Articles
Coping with Life 4 - Suffering 1
Coping with Life 4 – Suffering 1
By Mike Willis
The problem of human suffering has been a debated topic for millennia, at least going back to the time of Job. No non-Christian philosophy has anything that offers relief from human suffering. The best that atheism can offer is “this is just the way life is, so accept it.” The ancient pagans had many different gods, some of whom were kind toward mankind and others who were not, which explained good and evil/happiness and suffering.
The book of Job records the discussion about why innocent men suffer evil things and pain. When God appears to address Job about his suffering, He asks Job a series of questions that none of us, not even thirty-five centuries later, can answer. The point He wanted Job to understand was this: Job does not have the qualifications to criticize God’s governance of the world.
The story of Jesus adds a remarkable dimension to the problem of suffering. Jesus was God incarnate, coming into a world of sin and suffering. God was so full of mercy toward mankind that He Himself became a man. He experienced the life experiences common to mankind. Jesus’s life was not surrounded by a fence that kept Him away from wicked and evil men. The first attempt on Jesus’s life came when Herod the Great sought to kill the baby Jesus. Commentators have noticed that the last time Joseph was mentioned as being a part of the life of Jesus was when He went to the Temple at twelve years old. Jesus most likely experienced the premature death of His earthly father. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
