Suffering « Life Under the Blue Sky: The View From Below

Suffering

Friends,

I have been posting a series of essays I have been writing at another website under the heading, “A Theology of Suffering.” I have decided to move those posts here for more exposure. This is a very, very long essay that will continue to get longer and longer. I suggest you cut and paste it into your word processing program and print it for slow reading. Also, feel free to comment when you like. I confess, this is not easy reading. There is a lot to take in here. I welcome any and all comments.

Check back soon for more reading.

jerry

Pt. 1: Introduction to the Topic

“The iron enters our soul. The worst question rises, and the chief protest, when the disorder in the world touches our nerve in the shape of positive pain, evil, or guilt; when our personal life is deranged by that alien invasion, or is crushed, instead of stayed, by our connection with the course of things; when conscience rises in protest at the fate of the good, or the falsity of ourselves. Questions then come home about the connection of evil and suffering, sin and sorrow, grief and goodness. Then it is that the desire for a teleology quickens and deepens into the passion for a theodicy. Has the teleology a moral end? Is Gods goodness secure? The teleology of things is congested into a crisis which demands that revelation be the self-justification of God. Is the great end not only there but is it just, and does it justify the dreadful means?” PT Forsyth, The Justification of God, 120I would like to open this conversation to the gathered members who post here in the hopes that perhaps we can move towards a theology of suffering for the church. I believe it is necessary to do so for reasons that I will enumerate over time.There are many fine books that have been written that have dealt with why human beings suffer. Among them, Mans Search For Meaning(Viktor Fankle), The Gift of Pain (Philip Yancey & Dr. Paul Brand), Where is God When it Hurts? (Philip Yancey), The Problem of Pain (CS Lewis), When Bad Things Happen to Good People(Harold Kushner), The Brothers Karamazov(Fyodor Dostoyevsky), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (John Donne), The Cost of Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer), The Sunflower (Simon Wiesenthal), Night (Elie Wiesel), The Justification of God (PT Forsyth), Holy The Firm (Annie Dillard) and, of course, and certainly not least, the entire cannon of the Scripture.I have read all these books, and others, but I have found something still lacking when it comes to the reality of suffering in our world, the church’s response to it, and the Church’s participation in it. What I have found lacking is this: there is not a lot of conversation dealing directly with what Scripture says on the matter. There is much suffering and the world is want for Christians, for someone, to answer the questions concerning this suffering. I think the church is in the same position, but as I see it, the answers the church is getting from preachers are lacking in biblical content and theology of the cross. I think there are two different groups of sufferers in the world.The first group is those who suffer in the world, and the second, is those who suffer as Christians in the world. Concerning the latter, it seems that the church deals with suffering in one of two ways, and both are rather negligent and opposite extremes. On the one hand, there are those who say, God does not want you to suffer at all. Thus, a healing ministry is born and all sorts of miracles are perpetuated in the Name of God. On the other hand, there are those who say, God does not want you to suffer but there is nothing we can do about it. Thus, we turn people over to nursing homes, hospice, or we let them alone. In my estimation, the church is wrong on both counts. And if wrong is too strong a word then I would say that church is seriously misguided and lacks a proper theology of suffering. A better way to approach the suffering of Christians in the world is to examine Scripture carefully and see what the Scripture says on this matter. We may not always like what Scripture says, but we cannot deny that it does say it. Over the last 3 years or so my theology has been built upon this singular idea of Jesus: “And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:38-39). And the positive version: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). This is the theology of suffering & weakness. Or as I also call it, The Crucifixion Driven Life.I think this is the alternative that is not quite in the middle, and one that does avoid the trappings of bad theology on the one hand and ignorance on the other. It is extreme, but it is neither a theology of glory or shame as is miracles and nursing homes. This approach allows that the premise God does not want you to suffer is not entirely true or accurate and that it must, indeed, be done away with in the church. Instead it changes that premise to read thus, God does not want you to suffer pointlessly. That is, suffering does indeed have a point, it is at times God-ordained, and the church is wrong to a) indiscriminately hand people off to faith-healers, b) hand the suffering over the hospitals, nursing homes, pills, and hospice and c) conclude that all suffering is evil and outside of Gods will. There is a place where suffering is necessary in our lives and we would be not at all the people God desires us to be apart from it. There is a place where suffering is not an evil and indeed, I believe, it is somewhat vocational. I think our suffering can be redemptive not, perhaps, in the sense of Christs universal atonement, but at least in the local sense that it might lead someone to Christ and might even save us. (I’m not opposed to nursing homes, I am using the terminology as a metaphor for the way we tend to ignore people who suffer, or get old, or who are ‘burdens’. It is not pejorative in my text.)True, there is evil in the world. It is rampant, far-flung, debilitating, and violently opposed to the will of God. The sort of suffering that most endure, in my estimation, is pointless. It is my conjecture that suffering apart from Christ is meaningless, suffering that does not lead to Christ is meaningless, and for the Christian who suffers and does not recognize the will of God, suffering is wasted. But therein, I believe, is the problem. The church is uniquely qualified to answer the objections of those who say that the presence of human suffering necessarily eliminates the conjecture that a Holy God governs the universe and that He demands our attention and allegiance. The problem is that the church has not answered the objections because we have tried to convince people that we can escape suffering (miracles) or ignore it (nursing homes, etc.). So at one extreme there has arisen a plethora of faith-healers whose only goal is to eradicate any and all forms of suffering as useless and meaningless and decidedly outside of Gods will, and at the other extreme the church has glossed over suffering as something merely virtuous that must be endured without assuming that God is actually using said suffering to accomplish His purposes. In other words, too many churches make suffering merely a philosophy instead of a theology. This, I contend, is wrong.When the church properly understands that the world exists at Gods command, that God uses all means necessary to accomplish his purpose for the world, and that this sometimes, oftentimes, includes suffering, then the church will have the authority and the right to address suffering in the general world as part of Gods redemptive work. First, however, we must answer the questions of those inthe church who object to a God who allows His people to suffer. In short, the church must confront people head on and explain why suffering must exist and why it has not been completely eradicated (and why it will not until the final consummation). The church has failed to acknowledge this in its desire to be appealing to those who suffer that is, we are more interested in people who might suffer than in disciples who willsuffer. (And, further, I think churches in general make far too many promises they are not authorized to make. Thus, we end up with the situation Jesus described in Matthew 13:20-21.). We figure, I guess, that if one or two suffer and end up lost that is somehow OK because we gained 8 others who did not suffer and stayed. We have told them of the glories and the crowns and we have failed to tell them of the suffering and the shame. Some have gone so far as to say, if you suffer it is because you don’t have enough faith. Personally, I think that it requires greater faith to say, Father, I will suffer for you. Forsyth wrote, It is a bold thing in the face of the proud, progressive, aggressive, warlike, Satanic world. It is an act of supernatural courage, in the face of all that to-day, to believe in the love and grace of God.PT Forsyth asked, Why in His creation must the way upward lie through suffering? (The Justification of God, 136) What I am proposing in this series of posts is to explore the Scripture on this very point. To do so, I would explore various passages of Scripture, dig into the work of others who have explored suffering from within and without the church, and interact with those who respond. I’m not suggesting that I have all the answers. I am suggesting I have many, many questions and that I would like to move towards and theology of suffering for the church. I believe it is necessary and that it must come from Scripture.Please forgive me if I make sweeping statements or broad generalizations. Some of this is reaction to the so-called miracle movement that is still prevalent in our culture and seems to continue gaining steam. I assure you my comments are not intended to be taken as a blanket criticism of all churches in the world.
Pt 2: Introduction Continued

I propose approaching this in two ways. First, Id like to see what Jesus or the apostles have to say about suffering in each of the books. I don’t think I will take time to explore too much of the Old Testament books, although, to be sure, I will highlight sections of Job, the Psalms, and some Prophetic literature. So, I would survey the books and highlight the various stories and teachings that come up and deal with suffering or with trials and suchlike.Second, I would go back through and select certain lengthy pericopes and passages within those contexts and explore them for explicit teachings on the matter of suffering. Thus we would deal with, at least, those passages I have highlighted in the below list. This will give us the narrow perspective whereas the first exercise will give us the broad perspective.Some of the general questions I would like to answer fall into these categories, but certainly are not limited to these questions. I think as we explore the Scripture together, we will find even more questions raised and more answers given about suffering in this world.*Does the existence of suffering in this world disprove the existence of God? Or is there a way it may actually justify and prove His existence?*The root causes of suffering are not always black and white, they are not always so Jobian in their meaning. Sometimes suffering is without a clear purpose or objective. How do we respond to those who object to meaningful suffering with the charge that all suffering is meaningless? (Must those who say all suffering is meaningless deny the existence of God?)*How does God use our suffering? And why through suffering? Isnt there a better way to teach us discipline and obedience?*What is the real story of Jobs suffering? What point was trying to be made when the Enemy caused Job to suffer? In the end, who was justified?*Man is called to suffer thus, Take up your cross daily, deny yourself and follow me. This is not a mere call to get out of bed and deal with all the junk in this world. It is a call to active participation in a life as a suffering servant. How do we begin?*Along a similar line, we must investigate Pauls discussion in Romans 12:1ff. Paul must be speaking here in more than metaphor.*How do we embrace suffering without being viewed as masochists? Or, Why do some view suffering as inherently good?*A proper theology of suffering is not rooted in the curse of Genesis but in the cross of Christ. The curse produced the world of suffering, the cross redeems the world of suffering, and Christ transforms the meaning of suffering.

