When Life is Not Fair

Acts 12:1-5

Introduction

Is life fair? I suppose that depends on what we mean by ‘fair.’ When we complain that life is just not fair, what we normally mean is that we feel that it is not right that this bad thing is happening to us or someone we care about. We might say the same thing if something really good happens to someone that we believe doesn’t deserve it.

However, the word fair actually means “impartial and just, without favoritism or discrimination.” So imagine that you are working for some business and you have agreed to work for a certain wage. Then your employer hires a relative and not only starts them at a higher wage, they also give them a longer lunch and more vacation time. We would be right to say that the situation was not fair. It would be obvious that there was some favouritism going on and that the new employee was not being treated the same way as everyone else because of the family connection. That is just not fair.

Now, let’s think about another situation. There is a faithful Christian who is trying to provide for their family. They work hard at a factory and they are a model employee. But then there is an economic downturn and the factory is forced to lay off the ten most recent hires and that happens to include this Christian employee. This Christian family might then complain to God that this is not fair because they have been faithful in their church. And yet there is no indication of favouritism or discrimination, by the factory or by God. An economic downturn happens to put a good family in a difficult financial situation.

And yet it will still not seem fair. There is the part of the definition that speaks of being just. That is what makes these things feel unfair. And what do we mean by just? It is natural for us to believe that certain people deserve good things and other people deserve bad things. For example, if there is a wicked person who has seemed to get away with their bad activity and then suddenly face appropriate consequences, we might say they have received their just desserts. That is, they got what they deserved. Even people who are not interested in eastern religions will speak of karma. Karma is the belief that we face the consequences of our past actions. There is satisfaction when bad people get what they deserve. At the same time, there is deep disappointment when good people don’t get what they deserve. And the foundation of this is a belief that the determination of good or bad things happening to us is based on how good or bad we are. That is why many people who experience a tragedy will ask God: “What did I do to deserve this?” It feels unjust. It feels unfair. 

These are natural feelings and they deserve further reflection. We will do that by looking at the story of James.

Death of James

So let’s take a quick look at the life of James. First, there are two prominent James in the New Testament. There is James the brother of John who was one of the Twelve. There was also James the brother of Jesus who later became the leader of the Jerusalem church. We are looking at the first James.

James and John were sons of Zebedee and they worked with their father in a fishing business. While fishing, Jesus called them to set aside their nets and to follow him. While there were many disciples, there were Twelve that were closest to Jesus and James and John were two of these. That would be an honour enough but within the Twelve, there was an inner core of three apostles: Peter, John, and James. These three had special access to Jesus in some of his most intimate moments. It looks like Jesus was grooming these three apostles for some special destiny.

Let’s fast forward as Jesus is crucified, is raised from the dead, ascends to heaven, and the Church is born. The Twelve had an important role in the development of the early church. This was so important that a replacement for Judas was needed to keep the group at Twelve. The young Church had ups and downs. It faced persecution and even saw the important leader Stephen getting stoned to death by a mob. 

As time goes on, the secular leader Herod Agrippa got into the persecution of the Church and arrested James. Let’s pause right there. What do you think the Jerusalem church thought would happen with the arrest of James? There had been other apostles arrested before this and they had always been released. Plus that number Twelve was important as it pointed to the twelve tribes of Israel. Yes, Christians such as Stephen had been killed before but that had been by mobs and not a ruling authority. We are not told that they prayed for James but based on their reaction to Peter’s arrest, it is very likely that they did pray for James.

“He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.”

What did the early church feel about this? It probably seemed very unfair. James was one of Jesus’ closest friends, one of the inner three. Jesus seemed to be preparing James for great things. It was not fair that James would die.

Except Jesus never promised that the apostles would not suffer and die. In fact, Jesus promised the opposite. And yet as we will see next week, once again Peter will be released from jail. I cannot explain with certainty why God allowed James to die here. Could it have been this, the first death of the faithful apostles, that Jesus had been preparing James for when he included him into the three? Possibly. No doubt, this death shook the early church, especially the apostles, and definitely his brother John.

Suffering in the Church

It is common for people in churches to talk about a beloved member who had gotten sick or was in an accident and died and to explain how faithful they were. They will talk about how active they were in the church, how Christ-like in character, how they loved to study the Scriptures, their devotion to prayer. While we know that we all must die at some point, there are times we look at the death and suffering of a Christian and it really feels unfair. 

Whether it is technically fair or unfair is besides the point because it feels unfair. Relationships and emotions do not follow strict rules of logic. People will ask for answers. Why is this good person suffering and why is that person who is not very nice prospering? The book of Job teaches us that we can never fully understand why bad things happen and we need to just remain faithful to God no matter what.

You might identify with James in this passage or perhaps his brother John or his father Zebedee. James was good man and yet something terrible happened to him.

While we may not have the answers, we can learn something from what happened to James. Bad things happen and it is not about God punishing us or God making us suffer to teach us a lesson or God allowing suffering because we don’t have enough faith to enjoy a worry-free life. Bad things happen, people get sick, loved ones die, and it is something that happens to Christians and non-Christians, good people and bad people, people we like and people we don’t like. Life is not based on what people deserve or do not deserve, life is a mixture of joy and suffering, rejoicing and grieving. We may wish for a life free from suffering but that is not the reality of this life. What we can be assured of is that God is with us in the good and the bad.

Conclusion

What chapter of your life are you in right now? While none of us experience only good or only bad, we go through periods of life that are predominantly one or the other. Think of James the apostle. He was chosen by Jesus to follow him. He was chosen to be one of the twelve. He was chosen to be part of the inner core of three apostles. He must have had many days of pure joy. But there were other days. There was the day that he was arrested. There was the day that he met the executioner. While James had assurance of eternal life, he may have also been thinking that he still had much more to give to the work of the church. This was the end of James earthly story. We don’t hear any mention of James after this but we do hear about his brother John. John did not give up on serving Jesus even though his brother came to this tragic end. We find that John continued to work with his fellow apostle Peter. They were joined by another James, James the brother of Jesus. Together they were regarded as the pillars of the church. 

We do not get to choose whether or not we suffer, we only get to choose how we will respond. You will feel at times that life is not fair. That is okay. We experience our emotions and then we continue on following Jesus. We support one another as each of us go through difficult chapters of life. Instead of worrying about not having the answers, we should do what the apostle Paul said: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26)