The Redemption of Suffering

It is quite easy to see that we live in a world that is filled with suffering of all kinds.  Wars and civil conflicts continue to inflict pain and destruction on so many parts of the world.  People are forced to flee their homes for safety and in hopes of a better life.  Diseases like cancer ravage the lives of so many across the world.  And the reality of death, perhaps the most painful of all suffering, continues to afflict every single one of us.  It’s easy to look at the state of our world and wonder, “What on earth is God doing?  Why would He let things get so bad?  Is there any hope in the face of so much suffering?”
 
For millennia, the answer seemed to be “no.”  Suffering was a reality that had no real meaning.  Suffering – whether through injury, violence, illness, or death – was, at best, seen as a punishment from God for sin or wrongdoing.  We see an example of this thought in the Gospels, when Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind” (John 9:2)?  Suffering was something that was out of our control and could not be escaped, no matter how hard man tried.
 
In his answer to the disciples, Jesus begins to hint at something new with regards to the meaning of suffering.  He tells them, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him” (John 9:3).  Jesus came to bring something definitively new to mankind’s experience of suffering, to give it new meaning and new power.  He could have chosen to redeem us and offer us salvation in any way that he wanted – he is God after all.  However, Jesus intentionally chose to save us from suffering through suffering.  What at first glance can seem paradoxical is actually the heart of the Good News of the Gospel.
 
Unfortunately, on this side of heaven, suffering is not an “optional” part of our existence.  All of us experience it in some way or another because suffering is a necessary part of our finite world.  Jesus, therefore, took the darkest part of our life and made it a brilliant light, a place of encounter with Him.  When we experience suffering, the temptation to doubt God’s love and presence with us is at its greatest.  It’s easy to believe that we are alone, there is no hope, and God cannot and will not do anything.  In bringing redemption to suffering, Jesus brings a brilliant truth to combat those lies: He is here with us.  He suffered so that we would never suffer alone but would be able to do so with Him.   He even experienced the pain of feeling abandoned by God so that He could share that pain with us.  He wanted us to suffer nothing alone, and so out of love for us, He entered into the depths of suffering to make it redemptive, a place of encounter with God.
 
If you find yourself entering into this season of Lent in a season of difficult suffering, know that contrary to what it may feel like, you are not alone, you never have been alone, and you never will be alone.  Christ has redeemed suffering so that He could be with you in your suffering. He is the Good Shepherd we read about in the famous Psalm 23 and so with the Psalmist, you can say: “Even though I walk through the valley of darkness, I fear no evil because you are by my side.” (Ps. 23:4).  It is this experience that allows us to truly know the depth of the love that God has for us.  There is no suffering so great that His love is unwilling or unable to permeate it.   By redeeming our suffering, we see the power of God’s love for us.  It gives powerful force to St. Paul’s triumphant acclamation: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, of peril, or sword?  No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:35, 37).
 
As we enter into a season that can feel marked by suffering, know that you do not do so alone.  You do so with Him whose love for you will never be conquered.  May each of us experience that love in a new and profound way this Lent.