How do we make sense of a Savior who allows suffering?
How do we reconcile a Rescuer who doesn’t rescue when we know he could? How do we trust and follow Jesus again when we don’t understand his ways? How do we worship this holy God when he chooses not to heal this side of heaven, and when his teachings, at times, are so very hard?
When Jesus spoke a strange saying about eating his flesh and drinking his blood—referring to his own body as the sacrifice and atonement for humanity’s sin—the disciples declared, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept this?” (John 6:60).
And many abandoned him.
As Jesus looked to his twelve apostles and asked if they, too, would leave him, Peter responded, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).
Peter didn’t say they understood or even liked what Jesus was teaching at the time, but that they could not deny He was indeed the Son of God.
Pray for an increased faith
If that is where you find yourself today, confused and even offended by the sovereign ways of God, ask him to meet you there. Cry out like the unsteady parent seeking healing for his child, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
Much of the apostles’ time spent following Jesus was steeped in confusion. Often, they couldn’t grasp his plans and prophecies. Yet, they followed Jesus in faith. The miracles they witnessed were undeniable: feeding the masses, healing the blind and lame, casting out demons, and even raising the dead.
Yet, so often, they didn’t understand the ways of Christ. They were awed by him, but not because they always understood him.
And so it is at times with us. As the saying goes, when we can’t trace his hand, we must trust his heart. We rely on God's unchanging character to comfort us in those unknown times.
But in God’s goodness, there are other times he allows us to trace his hand. There are times when facts and circumstances add up that couldn’t be sheer coincidence but the providence of an intentional, loving God.
This past weekend marked the twenty-seventh week since the 27 girls at Camp Mystic died in the catastrophic Kerr County July 4th flash flood. At least 135 souls perished that fateful day. All of Texas and much of the nation and world continue to mourn this horrific tragedy that left an indelible mark on our hearts. The suffering the flood caused to victims, survivors, families, first responders, camp owners, and others is incalculable.
Camp Mystic has been a rite of passage in my family for generations. All four of my daughters have attended this camp. My youngest daughter last summer slept in the very same cabin where all those sweet babies were swept away.
We had cousins and friends at the camp when it flooded. One of the counselors who died heroically trying to protect her campers was a classmate of my oldest daughter.
At her celebration of life, her parents shared with us the one Bible verse stuck to her bedroom mirror at the time of the flood:
“When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:2)
Of the 31,102 verses in all 66 books of the Bible, this is the one that this precious young woman chose. Or maybe Jesus chose it for her. Jesus, the Word who became flesh, has the words of eternal life. Through that poignant and prophetic Scripture, Jesus spoke comfort to her and to her family and many loved ones.
For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but when we meet Jesus face to face, we will know and understand clearly and completely (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Yet that doesn’t change the harsh reality that this same God who parted the Red Sea and the Jordan River for the Israelites, who rained down manna and quail for 40 years in the desert, who walked on water and rose from the dead after being crucified, could have stopped that flood. He could have rebuked the wind and rain and spared those girls and their loved ones. Yet, for some reason, he didn’t.
But as his Word says, Jesus was there with those girls, his daughters, and rescued them from something even greater than the flood. Jesus didn’t leave or forsake them. Jesus himself welcomed them from earth into heaven’s gates, because he alone has the words of eternal life.
Know God comforts and refines
What do we do when we know that God can intervene, but we don’t know if he will? Will he avert the disaster? Heal the cancer? Mend the marriage? Open the womb? Quell the anxiety? Lift the depression? Provide the job?
We pray, trust, and pour out our hearts to him. And we marvel at the complexities of our Master.
The God who gently reaches for the mother with her young (Isaiah 40:11) is the same God who refines her in the furnace of suffering (Isaiah 48:10). The difference between this God and any other god or religion is that Jesus has gone before us and is with us in that furnace.
Jesus, the Man of Sorrows and Suffering Servant, who gave His very life on the cross for us, knows what it is to suffer (Isaiah 53:3-5).
When we can’t understand his sovereignty, we can be comforted by his solidarity.
Jesus told us that we will have trouble in this world, but to take heart because he has overcome it (John 16:33). And he promised that he will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6, Matthew 28:20).
But to know his glory, we must also know his suffering.
In our own suffering, we can cast all our burdens and keep our eyes fixed on that cross, the Christian symbol of victory that began as an instrument of suffering. And we can take up our cross and follow Jesus in the next faithful step of trust and obedience, even when we don’t understand his ways.
The suffering that shatters you is the same suffering that can shape you, if surrendered into the hands of Jesus, the Suffering Servant and Savior.
Jesus can take your suffering and use it to reform you, as a potter with malleable clay. Your cracks and broken heart don’t diminish the light of Christ’s Holy Spirit within you. The fractures let the light slip through, radiant against the backdrop of darkness.
Suffering deepens your faith and reveals “treasures hidden in the darkness—secret riches” from the Lord (Isaiah 45:3). It sanctifies not only you, but those around you.
Jesus has not left you alone in your suffering. He is with you and for you.
The deeper the heartache, the deeper the intimacy as you draw near to God and he draws near to you. The darker the night, the brighter the light of Christ will shine on you and through you.
Let this brave, Holy Spirit-led prayer of the apostle Paul become ours:
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11).
Hold on to hope with an eternal perspective
While we have the incredible gift of drawing near to God, we will not always fully understand him. The depth of his riches, wisdom, and knowledge is infinite, his ways inscrutable (Romans 11:33).
The July 4th flood will never fully make sense to me in terms of God’s sovereignty. I don’t know how God will turn that horrible day into something that works together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
But I know because he is a good redeemer who can bring life from death and light from darkness, who gave his one and only Son for us, that he will somehow, some way, some day.
“Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory” (Hebrews 3:6).
So for now, we may have more questions than answers, like the disciples of Christ before us.
What initially seemed unacceptable and offensive to the disciples, eating his “flesh” and “blood”, became an ordinance for the worldwide Church, a sacred reminder of Christ’s body broken for us and his blood shed for us.
As humans in a finite time and space, we see a pixel of the eternal portrait God is painting.
We cannot possibly understand how it all blends together perfectly. While we have the whole story of Scripture, we don’t have the full picture. We see suffering, grief, and trauma as a reflection that is often blurry, warped, and filled with blind spots.
Until Jesus restores all that we have lost, we have a choice to make.
Do we follow Christ in faith, like Peter and the other apostles, or do we turn away like those who said his teaching was just too hard?
Let us pray with the psalmist, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).
Lord Jesus, there is so much suffering in this world and in our very lives. And I confess, it is hard to understand whyYou allow suffering. Yet, I thank You for being the God who can empathize with us because of the suffering You endured with your sacrificial death on the cross.
Help us to trust You with our whole hearts. Help us to suffer well, because You are with us, helping and leading us through the darkest valleys. Help us to follow You, even when we don’t like or understand Your ways, because You alone have the words of eternal life.
We believe, Lord Jesus. Help our unbelief! Lift our eyes to the hills of heaven, where there will be no more suffering, only joy and peace in You. Amen.
