Why Good Christians Suffer: PART 10
- Grantley Morris
- 1 day ago
- 16 min read
Why have the critical duties of evangelism and being Jesus’ witnesses been divinely entrusted to ordinary people rather than angels?
This is the first question that came to me as I pondered issues that led to creating this webpage. I knew that if I could find the answer to why God chose us, not angels, to be his witnesses, I would be well on the way toward knowing why good Christians suffer.
You might need some background to see the connection.
I have long realized that Christians suffer on earth because they are not yet in heaven. You must be staggered by my intellectual powers in having figured that out. Nevertheless, it’s significant. Had we been whisked off to heaven, our suffering would be over. Why hasn’t that happened? Clearly, regardless of how things seem to our short-sighted perspective, the all-knowing Lord is convinced we are needed down here. Why? Primarily it must be for the sake of those who, if they died this instant, would find themselves in serious trouble in the next life.
One reason why I say primarily rather than entirely is that, although many more of us should be in the frontline than currently are, a successful army is heavily dependent upon its support staff. By being on the spiritual war zone we call earth, we are exposed to opposition from human and spiritual enemies of God and to the consequences of living in a world that does not act according to God’s ways of love, selflessness, kindness, patience, goodness, self-control, wisdom and so on, but choose the ugly things that end up directly or indirectly hurting people, the environment and our gene pool.
This begs the question, however: why are Christians who are currently fulfilling an earthly mission not divinely placed in some sort of protective bubble, so that they are spared earthly suffering? The reason must be connected with why God has chosen us, rather than heavenly angels for critical roles in touching the lives of people down here.
We all greatly benefit from role models. The more someone differs from us, the harder it is for us to be inspired by their example to believe we can achieve similar things.
One of the biggest obstacles to people becoming Christians is that they wrongly but genuinely blame God for the suffering that evil (behavior that breaks God’s heart) brings to this planet, and they resent God for it. They need role models – people who obviously adore God despite their suffering.
I’m not suggesting either angels or humans forever in a bubble of divine protection (one might even say former humans) would completely fail; only that they would be less effective. Never forget the extremes our Savior went to in becoming fully human and agonizing on the cross to save people like you and me – people he loves more than life itself and yet who deserve nothing other than hell. That same Savior wants nothing less than the best in the way of agents helping people accept the message of the cross. Like Moses before the burning bush, we might think others can do a better job (Exodus 3:11, Exodus 4:10-13) but God makes no mistakes in his choices.
Moreover, if Christians were divinely protected from suffering, non-Christians could, with some justification, accuse the Holy One of manipulating them by using suffering to force people to come to him and bribes to entice them.
Why was Jesus unimpressed when people wanted to make him king because he fed the crowd (John 6:12-15, 26)?
How impressed would you be by someone who didn’t care about you but wanted to marry you for your money, or for the ease or status that marrying you might offer? If you want someone to marry you for love, not lesser things, can you conceive of how important this is for the God who said that us loving him and loving other people are the two most important things to him (Matthew 22:35-40)? We might want to be loved merely for selfish reasons but our Lord wants us because without love we will be morally depraved and never reach our God-given potential for greatness.
These people wanted Jesus, not because they wanted to be godly but for the physical things he offered, including protection and freedom from oppression (they wanted to make him king).
If Christians received physical benefits on earth, most people would want to be Christians for these things, not for spiritual reasons.
Most people who become ‘Christians’ in order to enjoy the ease and prosperity and safety of a protective bubble would not be Christians at all. They would still be “lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, . . . unthankful, unholy, . . . unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, . . . headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power . . .” (2 Timothy 3:2-4). They might seem model Christians but they would be wolves in sheep’s clothing; Bible-carrying thieves, sex fiends, pleasure junkies, back-stabbers and/or spongers.
If you whine that God isn’t fair by sometimes letting us suffer as if we had not been divinely rescued from the consequences of our sin, remember how dramatically the cross proves our loving Lord asks nothing of us he would not do – indeed has done – for us. Even more sobering is that he alone was truly innocent. He alone is worthy of heaven’s bliss. We, on the other hand, contributed to this world’s sin and deserve never-ending suffering; banished forever from sin-free heaven. If, instead of recognizing this, we look down on sinners, we are in grave spiritual danger.
Most people who are angry at God think it is because God isn’t loving enough; unaware that the real reason is that, by their standards, God is too loving. They have no idea that if our Lord were to act like they want him to, he would have to be an unjust God who plays favorites by being kinder to them than to those they disapprove of.
Most of us want a God who comes down hard on sin, except our own sin.
Like the Bible-loving ‘righteous’ who crucified their Messiah, we are terrifyingly off-track if we imagine our sins are more minor or excusable than those of people we despise and that we deserve more mercy from God than them. Nevertheless, we are geniuses at dreaming up outlandish reasons why this should be so and why God should not tolerate a moment longer other people’s sins that directly or indirectly impact us.
To begin to grasp the gravity of one ‘minor’ sin, see One Sin. The Jesus who was so tender toward those who were crushed with sorrow over their own sin is the same Jesus who tore strips off the self-righteous who looked down on others.
Jesus: Soft on Those Sensitive to Their Sin
Matthew 9:11-13 When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Matthew 11:25 . . . I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
Mark 2:16-17 The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”
When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 5:20 Seeing their faith, he said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
Luke 7:37-47 Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment. Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”
Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
He said, “Teacher, say on.”
