{"id":3697,"date":"2021-06-20T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/?p=3697"},"modified":"2024-01-07T20:02:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-07T20:02:32","slug":"why-do-the-innocent-suffer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/20\/why-do-the-innocent-suffer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do the innocent suffer?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Readings: Job 38: 1 \u2013 11 and Mark 4: 35 \u2013 41.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

I have long felt an identification with the Belfast boy, C.S. Lewis, whose early years were spent in Little Lea, a lovely house near to the home in east Belfast where Joan and I lived for some thirty-five years.\u00a0 Now I have, like him, come to live in Oxfordshire and spend some of my time at the University, as he did.\u00a0 One of Lewis\u2019s most famous books was \u201cThe Problem of Pain\u201d (1940) in which he dealt with perhaps the most challenging issue for anyone seeking a moral meaning for our universe.\u00a0 It is the problem of the book of Job \u2013 the apparent contradiction between a good and powerful God and the suffering of the innocent.\u00a0<\/p>

In a letter dated 6th<\/sup>\u00a0July 1949, to Arthur Greeves, his boyhood friend back in Belfast, Lewis wrote this \u2013<\/p>

\u201cI do not hold that God \u2018sends\u2019 sickness or war in the sense in which He sends us all good things.\u00a0 Hence in Luke xiii.16 Our Lord clearly attributes a disease not to the action of His Father but to that of Satan\u2026\u2026.. All suffering arises from sin.\u00a0 \u00a0The sense in which it is also God\u2019s will seems to me twofold (a) The one you mention: that God willed the free will of men and of angels in spite of his knowledge that it cd lead in some cases to sin and thence to suffering: i.e. He thought Freedom worth creating even at that price.\u00a0 It is like when a mother allows a small child to walk on its own rather than holding it by her hand.\u00a0 She knows it may fall, but learning to walk on one\u2019s own is worth a few falls.\u00a0\u00a0 When it does fall this is in one sense contrary to the mother\u2019s will: but the general situation in which falls are possible is the mother\u2019s will. (In fact, as you and I have so often said before \u2018in one way it is, in another way it isn\u2019t!\u2019) (b) The world is so made that the sins of one inflict suffering on another\u2026\u2026\u2026..\u00a0 The supreme case is the suffering that our sins entailed on Christ.\u00a0 When Christ saw that suffering drawing near He prayed (Luke xxii.42) \u2018If thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will but thine.\u2019 This seems to me to make it quite clear that the crucifixion was, in the qualified sense wh. I\u2019ve tried to define, God\u2019s will.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

John Peters, in his book, \u201cCS Lewis: the Man and His Achievement\u201d (The Paternoster Press, 1985) quotes this letter and says,\u00a0\u201cLewis recognizes \u2026.. that there is no easy solution to the problem of pain, and that no intellectual solution or formula can do away with the need for patience, fortitude and courage.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

This is, in essence, the message of the book of Job.<\/p>

We are \u201cmeaning-seeking\u201d creatures.\u00a0 In every circumstance of life, we try to piece things together so as to make sense of them.\u00a0\u00a0 We want to \u2018understand\u2019 what is going on.\u00a0\u00a0 When bad things happen to someone our first thought is usually\u00a0\u201cWhose fault is this?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0If something goes wrong for any of us, we may well jump to the conclusion that it is a result of what we ourselves have done and on many occasions that may be correct.\u00a0 We may well have done something unwise.\u00a0 However, at other times it is not the case, and the story of Job is of a good man who suddenly found everything going terribly wrong in his life without any obvious reason.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

He was doing his best to live a good life and obey the Lord, when one day he lost all his many possessions, and on the same day his children \u2013 seven sons and three daughters \u2013 were all killed in one single dreadful calamity.\u00a0 What was Job\u2019s reaction?\u00a0\u00a0\u201cNaked I came from the womb, naked I shall return whence I came.\u00a0 The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>

Shortly afterwards he began to suffer terrible running sores all over his body, and his wife told him to curse God and die.\u00a0 He did not follow her advice, but he did begin to wish that he had never been born and naturally he asked himself,\u00a0\u201dWhy is all this happening to me?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0He was then visited by three friends who responded much as Jesus\u2019 disciples did in John chapter 9 verse 2 when they asked about the man who was blind from birth,\u00a0\u201cRabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?\u00a0 Why was he born blind?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Jesus made clear that he did not believe that either the man or his parents were to blame, but that this was a God-given opportunity to relieve the suffering of an innocent man.\u00a0<\/p>

Job\u2019s three friends had the same mistaken view of life as the disciples.\u00a0 Eliphaz, the Temanite, told Job that God was using these terrible experiences to correct him and if he accepted this discipline all would be well in the end.\u00a0 But this was no comfort to poor Job who prayed for death to take him out of his misery.\u00a0\u00a0 Bildad, the Shuhite, his second friend, insisted that either he or his family must have sinned to be sent this punishment, but Job insisted that while he was not perfect, his suffering was out of all proportion to anything he may have done wrong.\u00a0 Zophar, the Naamathite, the third friend, said that God would put things right if Job put aside his wickedness, and Job asked him what wickedness he had committed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Job was a good man.\u00a0 In Ezekiel chapter 14, verse 14, Job is one of the three men whose individual righteousness is remarked upon \u2013 the other two were Noah and Daniel.\u00a0 He was right to dismiss the explanations given by these three \u2018friends\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 We call them (and others like them) \u2018Job\u2019s comforters\u2019, rather ironically because in fact they gave him no comfort at all, and they were profoundly mistaken in their understanding of the reason for Job\u2019s suffering.\u00a0\u00a0 When they were finished, the young man, Elihu, also attacked Job, re-iterating all the previous arguments in some thoroughly caustic words of criticism and blame and showing neither respect or sympathy for the older man.<\/p>

