The problem of suffering
During what is hopefully the tail end of a worldwide pandemic, many churches have experienced great loss. This may be due to the death of loved ones, a decrease in attendance or some members’ deconstruction of faith. Even those who are still with us are hurting. Many pastors or church members are wrestling with what has been called The Problem of Suffering.
Three pastor friends and I have been getting together weekly for coffee and discussion of pastoral issues, like the Problem of Suffering. This conversation eventually spilled over to a local community television show in Amesbury, MA we called Crossroads. We are far from experts on the subject, but we are certainly practitioners. I want to share that conversation with you in hopes that it may be helpful as you minister to your churches. Likely, you are already having conversations not so different than this one. I hope you benefit from the discussion.
Before you watch, below are some notes.
The biblical perspective
The Bible is replete with teaching about suffering. It turns our natural inclination to despise suffering directly on its head. Consider:
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1:2-4
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” – Romans 5:3-5
Rather than suffering being an avoid-at-all-costs or woe-is-me experience, we are actually called to celebrate it. This is not some twisted command towards masochism. Rather, it is because all suffering for the Christian has purpose. As Spurgeon once said, “In heaven we shall see that we had not one trial too many.” Suffering sanctifies in a way nothing else in this world can. Even for the non-Christian, it is often God’s way to draw people to himself. As C. S. Lewis famously said,
“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world....No doubt pain as God's megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepentant rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of the rebel soul.”
How many in our congregations would trace their own conversion to some tragedy or hardship? How many pastors would see their own conversion emerging out of suffering?
At the center of the Bible is the cross of Christ. Here we find suffering at its most visible and visceral. The Christian faith does not shy away from The Problem of Suffering, it displays it front and center. We have a high priest who can relate, and indeed, by his wounds we are healed.
The philosophical problem of suffering
At first glance, there is an apparent contradiction in a loving God who allows people to suffer. If God is love, he wouldn’t want us to suffer, and if God is powerful he would have the means to stop it from happening. Epicurus states, “Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then is he malevolent.” Before dismissing this argument too quickly as mere worldly philosophy, we should feel the weight of the tension. God allows starvation around the world. Children die of bone cancer. Injustice and oppression are found in every part of the globe.
We may not have all the answers as to how this complex world works. But somehow and in some way God produces a greater good out of our suffering, making it all worth it in the end. There is a humble confidence with which we hold the truths of the Christian faith in the face of a broken world. What appears as a contradiction, is instead a tension of two truths that will be resolved in His Kingdom Come.
What we can say is Christians are among the most generous, proactive and creative people alleviating suffering in the world. Church history and Christian mission is replete with the founding of hospitals, orphanages and schools. Where suffering abounds, such as in third world countries, faith tends to flourish. The Problem of Suffering ends up primarily being a first world problem for armchair theologians.
The pastoral problem of evil
Oftentimes when people suffer, they do not have so much a philosophical or logical problem. It is more of a relational issue they are facing with God. Our answers as pastors are often far more personal. We as pastors spend our days ministering to people in all different circumstances. We witness people suffer, visit hospitals and hospice houses, and do multiple funerals year round.
We have a front row seat to what many philosophers altogether miss: it is not an answer that is needed most for someone suffering. It is an arm around their shoulder. It is a phone call to check in. It is a pastor who weeps with you. It is a church community whose hearts break with yours. Most pastors I think would join me in saying, what we have found is that genuine faith in Christ is not challenged by suffering, but more often strengthened. God is not part of the problem of suffering, he is the source of comfort, grace and strength in the midst of it.
He is the answer to the problem.
Rick Harrington is a pastor at First Baptist Church - Haverhill in Massachusetts. He is the author of the books "How to Find a Church: Seven Steps to Becoming Part of a Spiritual Family" and "The Weight of Preaching: Heralding the Gospel of Grace". You can follow his writing on his blog The Lamp Post.
