Suffering – Because we must

Do you cope well with suffering? We can’t avoid it, at least not for very long. When it comes in all its shapes and complexities, what do you do? When you’re in pain, feeling ill, facing injustice, exhaustion, work issues, or a difficult family situation – do you face them head on, tackling each struggle as it comes, or are you very quickly crushed under the weight of it all?

It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? Because suffering rarely comes on its own. Most of the time, our problem has a knock-on effect to bring further suffering. If we become ill, for example, we may lose our ability to work and to socialise. This in turn may lead to poverty, loneliness, or even isolation. Feelings of shame can set in, leaving us unable to share our predicament even with our nearest and dearest. In a short space of time, our whole world can change.

It doesn’t seem to matter what type of suffering we face, whether it’s severe, short and sharp – or long-lasting-low-grade misery – we can very quickly feel out of control, misunderstood, and broken. We can’t see any reason for it, and we lose all perspective. What is the point of it all?

How to make it worse

Before attempting to answer that question, I think it helps if we can take a step back and look at how we view the world, ourselves, and God. Our outlook informs our view on suffering and how we then live with it. Paul Tripp says in his book, Suffering, that we mourn the loss of what we thought was ours. He goes on to list several things that we bring to suffering that deepens our pain:

• Poor theology – for example, we believe that we are being punished for our sins, rather than believing there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1-4).
• Doubt God – perhaps our trust has been in our circumstances rather than God?
• Unrealistic expectations of life – we may not cope with change, breakdown and loss.
• Unrealistic expectations of others – we are all sinners; we are all sinned against.
• Pride – perhaps we have been living in a self-reliant way, rather than depending on God?
• Materialism – we sometimes place our hope and security in jobs, health and wealth.
• Selfism – we tend to make it all about us, our wants and needs being central. 

When we feel low, defeated and start to wallow in self-pity, we are at our most vulnerable. Satan looks for opportunities such as these circumstances to kick us when we’re down. Our usual means of support and edification are tampered with, and he wants to fast-track us on a downward spiral of fear and doubt – to believe lies to destroy our faith.

Is suffering necessary?

I suppose one question we are often tempted to ask is why God allows suffering in the first place. If God is good and all-powerful, why does he let his people suffer at all? Couldn’t he stop it? Is he not able to?

We don’t need to read far into our Bibles to see that suffering came as a direct result of Adam and Eve, who chose to try to be God, rather than choosing to love and obey God. Their choice has affected all of humanity since that moment – spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. Sin and death came into the world, and we all suffer as a result.

Since we are hopelessly finite and bound by sin, we can’t understand why God allows suffering. But surely, we can see God’s goodness and sovereignty work through our suffering:

• Suffering changes us – for good or bad, we cannot remain neutral.
• CS Lewis said that pain was God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. 
• The same suffering that turns some away from God, turns others towards him. 
• Suffering opens our eyes – it increases our awareness of the suffering of others.
• Suffering reveals what is inside us. We may believe we are steadfast in our faith and hope, but if we lose these when our body fails or our expectations are dashed, perhaps our hope wasn’t in the Saviour after all.
• Suffering is to be expected by the Christian. Jesus tells us to carry our cross – Luke 9:23
• Paul tells us to expect to be persecuted for living a godly life – 2 Timothy 3:12
• He also encourages us that our suffering will produce perseverance – Romans 5:3
• James’ and Peter’s letters warn their readers to expect suffering – both because they are Christians and live in a fallen world.

We cannot escape the fact that a suffering God is central to the Christian faith. Our Messiah will bring an end to the brokenness of the world by having been broken himself. He, himself, came into our suffering and pain. He bore our sins. He took the punishment we deserve. Is it possible to trust this God to speak to us and shape us in our suffering?

Suffering was necessary for Jesus

Christianity makes better sense of suffering than anything else. The world is not the way it ought to be – something is wrong – but when we lean into Jesus, we start to understand it a bit better. He changed everything when he came into our story. Our focus changes from looking at the mess we are in, to looking to who has come. 

From his birth, Jesus was hounded by those who wanted him dead. He was a refugee, lived in a despised neighbourhood, and had nowhere to sleep at night. The religious elites constantly harassed him, hated him and wanted him dead. They plotted his death and involved one of his friends, who betrayed him with a kiss.

In the lead-up to his death, another friend disowned him, and the rest of his friends abandoned him. He was mocked, spat on and struck. He was condemned to death on trumped-up charges. He was nailed to a cross, naked and broken, the greatest humiliation and suffering a person could bear.

Surely there had to be a purpose.

Does that change our view of suffering?

We’d be foolish not to follow through on what the suffering of Jesus led to. He didn’t stay in the tomb. The unthinkable happened. The unbelievable happened. Jesus rose from the dead. He put death to death, and he lives forever. This was no Plan B.

Something far greater than the disciples could imagine had been going on all the time. What looked to them like defeat and despair, was, in fact, victory and eternal hope. If we can imagine for a moment that our suffering also has purpose, would it change our view of it…?

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