*When Jesus told the disciples that in the case of the man born blind (John 9) sin was not the cause of his blindness he was not saying sin never causes suffering, nor was he saying that suffering is never the result of punishment for sin. Romans 1 proves this out when Paul makes his case that homosexuality itself is suffering for sin. Also see Psalm 51 and the story of David and Bathsheeba.

*What of so-called senseless suffering. That is, of children who get diseases and die or of families that get killed in car accidents? What of the Tower of Siloam? How do we respond to the evil that pervades this world? This is what some might call innocent suffering. How do we justify God in light of such situations? (I think it must start at the cross where God did not spare his own son.)

*Does God crush us that might trust him? See 2 Corinthians 1. Though he slay me, yet I will trust him.

*What about 2 Corinthians 4:16-18?

*If Jesus learned obedience through suffering, why should we not also? See Hebrews.

*He can we debunk the myth that health is membership? See Wendell Berry. Also Hebrews 2: He is not ashamed to call us brothers

*How is suffering a vale of soul-making? Or was Keats wrong in his assessment of suffering?

*If we had a proper theology of suffering would we be more inclined to risk our lives for the sake of Gospel? How does resurrection factor into our theology of suffering?

*Can our suffering be at all redemptive?

*Scripture passages that will be discussed:

1. Job 1 & 2
2. Luke 13:1-9
3. Romans 5:1-11
4. 2 Corinthians 1:3-11
5. 2 Corinthians 4:1-18
6. Psalm 51
7. John 9:1-41
8. Mark 5:21-43
9. Acts 5:17-42
10. Psalm 10
11. 2 Samuel 24
12. 2 Samuel 12
13. Romans 8
14. Philippians 1:27-30; 2:1-11; 3
15. 1 Peter 1-5 (he has much to say on this subject)
16. Revelation 1-3 (Revelation, like Peters epistle, carries the idea all through the book)
17. James 1:2
18. Acts 14:21-25
19. Genesis 3
20. John 12:20-36
21. Matthew 5:3-12
22. Matthew 10:17-42
23. Matthew 16:21-28
24. Matthew 27
25. Hebrews 2:5-18
26. Hebrews 12:1-13
27. 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10

I will do my best to keep these passages in context and Im sure there will be others that we should explore together. But lets start with this list. I realize this will take a long time to accomplish, but my point is very simple. We often use this website to argue about the finer points of our differences with one another and with those of other versions of Christianity. Id like to use this little space here to develop something unique: A Theology of Suffering & Weakness that befits the people of God. Id like to engage Scripture at its very root and learn why suffering is such an essential aspect of the faith we are called to. If we move along, and the interest begins to wane, I will cease posting here and move my thoughts to one of my blogs. Im not intending on taking up valuable space, but rather, engaging in conversationnot arguing and fighting and acting like childrenbut seriously engaging in mature conversation about a subject I believe the church desperately needs to develop, preach in its fullness, and practice in every day living. Offer yourselves, therefore, as living sacrifices Thats what the Scripture says. Where shall we begin?

In my next post, Ill explore the Gospel according to Matthew and see what is said there about suffering and trials. In this development of a Theology of Suffering & Weakness I invite your insights and conversation. Welcome.

[This next entry was a response to some folks who responded to my original posts. In a sense, it is an apologetic for my introduction. I have edited the original response I made. One person raised the question: What are we to say about those who do not suffer? Will we 'say he is less Christ like if he doesn't suffer the way Pentecostals accuse those who don't speak in tongues the same?' He warned against painting with too broad a brush. Another made mention of 'free-will.' I responded in kind to both, but I have left out their comments and names because I do not have permission to post them here, and I don't feel like asking.]

Here is one final clarification on my intentions and objectives. I have no inention of replying tit-for-tat to every response and objection since that is not the point of this conversation. Suffice it to say, I’m not interested in Pentecostals and [ * ] you are off base to suggest that is where I am going, this has nothing to do with those who ‘don’t suffer’ because, in a manner of speaking, all do suffer whether they feel the physical side of it or not; all are wasting away; all are dying. (I’m interested in what Paul meant when he said ‘we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.’ Does this mean some people might not suffer or will they be the exception to the rule? I don’t know right now. I hope to discover the answer to that, but all in due time.) Death, thus, is part of that suffering context. [ * ] I’m sure free-will plays a role here somewhere, but I will only address it when it comes up in the context of a passage being investigated. This is not just about the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores.’ It is about whatever Scripture teaches on the matter. But then again, I view Scripture through the Cross and not from the curse. I might not be satisfied with everything Scripture says on the matter of how much suffering I bring on myself or how much of it God allows to come my way or how much of it is divinely ordered discipline.As to ‘painting with wide brushes’, well, that’s probably why I said I’m hoping to develop a biblical theology. Everyone experiences suffering differently even if we all suffer. That’s why I’m not certain that we can develop a biblical theology from personal experience; we’d never solve anything or come to any conclusions at all. I’m interested in what the Scripture has to say on this particular subject and how the Scripture thus helps keep our focus in the real world. (Like Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endure the cross.) I plan on being as narrow as I can, as narrow as Scripture permits. That’s why it is called a biblical theology. I wish I could actually say something before people start raising objections.Please understand that my objectives may not be yours, that I may come to conclusions that are not yours, and that I’m not going to solve every practical problem that exists in this world, but neither is that my objective. This is an experiment to see if this website can be used for the development of ideas beyond the normal things we discuss. And it is an experiment to get feedback and to be accountable for things I intend on preaching in the near future. I am confident that no one here will agree with all that I say and write. I don’t expect anyone to. In fact, I expect balanced, carefully reasoned discussion and disagreement. That’s how we learn.For me, this is an opportunity to learn, grow, be corrected, and to an extent, teach others. I’m interested in Scripture because I think Scripture has more to say on this subject, positively and negatively, that the church really cares to admit or preach. I don’t want us to limit our conversation on suffering in the real world to days when airplanes fly into buildings or a lunatic goes nuts on a cafeteria full of Jewish folks or a bus full of school children bursts into flames. I think our conversation needs to be upfront about what Scripture says: That since the fall, the earth has been getting worse and suffering will continue, but that God intends to redeem our suffering and use it for His own glory, even as He did in Christ Jesus.I want to participate in that. Like Paul wrote: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” In this, and many verses like it, is the theology I am referring to because I think Paul is speaking in more than mere metaphor. We shall, hopefully, see.I will make this ‘first’ post concerning Matthew in a couple or three installments since it will be a rather long post. The first post, the one you are reading, is some of my preliminary observations from Matthew’s Gospel. The second post will be a survey of ’suffering’ texts in Matthew’s Gospel. The third post will serve as a conclusion to sum up my thoughts on suffering after surveying Matthew.

