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| At the Icon of the Savior - Boris Kustodiev (1910) |
This week, somewhat unusually, the Continuous and Thematic
lectionary readings have a common resonance. Both culminate in a Gospel passage
from Mark, and the thread that runs through all of them is the relation between
personal suffering and faith in God. The Book
of Job poses the question – why do good people suffer terrible
things? It is
in this third extract (rather than in next week’s ‘happy ending’) that
we find
the answer. In response to Job’s cries, and in
contrast to
all the possible explanations that his human comforters have offered
him, God
finally answers him. The 'answer' turns out to be a
series
of questions in fact: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me,
if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements-- surely you
know!” Though the phrase ‘surely you know’ seems to have an element of
ridicule about it, it underlines
something important. We owe to God our ‘creation, preservation, and all
the
blessings of this life’ (as the General Thanksgiving expresses it), so when
the
Lord takes away what He has given, he does us no wrong. Still, in our pain and loss we can curse Him, or we can continue to
bless Him. That is
the very hard choice we face, as Job does. The Psalm that accompanies this
reading
expressly invites us to choose the second option – ‘Bless the Lord O my
soul!’
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The Apostles James and John,
| | Museum of Santiago Compostela |
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But the New Testament does not leave the matter there. The
Epistle echoes Isaiah’s powerful description (in the Thematic OT reading) of
the ‘suffering servant’ ‘wounded for our transgressions’. Building on the idea
that we are healed by his bruises, it points to the crucial importance of God’s
suffering in Jesus. ‘Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what
he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal
salvation for all who obey him’. The Gospel recounts that somewhat embarrassing
occasion when James and John push themselves forward for special treatment in
heaven, and thereby reveal how drastically they misunderstand what discipleship
means. ‘Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?’ Jesus asks, and to do so
without any special promise of glory. ‘We are’ they proudly reply. And so
indeed James ultimately proved to be since (Acts tells us) he became the first Apostle
to be killed, in a brutal persecution. But by that time, of course, he had a
different assurance – Christ’s Resurrection.
The terrible sufferings we see in
this world, and sometimes
experience for ourselves, constitute a human problem that will not go
away. For
the Christian, though, suffering is not merely something inexplicable,
an unfortunate by-product of evolution. There is meaning to be found in
it, if we treat it as a spiritual mystery. In Jesus, God chose suffering
for
Himself as the way to our salvation. This is a mystery, but the Resurrection is not the happy
ending that the Book of Job will
offer us next week. It signals the power of love to defeat evil, not by
eliminating it, or compensating us for it, but by transcending it.
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