About our Minister » Nathan's Greatest Hits! » Job and Suffering
Sermon Oct 15 2006 – Job and suffering
I want to start with 2 stories today, unfortunately they’re 2 sad stories, so get your hankies ready!
The first is from when I was at uni. I knew 2 young men there, both around the same age, both Presbyterians, both involved in the student Christian group I belonged to, and both from Christian families with fathers who were highly involved in church. But unfortunately their similarities didn’t end there, one year, at about the same time, both of their fathers were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
One friend’s family made his condition very public and asked everyone to pray, the other family kept it mostly secret, just asking a select group of people to pray. They both went through the usual medical procedures, but the father who was open about his condition gradually deteriorated, eventually dying several months later. The father who’d kept it fairly quiet though, a few months into the tests and scans, the cancer suddenly and miraculously disappeared. The doctors could give no reason for it.
They were both faithful Christian men, both being prayed for; one received a miracle, the other didn’t. The friend whose father was healed never told my other friend, who I’ll call Mark, that his father had been in that situation. Imagine how Mark might’ve felt if he’d known – God had intervened to save this man’s life, but not his father. Why? What had his father done wrong? Why save the one and not the other?
Tragically, the story didn’t end there. Just over a year later my friend Mark himself died, killed out climbing in the mountains.
Psalm 22: “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help?”
My second story also involves cancer.
Again, when I was at uni I had a hero in the faith who we’ll call Max. Now I have to admit that Max was a bit of a loser – yes, I know, it’s a bit sad when your hero’s a loser. He was a country boy, and inherited the family farm when his father retired. But, unfortunately he sucked as a farmer!
He made series of bad decisions and lost the farm, but managed to salvage enough money to buy a dairy. 2 yrs later though, he’d bankrupted that business as well. Next he tried working in a saw mill to support his family, but pretty soon had an accident and cut off his fingers. So, in the end he moved to a cheap flat in Sth Akl, went on the dole, and watched his kids slowly get involved in crime.
A pretty depressing life eh? He was pretty depressed too…
But then, one day he thought ‘not even Christianity could get me more depressed than I am at the moment, so, why don’t I try church?’ – which he did. And there in church he heard about God; a God who created him and loved him even though he was a loser, a God who wanted to enter his life and have a relationship with him, and a God who could redeem his life, take away the shame of his past, and show him a better way to live for the future. So, Max became a Christian and went off to Bible College to learn more about this God.
When he came back he was full of enthusiasm, he wanted to do stuff! There were a few unemployed people in his church, so he got them together and started going round the homes of some elderly folk, doing their gardening and helping with house work.
Being in an economically depressed part of NZ, he soon discovered that there were a lot of really poor people around, people who couldn’t even afford to eat properly. So, he went to a local supermarket, asking for their damaged goods to distribute – which they gave him. Next he went to a big local bakery asking for their leftovers – which they gave him. That got him feeling pretty bold, so he went to the local dairy factory asking if they had any give-aways. The next day he had a mountain of nearly expired milk and yoghurt dumped on his driveway, and had to get people to donate lots of freezers to put it all in!
This is when I joined them, they were rapidly becoming the largest foodbank in Akl, and the operation didn’t fit in his small flat anymore. So, someone donated about NZ$250,000 and they bought an orchard and just kept expanding. Pretty soon they were delivering food parcels to over 800 families. It was also a Christian-oriented foodbank, so when we delivered the food we’d always stop to chat and offer to pray. And from that, many, many people were coming to faith in God through this ministry as well.
Max kept telling us he’d never succeeded at anything in life before and that it was God who was driving all this not him – but, if he ever started getting stuck-up about it all, he told us to give him a clip around the ears (which people did).
But then, when things were going so well and showing so much promise, Max was also diagnosed with cancer. He fought it for a few years, but eventually he died.
I still remember coming home from his funeral when my flatmate said…
“I wonder what he did?” - "What do you mean what he did?” I asked.
“What sin he committed. He must’ve sinned to die of cancer! God wouldn’t let him die if he was living a godly life!” my flatmate replied…
That comment made me sooo angry!
Pslam 22 continues…
My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls; fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in! Like roaring lions attacking their prey, they come at me with open mouths. My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me.
The reading Irene gave us today came from the book of Job, one of my favourite books of the Bible.
