16 Oct How can God allow suffering?

John 11:1–44

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[e] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 

Background

I guess you could say that I grew up in a bit of a Christian bubble. My dad is a Pastor. I went to Christian schools. So it wasn’t until university that I started having conversations with people who sincerely held worldviews that were different to mine.

 

That prompted a desire to express my Christian faith in ways that were compelling but still authentic. I graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney and the walk from Central Station to the university was always crowded with marketing students wanting you to stop and sign a petition or donate to a particular charity. Some of them were pretty aggressive about it. So I used to negotiate. Hey, I’ll listen to you for 5 minutes talking about how bad the government is or whatever, but then you have to listen to me talk about Jesus for 5 minutes. It’s a good way to either have people leave you alone, or be late for class.

 

That slowly progressed to other things. I used to go looking for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hyde Park to debate on my lunch breaks. I just found it interesting. Talking about the implications of what I believed, how it differed from others, and what it’s all based on.

 

Actually – I have this really vivid memory of visiting Speakers Corner in London on holiday with Tahnee. For those that don’t know what that is, it’s a part of the city where once a month people gather to stand on soap boxes and debate each other. Usually on topics of religion or politics.

 

We were listening to this Muslim man debate a Christian on the nature of the trinity. He’s asking things like “If Jesus was God, how could He pray to God? You’re Jesus walks around talking to himself!”. It’s pretty crowded so I’m moving closer to hear their arguments when the Muslim man invites me into the conversation. The problem was he assumed I was also Muslim. I think it was the beard. “Brother, you agree with me don’t you. Tell this Christian what he believes is nonsense”. I kind-of pretended to be converted to Christianity that day.

 

Let’s be clear – arguing with people in the street is probably not the best way to go about spreading the Gospel. But I do think it’s important for Christians to be able to articulate their worldview.

 

Since I’ve been working from home I’ve had more opportunities to take Lucia to school, it’s great having that 1:1 time with her in the car. She asked me a question recently. You know it’s going to be a big one because she’s the type of kid who will preface what she’s about to say.

 

“Dad, I know this isn’t true but… you know how we believe in God. Other people believe in other things. What happens if our God isn’t true?”

 

It’s a good question isn’t it? There’s probably lots of ways to respond to it. But regardless of the approach – I want to encourage her to ask questions. To tell her “It’s just true Lucia” is not a way to build her confidence in the Christian faith. She needs to be told about the evidence.

 

I don’t want to hide other worldviews from my daughter – because they have to provide an answer to her questions too – and hopefully in the end she’ll come to her own conviction that the Christian faith provides the most satisfying explanation to big questions.

 

If you are a person of faith here, can I encourage you? Don’t run away from difficult questions. The Christian faith can stand up to scrutiny. The bible commands us to love God not just with our heart but with all of our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength.

 

That’s what we are going to do this evening. We’re going to confront a big question.

 

It’s a question that torpedoes many people’s faith. “How Can God Allow Suffering?” Look around at all the suffering in the world, how could a loving God allow it?

 

Tim Keller puts the argument against Christianity on the basis of suffering like this: If God allows evil and suffering to continue because he can’t stop it – then he might be good, but he’s not all powerful. On the other hand if God allows evil and suffering to continue because he could stop it, and yet he won’t stop it – then he might be all powerful but he’s not good. Either way, the good, all powerful, God of the bible couldn’t exist.

 

On the surface, it seems like a huge problem for Christianity – our God doesn’t exist. This evening we’re going to use our reading from John 11 as a bit of structure to help guide us. But one thing I’d like to say upfront.

 

This message is inspired by other Christian writers and thinkers. When it comes to Apologetics you want to be well read. So a book recommendation for you is one called Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion. It’s written by a lady named Rebecca McLaughlin. Originally from the UK now based in America. She’s great. Very smart, very articulate. I’m a big fan. So if you are interested in Apologetics, check that out. The thread that I am following through John 11 is from that book.

 

Introduction to Suffering

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

 

The topic of suffering is broad. There is a huge spectrum of things we would describe as types of suffering.

 

When Tahnee and I were newly dating she invited me around to her house for dinner with her parents. I arrived nervously wanting to make a good impression. Tahnee had cooked a green curry for dinner. Let me explain, I am fine with spicy food. My Asian friends are always surprised that I’ll eat things. But I’ve got to tell you, this was the hottest thing I have ever eaten in my life. I suffered that night. “Try not to think about it, just keep putting it in your mouth”. Tell you what – I suffered about 24 hours later as well. It was bad.

 

That’s a pretty mild description of suffering that we can all relate to. But when we consider the human experience, things ramp up pretty quickly from there.

 

What about the suffering caused by war?

Suffering caused by natural disasters like tsunamis?

