Why do appalling things happen?It’s a question we all want answered. For the professing Christian who says that God not only exists, but that he is compassionate and all-powerful, it is one of life’s toughest questions. Why doesn’t God step in and do something to relieve the suffering and pain, and clean up the mess?I have to say, there are no complete answers.
What then can we say about this profound and perplexing subject? Today and next Wednesday I will briefly touch on a number of points.
Our cry for justice…!All of us have within us a sense of right and wrong. This suggests that we live in a universe that has meaning and is moral. If we lived in a world that had come into existence simply by the process of spontaneous change, logically we would be nothing but particles, bumping around in some sort of meaningful connection. Our conscious state would be nothing more than electrical discharges in the human brain.
Now it seems to me that it’s very difficult to be morally indignant about behavior that results from quarks smashing together. Consequently the issues of evil and suffering and the cry for justice lose their relevance in a purely evolutionary framework.
Our cry for justice is much more in line with the Bible’s teaching that it is right to condemn all wicked violence, all taking of innocent life. For the Bible condemns such activities whether in ourselves or in others, and we condemn the perpetrators of these deeds. The Bible helps us to know evil when we see it.
So will justice ever occur?If we agree that we live in a moral universe, the picture the Bible paints makes a lot of sense and is very satisfying. Winston Churchill once said that there had to be a hell, to bring the likes of Lenin and Trotsky and Hitler to justice. The good news is that one day God will call everyone to account.
And here there is a sting in the tail. If we want justice to be done to others, we must agree that we too need to be brought to account. Yes, we long for justice and vindication, but we, too, are guilty before God.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once wrote:
‘If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?’
The roots of evil are intertwined amongst all humanity, including us. God’s judgment is just and will be without discrimination. Of this we may be very sure. We need not despair that sin will go unpunished. But we also will need to be prepared.
So, why doesn’t God step in now? The Bible answers by telling us that God stays his hand for the present because he wants to give all men and women the opportunity to turn to him in repentance. The good news is that God will vindicate us when we turn to Jesus Christ. His judgment may be slow as we count time, but it is very sure (2 Peter 3:9-13).
Here we see the passion of God’s love and our ultimate hope. We have this because of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus comes between God’s good creation, ruined by human sin with which the Bible begins, and the promise of a restored creation with which the Bible ends.
‘God will wipe away every tear from our eyes… there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away’ (Revelation 21:4).
Sometimes we may be tempted to doubt the supernaturalism of Jesus – his virgin birth, his miracles and his resurrection. In turn we may doubt the exclusiveness of Christianity – that it is through Jesus alone we have any hope of being restored in our relationship with God and knowing the joyful assurance of eternal life.
Evidence. How can Christianity be anything but supernatural if at a certain time in a certain place divinity did walk among men and women? Either Jesus did rise from the dead before many witnesses or he didn’t. If he didn’t, there’s no point in trying to salvage Christianity, by calling it, as some do, a myth.
Paul the Apostle expresses the logic of this in 1 Corinthians 15:14, 19: ‘If Jesus isn’t raised our faith is empty… and we’re to be pitied’. He, with the rest of the New Testament, is insistent: our faith rests on the testimony of eyewitnesses – the apostles and five hundred others – who said they saw Jesus physically alive, risen from the dead.
Not an irrational leap in the dark. Yes, Christianity is a religion of faith, but as I wrote last week, this doesn’t mean it involves some kind of irrational leap into the dark. Consider 2 Peter 1:16:
We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
What we often overlook today is that Peter and Paul and countless others, overturned the Roman world, not by terrorism or force of arms, but by the example of their lives and the testimony of their lips. Can we imagine the disciples of Jesus constructing a monstrous lie? We have to assess the reliability of their testimony. Christianity is not based on myth, but memory. Peter invites us to trust those memories. He wants to silence the doubts that arise within us, especially when times get tough.
>Explanation.As you read this you may be thinking, ‘I have no problem with the facts; my problem is the interpretation. How do we know the Bible got it right?’
