p.m.dubuc@ihnp4.UUCP (11/19/86)
The following poem struck me as something that might
legitimately contribute to the discussion on suffering.
Some comments from me at the end.
The Long Silence
At the end of time, billions of people were scattered
on a great plain before God's throne.
Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them.
But some groups near the front talked heatedly -- not
with cringing shame, but with belligerence.
'Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?'
snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a
sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi
concentration camp. 'We endured terror ... beatings ...
torture ... death!'
In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. 'What
about this?' he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn.
'Lynched for no crime but being black!'
In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes.
'Why should I suffer?' she murmured. 'It wasn't my fault.'
Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups.
Each had a complaint against God for the evil and
suffering he permitted in his world. How lucky God
was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light,
where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred.
What did God know of all that men had been forced to
endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered
life, they said.
So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen
because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person
from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a
thalidomide child.
In the center of the plain they consulted with each other.
At last they were ready to present their case.
It was rather clever.
Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he
must endure what they had endured. Their decision
was that God should be sentenced to live on earth --
as a man!
Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth
be doubted.
Give him a work so difficult that even his family will
think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let
him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face
false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted
by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured.
At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly
alone. Then let him die. Let him die so that there
can be no doubt he died. Let there be a great host of
witnesses to verify it.
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence,
loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of
people assembled.
When the last had finished pronouncing sentence,
there was a long silence. No one uttered another word.
No one moved.
For suddenly
all knew
that
God had already served his sentence.
Quoted in _Christianity
Made Simple, Belief_,
D. Hewetson & D. Miller,
IVP, 1983
One impression that comes to my mind after reading this is that
many people tend to think that Christ could not have suffered as
much through his ordeal as a "mere man" would have in going through
the same thing. This seems like a valid argument on the face of
it, but it assumes an unorthodox (docetic) view of Christ. If
we take the "emptying" (kenosis, Phil. 2:4-11) involved in the
Incarnation seriously, then if follows that Christ did really
suffer, perhaps even more than another human would, especially
considering where he had come from. Many tend to think of God as
impassable (i.e., unable to suffer), but I think this is an attribute
of God imported from the Greeks. I don't see any biblical basis for it.
Another thing is the idea that the fact that one has suffered, doesn't
necessarily make them completely innocent (This is an exposure of the
way people tend to apply a different, more lenient moral standard to
the disadvantaged than they do to the privileged). But, if this is true,
it goes equally well for *both* God and humans. Maybe it's best to say
that God judges us apart from our suffering. The things we have suffered
without reason, don't make us more "worthy". By the same token,
whatever we think God may lack in his suffering, does not make him
any less able to rightfully judge his creation.
The fact that God *has* suffered (and probably still does) does seem to answer
the charge that God can't empathize in his judgement with those who have
suffered unjustly. Those who are going to fault God for allowing us to
suffer should, at least, not forget (if they wish to take the Bible
consistently on *both* counts) that God also willingly suffered at our hands.
I also think that our waywardness causes him to suffer, just as a wayward
child causes her parent to suffer (Cf. Matt. 23:37-38).
Paul Dubuc cbdkc1!pmd