What about the parents of the 2,000 children that die every day because of poor sanitation and drinking water?

How about the suffering caused by cancer?

Grief from the death of a loved one.

 

Suffering, violence and death. Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, looks out on all of this and declares that our world “has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”

 

Perhaps he is right, perhaps like Lucia asked me, something else is true and we’ve got it wrong.

 

And rather than run from that question I’d like to consider 3 broad frameworks for trying to make sense of human suffering. We’re going to consider

1. Suffering without God. Atheism.
2. Suffering from a Buddhist perspective
3. And, suffering from the Christian worldview

 

We’re going to spend a very brief amount of time with the first two, obviously I’m biassed but I think there’s a lot more value in understanding the third.

 

Suffering without God

 

Ok. So let’s consider suffering from an Atheiat perspective. Initially this worldview offers relief for many people. “Stop trying to find meaning in things because there isn’t any. Suffering happens. Make your own meaning out of it.”

 

“I am mature, I am scientific. I don’t need to believe made-up stories in order to feel better about my life or my pain.”

 

But here’s something to consider about science. A scientific or materialistic worldview can only provide an explanation for our life in ways that are also scientific. How do you express meaning and purpose in ways that are scientific?

 

John Lennox is a well known mathematician and apologist who has had a number of public debates with Richard Dawkins and other atheists, he has a great analogy. It goes like this:

 

Imagine that Aunt Matilda has made a cake. And she has made it for a particular purpose. Now, there are lots of things scientists could tell us about the cake. Nutrition scientists can tell us about the number of calories in the cake and its nutritional effect; biochemists can tell us about the structure of the proteins and the fats; chemists can tell us about the elements involved and their bonding; physicists can analyse the cake in terms of fundamental particles; mathematicians can give us a beautiful set of equations to describe the behaviour of those particles. But does that satisfy all our questions? Yes, we know how the cake is put together. We know all about its parts and the way they relate to each other. No higher power told us any of that; science did. But can our scientists tell us why the cake was made? Only the maker—in this case, Aunt Matilda—knows. And until she reveals that information to us, no amount of scientific genius will be able to discover it.

 

Atheism solves the problem of suffering by removing the meaning from it. You can’t provide a scientific answer to why people suffer – there is no why. You can explain how we suffer, or what we suffer. But not why we suffer.

 

What’s the problem with this? Humans cling to whys. It gives our lives meaning. It’s interesting to consider that many who reject the idea of God still cling to an idea that things happen for a reason – there is some sort of universal meaning. Maybe you’ve had that conversation with a non-religious friend who rejects the notion there is a God but will still tell you about the universe having some sort of plan.

 

In an atheist worldview we suffer: there is no design, there is no purpose, there is no evil, there is no good – only indifference.

 

I would propose this morning – what if that yearning inside us for meaning (for why) is not the outcome of evolutionary processes as an Atheist might suggest, but actually signposts.

 

As C.S Lewis puts it… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

 

We could go on and on, but I think it’s useful to contrast one more worldview before we spend some time in the Christian one.

 

Suffering as a Buddist

 

Let’s look at suffering through a Buddhist lens. I have to admit I have never been a practising Buddhist and so my understanding of it may be skewed.

 

The accounts of the Buddah story vary from source to source. But this is my best paraphrase.

 

The man that became the first Buddah was a prince. His father, wanting to protect him, did everything he could to keep him happy. Growing bored of the palace he persuaded his father to let him go out in his chariot. Meeting an old man, the prince discovered that everyone ages. The next day, the prince met a sick man and discovered disease. On the third day the prince saw a corpse and learned to his horror that everyone dies. The prince left his palace and entered the forest to begin his journey to enlightenment. When he emerged he proclaimed that life is suffering and the only way of escape is to remove the attachments that bind us to life.

 

So the main principle of Buddhism as far as I can comprehend it is: People want to hold on to life, health, and possessions. But life, health, and possessions pass away. Our desires will always ultimately disappoint us – this is the cause of human suffering.

 

So if you can kill desire, if you can be unaffected by good or evil. Then suffering will cease and you can be happy.

 

I feel like I understand the allure. If you reject the idea of God but find Atheism to be bleak and meaningless, then Buddhism offers an alternative without the restrictions of other organised religions. And where Atheism says there is no meaning in suffering, Buddhism says you can escape it.

 

That’s a pretty attractive offer – a worldview that requires little of me and promises to make life less painful.

 

When I was originally writing this sermon, we got news that Sullivan – my youngest – had contracted Covid. He hadn’t been sick before. His first sickness was Coronavirus. And he was miserable. He couldn’t sleep. Burning up. Noisy breathing. Tahnee spent a day in the ED with him getting him assessed.

