Some Thoughts on Suffering
November 1st, 2011 by blog
by Nick Kaschuk
Part III: The Response
The Christian is called to be completely honest and to persevere with patience, continuing to suffer under the possibility of meaninglessness until meaning is eventually revealed.
If the Christian is to persevere in their suffering, then the question can be asked “is this suffering (the suffering that comes with not knowing the reason for one’s present misfortune) meaningless?”[1] If it is not, then where can one find meaning?
If we consider the story of Job, we note immediately that it is not Satan who has provoked God, but God who has provoked Satan (“have you considered my servant Job?”) This simple but powerful statement gives us our first clue that there might be, in fact, a will and a meaning in what is about to transpire. Again, we must ask “what might this meaning be and can it be applied beyond the particular person of Job?”
Job, being a man, shares with us all of the frailties of what it means to be human. He should therefore not be divorced from our experience as if his response is beyond our reach. Instead, let us think of him as us, and of us, as him.
If we are to think of Job as us, how does this change our thoughts concerning God’s provocation?
Job, having the same ancestors as I (his ancestors, like mine, having been formed from the dirt), has been chosen, unbeknownst to him, to do battle with the chief opponent of God. More than this, it seems as though the sum of God’s wager is that his “opponent,” in all of his “angelic power and glory” cannot cause Job to curse his maker.
Is this not scandalous? Should God really trust His name and reputation to what was once just clay and dirt (the substance that all of earth’s creatures treads upon)? Should God trust him to be able to withstand all that this “great” archangel can table against him?
Here, the mystery of suffering begins to take on meaning. For God to directly defeat an angel is predictable and expected but what of a lump of dirt? …and what of this “archangel,” who had once contrived to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble God’s power on high? Is it not a great humiliation for this “angelic” being to have, demonstrated to all, that a mere human who has been gifted with only what is so utterly base and weak, can be infinitely more faithful than that “angelic” being who was gifted with so much? Is it any wonder why other angels long to look upon this spectacle?
In the end, Job has many questions for God and God has many questions for Job, but neither seems to have their questions directly answered. Instead, Job’s questions are answered by God’s voice and God’s questions are answered by Job’s silence.
Part 3 of 5.
[1] A similar suffering can be expressed when one might know the “reason” for one’s suffering but be in disagreement with its appropriateness.
Leave a Reply
