Have You Not Heard?
Isaiah 40:18-31; Mark
1:29-39[1]
Everybody wrestles with faith at some time or other. That’s
because, as much as we like to present our lives as “picture perfect,” nobody
actually has an “ideal” life. Pretty much everyone is dealing with some kind of
problem. It just seems to be the nature of life. Just as soon as you get one
thing nailed down, two more come loose. And it’s also the nature of the
Christian life. As one of my college professors put it, everyone you meet is
either heading into a time when their faith will be tested, or is in the midst
of a time of testing, or is coming out of a time of testing. When we go through
hard times, it’s easy for us to wonder what went wrong. We think a life that’s
free of troubles should be “normal” for a Christian. But the fact of the matter
is that we follow a Savior and Lord who suffered, and who called us to follow
him in that path. So we should expect the troubles in our life as “normal.”
Part of the problem is that when hard times come, we tend
to think that God is punishing us. It’s actually a line of thinking that starts
with the Bible. Especially the book of Deuteronomy. The idea there is that when
we do what we’re supposed to do, God blesses us. When we do what we’re not
supposed to do, God punishes us. But the problem with that line of thinking is
that there are a lot of people out there whose lives seem to be “blessed” who
aren’t making any effort to do what’s right. And there are also a lot of people
out there who are making every effort to do what’s right whose lives
nevertheless are filled with hardship. In the language of the Psalms, the fact
that the “wicked” so often “prosper” while the “righteous” suffer makes it
plain that the line of thinking that equates hardships with punishment just
doesn’t work.
Sometimes we may take this all the way to questioning
whether God really is as good and loving as we’ve been taught to believe. In
fact, this is a question that people have been asking for centuries, going back
to ancient times. One of the Psalmists asks God if he has forgotten to be
loving (Ps. 77:8-9), essentially asking if God has forgotten who he is! Another
Psalmist asks God if he has fallen asleep instead of coming to help his people
in their time of need (Ps. 44:23), again asking if God has somehow gotten too
tired to make good on his promises. Those are some pretty bold questions. Not
everyone goes through tragedies painful enough to bring us to question God to
that extent. But there are many of us who have and still do, and I think it’s
important for us to recognize that if psalm-singers and prophets could ask
these questions in the Bible, it’s okay for us to have and to give voice to our
questions. If Jesus could cry out to God “why have you forsaken me” from the
cross, we can ask our questions too. God’s big enough to handle it, and he
understands.
From the point of view of some Philosophers and
Theologians, the presence of so much unjust suffering, or “evil,” in the world
means that God cannot be both loving and all-powerful at the same time. If God
is loving, he must not be all-powerful, because a loving God “would” prevent the
tragedies that come upon the most innocent and vulnerable people. From this
point of view, God is like a beloved grandparent who is simply powerless to
protect us.[2] On the
other hand, if God is all-powerful, he must not be loving, because being
all-powerful means God can stop the terrible things that happen in life but
chooses not to. From this point of view, God isn’t even a good father, because
no parent would neglect a child in need![3]
As much as I understand why some people ask these questions
(and why I’ve asked them myself!), the problem with posing the alternatives so
starkly is that it presupposes that God’s ways are our ways. But the Bible
bears witness again and again that God’s ways are as much higher than our ways
as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isa 55:9). We know a lot more about
how “high” the heavens are in our day than they did then. Generally speaking, science
tells us that the universe is infinite! And so our lesson from Psalm 147 today
says, “there is no limit to [God’s] understanding” (Ps 147:5, NIrV).
That’s one way of dealing with the painful experiences of our lives: we may not
understand what’s happening, but none of it escapes God’s notice, nor his
wisdom, power, and love!
That’s the point of our lesson from Isaiah for today. The
people of Israel languished far from home for a lifetime. In that land so far
from everything they had known, they
wondered whether God even noticed that they were suffering, or whether
God even cared. And the prophet speaking in the name of the Lord reminds them
who God is: “The LORD is the everlasting God; he created all the world. He
never grows tired or weary” (Isa 40:28, GNT). God always knows what
we’re going through in this life, and God always cares. That doesn’t mean
things will always turn out the way we want or hope. But what it means is that
“those who trust in the LORD for help will find their strength renewed. They
will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk
and not grow weak” (Isa 40:31, GNT).
It’s something our lesson from the Gospel of Mark for today
demonstrates. Although Jesus knew his task was not primarily to work miracles,
but to proclaim the good news that he had come to bring the kingdom of God,
wherever he was faced with suffering he met human pain with compassion. He was
never too preoccupied with his sense of calling to comfort those who were
suffering. And when he followed that calling all the way to the point of giving
up his life on the cross, he showed us all once and for all that God shares our
burdens. Although Jesus cried out in agony, and it seemed as if the only reply
God made was silence, what our faith teaches us is that in Jesus God was right
there, taking all of our suffering upon himself.[4] Just as Jesus didn’t abandon those who came to him in need, so also God didn’t
abandon Jesus on the cross. And God will never abandon anyone in this world,
especially in the midst of their suffering.
When I’m going through hard times, and I’m having a hard
time believing that God notices or cares about what I’m going through, I know
that it’s usually because I’m stuck in fear or pain or sadness. I think when we
get stuck in those feelings, we lose our sense of perspective on our lives. We
may even lose our faith for a time. That’s precisely when we need to remember
the lessons those who wrestled with these questions in the Bible learned. While
my understanding is most definitely limited, there is no limit to God’s
understanding. We may not understand what’s going on, but none of what’s
happening in our lives escapes God’s notice, nor his wisdom, power, and love.
Just as Jesus never abandoned those who came to him in need, and just as God
didn’t abandon Jesus on the cross, so God never abandons us, especially in hard
times. God is always there for us; when we think God is silent, perhaps it’s
because God is weeping right along with us. As our affirmation of faith reminds
us today, God watches over us each day of our lives. It’s what we’ve heard from
the very beginning. God always knows what we’re going through in this life, and
God always cares.
[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/4/2024 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] This was the view of Rabbi Harold Kushner in When Bad Things Happen to Good People. His views were likely
influenced by the death of his son from cancer at an early age.
[3] This is the view of Sam Harris: “God visits suffering on innocent
people on a scope and scale that would embarrass the most ambitious psychopath”
(post on Twitter dated Aug. 5, 2015).
[4] Cf. Helmut Thielicke, The Silence of God, 14: “Even when He was silent,
God suffered with us.” Cf. also ibid., 13: When we don’t understand what’s
happening, perhaps God “is fitting stone to stone in His plan for the world and
our lives, even though we can see only a confused and meaningless jumble of
stones.”
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