Out of all the ancient literature, the Old Testament character of Job is probably the person who experienced the most pain in life. In one fell-swoop, he lost all 10 of his children and his successful business, and soon thereafter he was inflicted with sores from head to foot. In that ancient text, a friend of Job summed up the reality that we will, at some point, all undergo some sort of suffering and pain:
“Just as naturally as sparks fly upward, we humans suffer.” (Job 5:7)
So what do we do with suffering? What sense can we make of it? How can we endure it? How should we endure it? Should we take the advice of Job’s wife and just “curse God and die?” (Job 2:9).
In a previous blog, I mentioned that the New Testament book of 1 Peter is unique in that its author, the apostle Peter, answers 3 of the most important questions in life:
What is life for?
How should we live?
What do we do with suffering?
Peter has a lot to say about suffering because he was acquainted with suffering. He was an eye-witness to the most unfair suffering the world has ever seen: The wrongful crucifixion of the most innocent of men. But that was just the beginning. Peter himself was acquainted with suffering, much of which also may be familiar to you:
The suffering of lost dreams: Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. Why would he deny his best friend? He might have been scared, but I think the real reason was that he was discouraged. His dreams of glory were going down the tubes. The grand vision he had about Jesus (that Jesus would triumphantly rescue Israel from the Romans) was crashing down. It was dawning on him that Jesus was going to prison or worse. I’m sure Peter was thinking: “Is this worth it anymore?”
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever realized that one of your dreams in life was just a pipe dream? Have you ever been betrayed by a friend, or dumped by a lover? Have you lost someone you loved deeply? Have you lost a job or lost your self-esteem or confidence? What do we do at times like these?
The suffering of failure: Right in the middle of Jesus’ trial, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. In this denial, Peter suffered doubly. Not only had he lost his dreams, but he felt the shame of failure. He had wholly denied the One he loved. Hours before, he had proudly announced (with his cocky attitude) that he would go to his death for Jesus. Now he had denied ever knowing him (with curse words, too). He had let his best friends down! Have you ever done that? Do you feel the tinge of suffering when you think back on the memories of your greatest failures? When you’re alone, do the haunting sounds of “if only” whisper in your ear? What do we do at times like these?
Unjust suffering: 1 Peter deals a lot with the kind of suffering that is particularly difficult: “unjust suffering.” Although any kind of suffering is painful, unjust suffering is often the most painful because it seems so meaningless. You may have experienced some of these questions in life: “Why did I get this disease?” “Why did she die so young?” “Why was I picked for this difficult job?” “Why this, why me, why now?” The words “Why” and “Unfair!” seem to go hand in hand.
Peter also knew unjust suffering. Soon after he began telling people about the resurrection of Jesus, he was imprisoned and flogged numerous times by the authorities (Acts 5:40). Throughout his ministry, Peter faced intense persecution. Tradition says that Peter and his wife were crucified in Rome on the same day. Peter, like Paul, suffered unjustly in all kinds of “hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger” (2 Corinthians 6:4-5).
The first recipients of 1 Peter were also facing persecution and unjust suffering. Peter experienced and witnessed daily the unjust suffering that Christians endure. Peter’s decision to continue to endure such persecution in his life (and ultimately face an excruciating death) proves the reality of the risen Lord in his life. If Peter, who claimed to be an eyewitness to the resurrection, were making it all up, then he would not have allowed himself such persecution. But he wasn’t making it up. Not only was he an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus, but he was also a witness of the sufferings of Jesus (1 Peter 5:1). Peter saw that God Himself, in the form of Jesus, also suffered unjustly.
SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH SUFFERING?
Suffering. Evil. Pain. None of these makes life easy. They all make our understanding of God difficult. Why does God allow suffering? Although Peter, the one who was crucified upside down, doesn’t resolve all our questions about suffering, he does give us some helpful answers. We will look at a few in the coming weeks, but maybe the most helpful to me is Peter’s understanding that in a very real way, in Jesus God is “close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
God is close to the broken-hearted because He knows exactly what we are going through. Peter saw with his own eyes that God is not aloof or distant; he is “with us” in all of our sufferings and suffers with us. Jesus, as God in the flesh, experienced unjust suffering. Peter says that Jesus was “rejected by men,” but he was chosen and precious in God’s sight (1 Peter 2:4). Jesus’ suffering was actually on our behalf, or as Peter says, it was “for us” (1 Peter 2:21), the “righteous for the unrighteous,” to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). Peter says that “Christ suffered in his body” (1 Peter 4:1), and Peter himself was a witness to the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 5:1).
Jesus is our “Emmanuel,” the “with-us God.” God is not far away; He has come near and dwelt among us and experienced the same sufferings we experience. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:18). We can approach this kind of God because he understands suffering: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 5:15-16). As Philip Yancey writes:
During that wrinkle in time known as the Incarnation, God experienced what it is like to be a human being. In 33 years, God learned about poverty and about family squabbles and social rejection and verbal abuse and betrayal. He learned, too, about pain. What it feels like to have the accuser leave the red imprint of his fingers on your face. What it feels like to have the whip studded with metal lashed across your back. What it feels like to have a crude spike pounded through muscle, tendon, and bone.[1]
The English poet Edward Shillito, who survived the horrors of World War I as an English soldier, put it this way:
The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds but Thou alone.
But that is not the end of the story. Good Friday is good because of Easter Sunday. God identifies with our wounds, and even our failures, in order to heal them, and the healing that can begin in this life will find fulfillment in the age to come. Jesus is the sign and the guarantee of that ultimate healing. As Jurgen Moltmann reminds us, “God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him.”[2]
Join me in the coming weeks to explore further the suffering and glory of God. You can read more in my book From Fish to Glory: 1 Peter for Daily Living, available on Amazon and at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/from-fish-to-glory.
[1] Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 271.
[2] Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ (San Francisco: Harper, 1990), 322.