A Theology of Suffering Pt 2
Matthews GospelSome say that we shall never know and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer day, and some say, on the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God.Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Louis Rey, 7Introduction: Preliminary Questions Underlying the StudyThere are a couple of important questions to ask at the outset of development of a theology of suffering. I dont intend to answer them point blank, but rather I intend to let them sort of simmer beneath the surface. Furthermore, as with any exegetical project, I dont intend to let these questions drive the exegesis. I am, however, hoping that somewhere along the line these questions will find resolution from the Scripture. Before I travel with you through Matthews Gospel, then, I will note these questions:First, What is suffering? How shall it be defined? Can suffering be limited or should it be expanded? Do we include all kinds of suffering under the category suffering and should we?Second, Is there such a thing a vicarious suffering? Can I, for example, suffer for someone else? Is there a ministry of suffering that some Christians will be called to?Third, Why did Jesus heal people during His time on earth? Was healing an end in itself? (What did it point to, what did it mean?)Fourth, Is there a difference between the suffering of Christians and not-Christians? Can suffering ever be meaningless?Fifth, Is suffering an ontological necessity in this world? Can this world, cursed as it is because of sin, realistically exist without suffering, disease, and death? If yes, then why doesnt it? If no, how can we make sense of it? Escape it? Justify it?Sixth, Why is it the person of Jesus generates such opposition among humans that results in the persecution of those who follow Him?

Seventh, What does the presence of suffering, persecution, and evil say about the God to whom this world belongs?

These questions, and perhaps others, will linger in my head as this theology begins to develop. Im not sure if they are fair questions and Im not sure if the Bible will answer them. This is why I prefer to leave them dangling rather than approach the Scripture with these questions. Im not searching for answers to these questions necessarily even if I hope I find some answers along the way.

Part 1: Preliminary Questions Concerning Matthews Gospel

With respect to Matthews Gospel where this study begins, I do have a couple of questions that will seek answers for but only because they came out of the preliminary study I did on Matthews Gospel.

At the beginning of 2006 I studied the latter portion of Matthews Gospel for a sermon series I titled The Crucifixion Driven Life. (I did begin in Matthew 1:18-25, but after that I picked up in Matthew 16:21-28 and beyond.) These questions were born, to a degree, from that prolonged study of the life that Jesus calls his disciples to: Take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me is the gist of it and plays a large role in the closing narratives of Matthews Gospel. (True, he also makes similar statements in chapter 10 of Matthew.) The questions are as follows:

First, Can it be shown over the course of Matthews Gospel that suffering is a qualifying characteristic of the disciples of Jesus? Suffering (& persecution) hits hard in Matthew right from the get go and all through till the end. It is difficult to read Matthew apart from the distress and turmoil of which the arrival of Jesus was a major catalyst (even though Jesus also testifies that the righteous have always been persecuted by the unrighteous).

Second, What do the numerous and varied healings of people by Jesus say about the nature of his ministry? The numerous miracles of Jesus that Matthew records for us teaches us, at least, that to some extent Jesus was opposed to suffering and that He did much to relieve it and defeat it. The question to ask is whether this sort of work demanded his full attention of it if was a preview of the Resurrection Life that was promised at some later date. In my estimation, the manner in which we answer this question greatly impacts whether or not we can claim such a ministry or healing for ourselves now.

Third, Is there a need to reconcile cross-carrying with this healing ministry of Jesus? There is little doubt that Jesus demanded much from his disciples. He said not once but twice that his disciples will be cross-carrying disciples (10 & 16). And he said at the very beginning of the Gospel (5:10-12) that those who will follow Him should expect a life of discomfort. Whether this means all who follow Him will suffer or not is beside the point. Clearly, Jesus expects that there will be great opposition to His message, His person, and His followers.

Fourth, Is there a difference between physical deficiency (blindness, etc.) and persecution because of adherence to Jesus? These questions I hope will be specifically answered as we travel through the text of Matthews Gospel. I think there is and as such I think that means that suffering serves different purposes in different people. What I dont think this means is that all suffering is necessarily equal. Im not necessarily inclined to believe that my suffering of chronic back pain or headaches is equivalent to someone in the Middle East being persecuted because of Jesus.

Fifth, There are many passages in Matthews Gospel that deal either directly or indirectly with the reality of suffering. There are also significant passages in Matthews Gospel that deal directly with the healing ministry of Jesus. I think to a certain degree it begs the question: Why didnt Jesus eliminate all suffering? Again, we might also ask: Does the healing ministry of Jesus at all contradict his clear summons for his disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him?

Sixth, I can also reasonably ask this question: If Jesus promised that those who follow him will have to contend directly with much opposition, much difficulty, and that, even though in the long run suffering will be eliminated, they will not necessarily be exempt from the travails of the fallen world in regard to sickness, disease, and the like, and that those who follow will be persecuted, then why would anyone want to follow him? Furthermore, why would anyone continue to follow after such things happened? Partially these questions are answered in Matthew 13. There seems to be something highly illogical about a person continuing on when such are the promises made by the One they will follow.

There is one final note I would like to add and that concerns the reasons why the Scriptures were written and preserved for us. John states well that they were written so that we might believe in Jesus and have life. To that end, the question might arise: Are you asking the Bible to answer questions that the Bible is not interested in answering? Well, Id like to say no, but the truth is that I am probably doing that very thing. I hope not too, but where else shall I look? I hope to let the text speak for itself and to simply discern some of what is written concerning this very large topic. I know it is not always possible to remain above our own prejudices and biases towards the text. Thats one reason why I will post these thoughts here so that I may be reproved when necessary. I hope to see these thoughts develop not just announce.

This is all very preliminary and I welcome all comments on these questionseven those who happen to disagree. At this point, Im reserving conclusions until after I have surveyed the Gospel, which is my next task.

Part 2: Surveying the Gospel kata Matthew

“Today is Friday, November 20. Julie Norwhich is in the hospital, burned; we can get no word of her condition. People released from burn wards, I read once, have a very high suicide rate. They had not realized, before they were burned, that life could include such suffering, nor that they personally could be permitted such pain. No drugs ease the pain of third-degree burns, because burns destroy skin: the drugs simply leak into the sheets. His disciples asked Christ about a roadside beggar who had been blind from birth, Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Christ, who spat on the ground, made a mud of his spittle and clay, plastered the mud over the man’s eyes, and gave him sight, answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Really? If we take this answer to refer to the affliction itselfand not the subsequent cureas Gods works made manifest, then we have, along with not as the world gives do I give unto you, two meager, baffling, and infuriating answers to one of the few questions worth asking, to wit, What in the Sam Hill is going on here?

“The works of God made manifest? Do we really need more victims to remind us that were all victims? Is this some sort of parade for which a conquering army shines up its terrible guns and rolls them up and down the streets for people to see? Do we need blind men stumbling about, and little flamefaced children, to remind us of what God canand will do?” Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm, 59-61

Of one thing I am certain concerning the Gospel according to Matthew: It is decidedly about Jesus. It stands to reason then that we might ask the question: Does Matthew’s Gospel, which is about Jesus, have anything to say about suffering, the subject we are discussing in this essay? To be sure, Matthew does have something to say about suffering, but in hard fact, it may not be what we expect. The message of Matthew’s Gospel as it pertains to the life of one who would follow Jesus is hard, full of ‘What in Sam Hill is going on’ here type questions, and not easy to understand. I make no overtures here that I have somehow tapped into a keg of wisdom that somehow satisfies all of the questions that people bring to the text; least of all my own. In point of fact, the text itself may actually lead to more questions that we suppose possible for the text to answer.

The number one question, even though I have already posed no less than 7 questions above, is this: Why, after reading this Gospel account of the Messiah, would anyone choose to start following, continue following, and not give up following Jesus? What makes a disciple want to stay with him in spite of such a deplorable outlook on the manner in which said disciple will undoubtedly be treated in this world by those who don’t follow? It is a mind-boggling, mind-warping question for which I am certain an answer will soon follow.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy of Jesus Christ. This is a strange place to begin. Most modern biographies are not written such; we care very little who were the parents of Churchill or Hitler or Gandhi. But Matthew ties the person of Jesus back to the man named Abraham and moves forward from that point. If we were to go back and survey the lives of those written of in this genealogy, lives written of in the Old Testament, we would certainly see lives that were filled with suffering and misery alongside their moments of blessing and glory. These people who form the family tree of Jesus were no strangers to suffering. But if the Bible has told its readers there will be suffering, why has it done so? Couldn’t we, in fact, learn as much about the coming Messiah, God’s Providence, Creativity, and Sovereignty, and man’s dilemma by reading about the successes of Abraham and David as we can from reading about their pathos? Why is Scripture, as hopeful of a volume as it is, so replete with accounts of man’s suffering, wickedness, and evil?

