Does God want us to suffer? There is a strand in the Christian tradition that looks at the suffering Jesus underwent – which he predicted – and suggests that it is in suffering that we draw closest to our Lord. This is not how Peter saw things:
Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Just before this, Peter has identified Jesus as the Messiah, the Anointed One of God long foretold, who would come to redeem the people of Israel – redeem, as in buy back a pawned item so it can be restored to its true purpose. It was assumed that the Messiah would bring to an end the suffering and humiliation of God’s chosen people. What good is a Messiah who’s going to suffer and die himself?
Jesus is firm: But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
It appears that Jesus sees in Peter’s words a temptation to veer from the mission he is living out, a temptation to doubt his discernment of what is ahead for him. In Jesus’ case, suffering was part of his mission; his mission of redeeming humanity would involve a humiliating and horrible death.
That is not our mission. The ways in which God might invite us to make God-Life known in the world may not include suffering in any obvious way. We may be called to write or to feed or to proclaim or to organize, and never be persecuted for our faith. Yet there will be pain, if we’re open to letting our hearts be broken by God’s love for this world. In that sense, every ministry, every life involves suffering.
Our God does not inflict suffering upon us, though our God of free will does allow it to happen. And our God who is Love is always with us in it, and our God who is Life can bring transformation through it. Sometimes I wonder how that message falls on the ears of people in obvious pain, like those in nursing homes, some of them quite young, to whom I occasionally preach. Am I right when I proclaim that God is with us in our suffering, and that God can work through it? I may doubt myself, but every time I ask a person whom I visit in a pastoral capacity if she feels the presence of God with her, the answer is usually an unequivocal yes.
It is through Christ's presence with us that we gain the Life that overcomes death, the Life we can share with others, no matter what our condition. God does not visit suffering upon us so we can draw near to Christ. But I believe with all my heart that Christ draws near to us as we suffer, and helps break us open so new life can emerge from the dark.
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