I love the variety that we find in scripture! On the one hand we have the book of Proverbs, a very black and white book, portraying the universe as a very orderly and predictable place – if you act the right way, things will go well for you; if you act the wrong way, things will go badly for you. Generally we know that this is true. If you work hard, generally that helps you get ahead in life; if you are a good and loving parent, generally you raise well-adjusted and responsible children. But, that isn’t always the case…
Some people work hard all their lives but factors beyond their control still hold them back. Some people are the best parents, but their children still get into trouble. Sometimes bad things do happen to good people, the world isn’t always an orderly and predictable place. And this is where the other books of the Bible come into play! This is the message of Ecclesiastes, the book which immediately follows Proverbs, with its famous beginning…
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
And this is the message of the book of Job, which in the Jewish ordering of the Bible comes immediately before Proverbs.
If we know this book, we know that it starts with Job as a rich man - the richest man in the land of Uz. But, as well as rich, he’s also a godly man. The Bible says that he was blameless, that he kept away from evil. However, despite his blamelessness, one day disaster strikes. In one day raiders come out of the dessert, kill his servants and steal all his livestock; a great wind then comes up and knocks down his house, killing all his children; and then to top to it all off he gets a disease with boils breaking out all over his body.
A pretty bad day all round!
Some of Job’s friends hear of all that has happened to him, so, as friends do, they gather round him to support him, and to attempt to comfort him in this time of crisis. But, they come with this rigid, black-and-white, Proverbs understanding of life, and instead of helping him, they end up condemning him.
If you do good, they say, God will bless you; if you sin, they say, God will punish you. Job is suffering, so in their minds they believe that God is punishing him. Therefore, for God to be punishing him he must’ve sinned and brought this on himself. So, all he needs to do is repent of his sin and God will end his suffering! Easy!
But, instead of comforting Job (which was their intention), their rigid understanding of God leads them to end up condemning him; branding him a sinner, blaming him for his suffering – basically saying that what has happened to him is all his fault.
How often in the past has the church done the same thing I wonder?
We read from chapter 23 where Job is responding to his friend Eliphaz. Vv. 2-7 Job says…
"Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; but he would give heed to me. There an upright person could reason with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.”
Job is agreeing with his friends that God is indeed a just, reasonable and merciful God. So, because Job is innocent and is suffering for no good reason; rather than confessing to a sin he hasn’t committed, Job believes that if he could just find God and plead his case before the Almighty, then surely God would acquit him and end his suffering.
But, the problem is that Job doesn’t know where God lives – “Oh, that I knew where I might find him.”
Verses 8-9 continue…
"If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.”
God is a mystery, Job finds God unreachable. I’ve been in this situation before, and I’m sure many of you have as well. “Why God why? Why is this happening to me? Meet me, talk to me, explain it to me!” Sometimes God does answer when people cry out for understanding, but in the end God does remain a mystery. It is just not possible to know the mind of God in some situations in life. We can’t sit down with God to talk things over and come away with answers. God remains mysterious!
Job discovered this, and he didn’t like it! Rather than making him love and respect God, it made him terrified of God.
In Verses 15-17 our reading concluded…
“Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me; If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face!”
He’s feeling pretty depressed! He wants the darkness that hides God to hide him too. He wants to fade away, to die and be forgotten.
The same questions that Job raised, still remain unanswered for us today. Why do bad things happen to good people? How do we find God and get answers to the struggles of life? Why isn’t life always as black-and-white and predictable as the book of Proverbs indicates it should be? At the end of the day this remains a mystery, but unlike Job, now, in 2006 we stand in the light of the cross, now we can look at these questions through the life and death of Jesus.
In Jesus God came and lived among us, lived an innocent, blameless life of service to others; but yet he suffered and died for our sake at the hands of violent men. So, when we suffer or face crises in life, we still may not know why – but at least we know where to look to find God. God is on the cross suffering with us, God has been a victim of unjust suffering as well.
So, to conclude. When we face suffering in our lives, let us remember – it is not necessarily our fault! Let us be gentle with ourselves. And likewise, when we encounter suffering in other peoples lives let us remember - the world is a confusing place, this is not necessarily their fault either. Let us show grace to those who suffer, not condemnation.
And let us remember that above it all is God, hanging on a cross, sharing our pain and sharing our sorrow.