Reflection: The Other Side of Suffering (November 4, 2012)

All Saints Sunday
Revelation 7:9-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

One of the questions most asked of Christians by unbelievers is “Why does God permit suffering?” For some, this is a legitimate question asked in an attempt to make sense out of what they do know about God and what they observe in our world. For others, it’s based in a crass accusation against God and those who believe in Him — an attitude that is belied by the companion statement, “I could never believe in a God who would allow suffering that He could end or eliminate.” They recognize the disconnect between our claim that God is gracious, loving, and all powerful and the reality of suffering in our world. They reason that if God is what we claim Him to be, then He could end all suffering. While this is true, they confuse God’s abilities with His purposes. They think that because God can eliminate suffering that God should eliminate suffering. They see suffering as something that is intrinsically bad and to be avoided if at all possible. They don’t understand the other side of suffering.

While the world sees suffering as something bad (and we tend to agree with the world on this!), God makes use of suffering in order to work good in the lives of His people. He demonstrated this in its fullest measure through the sufferings that He Himself endured in living and dying for us. In His life in this world He experienced all the various kinds of suffering that we endure. Through His Cross, Jesus endured the greatest suffering in history by bearing the sins of the whole world. But the other side of His suffering is our salvation. Without the suffering that He experienced we would still be lost to sin and death.

Like Jesus, we have been called to endure suffering for the sake of others. If we were not in this broken world enduring hardships, sacrifices, deprivation, hatred, and persecution — all the sufferings that make up this “great tribulation” — then no one could learn of the salvation that “belongs to our God” and the great “love the Father has lavished on us.” And if it were not for the faithful sufferings of those who have gone before us, we would not know that love and salvation. So we join with the saints of God past, present, and future who will one day gather together around the throne of the Lamb free of pain, sorrow, and sadness eternally rejoicing in what is ours on the other side of suffering.

Audio file of the sermon "The Other Side of Suffering."