Death pt.2

As I thought about my last post, I realized that I had only said half of what I wanted to say.  I am not sure how to logically connect that post and this but they are connected in my mind.  I wrote then about my own self-destructive tendencies and about how the Church has treated people who can't seem to cope with this life.  And I think that encouraging the hurting, especially the ones who are the same as me, and reminding us all that we have made parochial and limited the Gospel that Christ made truly universal are the principal things that need to be done here, but examining why Christianity has wound up on such a wrong path is also worthwhile.

A good friend, and former pastor, of mine is fond of asking the question, "Would you want to go to Heaven if Jesus wasn't there?"  And I think that this question is a good place to begin examining our radical misunderstanding of Christianity.  I think that I would like to ask the same question in sort of an opposite way.  Would you want to go to the Cross, to rejection, to being betrayed by a friend, to Hell if Christ is there?  We have gone from the objective of Christianity being "Christ alone", from believing that He is everything we could ever want, to believing that Heaven, and happiness, and health, and mental health, and a hundred other things are things that can be, even should be, added to Christ.  We have made Heaven the destination of Christianity and I think that the objective should be almost the opposite of Heaven.  It should be the desolation and betrayal of the Cross.  We don't begin with the Man of Sorrows and move on to some happy, peaceful Christ.  The happiness and peace is contained in the loneliness and betrayal.  I have always made fun of those crosses covered in flowers, but I begin to think that there is a real truth shown there.  Joy and peace and all good things not only spring from the cross but they maintain its shape and character from start to finish.

Many scholars believe that the Book of Job was written as a theodicy, an answer to the so called Problem of Evil.  The Problem of Evil is that it doesn't seem that there should be anything that is not good in a universe absolutely ruled by a good God.  Evil is used as an objection either to God's goodness, His omnipotence, or even His existence.  But while Job certainly takes a hard look at the Problem of Evil it doesn't really offer or even suggest any answers.  Job can only accept that the God who made and rules the universe knows His own business and is above human questioning.  On the other hand, I would like to suggest a reason why Job suffers and why we suffer.

This answer usually involves blaming the pain of this life and the next on sin or views it as in some way corrective or sees suffering as a test of some type.  But both Job and our own experience invalidate these suggestions.  Testing explains Satan's motives in Job but offers no light whatsoever on God's motives.  Further, what would be the benefit of this testing to us or to an all-knowing God?  To us passing this test could only make us proud and more likely to fail the next test in some sort of loop that doesn't end until we fail.  God gains nothing from the testing unless He is ignorant, which we must reject.  That evil is sent to correct our faults is not credible firstly because in Job's case there is no evident fault that it is meant to correct, he is declared righteous at the beginning, and secondly because we see that suffering often makes men worse and not better.  If suffering is meant to correct our faults it fails at a rate that can hardly be divine.  That suffering is caused by sin sounds good and pious but it is really a non-answer.  It begs the question of why it is good for sinners to suffer.  To simply say that it is just leaves us with the questions, "Why is it just?", and "Why should sinners receive justice rather than something else, say grace?"

The explanation I intend to offer for suffering is simple, even simplistic.  I don't need any complex arguments and just one verse of Scripture.

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. Matthew 10:24

I would like to suggest that the reason Job suffered is as simple as the fact that Jesus suffered. If He suffered then it is enough for me to suffer. We usually like to imagine some sort of compensation for our hardships. We imagine that "Heaven will make it all worth it." or some bull like that. This thought is unworthy of God. He doesn't hurt us because He is too dumb or weak to prevent it and then try and make it right later. Our suffering is right all on its own. Because He suffered. I can accept death. Death is enough for me, because He died.

It is terrifying when God takes out the instruments for the surgery for which no human being has the strength: to take away a person’s human zest for life, to slay him – in order that he can live as one who has died to the world and to the flesh. It cannot be otherwise, for in no other way can a human being love God. He must be in such a state of agony that if he were an unbeliever he would at no time hesitate to commit suicide. But in this state he must – live. Only in this state can he love God. -S. Kierkegaard

Once and for All