Blessed Are Those Who Suffer

Romans 5:1-11

Introduction

One of the areas that I have been involved in, to one degree or another, since I came back to faith in my 20s is that of Christian apologetics. Apologetics is not about being sorry for being a Christian but rather providing reasons for why we believe Christianity to be true. Since I came from a time of being an atheist, I often found myself having discussions with atheists. They would offer all sorts of arguments against the existence of God, most of which were fairly easily responded to. But there was one argument that rose to the top, one that many saw as the knock down argument against the existence of God: the problem of suffering.

In philosophical terms, it goes like this: If God is all-powerful and all-loving, suffering should not exist. Suffering exists, and therefore an all-powerful and all-loving God does not exist.

This is something that even people with faith will struggle with. Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, looks at that same argument after his son dies of an incurable disease and concludes that God many be all-loving, but he couldn’t be all-powerful. If God was, people like his son would not suffer as they do.

The attempt to try and solve this problem and explain the issue of suffering is called theodicy. There are all sorts of theodicies, some more convincing than others. But to be honest, most of them sound rather artificial. That’s not to say that I am ready to give up on God.

I do believe that God is all-loving and all-powerful. Some might think that I would be forced to forsake God, either believing in his existence or worshiping him in his goodness. However, I have never been particularly shaken by the problem of suffering, at least in terms of my belief in God. I grieve with those who suffer, but I have never felt that God was obligated to give us a life without suffering. When bad things have happened to me, I usually don’t ask: “God, why are you doing this to me?!” I just accept that suffering is a part of life. Does this make me inconsistent in my theology? I don’t think so. Seeing a contradiction between God’s power and God’s love in the face of suffering is making certain assumptions about how that power and love is made manifest. It assumes a certain level of control and intervention that I’m not sure the Bible teaches.

I intend to speak on suffering today but I want to make clear that what I am about to say is not an explanation of why suffering takes place. I have had people try and explain my own suffering and the words always ring hollow. While it is reasonable to reflect on the ‘why’ questions, at some point you have to just accept that suffering is real and that we will experience it. What I intend to do is to only speak about what happens when we suffer, as the Bible has something definite to say about that. To understand this, we turn to Paul.

School of Suffering

As we look at what Paul says about suffering in Romans, we face some difficult teaching. Paul says we “glory in our sufferings.” When you receive a bad diagnosis or lose a job or watch a relationship crumble, do you glory in that experience? I can tell you that “glory” is not the word I would use to describe my own experience of suffering. But here we need to ask what Paul means by “glory.” Paul does not mean that he is happy when he discovers a new opportunity for personal suffering. Elsewhere in his letters, Paul expresses grief and anxiety in certain circumstances. Paul was human. What Paul means by “glory” here is that he recognizes in suffering a process by which God does bring about something good in our life. That does not mean that God makes that bad thing happen so that we will be blessed, but rather there is a blessing that will naturally come when suffering comes. What is that blessing? It is a transformation of who we are as human beings and as disciples of Jesus.

Suffering produces perseverance. There have been times that I have gotten into running. I hate running. It is tiring and painful and I don’t like it. But when I do it, in the midst of cramps and struggles for breath, I can detect perseverance taking place within me. Perseverance is that determination to keep on going and to not give up even though it is easier. Perseverance is not just sheer stubbornness but a confidence that there is something on the other side of the pain. 

One of those things is character. Character is one of the most important virtues and one that is far too often neglected. We have seen that leaders in every area of life, politicians, military leaders, entertainers, and even pastors, have been caught doing some terrible things. This is because they lacked character. Interestingly, the thing in common among all of the controversies is that these leaders seemed to live in prosperity, that is they had been able to avoid suffering. And the people I have known that have had the highest character, are those that had experienced suffering. Of course it is possible for people to suffer and turn to bitterness and resentment. But suffering can also be the forge that develops character.

While developing character is of great value, that is not the end of the process. Character actually develops into hope. Hope is not a fluffy feeling that everything will be all right. It is a confidence that the suffering that is being experienced in the moment is not the final chapter in the story. It is a firm belief that there is something coming that is much better. That hope is both that things can get better in this life but that also things will be much better when we experience the resurrection. I understand that this is difficult to comprehend when suffering is at its worst. The one truth that I hold onto is this: “Feeling hopeless is not the same things as being hopeless.” It is normal for our emotions to be all over the place but that does not change the fact that Christians are never without hope. It may be that our character has to develop in order to recognize that, but it is true all the same.

Suffering of Jesus

You may have listened to my words and found them unconvincing as a reason for the suffering you have experienced. You would gladly trade the benefits of suffering to have not experienced suffering. You find no comfort in the development of perseverance or character or hope. That is a reasonable reaction. What is being described is not why suffering happens but what happens when we suffer.

But there is one more part of the puzzle that Paul wants us to understand. Our suffering must be understood in the light of the suffering of Jesus. Most religions were about worshiping a god that was far removed our difficult lives. The gods didn’t understand our suffering but might make our suffering worse. The Christian faith is in a different category. God came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus experienced not a privileged life but a real life that included suffering. This culminated in his death on a cross. The death of Jesus should have meant that his mission failed but instead it meant that he was victorious. It is through the suffering of Jesus that we are saved. While our experience is not exactly like Jesus, we can see in Jesus that God redeems suffering. When Jesus was on the cross, he quotes Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” In these words, he identifies with our own experience of feeling God forsaken in our suffering. And in his resurrection, he proves to us there is a reason to hope, no matter what might happen to us.

Conclusion

Blessed are those who suffer. Those are hard words, especially if you are suffering or someone you know is suffering. I speak on this topic with much fear and trembling. My greatest concern is that someone might think I am minimizing someone’s suffering. As someone who has had my suffering discounted by others, that is not my intention. I don’t think that the Bible gives a nice, neat explanation for suffering that makes all of the pain go away. But the Bible does say something about suffering and what it says is important. Something happens to us when we suffer. Paul describes it as a progression from perseverance to character to hope. This shouldn’t make us look forward to suffering but it might help us to look back at it from a different perspective. Even more importantly, as Christians, we worship the God who suffers. God meets us in our suffering through Jesus. During this lenten season, let us look at our own suffering through the cross of Christ.