A Suffering Mystery

by Bob Setzer, Jr.
Pat Robertson has taken a well-deserved drubbing for his remarks attributing the earthquake in Haiti to the judgment of God. Of course, he has also generated intense media coverage for himself and his enterprise so perhaps he’s not so foolish as he appears.

But there is a sort of “judgment” in the catastrophe in Haiti if by “judgment” one means awakening to what is most vital and precious in life, and striving to reorder one’s life accordingly.

When questioned about a cruel slaughter unleashed by Pilate, Jesus said, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? NO, I tell you” (Luke 13:1-3). In answering “no,” Jesus distanced himself from the popular theology then (and regrettably still much in vogue today) that all suffering is due to sin. An earthquake in Haiti? Obviously, someone did something wrong. Job’s friends advance this argument against him again and again. At the end of the book, God sides solidly with Job and with Jesus: suffering and evil remain a mystery that defies simplistic answers.

But in responding to the question about Pilate’s slaughter and another about the collapse of a tower that kills 18 people, Jesus not only rejects the simplistic theology of Job’s “friends,” then and now. Jesus also utters a shocking, surprising word: “But unless you repent, you will all perish as they did” (Luke 13:3, 5). In other words, the disasters that leave Jesus’ hearers thinking about others need to redirect their focus to themselves. Life is precious, life is fleeting. It can be snatched away in an instant. Given that reality--which in Haiti has seized the headlines and our attention--is the life we are living really the life we want and ought to live?

The loving Abba (“Father”) Jesus revealed does not handpick impoverished Caribbean nations as Ground Zero for earthquakes. But given the magnitude of this natural disaster (caused by shifting plates in the earth’s crust rather than God) can we not thank God for the heroism and sacrifice this disaster has evoked in so many? Can we not thank God we live in a nation that responds with such altruistic fervor to the suffering of our neighbor to the south? Can we not thank God for this opportunity for Haitians and their allies to build a better, safer, and more prosperous nation?

Crises, especially those of the magnitude of the one in Haiti, bring out the best and the worst in people: in that is the judgment. Following Jesus means we side with the suffering and the desperate in their plight, doing everything in our power to help: in that is the hope, and not just for Haitians, but for Americans and Asians and Africans and all the world.

If there is an “answer” to the question of suffering and evil, that is it.