As Gary R. Habermas relayed the story of his wife’s death due to stomach cancer in his book, The Risen Jesus & Future Hope, tears stung my eyes and a knot formed in my stomach. His wife was 43 when she succumbed to cancer, the same age my husband was when he died from blunt force trauma. Habermas was very transparent as he shared his fears and doubts.[1] Through studying Job he discovered that Job’s real problem was his inability to understand the circumstances he was questioning.[2] This seems to be a common theme when considering the theology of suffering.
The problem
of evil has been a philosophical argument against the existence of God since
Epicurus first formulated and classically stated the problem. Why would an
omnibenevolent God allow suffering and pain in the world? What do believers do
with the theology of suffering? The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
Christ answers these questions and more.
On Mother’s
Day 2015, my children and I watched as their devoted father and my loving
husband lost his footing and slid belly first down a granite slope until he
disappeared over the ledge. He continued to tumble like a rag doll for over 100
feet until his head crashed into a tree stump and stopped his descent. When we
reached him he was still alive, but it was only his brain stem that was still
functioning as he moaned and thrashed around like a wounded animal. His skull
was cracked and his scalp hung from the back of his head. We held him on a
steep slope for over an hour waiting for the EMT’s to arrive, constantly in
fear of our own lives, knowing there was 60 more feet to fall. When the EMT’s
arrived they hurried everyone out of the area knowing it was too dangerous.
They worked on him for hours, but as he was strapped to a board being lifted by
a helicopter to the life flight crew, he died. Life would never be normal
again.
As we all
struggled through post-traumatic stress disorder and the loss of our leader,
the one question I asked God continually was, “Why? Why did he have to die in
such a traumatic way? He could have died from a heart attack or a car accident—anything
that did not involve my children being traumatized in the process.” God kept
taking me to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus anguished over what lay
ahead. Then God took me to the flogging and the humiliation Jesus suffered in
the hands of His tormenters. God reminded me, just as He reminded Habermas,
that He had watched His son die a humiliating, brutal death and Jesus was only
33.[3]
“I understand your pain,” God whispered to me in my despair and brokenness. I
realized that God was the only one who could understand my pain perfectly.
Why does
God allow suffering? Vince Vitale suggests that it is because He desires to create
a specific community of individuals, and suffering allows Him to obtain
precisely that community.[4]
In Ephesian 1.4-5, Paul tells us that God chose us before the foundation of the
world to be holy and blameless and adopted us as His children. If we consider
that God’s own Son learned obedience through suffering, how can we truly
believe it should be different for us?[5]
Philippians 2.8 states that Jesus humbled Himself and was obedient unto death.
How can we hope to escape the circumstances of living in a fallen world?
Through suffering we are transformed into new beings, and as we seek consolation
in God’s mercy and grace, we are comforted.
My hope through all of this has
been in the resurrection. Because Jesus bodily rose from the dead, I will see
my husband again. I know where he is. Through Jesus’ suffering, death, and
resurrection there is hope for all mankind. Although there are several reasons
mankind suffers in the world, Jesus’ death and resurrection is the answer to
them all. Something I wrote to be read at my husband’s celebration of life sums
up how the crucifixion and resurrection are tied to the theology of suffering:
“Tragedy did strike
our happy home. The bliss I have known, the love and the beauty of a fulfilled
marriage, have been ripped from my hands by an incident too terrible for words.
However even though I am completely broken, I am still blessed. God gave me the
most exquisite gift, one forged through the flames and polished to a golden
glow. I will never stop praising the name of the One who allowed me to know
what it was to be Woody’s wife. Broken and blessed by the One who blessed me
ultimately through His brokenness.”
We will suffer in this lifetime.
However, because of the resurrection our mourning will be turned to joy. I no
longer view the trials we continue to face because of that fateful day in the
same way I did before trauma marked our lives. I know I will never suffer to
the point Jesus did, and I know I am never alone in my pain. Slowly, I am being
transformed, as the dross is removed. God will continue to polish me until He is
able to see His reflection in my life, and like it or not that requires
suffering.
[1] See chapter eight in Gary
R. Habermas, The Risen Jesus & Future
Hope (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
[2] Ibid. 190.
[3] Ibid. 194.
[4] Ravi Zacharias and Vince
Vitale, Why Suffering? Finding Meaning
and Comfort When Life Doesn’t Make Sense (New York: Faith Words, 2014), 71.
[5] See Hebrews 5.8.
