Look at all this suffering and injustice. If there’s a God, what makes you think he cares?

There are plenty of people who are sort of ready to accept that God exists, but then say “Maybe, but if he does then I don’t really want to know him because he must not be a very nice guy. Look at the mess the world is in.”

I’ve been working on this ‘God and Suffering’ series for a while and there’s lots of other parts to it. What we’re discussing today answers an important part of that question. It’s not an intellectual answer like the previous articles in this series; what’s needed here is an emotionally-aware, pastoral kind of answer. Which is probably why I’ve struggled so much writing this because I’m more of a ‘thinky’ person than a feelings person.

• First, a little disclaimer and reminder about quoting the Bible. Remember, as I said in the first post, I’m not quoting the Biblical documents as though you should believe their claims "just because." I’m being a bit more nuanced: I’m going to quote the Bible because when you are asking a question about Christianity, you want to know what Christianity really teaches about it and not just what some dude with a website makes up.
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  Protip: Whenever you’re wondering about what a religion really teaches go to the original sources of that religion. Sometimes modern clerics will say whatever you want to hear just to gain a following.
  So let’s see what the Biblical authors had to say about this question.

"Give Me One Reason…"

It’s hard to make progress emotionally if we’re not aware of even one reason that God might delay action on dealing with evil and with suffering, so here’s one for now. There are quite a lot more, and it’s never wise to assert too strongly why suffering might be occurring in a particular case because we just don’t know the enough. But there are many good answers, the tricky part is just wondering which of them is the main factor in a particular case. Here is one of those answers, from a fairly well known passage where Peter is writing about the future return of Jesus to put everything right in the world:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

2 Peter 3:9–13 (ESV) – bold emphasis mine

Looking forward to God’s final judgement isn’t something that comes naturally to us in the developed world. We’re too comfortable with the way things are, right? But if you’ve ever suffered injustice, if you’ve ever been mistreated, you know that what you long for is someone to come and put things right. And for all the billions of people out there in the world that are not the winners in the current system of things…then actually, a heavenly judge coming to rid the world of evil and right all of the wrongs sounds very attractive indeed, and it should to us too. But why not yet? The verse that I emphasised above does give a sensible reason for God to be delaying that intervention. The reason (explored in many other parts of the Bible) is that we are all, to varying extents, a part of the problem. We are all, to some extent, a source of injustice and suffering for other people. We don’t even really how bad we are: How hard-hearted. How self-focused. So if God removes all sources of suffering, that’ll be me and you on the chopping block. He wants us to realise the state we are in and ask him to redeem us first, so we can join him in the better world he will re-create. I for one am glad he waited for me! He wants to give us a chance to be redeemed before he has to remove us. So that’s one small part of why God hasn’t stopped all suffering yet. For more reasons and deeper discussion, see the other articles in this ‘God and Suffering’ series.

But Does He Care?

So maybe Christianity has reasons for God allowing suffering. But if there is a God, "what makes you think he cares about what we suffer while we wait?"

"I don’t know….God’s pretty smart…infinitely smart, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful. Surely he could have kept the suffering, the evil, the injustice to some sort of minimum? It sure doesn’t feel like he’s keeping it to a minimum! We’re talking many thousands of years, billions of people!" A fair question. And it isn’t an intellectual question, it’s a question from a hurting heart.

It’s in this emotional aspect of the suffering question that we can point to Jesus. This is where Biblical teaching about the incarnation (the creator himself becoming human) is very very important.

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

Matthew 1:23 (ESV)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
…
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ‭‭> John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭3‬, ‭14‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

God is with us. Think of the enormity of that statement. In Christianity, we have the claim that God himself was willing become one of us. That may not be one of the intellectual answers to suffering, but it’s certainly something that can help our hearts with the question of "does God care?"

Does God care? And I want you to actually pause. Let’s pause and think. Think of some of the things that you’ve suffered in life. Maybe there are some that have made you kind of rage at God. Maybe there are some that have made you think. Maybe there are some that have hurt your heart. Let’s just think for a second, just take 30 seconds. (When I spoke on this topic in church, I paused here and let a couple of people share the things that had come to mind. Maybe you have something on your mind, too.)