Meantime, in chapter 10, Job had been pleading with God for an explanation, and God responded in the words of our reading today from chapter 38.\u00a0 Speaking out of the tempest, God thundered at Job, asking him, who did he think he was?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cCan you measure the boundaries of the universe?\u00a0 \u2026. Were you around when creation came into existence? \u2026. \u00a0Have you ever called up the dawn or \u2026.walked in the unfathomable deep?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 In poetic language, God pointed out in no uncertain terms how limited Job was as a human being, in his power, knowledge and understanding.\u00a0<\/p>

Job accepted the reproof with humility, and God responded that He is a just God, but that He is the Almighty, and uses the picture of a powerful and frightening beast to describe how fearful He should be to the proud and the wicked.\u00a0 Job\u2019s contrite response acknowledged the power of God and he said\u00a0\u201cI have spoken of great things which I have not understood, things too wonderful for me to know.\u00a0 I knew of thee then only by report, but now I see thee with my own eyes.\u00a0 Therefore I melt away; I repent in dust and ashes.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Job bore his suffering with great fortitude and courage and with remarkable patience.\u00a0 In the New Testament book of James written hundreds of years later, we are told, in chapter 5 not to blame each other for our troubles but to follow the example of Job in his\u00a0\u2018pattern of patience under ill-treatment\u2019<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 as the New English Bible translation puts it.\u00a0<\/p>

Job stood firm in times of trouble however this does not help us much in our search for meaning in the problem of suffering.\u00a0 The book of Job started with a rather anthropomorphic story of Satan teasing God about whether Job was only faithful to Him because God prospered him. \u00a0The story then has God permitting Satan to take away Job\u2019s cattle, his family, and his health, but Job remained steadfast and at the end of the book, God restored to him even greater wealth than he had before.\u00a0 He had exactly twice as many animals as previously and seven new sons and three daughters even more beautiful than those that he had lost, but this outcome does not explain why it was justifiable for Job to suffer so terribly, and perhaps more importantly, we know that for many people such a \u2018happy ending\u2019 is not the story of their lives.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>

Many of the Hebrews of Job\u2019s day believed that life simply ended as it did for the\u00a0\u201cgrass that withers\u2026 and the flower (<\/em>that) fades\u201d<\/em>.\u00a0 Others believed that our spirits continued in a kind of shadow existence in Sheol, the place of darkness.\u00a0\u00a0 It was partly to address the unanswered paradox of the justice of God and the suffering of the innocent, that the idea of heaven and hell developed later.\u00a0 If in this life all the rights and wrongs were not resolved, then in the next life the good would be rewarded with the bliss of heaven and the wicked would be eternally punished.\u00a0 This did however leave the question of who God would regard as \u2018good\u2019.<\/p>

In our Gospel reading, from Mark chapter 4, the disciples were in a boat with Jesus when it was caught in a storm and while Jesus slept, they were frightened.\u00a0 They woke him up and scolded Him \u2013\u00a0\u201cDo you not care that we are in danger of drowning?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 He rebuked them for their cowardice and lack of faith and the disciples\u2019 memory of the event was that Jesus spoke and the wind and waves calmed down.\u00a0 However, they seemed to pay less attention to what Jesus said to them about their lack of faith and courage, than to the miraculous response of the elements to the words of Jesus.\u00a0 Similarly, earlier in the chapter where Jesus had been speaking to the crowds in parables, he tried afterwards to explain to the disciples what he meant, and it is clear that he was frustrated by their inability to \u00a0grasp the essence of his message.\u00a0 It seems to me that this is still the case.\u00a0 Like the disciples we often focus on that which is beyond our comprehension, instead of following Jesus\u2019 example in how we live our lives.\u00a0<\/p>

Jesus never developed a systematic theology; that all came later when men tried to fit the extraordinary actions of God into theories that made sense to them, and then declared \u2018heretics\u2019 anyone who did not believe\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0explanations.\u00a0 Jesus trusted God and told stories that showed people how to live their lives and conduct their relationships.\u00a0 Whether or not we understand any better than Job why suffering comes upon the innocent, we should be doing what we can to ameliorate that suffering, as Jesus did in John chapter 9 with the blind man.<\/p>

The church, as it grew and developed, increasingly insisted that people should believe in\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0explanations of what God was doing, declare their loyalty to those explanations, and observe the religious practices\u00a0they<\/em>\u00a0ordained.\u00a0\u00a0 The reformers spoke out against some of these explanations and especially against corrupt practices that promised people everlasting life if they observed the correct rituals and gave money to the church.\u00a0 However, things then went to the other extreme and many Protestants came to believe that it was all about what you believed and not how you behaved.\u00a0 This was not what Jesus said at all.\u00a0\u00a0 He pointed constantly to a Gospel of Love in our relationships. \u00a0God created human beings that will always try to find meaning and make sense of our world, but ultimately God does not call on us to believe the right things.\u00a0 These beliefs will change from culture to culture and with the passage of time.\u00a0 In all times and in all places we are called to live lives of humility, love and concern for others \u2013 lives lived in imitation of the timeless example of Christ.\u00a0 He is the ultimate example for us of the suffering of the innocent who remained steadfast to the end.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have long felt an identification with the Belfast boy, C.S. Lewis, whose early years were spent in Little Lea, a lovely house near to the home in east Belfast where Joan and I lived for some thirty-five years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith-and-religion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3698,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3697\/revisions\/3698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lordalderdice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}