Christianity is More Honest and Hopeful About Suffering Than we Think

It’s funny how often we’re surprised by stuff that we can see coming.

We all know that Christmas is scheduled for December 25 — but we’re still often scrambling for last-minute gifts.

We know that we won’t have our kids with us forever, but graduation comes and we think, “Where did the time go?”

And, most painful, we know that we live in a broken world filled with suffering. But when it comes our way, it’s still a surprise.

It may not be a surprise that suffering is coming, but what might surprise you is how honest and hopeful the Bible is about it. In a world that so often wants to explain it away and minimize suffering — or, on the opposite extreme, act like suffering is all there is — Christianity speaks in five surprising ways about suffering that can bring us real hope.

1. Suffering is real, not imagined.

Eastern religions and modern self-help gurus minimize suffering as if it were only in our heads. But Christianity is honest about suffering. It’s a real thing.

Pain, injustice, trauma, and death are not fiction. They are real, they really hurt, and God is honest about it.

2. We can know the origin of suffering, even if the specific reason remains a mystery.

Whenever you’re suffering, the question emerges: “Why?” The Bible is honest about both being able and unable to answer that question.

On one hand, suffering in general exists because of sin — humanity’s rebellion and distrust of God — that started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and continues in every human heart today.

But on the other hand, we don’t always know why particular kinds of suffering take place. The entire biblical book of Job is about a man and his friends trying to sort out why he’s suffering as he is (and they don’t really ever get a satisfying answer).

While frustrating, it at least tells us we’re not crazy when we can’t figure out why God is allowing something so painful to happen.

3. Suffering can be meaningful.

In a secular, Darwinistic view of reality, we can’t really be upset about suffering. It’s just part of a world where the strong eat the weak. If we’re suffering, there’s no greater meaning in it — we’re just on the wrong side of evolutionary development.

But Christianity offers the idea that suffering could be meaningful. That God could use suffering in our lives to re-shape our character and show us and the world that he is our ultimate treasure.

4. God invites us to complain to him about our suffering.

Nearly one-third (33%) of the book of Psalms is what could be called “laments.” These are Psalms where the author is complaining to God about injustice, persecution, pain, relational breaks, and more. These laments are recorded as an example to follow.

Too often we only complain to others about our suffering, but God is actually big enough, tough enough, and inviting enough to listen carefully to our complaints. He’s not distant. He cares.

5. God personally gets involved in suffering in order to end suffering.

Not only does God listen to our laments, but he actually gets involved in the suffering. Only in the Christian story does God voluntarily experience suffering himself.

Rather than being removed or dismissive, God gets involved. In Jesus, God himself experiences general and specific suffering. On the cross, Jesus experiences excruciating suffering (a word that actually comes from “crucify”) that he did not deserve.

If Jesus knows what that kind of pain is like, then even if we don’t know the reasons he allows it, we can at least trust that he has good purposes in it.

Best of all, because Jesus died to stop the power of sin — and then rose from the dead victorious over sin and death — we have hope that someday our suffering and pain will come to an end. God experiencing suffering is what ultimately ends suffering.

Suffering is inevitable. It’s coming. Don’t be surprised. But, when it comes, look to the God who doesn’t dismiss it, but actually gets involved and walks with you through it.

If this reflection was encouraging in anyway, consider checking out these additional resources on the themes of sin & suffering:

Videos:

● The Bible Project: “Sin”