I just wanted us to realise we’re not just dealing with question, answer, question, answer, right? Some of this stuff, if you answered that quickly, it would be rude. It would be a surface level response to a deep pain. What I want to look at today is a modest goal; not to answer all our questions about our suffering, but just to show you God does truly care. We’re looking at the fact that that God himself did not give us a surface level answer to this. We just read the passages from John’s Gospel about God being involved in creating the world and then coming down and dwelling among us, becoming one of us. That’s what I’m really focused on here. It’s not an isolated teaching, it’s central to Christianity. Here’s another passage:

…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 2:5b-7 (ESV), emphasis added.

Think about that for a second. It’s winter as I write this paragraph – who has had trouble getting up on a winter day recently? You’re in bed, it’s warm and outside the bed it is freezing and dark and it’s just cold and maybe you stayed up a bit late and you’re tired or something, right? Who’s had that experience? The experience of thinking "I should…Yeah, but it’s really uncomfortable so maybe I’ll put it off as long as possible"? I want you to think what the teaching of Christianity really is here, because it’s unique and astounding. We have the divine son existing in the warmth, the light, the perfect purity of heaven and in perfect closeness and relationship with his heavenly Father, and then…choosing to dive into the murky darkness, injustice, discomfort and the dirtiness of our human lives and our world. What do you think about that? If it’s true then it’s quite possibly the most outrageous event to ever happen!

Yet within Christianity, this is the start of our answer to "Does God care?" We know the message that he’s going to deal with all the the stuff that’s wrong in the world; all the suffering, all the injustice. All of our pain. He says he’s going to deal with it. But the question sometimes remains for us: Does God really care that much that we had to go through it in the meantime? He’s the creator and we’re just the creatures. So is suffering just an intellectual issue for him, like balancing an equation? Perhaps this particular distribution of suffering in the world just worked out to be the optimal path overall? Intellectually, I have explored in the previous articles why I think it might be. But still, we might imagine God saying "I know you can’t see it, but this is honestly the best way for all concerned." And that might well be the case and it might satisfy the intellectual questions, but we also have emotional questions: Does our suffering matter to him? Does he feel it? Does he even know what it’s like experientially? And I think the incarnation of God as an actual, limited, weak and suffering human answers the question. He cares enough that he’s willing to walk through it with us and not only that – for us. ‘God with us’ in this. He suffered. Not just at the cross, but his whole life was like ours. For example, it seems very likely that he suffered the death of his father fairly early in his life. Joseph never shows up after the account where Jesus is 12 years old, so whilst he was still a young man, Jesus likely suffered that loss and also became even more responsible for supplying his family’s needs as the oldest son. So he knows how that feels, as one example.

He knows. He has suffered. I mean, this is the God of the universe, right? Just think about how everything in Heaven feels comfortable and just right, yet in the incarnation we have God diving in to this world like someone jumping into a freezing cold lake. Imagine there was someone that falls into a lake and you jump in to rescue them. Physically it feels horrible, but you’re doing it for the sake of the person. Yeah, that’s Jesus’ attitude. Philippians 2:5-7 should make us realise that when he dived out of heaven into this world, he submitted himself to all the trials we face.

"What if God was one of us…"

In another earlier example in Luke chapter 2, after the account of 12 year old Jesus wandering off to teach in the temple we read of how he related to his human parents:

And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Luke 2:51–52 (ESV), emphasis added.