 

I’ll be honest, there have been times when I’ve been anxious about one of my kids’ and thought – you know if I had never had kids, I wouldn’t be this stressed right now. I wouldn’t be laying next to them in the middle of the night hoping their temperature will come down.

 

Or times when I’ve been having challenges at work – you know, if I just quit, I wouldn’t have to worry about all this.

 

The Buddist narrative tells us suffering is caused by desire, striving and attachment. Get rid of those things and you can have peace.

 

The challenge I have with this worldview is it’s a double edge sword. You can’t remove attachment without also losing all the meaning and joy that comes from it. To love is to be vulnerable. To strive for something is to risk being disappointed.

 

Is it true that the suffering caused by loving my children – can only be solved by not loving them anymore?

 

It’s very different from the picture we get from the Bible isn’t it? The commandments we have to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

 

Suffering with a Christian Worldview

 

Let’s consider the Christian Worldview then.

 

How can the God that Christians worship allow suffering? Theologians have spent a lot of time trying to reconcile suffering with the existence of a loving and powerful God.

 

But rather than go through philosophical arguments, I want to look at an example of suffering in the bible and see how Jesus responds to it. Surely a good way of understanding suffering from a Christian worldview, is to look at Christ.

 

Let’s get back to our reading

 

When Jesus Doesn’t Come

 

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

 

So we have some bad news and some good news.

 

The bad news is… Lazarus is sick – really sick.

The good news is. Mary and Martha know the Son of God, so they call for Jesus to come.

 

Which is why verse 6 is a little confusing. Verse 5 establishes that Jesus loves these 3 siblings. But verse 6 tells us that when Jesus hears that his friend is sick. He delays. He stays where he is for another couple of days.

 

If you know anything about Jesus. He heals people. He heals strangers. He even knows how to heal people long distance. But this time, when some of his closest friends call for help, He doesn’t come.

 

This is the first thing to grapple with in the Christian worldview. Sometimes we call for Jesus in the face of suffering and pain, and he doesn’t come.

 

Sometimes belief in an all powerful God can make our suffering seem worse. Jesus could have come when Mary and Martha called. But he didn’t. Mary and Martha suffer through the death of Lazarus because Jesus did not come.

 

Not really selling this worldview am I! Should we go back to the Buddist one?

 

Verse 21-22 – Disappointment

 

21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

 

If you had been here. You get the sense that Martha is a little disappointed with Jesus. I would be. “I’ve seen you heal person after person! Sometimes people just sneak up behind you and touch your clothes and you heal them. But when my brother needed you, where were you?”

 

How does Jesus respond?

 

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

 

We read this scripture already knowing that Jesus is about to raise Lazarus. But Mary and Martha didn’t know that. So when Jesus says in verse 23, Your brother will rise again. Martha isn’t relieved. She’s thinking Jesus is referring to some kind of end-time resurrection of the dead.

 

If you put yourself in her shoes. Her brother has just died. Yes he will rise again at some future time. But what about now, why won’t you help me now? Jesus if you’d just come when we called – I wouldn’t be in so much pain!

 

The Christian worldview doesn’t promise a life lived without pain or suffering. It also doesn’t offer an explanation for any particular experience of suffering. But it does offer us hope. And not just a way out there in the distance kind of hope. But a today-kind-of hope.

 

Rebecca in Confronting Christianity writes: In this moment, Marther stands where many Christians stand when faced with suffering. We have ultimate promises: one day Jesus will return and put the world to rights. But we are much more like children than philosophers. Our pain is real and urgent. It refuses to be soothed by faraway hope. Neat, theological answers will not do. But neither are they all that Christianity offers.

 

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

 

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

 

Here’s something that sounds weird to say out loud. Jesus is responsible for Mary and Martha’s suffering (question mark). Or maybe to soften it, Jesus allowed Mary and Martha to suffer unnecessarily?

 

Why, if Jesus planned to heal Lazarus, did he not just do so in the first place? Why did he let Lazarus die, and leave Mary and Martha mourning for days. Why not tell the sisters what he was about to do?

 

We’re not completely foreign to the idea of allowing a small amount of pain in order to prevent greater suffering. That first time you take a 4-month old baby to be vaccinated. They’re so trusting and happy, and then the look of betrayal in their eyes as the nurse makes a sharp sting in their leg (these days in both legs then an arm).

 

The question we should ask about suffering is: What could possibly be worth it? Why endure it? The Christian has an answer to that question – it’s Christ himself.

 

In verse 25 Jesus makes the claim that He is resurrected life. Not that he offers good teaching for a life with less suffering, but that He himself is life.

 

Here we see a key distinction of the Christian worldview. Where an Atheist says there is no meaning for suffering. Christ says He is the only meaning. Where the Buddhist says less attachment is the answer. Christ says attachment to Him is the only answer.

