be why, but rather what for!

On Good Fri­day, I pre­a­ched a ser­mon on the topic of «Jesus is vic­to­rious». He has tri­um­phed over death, evil and sin. Sin means miss­ing the mark and can be descri­bed as the ten­den­cy of peo­p­le to fol­low them­sel­ves rather than God. I left out a who­le point of the ser­mon, which comes today. Name­ly the ques­ti­on «Why does God allow suffering».

Is God to blame?

The­re are dif­fe­rent ans­wers to this ques­ti­on. The­se ran­ge from God sends the suf­fe­ring to God can only stand idly by and watch. I find both dif­fi­cult. Today, howe­ver, the main issue is that God should be the aut­hor. I keep coming across sen­ten­ces like «God allows this and that, but it’s for my own good!» «God alre­a­dy has a plan». The­se are all well-inten­tio­ned state­ments, but in the end they have a fatal back­ground: God is seen as the aut­hor of mis­for­tu­ne. In my opi­ni­on, this is part­ly due to a misun­derstan­ding of Romans 8:28, whe­re it says «And we know that for tho­se who love God and belong to him accor­ding to his will, all things work tog­e­ther for good» (Romans 8:28 NLB). This ver­se does not say that God per­mits evil. In my view, Adolf Schlat­ter hits the nail on the head, so I’ll let him have his say. «But if we love God and he has beco­me our joy, honour and riches, then our chief good is etern­al­ly estab­lished, and now ever­y­thing also beco­mes sub­ject to us for ser­vice and bene­fit, becau­se ever­y­thing leads us to God. The good things that make us hap­py lead us to him becau­se they are his gifts. The bit­ter things that hurt us do no less; they make our love pure and firm. They all nou­rish and increase our love of God. The joyful things increase the con­fi­dence of love, the pain­ful things increase its humi­li­ty; the for­mer make it gra­teful, the lat­ter hop­eful» (Adolf Schlat­ter). I will come back to the cau­ses of suf­fe­ring later.

The way I expe­ri­ence the God of the Bible, the way I read about him, I can­not belie­ve that he is respon­si­ble for the dis­as­ter (e.g. James 1:13). I can­not belie­ve that the fol­lo­wing things are God’s will. The­se are all things from my envi­ron­ment. That a small child dies of leuk­aemia. That cou­ples can’t have child­ren. That peo­p­le beco­me widows or wido­wers young. Child­ren being abu­sed. Peo­p­le are left alo­ne. Many peo­p­le are men­tal­ly distres­sed. A child falls ill with polio and is then con­fi­ned to a wheel­chair for life. A teen­ager has a motor­bike acci­dent and loses an eye. A young cou­ple go on holi­day and die in an acci­dent. I’m sor­ry, but I can’t belie­ve that! When I read the sto­ries of Jesus, this can’t be his will!

Various causes of suffering

But this leads to a ten­si­on. If God is the crea­tor of the earth, why does he allow suf­fe­ring? Suf­fe­ring means: deep emo­tio­nal pain as a result of expe­ri­en­ced mis­for­tu­ne, inju­s­ti­ce or evil that is inflic­ted on me. I am abso­lut­e­ly con­vin­ced of God’s omni­po­tence and abso­lut­e­ly con­vin­ced that God takes us humans serious­ly! The­re are various cau­ses of suf­fe­ring. I attri­bu­te most of the cau­ses of suf­fe­ring to the fall of man. It is the moment in histo­ry when peo­p­le deci­ded that they wan­ted to deci­de for them­sel­ves. Sin­ce then, it is no lon­ger God who comes first, but man. The­se dif­fe­rent inte­rests have been play­ing against each other ever sin­ce. The con­se­quence of this is Not ever­y­thing that hap­pens is in accordance with God’s will! Not only peo­p­le, but also the who­le of crea­ti­on is affec­ted. I can suf­fer becau­se of the peo­p­le around me. I can suf­fer becau­se I am part of the fal­len crea­ti­on. Be it as a vic­tim of a natu­ral dis­as­ter, an ill­ness, etc. For crea­ti­on its­elf suf­fers and gro­ans (Romans 8:22). But often I mys­elf am not inno­cent of my own suf­fe­ring. Be it through my sel­fi­sh­ness, by not doing my job, by being hateful, by bla­ming others, etc. We would like it to always be the others» fault. But the line bet­ween good and evil runs right through the human heart! If it’s always only the others who are to bla­me in my life, then per­haps I’m not as inno­cent as I always think. Ano­ther reason could be that suf­fe­ring is a divi­ne disci­pli­ne. But the­se are extre­me­ly rare and are main­ly found in the Old Tes­ta­ment. The­re you can find bibli­cal pas­sa­ges like this: «[…] Or can a cala­mi­ty hap­pen in the city that the LORD has not sent?» (Amos 3:6 NLB). Ano­ther reason could also be that the adver­sa­ry of God is attack­ing me. But be careful not to be too hasty here. Not ever­y­thing is spi­ri­tu­al hosti­li­ty. Many things are not hosti­li­ty, but can be attri­bu­ted to me as a per­son. If I have slept too litt­le during the night and «hate» my wife and child­ren the next day, this is usual­ly not spi­ri­tu­al hosti­li­ty, but rather I was an idi­ot and slept too litt­le. The basis of all the­se con­side­ra­ti­ons is my con­vic­tion that God takes you and me very serious­ly! It is often not so easy to deter­mi­ne who is to bla­me, the­re are usual­ly seve­ral things together.