This is God submitting to human parents – who like the rest of us were not perfect parents! We see his family misunderstanding his mission a couple of times (eg Mark 3, John 7), so don’t think that his parents always made the perfect call. But the incarnation of God submitted to them anyway! Even the learning process we all have to go through from childhood, he walked as well! It’s almost bonkers to think of, but he did it. Not only did he give up his power when becoming human, but he didn’t even start himself with a ‘full deck’ of knowledge! He restricted himself to our experience of life, learning, growing, discovering you’re wrong about things. I’m not saying he was morally sinful, but do you think Jesus was always correct from when he was two years old? Nope, it says Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature. Which means he started off by restricting himself to less wisdom, and you know he started small and weak and unaware, like all children. It’s worth asking the question: ‘What of Jesus divine nature was left after he had stripped off all his divine attributes? No power, no automatic wisdom, no supernatural knowledge. What was left? I would summarise by saying; His personality. His intrinsic goodness. Who he was remained, even when he changed what he was. His goodness meant he obeyed the instructions to meditate deeply on the scriptures, and no doubt helped him avoid the biases that lead us to false ideas, (so that by age 12 he was able to astound religious teachers) but he didn’t start his life with a free ‘download’ of knowledge! Have you ever struggled to learn a new skill or worked hard to revise for a test? In Christianity, God knows what that process feels like.

He "grew in favour with God and all the people"…he had to learn social skills. Can you imagine this in a world full of sinners and he’s the only entirely good kid? And he has no supernatural strength or power to prove or stand up for himself? The school playground is tough at the best of times, right? But yeah, when you love your enemies…it costs something, right? Anyway, I’m speculating a little there but you get the idea. God knows our struggles and how injustice feels.

Once he gained a following, how did he live? Did he capitalise on his fame and run fundraising campaigns and live in luxury or ? No, he remained with the everyday people and stayed committed to life on the road:

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Luke 9:57–58 (ESV)

He lived a life that prioritised service to God and others over comfort as a human. He often got up to pray before dawn because he was going to do something else important for someone later and wanted to fit in time to pray. I’m not saying it was always always horrible, right? God is gracious. But where there had to be discomfort for the sake of his mission, Jesus submitted to it. This is the God of Christianity. He submitted himself to all of our experience, and went far beyond most of us.

…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 2:5b-8 (ESV), emphasis added.

Having already emptied and humiliated himself of his divine privileges to become one of us, he then went far further. His loyalty to God and love for us went all the way down, down to death and a particularly horrible and humiliating one. This tells us he cares. He could have chosen any number of ways to save us. But this is the way he chose, absorbing the cost of our sins personally and showing how much of himself he was willing to give, how much he was willing to suffer for us, and I think this is healing for our hearts when we wonder how much he cares about the suffering of humans and animals.

…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:2b–5 (ESV)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14–16 (ESV)

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV)

…Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 2:5b-11 (ESV), emphasis added.

"Follow me"

What do Jesus and his chosen messengers say about how his followers should respond to suffering?

….if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 2:20b–25 (ESV), emphasis added.

Now obviously not everyone here is a follower of Jesus, but at least this makes clear what followers of Jesus are called to.

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The context of the Philippians quote we have mentioned several times is actually part of a call for disciples of Jesus to imitate his attitude of humility and willingness to suffer for the benefit of others:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5–11 (ESV), emphasis mine.

For Christians this is the returning, conquering king we are waiting for. What kind of king is he? He is the kind of king who would leave the best place to go to the worst place and live a very hard life and an even harder death for the benefit of others. That’s the kind of king he is.

In fact, this attitude forms part of Jesus’ definition of good leadership among his people:

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:42–45 (ESV)

Of course, nobody is surprised when we fall short of Jesus standards. But Christianity isn’t defined by Christians, it’s always defined by Christ himself. The fact that we fail to reach them fully (I am not talking about deliberate and inexcusable abuses, just everyday weaknesses) just reminds us why we need him as our saviour.

The real difficulties that we face in this world and the real pain and the real hardship…there’s there’s no need in Christianity at all to sweep any of this under the rug. Why does God allow so much suffering and injustice? Well, he won’t always. He is coming as the king. He’s going to bring peace to all nations. He’s bringing justice on all oppressors, and no secret (or person!) is buried deep enough to escape his reach.

While we wait, does the God of the Bible care about all that you have suffered, all that I have suffered, all that is still ongoing right now? Yes. How much? Enough that he willingly joined us in it, and made his own participation central to his plan for our redemption.