Immediately we are introduced to Joseph and Mary. Joseph is warned by an angel to take Mary as his wife even though she is already pregnant quite apart from Joseph’s intervention. Then we read: She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. At this juncture, we are perhaps a bit uncertain what this will entail; however, Matthew is certain to flesh it out for us in the remainder of the Gospel. The birth of Jesus into this world came with a steep price. No one has failed to be affected by his arrival. No one has failed to be touched in some way by his incarnation. Matthew makes certain we know of it. The Magi are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, but we are left to puzzle one thing: ‘When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.’ I am puzzled. Were the lives of these grown men more significant, more important than the lives of these children who had done nothing wrong? Why were the Magi warned and not the families of these children? (Even today we hear stories about people who were ‘warned’ ahead of time about going to work on September 11, 2001. Many have questioned: Why some and not all? I confess ignorance, save for a heavy reliance upon the Sovereign wisdom of God.) Or, is it enough to say that perhaps God preserved these men so they could take the message of this new king back to their native lands?

Joseph also has to flee for his life with his wife and son because ‘Herod [was] going to search for the boy to kill him.’ Then Herod dies and a new ruler, evidently worse in Joseph’s mind, takes over and begins to rule. Chapters 1 & 2 of Matthew’s Gospel do not paint a very easy picture of the arrival of Messiah. Many suffered just from the birth, many died, the world was turned upside down and He had not spoken so much as a word in judgment, or favor, or broken the Sabbath, or turned over a temple money changers table. ‘What was going on?’ the people must have thought. ‘Why are you killing our children? God, why?’ What we see in conjunction with this is that even getting Jesus to earth was no small chore. From the outset the unrighteous sought to dispense with Jesus’ life. I wonder what level of depravity wells up in a man to cause him fear of a child? Just how much did Herod know? Couldn’t Jesus arrival been a little easier?
* * * * *

When John the Baptist arrives on the scene, I assume many years later, things don’t get much better. John’s fiery preaching speaks of judgment on Israel and is intended to make preparations for the way of the Lord. He speaks of one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. He speaks of one who will clear the threshing floor and burn up chaff with fire. This will be no easy message that The One John is preparing the way for will bring. It will be hard.

The Life of Jesus will be no easier. Immediately following His own baptism he is driven into the desert where he faces the Tempter and I don’t imagine that 40 days of fasting were an easy row to hoe! He then began to preach and call people to be his disciples: Did they have any idea what they were getting into? After his first public words, ‘repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’, and his first calling, ‘come, follow me’, we see Matthew’s first hint of the miraculous in verse 23-25 of chapter 3: people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. So, early in the ministry of Jesus a healing ministry developed. We are not told why. We are not told how. We are only that he healed them. We will see this ministry increase throughout Matthew’s Gospel but I think with qualification. As the Gospel goes on, there will be more and more explanation and detail given to the nature of the diseases, healings, and whys of the illnesses cured. Carson notes, ‘The healings of various diseases among the people further attest to the kingdom’s presence and advance’ (121). So, the miracles in Matthew, like John, are pointers to something beyond themselves, here, the Kingdom’s advance. Carson goes on, ‘In the NT sickness may result directly from a particular sin (e.g., John 5:14, 1 Cor 11:30) or may not (e.g., John 9:2-3). But both Scripture and Jewish tradition take sickness as resulting directly or indirectly from living in a fallen world. The Messianic Age would end such grief (Isa 11:1-5; 35:5-6). Therefore Jesus miracles, dealings with every kind of ailment, not only herald the kingdom but show that God has pledged himself to deal with sin at a basic level’ (DA Carson, The Expositors Bible Commentary, Matthew vol 8, 122, 122-123).

So here we see the first inklings of the manner in which the Kingdom of God advances. It is a Kingdom that calls for repentance from sin, following Jesus and preparing others to do the same, and dealing with sickness and disease and the fundamental causes of sin. The chapter begins with the temptations and, what I will call, early sufferings of Jesus and ends (insofar as chapter 4 is concerned) with Jesus dispensing of the suffering in others through his work. We are not told, however, how Jesus healed these people. We might assume through miraculous intervention, but we are not told so explicitly. We are told that Jesus went from here to there preaching the Good News. I cannot help but wonder how much of this preaching of the Good News affected people physically.

Matthew wrote, ‘Large crowds followed him.’ Then, when He saw the crowds, he went upon a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them Then Jesus launches into one of the most spell-binding, counter-cultural, Kingdom-defining sermons contained in all of Scripture: The Sermon on the Mount. But watch out! We may not be ready for the sort of Kingdom that Jesus will speak of in these verses and the sorts of things that will mark those who belong to said kingdom.
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I’d like now to make a couple of observations concerning what we have read so far in the first four chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.

First, I began by noting that Matthew opens his Gospel by reciting for us, at least in part, the history of, not only the Israelite people, but the personal genealogy of Jesus. He describes this as the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David more so than the history of Israel. However, it is difficult to differentiate or distinguish between the two. All of the historical figures described in the family tree underwent or endured some sort of suffering during the course of their lives. Some of them were the perpetuators of suffering (I am thinking of the kings like Manasseh and others who filled Israel with blood, 2 Kings 21, etc.). Others were at least the direct cause of it (David’s sin with Bathsheeba, for example, brought untold suffering to David, the illegitimate child, Bathsheeba, Israel, Davids family and more.) The question, I believe, that naturally arises from such a consideration of the history of Israel, and of the Messiah is this: Why did the OT characters suffer so much and why, when recording their history, did the authors of the books, no doubt inspired by God, consider it necessary to record their history of violence and suffering for us, or for anyone?

It might also be asked, justly, how their suffering was used by God, or ask what purpose it served, or, why were they so prone to bringing violence and suffering to themselves and others? I think Paul answers these questions in part in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13:

1 ‘For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them didand in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them didand were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them didand were killed by the destroying angel. 11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it’ (NIV).

So to answer my question, and Annie Dillard’s question, in part, their history of suffering was so that we, on whom the Kingdom age has dawned, might not be so thick headed. It might sound strange, but I think this is part of the answer. We will not doubt have a greater insight into why suffering occurs and to its potentional causes. The book of Hebrews has another answer for us in chapter 11:

‘And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’

Another part of the answer is, then, to show us this: We who suffer are in good company. We are shown their example here, positively, so that we will imitate. In 1 Corinthians we are taught what example not to follow; in Hebrews we are taught was example we should follow. In other words, some suffering is pointless and preventable; other is welcomed as a sign that we belong to Someone Greater, and are looking forward to Something Greater. To include these figures in the genealogy of Jesus Messiah is to show us that a) he rejects the sort of suffering we bring on ourselves (1 Corinthians) and embraces and redeems the sort of suffering exemplified by his predecessors, the sort of suffering that was endured because of righteousness and obedience to God (Hebrews). My point is simply this: We cannot discredit or ignore the historical lives of the people mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Messiah. We must remember what the endured, what they suffered, and how amazing it is that, although the suffered greatly and nearly, several times, extinguished themselves, yet God was able to preserve them and their line and bring Messiah to earth? In short, our suffering, our evil, our pathos, do not nullify Gods plans, do not trump His Sovereignty, or sidestep His Providence.

Second, through four chapters, then, what does Matthew’s Gospel say about suffering? It’s hard to tell because there are no direct references that say: ‘Here is why people suffer.’ Furthermore, we have to be careful not to read into the text something that is not there. Such actions have caused many an eager student to develop hypotheses and theories and theologies that are profoundly wanting for justification. We must be careful. I think it safe to say this much: Jesus advent brought suffering to a new level, but it is, at least, consistent (as the genealogy shows) with the suffering of the righteous throughout Biblical history.

Now this is not to say that people never slaughtered babies before or again (I think of our own abortion causes and purveyors and providers in America and around the world who justify killing babies before they leave the womb simply because they are inconvenient.) Certainly, given Herod’s historical record, he did not need too much impetus for the wholesale slaughter of people old or young, distant or close. Still, the slaughter of the children remembered by Matthew is directly attributed to the advent of Messiah and Herod’s somewhat irrational fear and theological misunderstanding of the Messiah. That is, had he not come, those particular babies might not have been slaughtered. Others would have been, yes; these ones perhaps not. His arrival, or even the hint of his arrival, stirred up great anxiety which led to the suffering of others.(This is not a criticism, but merely an observation. In my estimation, it is a preview of what those who follow Jesus can certainly expect. If his mere arrival as a baby caused the unrighteous this much consternation, how much more will his adult life, his teaching, his work, and his legacy? We should expect much, much opposition.)

