Good morning! Let us praise God, for God is good! Christ is risen; new life has come. Hallelujah! God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.
God is good, even in the midst of tragedy. We’ve seen quite a few tragedies lately. It’s easy to say “God is good” in church on Sunday morning; it’s a little harder to say it when we hear the day’s news. The catastrophe in Japan, after many weeks, is still unfolding. The nation of Haiti, suffering even before the earthquake there, is still far from putting itself back together more than a year later. There’s violence in Libya, fighting in Afghanistan, bombings in Belarus, school shootings in Brazil.
Here in the U.S., regions back east are recovering following last week’s deadly tornadoes. Meanwhile, reports released last week show that the rich have never been richer, that the very richest among us are paying less taxes than ever, while at the same time, the poor are being made to carry an ever-increasing burden, and public education is being neglected as we turn our backs on future generations. These things are just as tragic as everything else that has happened. This is the type of man-made tragedy described by the prophet Isaiah, who cried out: “Ah, you who write oppressive statutes to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor.”
What in God’s name is going on? Where is the good news of Easter in the midst of all this bad news? The other day, Anne Lamott – who spoke at Chapman University last month – was quoted in the news as saying that we are Easter people living in a Good Friday world. Sometimes it’s hard to see the good news of Easter when all around you, it’s still Good Friday. Sometimes I feel like the psalmist, who cried out to God in a time of trouble, but found no comfort; the psalmist who said: “My soul refuses to be comforted. I think of God and I moan. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Has God’s steadfast love ceased forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has God’s compassion come to an end?”
Obviously, those who follow the way of God are not immune from suffering. Scripture seems to imply that the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – were blessed because they followed God; because they followed God, they were spared from suffering and tragedy.
But the writer of Ecclesiastes takes issue with this. He says: “Wait a minute – that’s not true. I have seen good people suffer, with no one to comfort them; and I have seen evil people prosper. What’s the point? What is the meaning of all this?” Where is the “good news?”
In all of scripture, no one’s suffering is more famous than Job’s. Job experienced just about every form of suffering imaginable; and no one was as good as Job. One minute he was blessed, and in the next minute, everything was taken from him.
Just like anyone who has suffered deeply or who has ever witnessed the deep suffering of others, Job tried to make sense of his suffering. He searched for some explanation. He cried out: WHY? But he found no answer.
Job’s friends witnessed his suffering, and figured that there must be some explanation as to why these things happened. There had to be, right? So they offered to Job their easy answers. They said to Job that, obviously, he must have done something wrong in order for God to punish him like this.
It is tempting to search for easy answers. How many of you heard, following 9-11, some preacher in the news quoted as saying that the attack on America was God’s punishment? Or that AIDS is God’s punishment? Or that the earthquake in Haiti, or Hurricane Katrina, that these are God’s punishment for the sins of the people?
Just like the disciples, who asked Jesus about the man born blind (“was it because of his sins or his parents’ sins that he was born blind?”), it is so tempting to seek out the easy answers.
Job knows better. “I refuse to believe that God operates that way,” Job says. He has no answer. He does not understand the reason for his suffering, or if there even is a reason. But he does know that his suffering is not punishment from God, because that’s not the way of a loving, compassionate God.
Suffering is a part of human existence. Nations suffer. Communities suffer. Families suffer. Individuals suffer, sometimes in silence. Maybe someone here today is suffering.
It was into a world of suffering, a world where life itself is a struggle, that Jesus was born. Some of that suffering seemed to have no reason behind it, like the suffering of the man born blind. But other suffering came about because of the way people treated one another; especially, the way those in authority treated those under them.
Many believed that the path to the least amount of suffering was to play by the world’s rules. Play by the rules, and you will have some measure of security against suffering.
What were those rules?
1. Store up wealth for yourself
2. Make friends in high places
3. Love yourself above all others
4. Don’t upset Caesar
Two centuries later, these rules still haven’t changed much. Everyone wants to be rich. Gaining wealth is supposed to make one happy, even though so many make themselves miserable working to earn money. Everyone also wants to have friends in high places; much of life’s security still depends on “who you know.” People still place their own needs above the needs of others; one person’s right to do what he or she wants is believed to be more important than the negative effect that exercising that right has on others. How else could we justify all the pollution we create?