“A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they couldn’t pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?”
Simon answered, “He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most.”
He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
Luke 18:10-14 Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
John 8:7,9-11 . . . “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” . . . They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”
Jesus: Hard on Those Hardened to Their Sin
John 9:41 . . . If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.
Matthew 12:2, 7 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” . . . [Jesus replied] But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
Matthew 15:6-9 . . . You have made the commandment of God void because of your tradition. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’
Matthew 21:31-32 Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into God’s Kingdom before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn’t even repent afterward, that you might believe him.
Matthew 23:13-17, 23-39 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter. . . . For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves. . . . you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! . . .
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna ? Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Mark 3:4-5 He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” But they were silent. When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts . . .
Luke 13:14-15 The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!” Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water?
Luke 6:25-26 . . . Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe, when men speak well of you, for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.
Luke 11:39-40, 43-48, 52 . . . “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also? . . . Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”
One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”
He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. . . . Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn’t enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered.”
Luke 18:10-14 Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: ‘God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortionists, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’
But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.
We are best able to see God’s heart when it is portrayed in human flesh.
“Look up at the stars. Are they shaken from their place if you sin?” asked one of Job’s friends. “Your sin or good living affects you, not God.” That’s my loose paraphrase of Job 35:5-8. Prior to Jesus, we might have philosophically speculated along those lines, but not after God was born. By becoming fully human, Jesus achieved so very much in revealing God to us. We have no idea, for example, of the extent to which angels are capable of feeling pain or human emotions. Through Jesus’ agony on the cross, however, we know that God is in no sense aloof but very personally and profoundly affected by human sin and human suffering.
Likewise, by us remaining fully human and subject to the frailties and suffering of sinful humanity, we can portray God more powerfully than any angel or human in a protective bubble.
The more you familiarize yourself with the Old Testament prophets, the more you will see that, soaring above their miracles or the accuracy of their prophecies, it is their very humanity and vulnerability that moves us. There is Jeremiah who wept over and over and over because of his nation’s sin. There is Elijah, who slumped into such depression that he wanted to die. For three years Isaiah went stripped and barefoot as a “sign” (Isaiah 20:3). Hosea married an adulterous woman (Hosea 1:2; 3:1) to demonstrate what God suffered. In order to emphasize the seriousness of his warnings, when Ezekiel’s precious wife, described as “the desire of your eyes” suddenly died, the Lord forbade him to as much as shed a tear or show any sign of mourning (Ezekiel 24:16-17).
Similarly, Jeremiah was required to suffer the shame and loss of being childless and unmarried (Jeremiah 16:2). These things tug at our hearts. Our shared humanity recognizes the depth of their suffering and the seriousness of their plight, thus amplifying their message; touching us in ways that blissfully aloof beings could not.
If, for our sake, our innocent Lord became fully human and subject to suffering that sinful people are exposed to – in fact, suffered more than most – is he asking too much for us to remain fully human on this sin-ravished planet a little longer in the hope of us helping people who need salvation as desperately as we once did?
Ponder the implications of this revealing story:
Matthew 18:23-35 . . . the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants.
When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But because he couldn’t pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
The servant therefore fell down and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!’ The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
“But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’
“So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will repay you!’ He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due.
So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told to their lord all that was done.
Then his lord called him in, and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’
His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”
This parable is sympathetic and realistic, in that the amount the servant was owed – his loss; how much his act of kindness had cost him – was substantial. There is no glossing over it. The original hearers would have gasped. It would take a normal workingman years of hard, sacrificial saving to accumulate this pile of money.
In Jesus’ time (compare Matthew 20:2) the going rate for 12 hours’ labor was one denarius (the singular of denarii). If you worked 40 hours a week and all your leave (recreation, sick leave and public holidays) totaled only two weeks a year, and you managed to squirrel away ten percent of everything you grossed, it would take a full six years to save up one hundred denarii.
The servant genuinely had something to complain about.
The shattering thing, however, is that the amount representing how much his sin had cost his Lord and how indebted he was to God was more than half a million times more.
In the parable in Matthew 18:21-35, there were probably 6,000 denarii to each of the 10,000 talents the servant owed. That's 600,000 times more than the 100 denarii his fellow servant owed.
R. T. France (The Gospel According to Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1985) points out that a talent was the highest unit of currency and 10,000 was the highest Greek number. Jesus chose the largest easily-describable sum of money to portray an almost unimaginably large debt. Telling the story today, we would probably say one billion dollars.
For anyone so in debt to be so ungrateful and act so contrary to his Lord’s generous heart is a crime against humanity and a slap in the face to God. Sinners are so precious to God that, as the parable emphasizes, to fail to respect and help them with a fraction of the enormity of love that God has shown us, will not go unpunished.
Elsewhere, too, Jesus stressed that if we cannot be compassionate and forgiving toward those who hurt us, we disqualify ourselves from the divine mercy on which our salvation hinges.
Matthew 6:12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mark 11:25 Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions.
Luke 6:37 Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.
Luke 17:3-4 Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.
The Story So Far
There are more answers to come. We will see how suffering can benefit the sufferer as well as observers. The impact on observers, however, is of immeasurable significance. To save lives is something good people are willing to risk and endure much to attempt. Physically saving someone’s life, however, is merely delaying his death. Christians alone can be used of God to truly save lives.