Introduction
All humans face suffering. It is a simple sentence, vastly complex, a cosmic riddle without explanation. What might be more difficult than suffering is the quest for answers, meaning, and reasons for the pain. Ironically, as a Christian, I’ve become increasingly aware that the biblical witness offers me wisdom to resist this temptation. Instead, Wisdom invites us to embrace a greater act of love – of presence – to walk alongside the sufferer, not with a verbal onslaught of possible purposes but with compassion and companionship.
The Biblical Witness
The Book of Job stands as a masterpiece of literature on the complexity of human suffering and the inadequacy of words. Despite Job’s friends’ best attempts at rationalization, the end result is compounded pain and frustration. Even God’s response to Job’s cries of justice is, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” (Job 38:4). This serves as a witness to a finite understanding in the face of divine mystery.
Yet, this is not to say that God is not without compassion. Quite the contrary – even in the person of Jesus Christ, there is a refusal to respond to suffering with theological explanation. Instead, it is with deep compassion and action. He weeps with his friends as they grieve the death of their mutual companion. What Mary and Martha saw as the death of their brother was what Jesus knew to be the end of all things God had created. This realization was a powerful motivation that led him to the cross – the ultimate demonstration that the primary response to suffering should be love and practical care.
Wrestling with Theodicy
Christian history is full of wrestling with the question of theodicy – or why a good God allows suffering. Frankly, you will not find the answer to that here. What Scripture does make clear is our responsibility to one another in our suffering. Bluntly, it is not cheap answers and easy explanations. While offering hope, it is imperative that we do not trivialize genuine pain or imply that suffering has an easy or discernable purpose. Paul offers a clear avenue of action when he speaks of “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God.” (2 Cor 1:3-4). This beautiful phrase makes me painfully aware of my humanness. Offer an explanation. Impossible. Offer love, care, and support? Yes, and Amen.
The Ministry of Presence
This brings us to “the ministry of presence,” a term I first heard from the late Reverend Ellsworth of the Ohio Highway Patrol. It is the embodiment of “mourn with those who mourn.” (Rom 12:15). The ministry of presence has been a staple of giants in Christian history. Mother Teresa is famous for aiding those suffering in Calcutta, yet her most significant ministry was her determination that no one would suffer alone. She didn’t need to explain their suffering, and she knew she couldn’t end their suffering, but she refused to allow them to be alone in their suffering. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a Nazi prison, took no solace in explaining the horrors of war and genocide, only living fully Christ’s example into a world in pain.
Jesus: The Ultimate Example
That brings us to Jesus. Facing his own anguish in Gethsemane, his only request – the presence of his friends (Matt 26:38). Yet, in a turn of cosmic loneliness, not only did his friends forsake him; a cry reverberates through the hallowed halls of time, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46) The quotation of the psalmist exposes the limits of suffering. The fractured lines of understanding are not a failure of faith but an expression of suffering.
Practical Application
So, what do we do? When we are suffering, or worse when those we love deeply are suffering? Become a deep listener, get comfortable with silence, and refuse the temptation of quick explanations that exist for the only purpose of making a quick exit. Please don’t read this as a directive not to offer hope or speak of God’s love. Read it as an outright refusal to offer your own meaning to someone else’s suffering.
Suffering is a sacred communion between the sufferer and God. Meaning will only be found – if it is to be found at all in this life – between the sufferer and their Maker. Our responsibility is to create space and margin for their journey. To do so is to walk alongside, to trust the work of the Holy One.
Conclusion
This approach is hard. It requires patience, empathy, and humility. But doesn’t that look a lot like Jesus? I can’t think of a more beautiful example of willingly walking into the world of another’s suffering without compulsion than when God entered our world not to explain it away but to transform it through his presence, love, and ultimately through his resurrection.
Until that day, even so, come Lord Jesus.
Josh Cehulik 