We are also told that Jesus would save his people from their sins. We ask: How? What does this mean? And yet by the time we arrive at the end of the Gospel it is clear enough (even though we don’t have to wait until the very end!) how this will be accomplished. Jesus gives us plenty of hints along the way of what is coming and what his people can expect. I will say this: once the violence begins it does not abate. Forsyth is right to note that nothing in the history of man is more abominable than what man did to Jesus; yet God used even that to serve His own Will. (John’s Gospel, as we shall see later, also notes this escalating violence. Jesus himself warns his disciples that they will have trouble in the world.) I have no raw data, but I wonder if it could be shown that the world has grown more and more violent since the death of Christ? I wonder if we have and will continue to invent new ways to make people suffer, experience pain, and die violently? I wonder if anyone has undertaken such a study?

Finally, I note that whatever ‘kingdom’ means in the Gospel and in real time (today), suffering is not compatible with it (The Kingdom) forever. What I mean is this: Jesus called for repentance, followers, and he healed those with illnesses of their illness. I don’t think Jesus believed suffering was meant to be a permanent state of being. This is not to say that suffering is not useful or necessary now. It is to say that physical, mental, or externally provoked (demons or persecution by the unrighteous) pathos is not meant to be a permanent state of being that will never find recovery. Sin must not be overlooked here. I believe that Scripture clearly teaches that suffering came into the world as part of the sin in the garden (Genesis 3). Man may or may not have been the inventor of sin; but man has found ways to maximize its potential. And man has suffered immensely because of its presence in the world. When man sinned, he brought upon himself all the infection and disease and discomfort he could invent and that the fallen, cursed world would produce. The suffering world is the world where man decides and declares what is good. It is a world where we make judgments about what is right and what is wrong. The pathos in this world clearly shows us that our choices have had cataclysmic consequences not only for humanity but for the rest of creation as well (Romans 8, Job, etc.). In other words, we will continue to find new ways to kill, suffer, and die as long as we are on this planet. Jesus healing of all sorts of various diseases and maladies is his rebuke of sin and mans right to determine what is good and not. A world without suffering will be a world that is governed by Messiah because Jesus alone has the authority and power to dispense with suffering and render it powerless to control humanity (Hebrews 2:14-18). (I think this is also seen in Jesus constant rebuke of demons and the role they play in causing humans to suffer; see Matthew 17:14-21). If suffering will not be a part of the completely redeemed world (the not yet), and it is a part of the partially redeemed world (the now), and sin is always lurking, could this suffering be partial judgment on the earth and on those who sin to show us how far reaching is sins reach? (Yes, of course, there are innocents who suffer, but this does not negate the general point. There will always be innocents who suffer because of others.)

Next, we will move into Matthews second panel, Matthew chapters 5-7 and try to unravel a little of what he says will be defining characteristics of those who choose the kingdom way of life or at least what such people should expect will characterize their experience. In my estimation, Matthew 5-7 stands as a contrast and a rebuke of the so-called name it and claim ministry model, the health and wealth gospel, and the formalized practice of faith-healing. These ideas are simply incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus as presented in Matthew (and elsewhere in the NT).

(I have also encountered a couple of new volumes that I think might be helpful in these studies. One is called, How Long, O Lord: Reflections on Suffering and Evil, by DA Carson, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder, The House of the Dead, Notes From the Underground & Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Dostoyevsky is brilliant in his searching of mans inner recesses. His depth of understanding of the psychology of mans torment is unparalleled.), One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Candide, Voltaire. I will be adding books as I remember them or come across them. (I have read all these with the exception of Carsons book which I only obtained 4 days ago.) I sometimes forget about them until I look at them again. So many stories deal with suffering that nearly all of them could be included at one point or another. Im listing the ones I have read, enjoyed, and learned from. Incidentally, The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a fantastic book that should be read in conjunction with Brave New World by Aldous Huxley & King Lear by William Shakespeare. You will find them to be a remarkable commentary on each other.)

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Friends,

Here is the first sermon in the series of sermons I will be delivering from Matthew’s Gospel over the next 10 weeks or so. I preached the first half of this sermon Sunday (9/9) and saved the second half for next week (9/16). I’m not exactly certain how I feel about these first two points I made in this message. I thought perhaps they were a bit muddled or perhaps they were too similar and therefore much of what I said was a bit redundant. Then again, I thought too that perhaps I should have formulated a different outline, one that would have had only three points instead of four. If I had gone with the three points they would have looked like this:

Theme: We serve a God who has not abandoned us to suffering and the ravages of evil. Instead, he shows, in Christ what he thinks of evil in suffering.

1. Jesus acknowledges the reality of suffering in people.

2. Jesus participates in the reality of suffering at the cross.

3. Jesus will ultimately eradicate all suffering from life.

These three points can be sufficiently made from the text of Matthew 1-4. He acknowledges the reality of suffering by being born into a world of suffering for the express purpose of ’saving people from their sins.’ Not only this, but also we learn this indirectly through the geneaology. Finally, His name is ‘Emmanuel’ which means ‘God with us.’ He not only acknowledges suffering, but participates in it. He participates in the reality of suffering at the cross, but also it is previewed in the temptations in the desert. And finally, the last part of chapter 4 shows the reader a preview of what Jesus will ultimately do with all suffering and disease. But this only comes after we are told that he will ’save people from their sins.’

I probably could have made this sermon ‘work’ a little better than my current outline, even the current outline contains hints and parts of the above outline. So, for what it’s worth, below is the first sermon I preached on ‘Towards a Theology of Suffering’ from the Gospel according to Matthew.

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Towards a Theology of Suffering

The Gospel according to Matthew

Pt. 1: The Advent of the Son of God and Suffering

Matthew 1-4

Introduction

“After 911 the entire world asked once again the age old question, ‘If God is good then why evil?’ The paradox of the Cross of Christ is the answer to all of the pained questionings of the human heart. The bottom line: God permits evil only to draw a greater good from it.”

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We support a mission outreach called Training Christians for Ministry. Four of us will be traveling to Austria next year in support of this mission. Their most recent letter, dated August 20, reports on one of their students, Zaur Balaev who is from Aliabad, Azerbaijan, and who, recently, was sentenced to two years in prison for holding what officials called ‘illegal meetings under the guise of religious activity without concrete authority and without state recognition.’ He was also accused of ‘setting a dog on police during their raid of a Sunday worship service,’ ‘attacking five policemen and damaging a police car.’ TCM reports that ‘even though all charges are groundless, he has been held for two months pending trial. During this time he has been repeatedly beaten, suffered two heart attacks (he has a congenital heart condition), and now suffers severe kidney pain.’ He has, according to witnesses been kept at a place called ‘the frog pool’ where prisoners are usually kept for short periods. There is no toilet or ventilation….He is 44 years old.’ He has a wife and two children who have been denied even the basic courtesy of birth certificates.’ [Try: Forum18.]

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Jacqui and Amadeo Saburido are on a quest. They’re trying to salvage Jacqui’s hands and eyes, restore her independence and, maybe, make her whole again after the accident. On Sept. 19, 1999, Jacqui got a ride home from a party in Austin. On a dark road, a drunken driver veered over the yellow line.

Two passengers died on impact. Two were rescued from the spreading fire by frantic paramedics. Jacqui, pinned in the front seat, burned. She woke up in a hospital in Galveston, blind and hallucinating. Her parents, estranged from each other, waited by her bedside, watching parts of their daughter die. But Jacqui lived. She emerged from the hospital unrecognizable and totally dependent.

She suffered third-degree burns over 60 percent of her body, according to her hospital discharge report. After 2 years, she’s had more than 40 surgical procedures. Her goals are basic but desperate. She wants her left eyelid rebuilt and her vision restored. She wants to regain use of her hands. She also wants hair, a nose and lips. But no doctor has the magic answer, and no surgeon has much to work with. Jacqui’s body is a mass of scars. “I know I’m not going to be the same,” Jacqui says, “but I want to recover what I can.”

Amadeo shuttles his daughter from city to city, chasing referrals and fourth opinions. As long as Jacqui has options — and the will — her search continues. “We’re in a life of wandering,” says Amadeo, who is 49. [For more on the story of Jacqui.]