Let’s consider Jesus’ death. His crucifixion is a fact: historians outside the Bible tell us this happened. But the apostles said that Jesus died on the cross so that those who turn to him might be forgiven and reconciled with God. There’s no way a mere observer looking at the cross would have come to that conclusion. That’s an interpretation. So how can we be sure that apostles like Peter got it right? He answers our question in 1:19ff –
We have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation…
Peter is emphatic: he is not only reliable as an eyewitness, but he is equally reliable in the way that he has interpreted the meaning of Jesus’ life and death. Why is he so sure? Because he had the words of a prophet:
You must understand this, … no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation. No prophecy was ever produced by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God(2 Peter 1:20f).
The divinity of Jesus, his virgin birth, his sacrificial death, are not simply human deductions about Jesus, they are God-inspired testimonies as to what these things mean.
If you’re wobbling as a Christian, finding yourself besieged by people around you, let me encourage you to read your Bible as they did. But do it consistently ‘paying attention’, as Peter urges, ‘to what it says.’ When you do this it won’t be long, as it was for them, that the light begins to shine in the dark place, and the morning star arises in your hearts.
Writing in The London Times, someone once commented, ‘I’d like to be a Christian, but to do that I need a water-tight argument.’ At times we may feel like that – for ourselves and for the sake of others. But that is not how God has chosen to work. He invites us to trust him, not by way of a leap of blind faith, but on the basis of the revelation he has given us. Which raises the question of authenticity: can, for example, the New Testament be trusted?
Unlike with other religions, the Christian Bible has been written by many different writers over at least 2,000 years. It invites us to ask questions about this revelation and, insofar that it provides us with historical context, gives us opportunities to explore its historical accuracy. So, when we come to the New Testament, we want to ask questions about it.
The New Testament writers were conscious of their particular responsibilities in their writing and nobody understood the need for accuracy and clarity about God better than Luke. In Luke 1:1-4 we read: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who were from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have the certainty concerning the things you have been taught. Luke wants us to know:
He was writing a history—he was setting down an accurate and orderly account of events that had recently occurred. His writing is not myth or legend that had the appearance of a history, such as Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.
His research is thorough. While he tells us that he himself was not an eyewitness of the events he verified his work carefully (1:2). Thucydides said: Where I have not been an eyewitness myself, I have investigated with the utmost accuracy attainable every detail that I have taken at second hand (History of the Peloponnesian War).
His narrative is true. Luke’s reference to eyewitnesses was more than just a convention. The picture we have in Luke and Acts leads us to conclude that he met with people who had been with Jesus throughout his public ministry – the twelve disciples and other close followers, including Mary. It seems that he met with these people in Jerusalem when Paul was under house arrest in 56-59AD.
Dr Edwin Judge, a highly respected ancient historian wrote the following:
‘An ancient historian has no problem seeing the phenomenon of Jesus as an historical one. His many surprising aspects only help anchor him in history. Myth or legend would have created a more predictable figure. The writings that sprang up about Jesus also reveal to us a movement of thought and an experience of life so unusual that something much more substantial than the imagination is needed to explain it.
The question is, ‘Do you have this kind of confidence for your own faith? Does this give you greater confidence when you talk to others about the Christian faith – that faith is not a leap in the dark, but the appropriate response to a unique man who lived an extraordinary life?
In October last year, The Wall Street Journal reported an interview with Alan Greenspan about his book, The Map and the Territory. Greenspan commented on a human feature that he had not factored in when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve. Referring to the meltdown of the markets in 2008, he noted that none of the recognized forecasters saw the economic crisis coming. He went on to say that he had not factored in ‘the spells of (human) euphoria and irrational fear.’
The article continued, ‘Studying the results of herd behavior provided him with some surprises. “I was actually flabbergasted,” he says. “It upended my view of how the world works… I wouldn’t have dared write anything like that before,” he says. He concluded that fear has at least three times the effect of euphoria in producing market gyrations. “I wouldn’t have dared write anything like that before,” he says.’
