Your God's too nice (2)
Peeved with too much talk about suffering and God some sensitive and caring believers feel like saying, "Why not just weep as Jesus did at the tomb of Lazarus and actively help where we can? That's kindness! Sometimes I wish we Christians would just shut our mouths." To you sensitive non-believers that makes a lot of sense (and yet you keep demanding an answer from us). Jesus did weep and he did get involved (Acts 10:37-39) but he did more! In Matthew 24 he spoke of God judging a sinful nation via Roman armies (millions died in horrendous conditions). And what’s more, he wept about that judgement (Luke 19:41-44). And when someone comes to us that believe in God through Christ (as very often they do) sobbing and asking why? It may not be right to keep our mouths shut, it may be robbing people of what they need most. Weeping with them and easing their pain is called for (Romans 13:15 and Matthew 25:31-46) but so is speaking words that bring comfort (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and Romans 11:32-36). Believers can't say "Jesus Christ" without saying "crucifixion". God subjected him to it (Isaiah 53), it wasn't random (Acts 2:23; 4:24-28). It doesn't matter that there were ten thousand contingent events and thoughts involved in the whole mix that brought Christ to the cross—it was of God, purposed by God for a redeeming purpose (Acts 4:24-28). We tend to say, if it's "random" it can't be purposed. This simply isn't true because it oversimplifies! To break an "event" down into constituent and independent fragments misses the point entirely. What we call the "event" is made up of who knows how many thousands (millions?) of fragments but these aren't "the event" if viewed each in isolation. Whether the "event" is random or not depends on the presence or absence of purpose and not the number of fragments. And that's true whether we're talking about a birthday party in some little backyard or a WWIII that is global. "In and of itself" nothing has "meaning". But if we believe that God knows the number of the hairs on our head, attends the funeral of every dead sparrow, calls the stars by name, makes it rain in the wilderness where nobody lives (Job)—if we believe that, then to say anything exists "in and of itself" is untrue.
And we may not be able to see the meaning of an "event" or that it was purposed unless we see the larger picture. It isn’t hard to recognise this truth when we see it in a novel but in life, pain often leads us to ask about immediate and self-contained meaning. To isolate Joseph’s experience or Christ’s crucifixion is to rip them out of their place in a grand narrative and reduce their grandeur and significance. To isolate the tragic death of a child—however tempting that is, and surely the temptation is near overwhelming sometimes—is to reduce its glory. The raw, searing event is there and nothing will change that. But to deprive it of its place of profound meaning and significance is to trivialise it. This is no kind move. It’s tragedy—of course! But what if it’s more?
Some people are too tired or too busy or too something to want to bother with all this. It irritates them (as a lot of talk about certain issues irritates me). That makes sense to me. But when we throw our hat into the ring it's worth following it. I think that reflection and discussion in this area is of profound global significance. This isn't just about believers with a network of friends to sustain them when the sky falls. This is about multiplied millions that live on planet earth and have lived here and it looked like no one cared a straw about them. There's no need to wring our hands in despair over them. God sees them and knows his plans for them that he wants good for them (compare Jeremiah 29:11 to Israel
To "beat people" with truth and to strut as if we believers are better than every one else is obscene and degenerate! This is not the way of God. But the answer to that lousy spirit is not to avoid the truth about God as he has shown himself in scripture and most clearly in Jesus Christ.
I don't think we should deny that randomness exists in the world God has structured. A drought is random, a famine is random, a tornado is random and yet there's Amos 4 and the book of Job that say the calamities there were purposed and therefore not random. We call a rainfall random and Jesus calls it the generous purpose and work of his Father (Matthew 5:43-48). We mean it's "random" because of this and that—legitimate speech from our perspective. But Jesus denies that what we mean by randomness is the whole story. Joseph goes to Egypt
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to Brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.