I do struggle with things such as this incident. Just as I struggle with things such as childhood cancer. To me, there is a brutal fact of the Christian faith. And here it is, it’s one that’s easy to lose sight of. There is a cause and effect relationship between sin and suffering. I’m not referring to the personal level (sinful) behavior of people that results in suffering. The cause and effect relationship between sin and suffering that I’m referring to goes beyond personal level behavior. It is a global reality. There is a global relationship between sin and suffering. That is the brutal fact. It’s not fair, and it takes things out of our control. When sin entered the world, it held the door open for sorrow, death, illness, and despair. They snuck in right behind sin. When sin entered the world, all of these other awful things came in along with it. Jesus’ message is a message of hope that never loses sight of this brutal fact...that sin is making its way through the world and will touch every single human being. It’s hard for people to grasp the fact that there is a global relationship between sin and suffering, between sin, sorrow, and death. They don’t seem to understand that connection, or it’s simply hard for them to grasp it. These bad things happen because sin is wreaking havoc in the world. The presence of sin in the world is why bad things such as this incident happen. It’s a consequence, a global consequence, of sin in the world. If we lose faith because somehow sin and suffering don't line up with our theology, maybe we have the wrong theology. It’s a myth that somehow only good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. Christianity has never taught that God doesn't allow bad things to happen to good people. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Christians believe that the worst possible thing happened to the best possible person, who was completely innocent of any wrongdoing at all, ever. There is hope, but our hope is not in solving the global consequences of sin in the world. Our hope is in the person who came to address the ultimate issue. Which is not illness. It's not sickness. It's not pain. It’s not death. The ultimate issue is sin. And the brute fact of Christianity is there is a relationship between sin, sorrow, and ultimately death. Sin will have its way today but not forever. Jesus’ followers don’t believe we reign in life by devoting our lives to preserving our lives. Jesus’ followers believe we reign in life by following the One who offered abundant life (real life) and the ultimate and final solution for sin. In the meantime, we are to do exactly what our first-century brothers and sisters did as they lived in the conflict of this future hope...but in a world that was racked by pain, illness, suffering, and death. The author of Hebrews said “Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” We’re gonna go through suffering and pain...some more than others. There is a hope, but there is this brutal fact that we cannot get around...but we can come to God with confidence and we will receive mercy and we will receive grace. It’s a promise. We will receive grace and mercy in our time of need. Again, that’s a promise. When sin entered the world, death was right on its heels...as was sorrow, illness, pain, and despair. This is the reality that is hard for us to get our hearts and minds around. And this is why incidents such as the one which initiated this thread happen. We don’t like it. It’s not fair. But there it is.
One day, things will be as we know they should be. One day, there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, and no more death. But not yet.