It is not my purpose here to speak about the state of the economy or the financial world. Rather, I want to take up the theme of human nature: the WSJ article raises the subject of the deeper aspects of our human nature usually hidden from others. It opens up questions about who we are and what life is about – that we are much more than the sum of our parts: head, heart, hands, feet, and so on. Significantly, the article shows us that, if we are alert, we will constantly come across opportunities to talk with others about the larger issues of life.
With this in mind consider the words of Paul the Apostle in Colossians 4:6: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.
Paul’s advice to the Colossians has two parts: life-style and speech. As we noted last week, we are all obliged to act wisely and graciously towards people we live and work with in the wider community. Here, Paul is telling us that we are also obliged to make the most of the opportunities to respond to the questions people ask about matters of faith.
Our English word answerhere translates a Greek word that means responding to people who have a genuine interest in finding out more – in this instance, about Christianity. Peter, in his Letter, also speaks of our need to be prepared to ‘answer’, but the word he uses means making a defense, giving a reason, for the hope we have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15).
Paul wants us to cultivate conversations that are kind and gracious but seasoned with salt. ‘Salt’ here is a metaphor for the kind of sparkling, interesting, challenging conversation that opens up larger issues and provokes questions about life. Here then is the motivation to look for opportunities to sow a grain of salt that might niggle and stir others to ask us what we believe and why. Some people tell me that when they read newspaper editorials and news, even see movies, they are looking for ways to initiate conversations about faith.
So, Paul urges us to let our life-style – every facet of our life – commend the savior who came as a servant. If we hold a position of responsibility, let’s pray for God’s grace so that no one is able to accuse us of unfairness, exploitation, or harshness. And whoever we are, let’s pray and look for opportunities to answer the questions that others have about life. It may be that we simply tell others our story of faith or invite them to church. If we do this, we can expect to see lives around us being changed. Nothing is more exciting than seeing this happen.
Opportunity is an optimistic, motivating word, full of promise and hope. The Oxford English Dictionary says it is: ‘A time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something’.
It is a word we find in a wide range of contexts. Winston Churchill commented: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” Boris Pasternak remarked: “When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it”.
In a recent sermon on 1 Peter, I noted that people to whom Peter was writing were victims of intolerable oppression. They were living under the Roman Empire, one of the most powerful and ruthless dictatorships the world has known. They had no vote and there was no free speech. Many of his first readers were slaves. Seemingly they had no opportunities in life.
Yet in 1 Peter 2:11-12 we read:
Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Lifestyle. Peter was saying to his readers – slave and free – that though they were ‘resident aliens’ in this world, through their lifestyle they all had the opportunity to make a difference.
Following Jesus Christ involves a new way of living: Abstain from the sinful desires which wage war against your soul, he says.This is a reference to the desires of our hearts that are out of step with the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount – the lies, the false-witness, the anger, the greed, the lustful look, the adulterous relationship. It is anything that stands against the mind of God.
Let’s think about this: Peter is saying that our inward desires are not uncontrollable. We can nurture them or choose to restrain them. How different this is from the attitudes of many around us who say that our feelings are morally neutral. People laugh at anyone who says that some of the feelings and longings we have are wrong.
And there is something else here: Peter warns us that these longings wage war against our souls. To entertain sinful longings may appear harmless – no one else knows. But he is saying that in reality they are our enemies, because they make us spiritually weak and ineffective.
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (2:12).Good conduct, godly behavior, will not often draw the applause of the crowds. From Broadway to television shows God’s people are mocked. Yet Peter is saying, ‘Yes, there may be times when you are slandered and falsely accused, but the very consistency of our life can lead to the salvation of others.’
By the very life we live, we have the opportunity to make a difference to others. Peter echoes Jesus’ words: “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).
Neither Jesus nor Peter is saying that people are converted by seeing the good works of God’s people. Peter has already said (1:12) we become God’s people only when we respond to God’s gospel. These people glorify God because they have seen the difference in the lives of God’speople and they’ve been drawn to find out what has brought about the change.
The tough question we need to ask ourselves is, ‘What does my life look like to others?’