 

The Atheist looks at Martha and says there is no meaning to her pain. The Buddhist looks at Martha and says if she wasn’t so attached to her brother she wouldn’t feel this pain. But Christ looks at Martha and tells her that her biggest need is not to have her brother back – it is instead to have Christ himself – to have resurrected life.

 

Jesus delayed coming. Mary and Martha’s suffer through the death of their brother. Remember the classic objection to the Christian God? Either your God isn’t really loving or isn’t powerful enough to do anything. Maybe some of Mary and Martha’s friends said something to that effect as well. In fact verse 37 alludes to something like that.

 

But hang on, the story isn’t over. There’s still 2 important parts to come.

 

Jesus Weeps with Us

 

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.

 

Verse 35, the shortest verse in the bible and also a favourite of mine because as a child I was paid by my dad to memorise scripture. Easy money.

 

It’s the shortest verse, but also one of the most significant because of the insight it gives us into the Christian God.

 

When Jesus sees Mary weeping, He weeps. It’s more than just sympathy or feeling sorry – He feels her pain. What’s mind blowing for me is that Jesus delayed coming. He could have avoided this. But He chooses to feel the pain.

 

The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus showing compassion for those who are suffering. Isaiah (53) describes Christ as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

 

The Chrisitian God is not a far away deity watching the suffering of his creation from a distance. Instead, the Christian God enters into His own creation to experience suffering with and for us. Ultimately suffering in a way we could never understand on the Cross.

 

One of my favourite musicians John Mark McMillian writes about this truth in a song called The Road, The Rocks and the Weeds where he contrasts the Christian God with those we see in Greek mythology. These are his lyrics:

 

Come down from your mountain

Your high-rise apartment

And tell me of the God you know who bleeds

And what to tell my daughter

When she asks so many questions

And I fail to fill her heaviness with peace

When I’ve got no answers

For hurt knees or cancers

But a Savior who suffers them with me

Singing goodbye, Olympus

The heart of my Maker

Is spread out on the road, the rocks, and the weeds

And Aphrodite would not weep

Nor Zeus would suffer for the weak

But have you come to stand inside my pain?

 

The End of Suffering

 

Our final verses 43-44 this evening.

 

43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 

I touched on this idea earlier that if you stop reading this story at Mary and Martha’s grief. If that’s where you closed the book and demanded an explanation for why God would allow (maybe even cause suffering?). Then it would be difficult to provide a defence – but we have to read to the end.

 

Two more important things happen in our story. The first is Jesus weeps with us (verse 35). The second is that He ultimately brings the suffering to an end. We see this in verse 43-44  43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out…

 

In a moment of authority Mary and Martha’s suffering is brought to an end – their brother is restored to them.

 

The challenge of Chrisitians living out this narrative is that we live in the space between the death of Lazarus, and Jesus calling him out of the tomb. It’s the space in which we experience pain, grief and suffering, without having a good explanation for it.

 

It’s also the space in which we get to learn and see Jesus for who He really is, the resurrection and the life.

 

Mary and Matha stood in their grief and felt like the restoration of their brother is what they needed for life. But Jesus stood before them in their suffering and pain and declared that He was their life. The He is the resurrection and the life

 

We have to hold on until the end of the story. We have to hold on to the end of our story.

 

We will all experience the pains of death. But the great news of verse 43 for the Christian is we can have hope that one day, when our bodies have decayed and our lives have been forgotten, that Jesus will call us out of our graves. Not to float around in the sky, but to experience resurrected life!

 

Conclusion

 

So, which story is most compelling to you?

 

There is no meaning to your suffering – the Atheist narrative

Your attachment is the cause of your suffering – the Buddist narrative.

Or, there is meaning and hope in our suffering – and His name is Jesus.

 

There are 3 categories of people that I hoped this spoke to this morning.

 

First – if you’re currently suffering. I’m sorry that I can’t provide a great explanation for why you’re going through what you’re going through. But I hope I’ve encouraged you that the meaning and hope you need to endure it is found in Jesus Christ.

 

Second – those that hold an alternative to the Christian worldview. I hope this message helps you think through the story you believe around suffering, and perhaps consider the Christian one.

 

Third – for the Christians in the room (which I assume is most of us). I hope you’re encouraged to be confident in your worldview – It can hold up to scrutiny. I hope you feel a little more confident to defend it. To engage in conversations with others that don’t hold to the same story. (I’ll see you in Hyde park!).

 

The Christian worldview gives a story that doesn’t try to explain why suffering happens, but points us to a God who experiences our suffering with us (Jesus Wept)  and the promise of a future in which he has conquered it all (Lazarus, come out!)

 

It is a better story.