Suffering and Wonder

Lectionary readings for October 21

Job 38:1-7, 34-41; Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c; Isaiah 53:4-12; Psalm 91:9-16; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45

When Job lost everything...

everything except his life, his wife, and three friends, 

he refused to curse God. 

He did not refuse to ask, "Why?"

His friends made their guesses, mostly based on the theory that Job somehow must deserve the things that had happened to him. This discussion goes on for a while...a very long while.

Finally God steps in and for four chapters, God lists the wonders of the world. 

God asks Job where he was when those things were created. 

Job is asked if he understands them, 

if he helped with them.

God doesn't answer the question of why Job suffered.

This book has always been a puzzle for me. 

God's words to Job almost seem like a scolding, but later in the book, God praises Job. 

The friends, who thought they knew the reasons for the suffering, got a rebuke, 

while Job's understanding of God was affirmed. 

What can this mean?

Why does God answer Job's questions with such an amazing list of the wonders God has made?

In the other readings, we have Psalm 104, which also refers to the unfathomable wonders of creation. 

 Isaiah 53 moves back into suffering, and includes the Messianic imagery of a lamb being led to the slaughter as well as the idea that it was the will of God to crush him with pain. 

Then comes Psalm 91, a song of protection. It includes beautiful language full of promise.

Because you have made the LORD your refuge,

the Most High your dwelling place,

no evil shall befall you,

no scourge come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways.

On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.

You will tread on the lion and the adder,

the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.

Those who love me, I will deliver;

I will protect those who know my name.

When they call to me, I will answer them;

I will be with them in trouble,

I will rescue them and honor them.

With long life I will satisfy them,

and show them my salvation.

This Psalm includes the verse Satan used to encourage Jesus to leap from the temple (On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone). The beginning verses promise protections while the second half promises deliverance. If we need deliverance, there must be some bad things to be delivered from. 

We have an explanation in Hebrews 5 of how Jesus is a priest of the order of Melchizedek, and was perfected through his suffering. 

There is that word again. Suffering. 

And finally we have Mark 10, where James and John ask for honors in the kingdom of heaven and are instructed in the ways of the kingdom. Whoever would be first must be last, whoever would lead must be like a slave, and Jesus will show us how it's done by giving his life. 

Again, suffering. 

Jesus asks them, can you do what I must do? 

They answer that they can, and Jesus affirms that, indeed, they will.

We...I...treat suffering as though it is something we can avoid, 

and that God might even help us in avoiding suffering. 

However, I'm not seeing that in these passages. 

The message seems to be that suffering happens. 

It just happens. 

When Job asks to have it explained, the response is this: 

Do you understand wonders? 

Maybe the implied response is that we can no more understand suffering than we can comprehend those things that are too wonderful to fathom. 

Do we ask why there is healing?

Do we complain about the sunrise or the sunset?

Do we believe we have earned the colors of the trees in autumn?

I accept all these things with wonder, 

without question,

but when the hard things come, I want to know why.

I'm guessing, at least for me, it is about having a sense of control. If I can know a reason, then maybe I can also manipulate my life in order to avoid further suffering.

Indeed, some of our suffering is like that. 

But there is plenty that is not.

What we are given is this. 

1. Jesus suffered. 

Hebrews even says Jesus was perfected through his suffering. 

Mark says Jesus knew his disciples would also suffer. Suffering is part of it, as much as wonder is part of it.

2. It is normal to ask why. Job did it. We do it. God affirmed Job.

3. Somehow we find truth in holding the suffering and the wonders together. 

I would caution that one does not cancel out the other. Suffering holds its own intensity, as does wonder. Recognizing wonder does not cancel suffering. Suffering does not negate wonder. Our task is to find a way to be present to both.

I'm finding that to be true in grief. Releasing a parent who has lived long and well is small in the continuum of suffering, and yet, it is what I'm living now.

Holding that empty space in my heart along with the wonder of so many things...the comfort family and friends offer, the memories of Mom, the words of Psalms, the time spent with my dog, long walks, the colors of the trees. Those things all together, tears and gratitude, 

sometimes one and sometimes the other.