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Let us now turn our attention to the Word of God:

18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23″The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”

24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

I don’t suppose that I will answer all the questions that we bring to the text concerning suffering and evil in the world in the course of the mere four and a half hours I will speak to you over the next 9 weeks. I don’t even suppose that the Scriptures we will search will have all the answers, or any answers, to the questions we will bring to them.

Suffering is no easy reality to contend with; evil is no reality to grapple with. But my thesis is not that suffering and evil are easy to wrestle with, but rather that suffering and evil are not merely subjects we must study or concepts we must hypothesize about. No, in fact, my thesis is that suffering and evil are necessarily about people. It is, after all, people who suffer, not suffering that peoples. Now that may sound strange, but I don’t believe our responsibility on earth is necessarily to eradicate evil because, in fact, we cannot. Our responsibility is to point people to the Savior who acknowledges suffering, who participates in suffering, and who, ultimately, redeems and corrects and eradicates suffering.

In other words, I think that we Christians have to be realistic about suffering in this world. To be sure, this is not merely about developing an understanding of suffering and evil as if those two were disconnected from reality and people. It is about developing a proper response and action to evil: What then shall we do? is somewhat more important than, What then shall we say? Some preachers have a grand vision for Christianity. Rick Warren, the famous preacher of the Purpose Driven Life says at his website: Dr. Rick Warren is passionate about attacking what he calls the five “Global Goliaths” – spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy/poor education. His goal is a second Reformation by restoring responsibility in people, credibility in churches, and civility in culture. He is a pastor, global strategist, theologian, and philanthropist. He’s been often named “America’s most influential spiritual leader” and “America’s Pastor.”

But even Jesus said, rather clearly, that in spite of our best efforts, ‘there will always be poor among us.’ So contrary to Warren’s assertion that the church has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to such things in the world. Said Warren in an essay in Christianity Today:

Around this time, Warren says he was driven to reexamine Scripture with “new eyes.” What he found humbled him. “I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God’s compassion for the poor? I was not seeing all the purposes of God.

“The church is the body of Christ. The hands and feet have been amputated and we’re just a big mouth, known more for what we’re against.” Warren found himself praying, “God, would you use me to reattach the hands and the feet to the body of Christ, so that the whole church cares about the whole gospel in a whole new way—through the local church?”

Well in principle, perhaps. I’m not being critical, but I do wonder if perhaps this is not a little over-reaching, and not a little beside the point. After all, what is the relief of suffering apart from faith in Christ by more suffering? That is why, for instance, Matthew begins his Gospel by retelling us the genealogy of Jesus. He is remind us of people who, through the ages of Christian faith, have suffered. In other words, Christianity is not about turning a blind eye to the fact of suffering; suffering is our history. And not only is it our history, it is the history of the Messiah, Jesus. As Bonhoeffer taught, When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

With the balance of my time this morning, I’d like to share some general observations I have gleaned from Matthew 1-4. I will share four thoughts. First, the advent of the Son of God necessarily brought a more focused and acute suffering for the guilty and the innocent. Second, those who belong to Jesus and follow him will necessarily endure more suffering from those opposed to Him. Third, the life of Jesus was necessarily characterized by suffering in many forms. And finally, in Jesus’ ministry, we have a preview of the ultimate ends he means to achieve and will achieve through the cross and resurrection.

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First, we see from Matthew 1-4 that the advent of the Son of God brought a more focused and acute suffering into this world. This is not to say that suffering didn’t exist before Christ came: It most certainly did. But look at what happens:

There are innocent children who suffer at the hands of vicious Herod. There are the Magi undoubtedly having to endure some difficulty due to what they knew about the Messiah. I wonder why it is that the Magi were warned in a dream to flee Herod but the families of those young boys were not? Then there’s Mary and Joseph, forced to leave their homes and flee to Egypt. Then there’s this saying from John.

For some reason, the embodiment of God’s righteousness and truth flipped a switch in people’s minds. When we read through John’s Gospel we were constantly encountering people who wanted to kill or arrest or stone or lay hands on Jesus and who eventually did. Jesus, for some reason, upset something in the status quo, something in the so-called balance of power, so that even today we see people being persecuted because of Jesus. Yet there are no apologies in Scripture for what Herod did because of Jesus. It is reported very matter of factly: When Herod couldn’t find Jesus, he took out his wrath on others. I think that this sort of evil and violence continues to be perpetuated by the hands of those who despise the righteousness of God.

And I think this means more than just physical assault. There is in place and entire system of unregulated, and somewhat unmitigated, violence being perpetuated against people who belong to God’s righteousness in Christ. Those children in Judea those days were only the first in what has proven to be a long lilne of people persecuted because of Jesus. But you will notice that it was in an effort to get to Jesus that these violences took place. The searches, the murders, the escapes: these were all because someone was trying to get to Jesus. I wonder if the same is not true now also?

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Second, those who belong to Jesus will necessarily have to endure more suffering by those opposed to Jesus than will others. I think the Scriptural attestation to this is abundant. In fact, Jesus will waste no time telling his disciples in chapter 5 of Matthew that this is what they can expect from the world. Matthew wrote:

13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18″A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Look at all these people, from the get go, who endured suffering and violence at the hands of those opposed to Jesus. And as we continue to read through the Gospels, not just Matthew, and even into the book of Acts, we learn that the followers of Jesus will continue to face great opposition and persecution. It is inevitable that those who follow the way of the Righteous One will have to endure the same ignominious persecution that The Righteous One faced. This is why, I think in part, the genealogy is included in Matthew at the start. It shows us that when we suffer, we are suffering in good company. This is reiterated in the Gospel in Hebrews chapter 11 which was written, in part, to show us that those who belonged to Christ even in the OT days suffered for their righteousness and for the Righteous One. We should expect it because it has been our history from the beginning.

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Third, we learn from Matthew 1-4 that the life of Jesus would be characterized by suffering. Indeed, he was the ‘man of sorrows’ who ‘carried our burdens.’ He was characterized by trials, temptations, and sufferings. So we read:

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6″If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
” ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9″All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

The book of Hebrews again says that ‘Jesus learned obedience by what he suffered.’ In other words, his suffering enables him to be a ‘perfect high priest’ because he fully understands our condition.

But this is also true because Jesus, Matthew wrote, ‘would save his people from their sins.’ We would only fully understand this statement near the end of the Gospel when Jesus was crucified, but even here at the beginning, we see how Jesus suffered when he was tempted (Hebrews 2:18). So Leon Morris wrote in his book The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross:

Our redemption was not purchased cheaply. This thought is to be discerned in the statement that ‘it became him…in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings’ (Hebrews 2:10). Again, there is the thought that Christ suffered through temptation (Hebrews 2:18; and see 4:15), and it is said that He ’suffered without the gate’ (Hebrews 13:12). In similar vein are passages stressing the humiliation of the incarnation; He was made a little lower than the angels for the tasting of death (Heb 2:9), He endured the cross despising its shame, and from many directions we see a stress laid on the cost of our salvation, and this should be borne in mind in estimating the writer’s thought on redemption. Even when he is not using that exact term, he has the idea of cost that it denotes.”

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Finally, we see here in Matthew 1-4 that in Jesus’ ministry, we have a preview of the ultimate ends he means to achieve and will achieve through the cross and resurrection; through His suffering:

23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. 25Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

To put it simply, Jesus hated suffering and disease and evil and the waste that it lays to human life. I don’t really think people understand this, I really don’t. People say things like, “If God is good why is there suffering and evil?” A better question is, “Since God is good and righteous and just and holy, what has he done about evil and suffering in the person of Jesus?” This passage shows us, I think, not the norm of the Kingdom now, but rather a preview of what Jesus plans to ultimately do with all the suffering and evil in the world: Eradicate it.

Still, I think we have to remember this: He will save his people from their sins. If Jesus came to the earth to save his people from their sins, is there any relationship, ultimately, between suffering and sin? Ultimately, yes. It seems to me that the ultimate dismantling of suffering in this world will come when sin and death, the last enemy, is finally undone. So Hebrews 2:

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

And, finally, Revelation 21:

3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He 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.” 5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

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Conclusion

These are preliminary thoughts, to be sure, but hopefully they remind us that we live in a flawed world. More importantly, I hope they remind us that we live in a world that has been, is, and will be fully redeemed by Jesus, and only Jesus. My point this morning is that only in Jesus does suffering even begin to make sense because only in Jesus can we a way out, a way through, or even peace and hope in the midst of.

