Suffering: Of God and Man

It’s the question that has plagued believers and served as ammunition for skeptics. Why does God allow suffering? How can a good God look down on the pain, despair, and misery that is the lot of so many, and let it be?

I’ve been thinking about this recently, but the question in my mind took another turn. In Christian belief, God is not a detached Intelligence, watching the unfolding of creation void of feeling or investment. God is a person in the fullness of our understanding of personhood- with emotion, creativity, and purpose. The emotions of God then would exist in their purest and fullest possibilities- love that creates, sustains, and nourishes, anger that consumes, joy that illuminates and… pain.

The Christian looks to Jesus – God incarnate. We see him embrace, we see him rage, we see him celebrate, we see him weep. Jesus, contemplative and deep, was no stoic. And on the cross we see him suffer- body, mind, and spirit. God and man, joined in suffering.

We believe in a God that joins us in our suffering. So the question then becomes not just why does God lets us suffer, but why does God let God suffer? Our suffering is limited in its scope, relieved at least by sleep and ultimately death. But God has no limits – so that must mean that the suffering of God has no limits. It is unrelieved by suspended consciousness or extinguishment.

So why would God let God suffer? The only thing I can understand is that He must know that it will be worth it. As Pauls says-

” I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Romans 8:18

So I guess it comes down to trust. I have to trust that the suffering we see and experience won’t even be worth comparing to the good that God has in store. Good that even God has been willing to suffer for.