Easter Suffering

Thinking About Suffering

In his adventure novel, Byzantium, Stephen Lawhead tells the tale of a young Irish monk, Aidan. With a heart full of hope & faith in God, Aidan embarks on a pilgrimage to Constantinople only to encounter shipwreck, slavery, torture, betrayal, and the death of many close friends. He becomes bitter and angry with the God who allows such suffering, who must not really care about his servants after all. Evil everywhere seems triumphant over good.
Upon surviving and returning to Ireland, Aidan prepares to leave his brothers in the monastery and find a way to live without hope in God. But between Good Friday & Easter morning he learns something of how a Christian ought to think about troubles and injustice from an unlikely source--the Viking raider who once made Aidan a slave, was later enslaved himself, and who is now a follower of Christ:

     Did you believe that God would shield you forever from the hurt and pain of this sin-riven world? That you would be spared the injustice and strife that others were forced to endure? That disease would no longer afflict you, that you would live forever untouched by the common afflictions of humanity?
     Fool! All these things Christ suffered, and more. Aidan, you have been blind. . . . Sure, this is the heart of the great mystery: that God became man, shouldering the weight of suffering so that on the final day none could say, 'Who are you to judge the world? What do you know of injustice? What do you know of sickness, torture, poverty? How dare you call yourself a righteous God! What do you know of death?'
     He knows, Aidan, he knows!

No other faith teaches of a God who suffers & dies with and for his people. Only the God revealed in Jesus loves us that much. And why should we believe such good news is really true? Because "[God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31 NIV). Happy Easter!

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