But there’s one last thing.

Of one thing I am certain concerning the Gospel according to Matthew: It is decidedly about Jesus. The message of Matthew’s Gospel as it pertains to the life of one who would follow Jesus is hard, full of ‘What in Sam Hill is going on’ here type questions, and not easy to understand. I make no overtures here that I have somehow tapped into a keg of wisdom that somehow satisfies all of the questions that people bring to the text; least of all my own.

The number one question is this: Why, after reading this Gospel account of the Messiah, of Jesus, would anyone choose to start following, continue following, and not give up following Jesus? What makes a disciple want to stay with him in spite of such a deplorable outlook on the manner in which said disciple will undoubtedly be treated in this world by those who don’t follow? It is a mind-boggling, mind-warping question for which I am certain an answer will soon follow.

But I think the answer is found in Jesus himself. The answer is found in our hope that Jesus will eventually make all things perfect according to his will. Our hope is that some day, death will finally be trampled, death will finally die, and that Jesus will in fact be exalted and glorified by all. I say this because, I submit to you that suffering and evil will not finally be done away with in this world until Jesus is finally, fully, and forever exalted and glorified, and every knee bows, and every tongue confesses, that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Only in that confession can we begin to understand the suffering and evil that we must endure in this world.

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Friends,

Here is the text to Sermon #2 from the series: Towards a Theology of Suffering. This time our text was Matthew 5-7, although I spent most of the Message on the first 16 verses of chapter 5. Thanks for stopping by.

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Towards a Theology of Suffering

The Gospel according to Matthew

Pt. 2: Suffering Will Characterize Those Who Pursue Righteousness & The Kingdom of God: Being a Disciple of Jesus

Matthew 5-7

Introduction

“God is no more blinding people with glaucoma, or testing them with diabetes, or purifying them with spinal pain, or choreographing the seeding of tumor cells through lymph, or fiddling with chromosomes, than he is jimmying floodwaters or pitching tornadoes at towns. God is nor more cogitating which among us he plans to place here as bird-headed dwarfs or elephant men—or to kill by AIDS or kidney failure, heart disease, childhood leukemia, or sudden infant death syndrome—than he is pitching lighting bolts at pedestrians, triggering rock slides, or setting fires. The very least likely things for which God might be responsible are what insurers call ‘acts of God.’

“Then what, if anything, does he do? If God does not cause everything that happens, does God cause anything that happens? Is God completely out of the loop?

“Sometimes God moves loudly, as if spinning to another place like ball lightning. God is, oddly, personal; this God knows. Sometimes en route, dazzlingly or dimly, he shows an edge of himself to souls who seek him, and the people who bear those souls, marveling, know it, and see the skies carousing around them, and watch cells stream and multiply in green leaves. He does not give as the world gives; he leads invisibly over many years, or he wallops for thirty seconds at a time. He may touch a mind, too, making a loud sound, or a mind may feel the rim of his mind as he nears. Such experiences are gifts to beginners. ‘Later on,’ as Hasid master said, ‘you don’t see these things anymore.’ (Having see, people of varying cultures turn—for reasons unknown, and by a mechanism unimaginable—to aiding and serving the afflicted and poor.)” (168-169, Annie Dillard,For the Time Being)

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“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggled you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.” (Philippians 1:29-30)

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Within the past couple of weeks, there has been a story making the rounds in the media. I have blogged about it a great deal and it has generated quite a few rather intense exchanges between myself and some others. The story I am referring to is about some remarks that an actress named Kathy Griffen made during a recent television broadcast of the Emmy Awards. Her remarks were rather vulgar and blasphemous and I will not repeat all of them here, but I’d like to share a little of what I wrote at my blog.

In her speech, Griffin said that “a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus.” She went on to hold up her Emmy, make an off-color remark about Christ and proclaim, “This award is my god now!”

Now, the reason I’m blogging about this is not because I care what Kathy Griffen says, but because I’m concerned about the response to what she said. Here’s one response:

The comedian’s remarks were condemned Monday by Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who called them a “vulgar, in-your-face brand of hate speech.”

And?

Seriously, why should anyone be surprised? Was Mr. Donohue watching the Emmy’s? I’m not certain why he would be offended; I’m not certain why any Christian would be offended: This is what people who are not-Christians do (especially not-Christians on the D-list who are trying to drum up publicity). Oh, Mr. Donohue fell right into her trap!

So now, Ms. Griffen is evidently going to be censored when her speech is replayed on another channel. Why? What will that accomplish? Doesn’t everyone already know what she said? And who is it going to offend: All the Christians who will tune in to watch it so that the next day they can say, “Woe is us! Kathy Griffen doesn’t like Jesus and worships a small statue as her god!” Seriously. Get over it. Kathy Griffen hasn’t said anything that a good atheist or Muslim or Hindu hasn’t said.

I say that this censorship is absurd and Mr Donohue is wrong for making this such a big deal. I’m a Christian, I don’t watch any of Ms. Griffen’s shows (and couldn’t care less about the Emmy’s; I haven’t watched one for 37 years and I’m not going to start just because they censor someone’s language), but I still don’t expect anyone who is not of Christ to have any sort of respect for Christ or his church. Why would they? If people had ignored it, it would have all gone away. Here again we see the problem with modern Christians. Some think that they ought to be, or have a right to be, treated differently than those Christians who have gone before us. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12, NIV).

Truth is, she’s right: I can’t imagine for a minute that Jesus had anything to do with helping her show win an award.

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Now please don’t misunderstand me. Her comments were vulgar and offensive and I have only read a part of them, but my point is what should we expect? Why should Christians get bent out shape when people who are not Christians say what they mean, say what they believe? Why should American Christians get a free pass? Why should we make demands of the world that most of us cannot meet? Frankly, I’m more concerned that Christians might be watching the Emmy’s than I am that someone receiving an Emmy had something nasty to say about Christians or about Jesus Christ. No. I think the biblically informed Christian, while disgusted, is anything but shocked or surprised or even morally offended. We may regret that she said what she said, but we are hardly so naïve as to think that she would do anything less.

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The fact of the matter is, Christians are going to suffer—not because of anything inherently despicable about us though. Jesus says one of the main ways Christians will suffer is ‘when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.’ Verbal assault is one of the main weapons in the arsenal of the unrighteous.

Do you really think people dislike those among us who go around doing the right things, spreading good news, being helpful, worshipping God, and the like? I’m telling you that people are not so much opposed to Christians per se as they are opposed to Jesus Christ himself and the very righteousness of God that he brought. Isn’t this what Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Isn’t Jesus the real target when the devil assaults us through his people? We do well to keep our own persecution in its proper perspective.

Or we might take the example of the apostle Paul before he was Paul. Jesus confronted him and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Well, clearly Saul was persecuting the church and yet Jesus says Paul’s real anger and rage was against Jesus himself. The point is clear whether the world, or even Christians, admit it: There is a worldwide, universal upheaval against the pursuit of the sort of righteousness that Jesus calls followers to pursue. The world is specifically opposed to Christ; it always has been. Herod was opposed to Jesus. In John’s Gospel it says that Jesus came to that which was his own and his own rejected him. They didn’t know him or accept him.

The world does not like Jesus and I think Kathy Griffen is one fine example of someone who just has enough courage to admit it publicly. But should we be surprised? Should we be shocked? Should we seriously sit around and imagine that we ought to be treated differently than was Christ the Lord himself?

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“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:12-13)

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Still, I think that for some reason modern Christians have this idea that we ought to be treated differently than those ancient Christians. For some reason, we Western Christians think we ought to be treated differently than Eastern Christians. We think, for some reason, that because we are Americans, and live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, that people ought to respect us.

But let me ask, if Jesus says that we are blessed when people persecute us because of him, are we missing out on some blessing when we are not persecuted because of him? In fact, do we really suffer terribly here in America? Are we Western Christians really subjected to all that much difficulty, all that much rage, all that much violence? Are we really the scum of the earth at this time?

