Why Do Good People Suffer? Series

It’s okay to ask the question about suffering. Christianity and the Bible can easily endure the light of honest intellectual scrutiny; it has for 200 centuries. So, you don’t have to check your brain at the door when you come to church. This idea of suffering has puzzled us for centuries. There is an entire theological or philosophical study called theodicy. It asks the simple question: If God is entirely good, and entirely powerful–why is there suffering? Some people look at what the Bible says about God and then look around in the world and say, “The character of God and the reality of suffering contradict each other!” What’s the answer?

In addition to all my other reading, I try to re-read some of the great literary classics. This past year I read Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. It is a deeply spiritual book because Defoe was a committed Christian who wrote hymns and Christian poetry. When Defoe’s character, Robinson Crusoe, is shipwrecked on an island, he discovers a native and names him Friday. He teaches him to speak English and He teaches Him about God and about the importance of trusting Jesus Christ for salvation. In one of their theological discussions, the following dialogue occurs: Friday to Robinson Crusoe: “But if God much strong, much more than devil, why God no kill the devil so make him no more do evil?” Crusoe’s reply: “You may as well ask, why God no kill you and me when we do wicked things”

That short conversation provides both the question and a good response to the problem of theodicy, the question of, “How can a loving, powerful God allow evil? In light of 9/11 and in light of the resurrection of Jesus, let’s learn four important things about suffering.

1. SUFFERING IS PART OF A FALLEN WORLD

There was no suffering in the Garden of Eden. But when our ancestors, Adam and Eve chose to disobey a loving God, suffering became a reality. We are still living in a world affected by the results of sin. After a nuclear explosion, “fallout” lingers for many years. Even, so we are still living in the “fallout” from the fall of man. God is not the source of evil; Satan and sin are responsible. Human suffering is produced from two different sources, both of which Jesus addresses in Luke 13.

First, we live in a world full of MORAL EVIL. We have to share this planet with some wicked people. Pilate was a cruel Roman governor. One day some Galileans were in the Temple getting ready to make their sacrifices. Pilate did not trust the Jews, so he had Roman soldiers disguised as Jews to intermingle with them. For some unknown reason, on a certain day, Pilate gave the order to massacre a group of worshipers. The Jews were still outraged that Pilate would mingle the blood of the worshipers with their sacrifices.

The world has always had to deal with cruel, wicked people like Pilate. Whether it’s Hitler ordering the death of 6 million Jews, or the gunman rushing into Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, or the misguided religious zeal of the Muslim terrorists who highjacked those jets - this world is just full of mean people. After 9/11, President Bush said we have seen the face of pure evil–I agree.