Hey Drew,

I was impressed by your last email. While I was reading it I had a feeling that the words were true and revealed to me something of the real nature of God. I am not sure that I can trust my feelings, though. I may feel differently tomorrow, after I’ve had a full meal and a good night’s sleep?

I have to apologise for taking so long to reply to you. I took a vacation in Mexico. That was a moving experience. Have you been? There is so much poverty. When you walk around some of those shanty villages and see the children in rags, playing in the gutters amongst so much human detritus it makes you wonder, if there is a God, why does he let his children suffer so? We, in the rich countries, use so much and chuck away so much stuff. Wouldn’t a just God make the world more equal? Or maybe we should just accept things as they are? Doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that the poor will always be with us? If so, then what’s the point in trying to help them if we don’t stand a chance in eradicating poverty like Bob Geldoff, Band Aid etc were pushing for? Should we just put them out of mind and carry on living our lives regardless?

Jack the confused

Jack,

Without a doubt, suffering, poverty and pain are three of the most gruesome, hard-edged realities that a Christian with trust and belief in God must face. “Must face” because they tear at our hearts and cry out that something isn’t right in this world. Indeed something isn’t right in the world and that is sin and its effects. Whether you are Christian or not, these realities should strike at the heart, for this is the human reaction.

C. S. Lewis said that pain and suffering are God’s megaphone to the world. Through these our attentions are seized and our hearts are rapt. They cry out that something isn’t right and we (should) begin looking to God.

God’s megaphone should awaken us to the reality that this world is in need of something else, or rather, Someone else. This world is in need of having its sin problem put to death and that comes only through submission to God. That only comes through changed lives as a result of meeting Christ who has created us and yearns for us to stop striving in vain against him, but turn and be healed.

Christ is our need. God’s megaphone screams this need to us.

Why does God let any human suffer, is an extremely difficult question. We can be sure that God takes no pleasure in our suffering and that it is a means to an end that is largely a mystery. Is it OK to question when struck with suffering? This is the human response. But, also when struck with suffering, we should be equally struck by our need for an outside solution, who is Christ.

Shane Claiborne, the most unique homeless-preacher-monk-man you likely will never meet, says he’s often confronted with the verse you mentioned where Jesus says that the poor will always be with us (Mark 14:7). Note his helpful response:

Almost every time we talk with affluent folks about God’s will to end poverty, someone says, “But didn’t Jesus say, ‘The poor will always be with you’?” Many of the people who whip out this verse have grown quite insulated and distant from the poor and feel defensive. I usually gently ask, “Where are the poor? Are the poor among us?” The answer is usually a clear negatory. As we study the Scriptures, we see how many texts we have misread, contextualized, and exegeted to hear what we want to. Like this one about the poor being among us, which Jesus says in the home of a leper and after a poor marginalized woman anoints his feet with perfume. The poor were all around him. Far from saying in defeat that we should not worry about the poor, since they will always be among us. Jesus is pointing the church to her true identity–she is to live close to those who suffer. The poor will always be among us, because the empire will always produce poor people, and they will find a home in the church. (P. 160)

It is a job of the church to alleviate human suffering and give a home to the sick and the impoverished. A home in both a physical and a spiritual sense. A physical home in helping to provide for basic human needs: food, shelter, and safety. A spiritual home in introducing people of all ethnicity to the Christ who came to restore all things in a world that groans and waits eagerly (Romans 8:22-24) and who cleanses the sin soiled soul.

We can take comfort in trusting God because he is just and he promises that justice will be restored when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. This imperfect world is groaning for the day when Jesus will return and punish the wicked and restore the fallen creation; until that day, the church (believers/Christians) must fight against sin and its effects, always sharing the hope that lies in Christ.

Faith seeking understanding,

Drew