Let me take it a step further, if Jesus says we will be persecuted because of him, because of our pursuit of righteousness and we are not being persecuted is it fair to ask to what extent we are pursuing righteousness? So D. A. Carson writes:

This final beatitude becomes one of the most searching of all of them, and binds up the rest; for if the disciple of Jesus never experiences any persecution at all, it may fairly be asked where the righteousness is being displayed in his life. If there is no righteousness, no conformity to God’s will, how shall he enter the kingdom? (The Sermon on the Mount, 29)

The real truth though, the profound, biblical truth, is that when it comes to the world we are outsiders. We are beside the point. We are out of the loop, we are out of the mainstream, we are the poor, the mourning, the merciful, the peacemakers, the hungry, the thirsty, we are the losers who follow the ‘invisible man’ in the sky. That’s who we are: Aliens, strangers, pilgrims, visitors. And we follow the crucified Messiah.

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“Jesus must therefore make it clear beyond all doubt that the ‘must’ of suffering applies to his disciples no less than to himself. Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion. Discipleship means adherence to the person of Jesus, and therefore submission to the Law of Christ which is the Law of the Cross.” (87)

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This is what he says about the nature of discipleship, what characterizes it is all the things that the world despises: Purity that rejects the insidious vulgarity and unrighteousness of this world, hunger and thirst, that is appetites, that are not satisfied the things that satisfy this world, an unequivocal mercy that extends, Jesus will later say, not only to those who approve of us, but in fact to our enemies as well, and truly God-centered desire for peace and reconciliation such as the world of war cannot comprehend, a sort of poverty that is praised by God even if shunned and despised by the world, a marked mourning—although not as the world mourns—that seeks its comfort not in the places and ways the world seeks comfort, and a characteristic meekness that forges ahead in this world not by strength, not by might, and seeks to gain that which only God gives: The World.

This is what characterizes the disciple of Jesus Christ. And nothing less than this will do.

The people Jesus spoke of are characterized not by what they have but by what they lack and what they pursue; not by what is done to them, but by what they are. They don’t pursue these things in the way the world pursues them. They are poor in spirit, they mourn, they are meek, they are hungry and thirsty. These are the people who know mercy and show it, they seek purity and peace. And, perhaps because of all these things, they are pesecuted. They are persecuted because they hunger and thirst for righteousness, something Jesus says a true disciple will pursue first (6:33). But these people, despite these characterizations, are also quite well aware that there is relief forthcoming.

Perhaps the world hates Christ and his disciples so much precisely because we are and do these things with no other motivation or ambition that to please Him.

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Now here’s what I find to be amazing about this Sermon on the Mount. I’ll read some verses for you, 13-16:

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)

Well, how can we reconcile all of these thoughts? That here is Jesus on the one hand saying that the characteristic life of his disciple is one of poverty, mourning, and persecution because of Jesus and yet on the other hand He fully expects that we will, in the midst of suffering and persecution ‘so let our light shine before men.’

This is distressing is it not?

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“Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer. In fact it is a joy and a token of his grace. The acts of the early Christian martyrs are full of evidence which shows how Christ transfigures for his own the hour of their mortal agony by granting them unspeakable assurance of his presence. In the hour of the cruellest torture they bear for his sake, they are made partakers in the perfect joy and bliss of fellowship with him. To bear the cross proves to be the only way of triumphing over suffering. This is true for all who follow Christ, because it was true for him.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 91)

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Despite all of this, Jesus says we are ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world.’ One can scarcely imagine what this must mean! Not only are we going to be treated as the outcasts and dregs of society for our beliefs, but we are meant to shine and witness for Christ all the more as we are! This makes discipleship nearly an unbearable proposition. In all seriousness, how can one be expected to let their light shine before men when those men are bashing us over the heads with sticks and rocks or giving us a verbal tongue lashing that might make the devil blush? Even so, when it all said and done: The Father in Heaven gets all the glory. So Leon Morris:

With them the emphasis is on the final freedom of the redeemed; here it is rather on the truth that the redeemed are paradoxically slaves, the slaves of God, for they were bought with a price. This thought is a necessary supplement to the former one. Believers are not brought by Christ into a liberty of selfish ease. Rather, since they have been bought by God at terrible cost, they have become God’s slaves, to do his will. (Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching the Cross, 54)

“This way of regarding the atonement stresses the new life in Christ. It is because we are Christ’s slaves that we are introduced into this way of living, and we are His slaves because we were bought by Him. There is no stress on substitution in this conception except to the extent that a price paid is an equivalent for the thing purchased. The main emphasis is on the fact that the redeemed are God’s.” (Apostolic, 55)

And as God’s redeemed, we live life differently, paradoxically. And in the midst of our suffering, God himself is not ashamed to call us his children, Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. So let us, then, with great perserverance, join him in suffering outside the camp. And in so joining him, let our light’s shine for the Father: Glorifying Him as Christ did in the cross.

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There is a lot more to these chapters than one might at first expect. I think Jesus gives a rather frank assessment of what life for the Christian is going to be like. Perhaps anyone who is considering becoming a follower of Jesus ought to have to sit and these chapters over and over again and listen to countless sermons on these chapters in order that they might fully understand and appreciate the life that Christ Demands of us when we become His?

To be sure, the demands are costly. There is no such thing as a nominal Christian. If we expect that Jesus will save us from the coming wrath, he expects also, I believe, that we will join him in carrying the cross. That is the testimony of Matthew 5-7.

I have quoted liberally from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship this morning. I shall end my thoughts with one more paragraph from him:

“If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering. The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man thus totally committed in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. The cross is there, right from the beginning, he has only got to pick it up: there is no need for him to go out and look for a cross for himself, no need for him deliberately to run after suffering. Jesus says that every Christian has his own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection.” (The Cost of Discipleship, 88-89)

There are probably a thousand and one or two things I could talk to you about thismorning. I believe that it is important that you have a realistic idea of what Christian discipleship is and what it means. Make no mistake: this is no cake-walk he has called us to. We do well to count the cost.

Soli Deo Gloria!

[Friends, here is the third sermon in the series and fourth overall. You will notice in here that I make reference to some folks that have been around the blog so to speak. Jeff is one another is 'sarge' and still another is Joe. I used their words to illustrate my overall point and my inclusion of their words is neither an endorsement nor a criticism of them personally. Sarge's words were written at Jeff's blog and Jeff's words were posted at his blog, and Joe's were at mine. The Scripture sections are from Matthew 8-9. You'll notice I didn't do any real exegesis of the text this week. I let it 'speak for itself'. My quotation of these passages follows their appearance in the text of the NIV. Enjoy.]

Towards a Theology of Suffering
The Gospel according to Matthew
Pt. 3: Jesus Will Eradicate Suffering in the World: The Healing Ministry of Jesus
Matthew 8-9

Allow me, for a moment, share some of the headlines from September 28, 2007, 8:05 PM: (These headlines are from www.foxnews.com at the time and date posted.)

Rescuers Find Woman Alive 8 Days After Crash
Manhunt for Suspect in Texas Coed’s Murder
FDA Puts Stop to Cough Medicines for Children
Bush Urges Worst Polluters to Reduce Greenhouse Gas
Cops Arrest Neighbor After Texas Girl Found Hanged
Police Confirm Body Found Is Missing Chicago Woman
Brain-Eating Amoeba Claims Sixth Victim

That should be enough, but it is not. This following paragraph is from an internet post. The man who wrote it is named ‘sarge’. He wrote:

I have a friend who is going through a very bad patch. This man is one of the finest men I know, generous, kind, I am fortunate to know such a person. He is a nurse, also an ordained minister. He has told people who leave me be in my unbelief, he asked several of them if they, themselves, would really consider spending eternity with condescending pains in the ass. Has been one of a ‘prayer circle’ which for some reason credits itself with restoring the sight in one of my eyes.

For eighteen months This man has been enduring Lyme disease. Complications from misdiagnosis, inappropriate treatment, reaction to the treatment, the loss of work due to immobility, and loss of resourses is causing him a lot of distress. In the middle of all this, his parents sickened and died in debt, literally within days of each other, and he had to take care of that, too.

Last time we talked he told me he understood my contention that the life/lemons/lemonade bromide was bunk. If you don’t get some sugar, why bother to make lemonade from the lemons life hands you? It’s undrinkable. Lately, he has been showing the strain, and the churched don’t visit as often. They report that when they advise more intense prayer he proposes that they go soak thier heads. When they advise him that their diety doesn’t load on more than a person can stand, he counter advises that they should “pound salt”. He stands to lose his property, his life, his ability to ever support himself, and he is terrified at the trials his family is facing, but according to “them”, the worst is that he’s “losing his faith”.

What this story is meant to show is that God, does not, in fact, exist. Or at least that God’s people are complete dunderheads when it comes to those w

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