And as for not upsetting Caesar? Well, don’t ever challenge or critique the shortcomings of capitalism, patriotism, militarism, or western Christianity, not even if your intention is improvement or reformation. People don’t want to hear it.
Those are the rules for an easy life, a life free from trouble. Store up wealth; make friends in high places; love yourself above all others; and don’t upset those with power.
But you know what? The rules don’t always work. Suffering still comes.
Jesus did not play by those rules. He had no wealth and few possessions, not even a home where he could entertain guests. He had few friends in high places, but many more friends in low places: fishermen, tax collectors, various types of “sinners.” He was overly concerned not with his own needs, but with the needs of others; his compassion was so great that he repeatedly sacrificed his own “me time” in order to minister to the needs of others. And, he was not afraid of upsetting Caesar.
Jesus believed that the rules of the world do not lead to a better life. Wealth, power, influence: these things are way overrated.
Instead of blessings of wealth, Jesus said that blessings come to the poor. Instead of the blessings that come from never going hungry, Jesus said that blessings come to those who thirst and hunger for justice and for what is right. Instead of blessings that come from having power, Jesus said that blessings come to those who make peace. Instead of blessings that come from going along with the crowd, going along with Caesar, and playing by the world’s rules, Jesus said that blessings come to those who are persecuted; that blessings come to those who suffer.
And because Jesus did say these things, he did suffer. The world rejected him, because he didn’t play by the world’s rules. Instead of choosing to escape suffering, he chose to identify with those who suffer. He believed in a different way of living, and was persecuted as a result. Because of that, he suffered. Because of that, he was crucified.
It is one of the great mysteries of our faith that Jesus, though he was a human like you and like me, he was also filled completely with the spirit and presence of God. In Jesus – in this human being – God was fully present. Which means that God fully shared in the suffering of the one who fully shares in our suffering.
To say it more plainly, it means that God fully shares in your suffering. When you suffer, God is there. With you.
It’s like that TV show Undercover Boss. Have you seen it? The big CEO leaves his big office with the padded leather chair and goes to work undercover at one of his company’s entry-level jobs, flipping the burgers, cleaning toilets, experiencing the frustration of dealing with upper management … and getting to know, on a personal level, the front-line employees and the struggles they face.
God has left his throne in the clouds (if it can be said that God was ever there at all) and has come to earth, to dwell among us, to know us, to experience all that we experience.
What wondrous love is that, that God would do that for us! That God would choose to suffer with us!
And then, when Jesus struggled, suffered, and died … When this world said NO to Jesus and what he lived for in the most powerful way it could, … God took that NO and turned it into a YES by raising Jesus from the dead.
The world denied Jesus and all he stood for.
God affirmed Jesus and all he stood for. God affirmed Jesus’ life of compassion, his life of selfless giving, his life of bringing hope and solidarity to those in low places, his life of identifying with those who suffer, his life of making peace and establishing justice. And even though Jesus suffered and died, God raised him to a new life that is infinitely deeper and more abundant than anything this world has to offer.
Suffering is often unexplainable, and it is often unavoidable. Often there is no easy answer to the question, “Why?” The good news is that God’s compassion is so great – that God’s love for you is so great – that God shares your suffering with you. God knows what it’s like to suffer, because, in Jesus, God experienced suffering himself.
And when we choose to exercise that same compassion and that same love by sharing in the suffering of others, sacrificing our own lives for the sake of the poor, the oppressed, working to bring God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven – when we risk losing the life that this world offers, giving that up for the new life God offers – then we are truly blessed. Blessed with the “YES!” of God. Blessed with a deeper, richer, more abundant life we could ever have imagined.
When you live according to the way of Jesus, you live contrary to the way of the world. The world may tell you NO; but God tells you YES. The world may deny you the life you are trying to live; the world may try to take that life away from you. But God gives you new life. New life in Christ’s name.
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