Prepping for Suffering

My wife and I watched a movie the other week where all of the sudden the credits started rolling and we said, “That’s it? That’s the end?” For most stories, the characters, plot line, and setting are all moving towards some grand resolution. You have connected with the main players, are journeying with them through their joys or sorrows, maybe even experiencing amazing rescues and reversals. The ending may be heart-wrenching or joyous, thoughtful or silly, but there is a point where you satisfactorily see “The End.”

Has that been your experience reading the book of Job?

Honestly, there is something in me that says, “That’s it? That’s the end?”

I mean, the story opens with this big scene in the heavens, God and Satan. How often in the Bible do you see that kind of set up? This I got to see! But at the end of Job there’s no mention of Satan. He doesn’t show up and say, “Yeah God, you were right. I’ll never cause trouble again.” 

Now Job ends up wealthier at the end, and with more kids, but that was never the tension in the story… “Will I eventually prosper?” No, the tension is: “WHY AM I SUFFERING?!?”

The opening scenes of God and Satan in heaven does nothing to resolve that question. In truth, it adds to it. I am sure Job is grateful he did not know that part of the story. Things were hard enough. And at the climax of the book, in what is arguably the longest monologue by God in the Bible, God never answers Job’s “Why?” The question unanswered is the most notable highlight of the entire book. If you finished watching Job on film, your conversation afterwards with others would be: “Did I miss something?”

And yet the book is there, in the Bible. Some say in its original form it may be the oldest written part of the Bible. Surely it is addressing one of man’s oldest questions.

So the best answer we can give to the question of suffering is: There is mystery in suffering. 

Well, how does that help??

First, Job is not best read in the midst of suffering. At least, I, as a non-sufferer, would not be recommending it to someone who is suffering. But the book of Job is essential for all of us to study for when we will suffer. I imagine it’s like learning to use a sword in battle. As foes are upon you, it’s a little late to start learning sword forms: blocks, parries, thrusts. Oh, you will struggle to learn, as you battle to stay alive, but you will be wishing you had taken time to learn the something you hoped you would never need. 

For suffer we will.

Now for those of us not currently afflicted, our best activity is to enter into the suffering of others. Not with answers. That was Job’s friends. Someone suffering cuts through our best theories faster than a blade through a banana. We need to learn from them. We do that by coming alongside, being quiet, supportive, prayerful… entering into the mystery that they are weighed down under. 

José said it well on in his message on Sunday: “God doesn’t answer Job’s questions. All he gives him is a glorious vision of himself.”  And often the best way for us to do that is to sit long with others, and listen, and love. 

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ -  Matt. 25:36-40