If it’s not too much of an oxymoron, I have a bit of Calvinist humour that could possibly brighten your day. As a minister, I am sometimes asked, “why do bad things happen to good people?” As a Calvinist, my answer could be, “That’s an easy one, there are no good people”. Joking apart, it’s a question that’s probably being asked a lot just now as we live under the threat of Covid-19. We didn’t ask for this virus to be given to us, we don’t deserve this virus yet here we are all suffering as a result of it. It’s just so unfair isn’t it? It becomes easy to complain about how we are being adversely affected just now. So, leaving Calvin aside, what are we meant to do about this situation? What is the Christian response to unfair suffering?
In our last week of looking at the question of suffering we come to a part of Peter’s letter to the church that deals with the specific issue of unjust suffering. Peter asks us to consider the example of Jesus. Jesus entered into a world of suffering in order to show another way was possible. The crucifixion was one of the most unfair events in history. Jesus, who had done nothing but good, was put to death in the cruellest fashion. Yet He bore this with grace as He knew He was carrying out God’s will. Like the suffering servant in Isaiah, Jesus did not think God had abandoned Him but was with Him throughout it all and would vindicate Him. By enduring with grace, Jesus then sets the example for us to follow. When we face unfair suffering, we are to imitate Jesus. As the example of Jesus inspires us, so will our bearing suffering inspire others.
There are a lot of scared people around just now. There are a lot of people looking for guidance and answers. This is a time when the church can be seen as a beacon of hope. If we begin to wonder where God is, or why this is happening to us when we consider we are the “good people” we are not living as followers of Jesus. Following Jesus means going where He went, and He went to some genuinely scary places. Yet He went accepting that there was suffering in the world, He went accepting He would suffer unfairly, and throughout He modelled grace, compassion and love. He did this as He knew God was with Him. This is the example we are meant to follow. If Jesus brings us comfort through how He lived, by following Him, we can be the comfort for others through how we live. And we live by having the same conviction Jesus had, that God is with us, that God loves us and that through God’s strength, we can endure this also.