Rev. Douglas Whitelaw, M.A. is the executive director of
Ark Aid Mission in London, Ontario. This post is from his paper 'Toward A Theology of Suffering'.
SECTION 9/9
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Of course, the
Christian message is that God has not only suffered with us, but for us, on the
Cross. Our central image is one of suffering and death. In Jesus' vicarious
death, the curse of sin is broken, the Kingdom of God has arrived, at least in
nascent form and with Jesus' resurrection, we once again live in a world of
unlimited possibilities. God himself has removed the greatest of all suffering,
eternal separation from him. The effects of sin are being unraveled. It is for
us to proclaim that 'Jesus Christ has saved you,' to learn to live ourselves in
that liberating reality and to help others to do so. As with Job, God rarely
answers our questions of 'why?' At least not directly. But in trusting him,
there is a place of resolution because God is immediately present in human
suffering. There is a deeper place than understanding 'why' that one can only
appreciate as one journeys to it. It is the place of realizing that God has
suffered much more than we, is always present with us transforming our suffering
into joy for us and glory for him.
If we go back
to Genesis 3, the story of the Garden ends with banishment so that Adam could
not eat from the Tree of Life and thus live forever since he now knew good and
evil, as did God. Of course, the result of banishment was death, which appears
to be God finally cursing Adam. But Eastern Orthodox theology offers a
different insight, one consistent with our reading of the chapter as the
beginning of the redemption story. To live with such knowledge would
have been the curse for Adam, as the variations of the Faust myth
explore. Death was rather a gift to Adam, to spare him the ultimate horrors of
his sin. It is sin that puts the 'sting' into death, which sting Christ
removed. Thus while consequences of sin were immediate, intensive and
extensive, God immediately began to ameliorate them, first with the clothes and
then with banishment. The circle is closed with Christ's resurrection, the
'first fruits' of our resurrection: “for as in Adam all die, so all will be
made alive in Christ” (I Cor 15:22). Even death has a redemptive purpose and in
Christ is not the final word on a human life.
It is this
over-arching view of suffering that is too often lacking in our theological
perspective. A renewed emphasis on the Kingdom of God, a holistic understanding
of God's redemptive purposes, the immediacy as well as the comprehensive nature
of God's response, the relationship of joy to suffering and a sound biblical
understanding of death will anchor effective ministry in our broken world. And
it will propel us to those people and places where suffering is most evident as
the places where God suffers along with
us. If we apply ourselves there too, that is where the Kingdom grows. Good news
to the blind, the captive, the oppressed – and the dead.
