{"id":2503,"date":"2011-03-23T07:55:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T14:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thepangeablog.com\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2014-12-23T13:56:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T21:56:18","slug":"the-god-who-suffers-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thepangeablog\/2011\/03\/23\/the-god-who-suffers-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"The God who Suffers in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The history of our world is the history of our suffering together.\u00a0 Every act of evil extracts a tear from God, every plunge into anguish extracts a sob from God.\u00a0 But the history of our world is the history of our deliverance together.\u00a0 God\u2019s work to release himself from his suffering is his work to deliver the world from its agony; our struggle for joy and justice is our struggle to relieve God\u2019s sorrow.\u00a0 When God\u2019s cup of suffering is full, our world\u2019s redemption is fulfilled.\u00a0 Until justice and peace embrace, God\u2019s dance of joy is delayed (91).<\/p>\n

The above quote is possibly the most profound statement on suffering that I have ever read.\u00a0 Of course, if one holds to the Greek notion of the impassability of God (which renders him statically emotionless), then the above quote is mere folly.\u00a0 But for those of us who recognize YHWH as fully revealed in Jesus Christ to be one who meets humanity in their suffering, who experiences the full wrath of the powers of evil with us, his anguish reminds us of our coming deliverance.\u00a0 Rather than claiming, this was God\u2019s will<\/em> or God knows best<\/em>; Nicholas Wolterstorff, the author of Lament for a Son<\/a>,<\/em> rightly reminds us of a God who is truly with us who is opposed to evil.<\/p>\n

The world of Wolterstorff is a world that I am well acquainted with.\u00a0 A world of loss.\u00a0 A world of instability.\u00a0 And over against these things, it is a world filled with the hope of the renewal of creation.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the writer of Revelation spoke of the coming of the day of shalom, he did not say that on that day we would live at peace with death.\u00a0 He said that on that day \u2018there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away\u201d (63). <\/p>\n

Until the day when \u201call things will be made new,\u201d Wolterstorff reminds us that death is not beautiful or a reality to be hyper-spiritualized to ignore the reality of its sting; \u201cdeath is awful, demonic\u201d (34).\u00a0 Scripture makes clear that the \u201c\u2026last enemy to be destroyed is death\u201d (1 Cor. 15.26).\u00a0 It is a power that brings grief, which makes the reality of today less fulfilled.\u00a0 To give easy answers to those who grieve would be to water down biblical theology and to offer \u201c\u2026ways of not looking death and pain in the face, ways of turning away from death out there to one\u2019s own inner \u2018grief process\u2019 and then, on that, laying on the heavy hand of rationality\u201d (54).<\/p>\n

When we, as the body of Christ, care for our grieving sisters and brothers, we must not turn to simple fixes offered in self-help books or answers emerging from such philosophies; rather, we have the opportunity to help others find joy amidst the demonic pain of death.\u00a0 We can guide others to not ignore the evil of death, but to also honor the memory of those who have been lost by living in light of their life \u2013 which was stolen from them.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami, may we invite those who are suffering to stare evil in the face and name it as such.\u00a0 May we invite the families and friends of victims grieve as we too grieve with them.\u00a0 May we pray that the Spirit of God would reveal the empathic solidarity of Jesus among those who feel hopeless.\u00a0 And may we not attempt to justify this evil disaster with \u201cGod knows what\u2019s best\u201d or \u201cIt was part of God\u2019s plan,\u201d but rather allow people the dignity of naming this tragedy as evil as we anticipate a day when all pain will cease.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The history of our world is the history of our suffering together.\u00a0 Every act of evil extracts a tear from God, every plunge into anguish extracts a sob from God.\u00a0 But the history of our world is the history of our deliverance together.\u00a0 God\u2019s work to release himself from his suffering is his work to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,92],"tags":[266,338,395,418,423,691,705],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kingdom-of-god","category-theology","tag-earthquakes","tag-god","tag-impassability","tag-japan","tag-jesus","tag-solidarity","tag-suffering"],"yoast_head":"\nThe God who Suffers in Japan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The history of our world is the history of our suffering together.\u00a0 Every act of evil extracts a 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