Pain and Suffering: Why, God?
by Pastor Walter Snyder

Q: Why do evil things happen to good people?

A: This question often comes to pastors and others. As I visit sick and, especially, dying people, I
ask, too. Why this saintly person? Why not that other "not-so-good" person?

Others' (or my own) pain and suffering reminds me of my grandparents' deaths. One grandfather
died slowly, fighting for breath as emphysema overtook him. The other went suddenly with a
massive heart attack. Prepared for the first, our family's pain and shock was lessened somewhat.
Similarly, one grandmother died of liver cancer, which filled her body with pain. Near the end,
every little movement of the hospital sheets across her skin brought agony. The other slipped
quietly away in her sleep. Again, the family's pain was lessened in the former's passing, since we
had time to prepare and to begin our mourning while she was still with us. But her pain was much
greater.

Searching the Scriptures, we find the basics: Pain, suffering, and death entered the world because
of Adam's fall into sin. Each of us earns the "wages of sin," which Paul reminds us "is death."
Each of us faces toil and hardship, whether physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual.

While we know this by faith and by intellect, the specifics bother us. And comparisons---a form of
judging---often trigger our problem: Why did the most overtly God-fearing, practicing Christian
among my grandparents suffer the most painful death? Why did she, years before, have to watch
her husband slowly strangle under his failing lungs? These things can cause even strong believers
to ask, "God, why did you do this to such a saint instead of to that sinner down the street?" Why
do we sometimes still cry over memories, years after a final hospital visit, long after a coffin was
lowered? It's not fair, is it? When we get in God's face and start yelling our rage, our pain, our
frustration, where's our answer? If God forgives sin and promises to remove its curse, why does
suffering continue? Why doesn't He give us a clear sign?

Maybe He already has; perhaps He gave us multiple signs.

Look first at Job: Remember his terrible suffering. Remember also a God who basically says to
this righteous man (and to us): "Mind your own business. When you're God, then you can make
the rules." We keep running up against One who says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, My
ways are not your ways." The Psalms are likewise full of laments at personal or societal suffering,
when no end seems in sight. Yet when we look closer, we see hope glimmering. The same Psalms
which complain about the pain will also say, "Yet will I praise God." And so will we.

God sometimes uses suffering as a teaching tool. Pain may turn us from what is unnecessary or
wrong to Him who is truly the One thing needed. He even uses our afflictions to draw attention
and praise to Himself. Do you remember the healing of the man who was blind from birth? Jesus
was asked whose sin it was that caused the blindness: Was it the parents' fault, or did God
anticipate a future infraction in the man and punish it in advance? "Jesus answered, 'It was not
that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.' (John
9:3)" He then healed the man.

Why bad things? Why pain and suffering and death? Only one final answer grants that the words
aren't hollow when we hear the beautiful Easter Gospel at a funeral. Only one thing enlivens all
the Bible words of hope and consolation. This answer is the totally unwarranted agony of Jesus.
Isaiah foretold this (53:4-5): "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we
esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with
his stripes we are healed." We know why He suffered. He paid the price demanded for our failure.
His loss was our gain. His pain became our pleasure, His agony our ecstasy. Sitting in the rubble
of his life, Job said, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for
myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. (Job 19:25-27)" The hymn based on this
Scripture concludes: "He lives, all glory to His Name! He lives, my Jesus, still the same. Oh, the
sweet joy this sentence gives, 'I know that my Redeemer lives!'"

He lives, and because He lives, we shall live also. In the worst of times, we know we have One on
our side who already faced even more terrible pain, who already shouldered a staggering, crushing
load, and who has already crushed sin, death, and devil beneath His almighty foot. He is the clear
Sign that God loves us. In His own suffering, death, and resurrection, He shows us the height and
the depth of His love for us. "All glory to His Name!"

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from ~The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version~<TM>, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles.

Ask the Pastor, © 2002 by Walter P. Snyder. It may be reproduced in totality, including this
disclaimer, by anyone, provided that no profit is generated by said republication and
redistribution. Translations into other languages should similarly note the United States
and any appropriate international copyrights, as well as God's Scriptural injunctions
concerning the property of others.

Walter Snyder is the pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Emma, Missouri and coauthor of
the book "What Do Lutherans Believe."