Why do we suffer?  Or, as Rabbi Kushner asked, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Today’s scripture passages address one of the oldest philosophical questions on the books:  “How can such a good, compassionate, benevolent God allow such suffering?”  Even though our Christian expositor, Paul, falls short of answering the question “Why does suffering exist?” he attempts to tell us that suffering has meaning.  It is meant to bind us all together in a human community; if one suffers, we all suffer.  Conversely, one’s rejoicing is shared by everyone in the community.

“Get through these hard times of poverty, sadness, trial, persecution, and war,” Matthew’s Beatitudes reminded the early Christian communities, “because good times are on the way.”  “If you are in pain now, hold on; you will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.”  God rewards us for our suffering!  “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

In a book I highly recommend,  “For the Time Being,” Annie Dillard refers to the teachings of second-century Jewish Rabbi Akiva, flayed to death while reciting the Shema.  Akiva was martyred under Emperor Hadrian for teaching the Torah.  Dillard ponders Akiva’s approach to the problem of suffering:  God punishes the good in this short life for the little evil they have committed, while God rewards the evil-doers in this existence for their few good deeds.  In the afterlife, then, God punishes the evil-doers eternally for their many evil deeds in this life, while rewarding the do-gooders eternally for their many good deeds now.

“It is, like every ingenious, God-fearing explanation of natural calamity, harsh all around,” Dillard says.   If explanations about the existence of suffering lead us to the conclusion that God allows us to suffer because God wants to reward us for suffering, they still do not explain why the suffering exists in the first place.  In these arguments, God is presented as either capricious at best, or desirous of our suffering, albeit our temporary suffering, at worst.  I agree with Dillard:  such explanations are “harsh all around.”

The Book of Job offers another attempt to address the problem of suffering, especially for people who do not seem deserving of such harsh punishment.  Job had done nothing wrong!  He was devoted to God, and had everything in life, presumably as his reward for being so good.  When everything was taken from Job, including his livestock, family, property, even his own health, Job did not raise his voice in complaint against God.  Even when Job’s friends came to console him, and to suggest that Job was being punished for some unknown sin, Job’s integrity prevailed.  He was a good man.  Why did God let him suffer?  Was Job really good?  Yes, he was!  He praised God, even in his suffering, like today’s psalmist:  “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be ever in my mouth!”

What about God?  Is God really good?  Yes, God is!  When it is God’s turn to redress the common explanations given in the story, God reminds Job that God is God, and Job is a creature, and that Job should not presume to understand God’s ways.  When Job repents in dust and ashes, he is seated atop a dung hill, in total devastation, and has done nothing wrong.  Only later additions to the Job story tell of Job’s total restoration.  The original ending has Job wondering about God’s ways while sitting on a pile of manure!

I think the Job explanation – no explanation – is best.  Suffering is part of the mystery of being human.  It does not come from God, and God does not desire it for us.  God desires our good.  Like a healthy human parent only looks upon a child with love, so God cares for us unconditionally, not trying to put us through trials and pain so that God can reward us for good behavior in another life.  Suffering is part of the HUMAN condition, a condition God willingly shares with us in the Person of Jesus.  Perhaps God does not understand suffering any more profoundly than we do; or perhaps God’s love encompasses and overcomes suffering by sharing in it with us.  I do not have the answer to why suffering exists, but as a Christian, I believe that suffering has meaning.  It binds us to each other and to God in community, and God’s love is the way that overcomes it.  “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!”

  Dillard, Annie.  For the Time Being.  New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, 30.