only good for all. Then why does any awful suffering ever exist?
We know this much from the Bible. God is a risking Lover who allows suffering by giving freedom of choice to us humans. This is a love gift that necessarily includes the possibility of its misuse, sin. God never intends sin or suffering. It comes from our choosing not to love in response to God’s love. The divine intention is that humans freely choose a loving relationship with God and each other. Since that obviously has gone sour by human choice, God reacts in love while allowing the negative results of our wrong choices to play out.
The major reaction of God, however, is to choose in Christ to enter into the arena of our suffering in order to share the suffering and work to bring good out of the evil we have created. In this “incarnating” process, God never gives up sovereign control of the creation. Nothing in the creation can ultimately frustrate what God intends. In the meantime, however, we creatures have much to say about how our history goes. It often goes badly, bringing suffering even to the innocent, even to God. That’s how the biblical story goes.
What God allows includes the awful cross of Jesus, with something about that cross needing to be made clear. It’s a dramatic picture of the bleeding heart and reaching love of God the Father. “The Cross was no more the will of God than any other brutal murder. It was the work of wicked men.”23 Christians often have insisted that God planned the death of the Son all along, even that the death was necessary for the forgiveness of our sins—an extension of the tradition of animal sacrifice. On biblical grounds, I argue otherwise.
Our well-being and loving relationship with God have been God’s plan all along. God’s reaching love has infused that plan. Self-giving sacrifice has been at the heart of God’s very identity from the eternities. Our sin forced its activation in Christ on our behalf. In that sense, the cross was “planned,” but only in that sense. The cross was a heavy price for God to pay for our sins. It was the bleeding heart of the divine dripping healing and forgiveness on our broken souls.
Here’s what is shown so dramatically on that cross of Jesus. Love does not coerce. The power of God is to be seen through the lens of God’s love. God allows evil because God’s nature is love. Love instructs, persuades, and disciplines, but coerces only as a last resort. One might say that evil cannot be forcibly stopped without violating the free choice of humans—which would make us marionettes and not potential love partners with God. This necessity of allowing our free choices is not to be seen as a “limitation” of God’s power; it’s merely an acknowledgment of who God really and always is.
Anchor #2. Divine Patience.
Note this brief dialogue I once created between God and the whale over how best to handle the wayward Jonah:
God: “There’s a guy with an assignment from me who hasn’t the stomach for it. He’s being sent to Nineveh and choosing selfishly to head in the wrong direction. I want your help.”
Wally (the whale): “I say, why don’t you smack him in the face and make him pay attention without bothering me? You’re the biggest thing in the whole creation, not me!”
God: “Sorry, Wally, but I’ve decided you’re just the ticket. I’m not the smacking type, at least not at first.”24
What’s the point? God has smacking capacity and is known to use it in extreme circumstances—tough love. Some suffering may come from being forcibly punished by God for sinning. However, God typically chooses to begin with the softer love option, patience over sheer power. God’s heart is love and love’s first option for dealing with our sin is persuasion not coercion. It’s usually patience before power.
Philip Yancey puts his finger right on this biblical anchor of truth. The Bible is full of examples of much divine patience going before direct and coercive punishment. “The people of Israel knew why they were being punished; the prophets had warned them in excruciating detail. The Pharaoh of Egypt knew exactly why the ten plagues were unleashed against his land: God had predicted them, told him why, and described what change of heart could forestall them. Biblical examples of suffering-as-punishment, then, tend to fit a pattern. The pain comes after much warning, and no one sits around afterward asking, ‘Why?’ They know very well why they are suffering.”25
Anchor #3. Looking Forward.
We must get beyond any preoccupation with demanding answers to the “why” questions of suffering. We suffering humans typically ask the wrong questions. We want to know why something bad has happened. Where did it come from? Who’s responsible? Am I guilty of something? The Bible, however, consistently moves to another question, the forward-looking “What now?” in favor of the backward-looking “Who caused this?” and “Why me?”
Suffering, whatever its unclear cause in a given instance, has the capacity of producing something of value if that’s where our focus goes. Pain can be newly woven into something freshly beautiful. What is bad can be channeled into something good never possible before. Since that’s precisely what the loving and redeeming God is always about, surely that’s where our attention should be.
We’ll consider in later chapters how suffering can be managed constructively and even used for our training in Christ-likeness—a major goal of all biblical revelation. In the meantime, we should avoid the “why” in favor of the “what.” I may not know why this or that is happening, but with God’s help I can learn what good might come out of it if my focus is in that direction.
Anchor #4. Hope Persists Regardless.
Shaking loose of the disabling “why” questions and looking forward expectantly is possible because God is at work in this world whatever the circumstances. The point of the empty tomb of Jesus is that the worst that can happen in this life never has to be the end of the story. We are emboldened to believe that new possibilities exist because of the grace of God. Even death can die!
The call of Christ is for the faithful to fix their gaze on the positive potential lodged in the negative. Suffering has been overwhelmed by victory, and even can be used as a tool that helps bring victory. Jesus has died and also risen. New can emerge from old.
This is illustrated repeatedly in the Bible. The final editors of the present Bible appear to have had a structural agenda designed for our encouragement. The major units of the biblical material all tend to end on the same note. The worst has happened, but . . . . Here’s a quick run through the whole Bible, pointing out this repeating note at the end of each major unit of material.
1. Torah. Moses dies, but Joshua lives! God’s people will enter their promised land even though Moses will not (Deut 34:4).
2. Prophets. For those who finally honor God, sunrise is coming. The arrogant will be burned up and God’s people will burst with energy and dance with joy! (Mal 4:1–3).
3. Writings. The Exile has been long and awful, but suddenly the new king Cyrus says, “Now it’s time to go home and rebuild. It’s over. You are free!” (2 Chr 36:22–23).
4. Gospels. Do you want to be part of God’s coming future? Be good stewards of today. Feed my sheep! (John 21:17–19). Meanwhile, I go to prepare an eternal place for you. Knowing that, you can go on with your work here.
5. Letters. How can we be sure that we can manage in evil times and that the future is secure? Because the God who promises is full of glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes! (Jude 1:24–25).
6. End of All Ends. When will relief be real for us who still wait and suffer? Says Jesus, the Alpha and Omega, “I’m on my way! I’ll be there soon! Yes! Come, Master Jesus! The grace