Dealing with suffering

God does not want anyo­ne to suf­fer. This state­ment is not expli­cit­ly found in the Bible, but all the sto­ries make it very clear. Howe­ver, some­thing else is more decisi­ve for God. «[…] For he does not want even one per­son to peri­sh, but all to rep­ent and return to him» (2 Peter 3:9 NLB). God does not want anyo­ne to be lost. Being with him here and fore­ver is more important! Paul, who wro­te a lar­ge part of the New Tes­ta­ment, also had to suf­fer on earth. «[…] But so that I do not beco­me arro­gant, a thorn was given to me in the fle­sh, a mes­sen­ger of Satan, who torm­ents me and pre­vents me from beco­ming arro­gant» (2 Corin­thi­ans 12:7 NLB). It is not clear who gave him this thorn. The ques­ti­on of why is often very dif­fi­cult. The ques­ti­on of why is much more per­ti­nent. Jesus Christ is the vic­tor. This does not make it easy in a situa­ti­on of suf­fe­ring, but it does make it easier. Jesus Christ invi­tes us. «Come to me, all you who labour and are almost crus­hed by your bur­den; I will take it from you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am kind and hum­ble of heart. In this way you will find rest for your soul. For the yoke I put on you is not bur­den­so­me, and the bur­den I give you to bear is light» (Matthew 11:28–30 NLB). We can always come to Jesus Christ. He has a light bur­den that he places on us. Peo­p­le suf­fer, with or wit­hout fol­lo­wing Jesus. But as a fol­lower of Jesus, I have a dif­fe­rent confidence.

Hora­tio Spaf­ford was born in New York Sta­te in 1828 and was a suc­cessful lawy­er in Chi­ca­go. He mar­ried Anna Lar­sen in 1861 and had five child­ren, four daugh­ters and a son. The son died of scar­let fever in 1870. Not enough suf­fe­ring, he lost almost his enti­re for­tu­ne, which he had inves­ted in pro­per­ty, in the gre­at Chi­ca­go fire of 1871. In 1873, his wife tra­vel­led to Euro­pe by ship with their four child­ren. The ship col­l­i­ded and sank. His wife then sent him a tele­gram say­ing «Saved alo­ne». Spaf­ford then tra­vel­led to Euro­pe by ship. He wro­te a poem on the spot whe­re his daugh­ters drow­ned. This was published in 1876 «It is well with my soul». I would like to end by rea­ding out the Ger­man trans­la­ti­on – not the Ger­man ver­si­on of the song.

When peace accom­pa­nies my path like a river
When worries roll like oce­an waves
Wha­te­ver my lot is, you have taught me to say it
I am well, I am well with my soul

It is good
With my soul
I’m fine, my soul is fine

Though Satan should strike, though tri­als would come
Let this bles­sed cer­tain­ty reign
That Christ has loo­ked after my hel­p­less for­tu­ne
And has shed his own blood for my soul

It is good
With my soul
I’m fine, my soul is fine

My sin, oh, the bliss of this mar­vell­ous thought!
My sin, not in part, but in who­le
Is nai­led to the cross and I can’t take it any­mo­re
Prai­se the Lord, prai­se the Lord, O my soul!

It is good
With my soul
I’m fine, my soul is fine

It is good
With my soul
I’m fine, my soul is fine.

If I am ancho­red in Christ, then I can say with Hora­tio Spaf­ford even in the grea­test suf­fe­ring: «I am well, my soul is well». Or as the psal­mist puts it: «God is our refu­ge and our strength, he has pro­ved hims­elf a help in trou­ble» Psalm 46:2 NLB.

Possible questions for the small group

Read Bible text: Psalm 46:2 & Romans 8:28

1. What does the thought that Jesus is the vic­tor trig­ger in you – espe­ci­al­ly with regard to suf­fe­ring and pain in your life or environment?
2. In which moments have you expe­ri­en­ced God as a «refu­ge» or «strength» despi­te suf­fe­ring – as it says in Psalm 46:2? Or are the­re moments when you rather missed him?
3. Romans 8:28 says that «all things work tog­e­ther for good» – what could this mean spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for your life or a dif­fi­cult situation?
4. What cau­ses of suf­fe­ring can you under­stand from your own life or envi­ron­ment – and how do you deal with the ten­si­on that not ever­y­thing is God’s will?
5. What helps you to deal with unans­we­red suf­fe­ring – and how can the com­mu­ni­ty (small group, church) be a space in which peo­p­le are sup­port­ed in their suffering?