Have you ever wondered why God allows suffering in the world? If God is good, loving, and powerful, why doesn’t God prevent evil and pain from happening? How can we make sense of God’s role in our suffering?
These are difficult questions that many people struggle with. There are no easy answers, but there are some biblical insights that can help us understand God’s relationship with suffering and evil.
One of the most important truths we need to remember is that God is not distant or indifferent to our suffering. God is not a remote or uncaring ruler who watches us suffer from afar. God is not a cruel or capricious tyrant who causes or permits suffering for no reason. God is not a passive or powerless spectator who can do nothing to stop suffering.
Rather, God is a compassionate and empathetic friend who suffers with us and for us. God is a faithful and loving parent who cares for us and comforts us. God is an active and powerful agent who works to overcome suffering and evil.
The Bible reveals that God is not only aware of our suffering, but also participates in it. God enters into our human condition and shares our pain. God becomes one of us in Jesus Christ, who is fully human and fully divine. Jesus experiences hunger, thirst, fatigue, temptation, rejection, betrayal, torture, and death. Jesus knows what it is like to suffer physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Jesus cries out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).
Jesus does not suffer because God has abandoned Him, but because God has identified with Him. Jesus suffers as the representative of humanity, taking upon Himself the consequences of our sin and the effects of our evil. Jesus suffers as the revelation of God, showing us the depth of God’s love and the extent of God’s grace. Jesus suffers as the redemption of the world, breaking the power of sin and death and opening the way to new life.
Jesus’ suffering is not the end of the story, but the beginning of a new one. God raises Jesus from the dead, vindicating His innocence and validating His mission. God transforms Jesus’ suffering into glory, turning His weakness into strength and His defeat into victory. God invites us to share in Jesus’ resurrection, offering us forgiveness, healing, hope, and joy.
God does not cause or condone suffering, but God can use it for good. God does not leave us alone in our suffering, but God accompanies us through it. God does not ignore or neglect our suffering, but God responds to it with compassion and action.
God’s compassion is not a sentimental feeling, but a practical expression of God’s love. God’s compassion is not a passive attitude, but an active involvement in God’s work. God’s compassion is not a temporary gesture, but a lasting commitment to God’s purpose.
God calls us to participate in God’s compassion, too. God invites us to join God in suffering with and for others, as Jesus did. God challenges us to share God’s love and grace with those who are hurting, as Jesus did. God empowers us to work for God’s justice and peace in the world, as Jesus did.
God’s compassion is not a paradox, but a paradoxical gift. It is a gift that we receive from God, and a gift that we give to others. It is a gift that reveals God’s presence in our pain, and a gift that transforms our pain into praise. It is a gift that connects us with God, and a gift that connects us with each other.
May we receive God’s compassion with gratitude, and may we share God’s compassion with generosity. May we experience God’s compassion with faith, and may we express God’s compassion with action. May we live God’s compassion with joy, and may we spread God’s compassion with love.
Prayer
Dear God,
You are the source of all compassion and love. You are the one who suffers with us and for us. You are the one who cares for us and comforts us. You are the one who works to overcome suffering and evil.
We thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal Your compassion to us. We thank You for his life, death, and resurrection, which show us the depth of Your love and the extent of Your grace. We thank You for inviting us to share in his resurrection, which offers us forgiveness, healing, hope, and joy.
We ask You to help us participate in Your compassion, too. We ask You to give us Your heart for those who are hurting, as Jesus did. We ask You to fill us with Your love and grace, as Jesus did. We ask You to empower us to work for Your justice and peace, as Jesus did.
We praise You for Your compassion, which is a gift to us and to the world. We praise You for Your presence in our pain, which transforms our pain into praise. We praise You for Your connection with us, which connects us with You and with each other.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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