Where is God in our adversities? If God is a good God, where is he in the storms of life? Why does God allow bad things to happen, even to his children? Habakkuk notes that everywhere there is oppression, murder, bribery, and injustice. He asks God what exactly he is doing about this. Jeremiah is equally perplexed. He asks God: “Why do the wicked prosper?” “Why are those who are treacherous so happy?” The obvious conclusion is that God does not care. What does God know? The LORD said to Moses: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.” (Exodus 3:7). But can God, being God, really know what we are going through? Job says: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1). Can God in heaven know what we are going through on earth? Can President Goodluck Jonathan really know the true condition of the man in the street? When Queen Mary Antoinette of France was told the people were rioting because they were hungry and had no bread to eat, she replied glibly: “Let them eat cake.” Similarly, is God not too distant and too aloof to know or care about the ordeal of men on earth? If he really cares, why does he not do something about it, after all he is God? The bible provides an enigmatic answer. On the cross of Calvary: “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46). This plaintive cry still reverberates around the world today. Nowhere is it more poignant than in crime and corruption-ridden Nigeria. It is the cry of agony of millions upon millions; overwhelmed by a country where truth has fallen in the streets and evil reigns supreme. Does God Forsake? How are we to understand Jesus’ cry to God on the cross? It is easily understood in Psalm 22, where it came from David. But how come Jesus makes the exact same complaint against God? Does God forsake his sons? Does God even forsake man? Should Jesus, of all people, not know any better? Surely Jesus knows God does not forsake his people. Why then does he make such an outrageous accusation against God? Jesus’ cry contradicts the promise of God. God says in Isaiah: “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.” (Isaiah 41:17-18). Indeed, when Jesus himself was asleep in a boat during a storm, his disciples woke him up asking: “Don’t you even care that we are going to perish?” Jesus asked them why they were so fearful. He chastised them for being of little faith. Then he rebuked the storm and the sea became calm. But then on the cross, Jesus himself asked God more or less the same nagging question: “Don’t you even care that I am suffering here?” “Why are you allowing me to go through this ordeal?” What are we to make of this seeming contradiction? Fellowship of mans suffering Jesus’ repetition of the cry of David on the cross is the greatest identification of God with man in the history of humanity. By this cry, God in Christ entered totally into the mainstream of the human experience. God himself cried out on man’s behalf for salvation and redemption. Man in Christ cried out to God in desperation, in confusion, and in disillusionment: “Why, if you are God; why, since you are God, are you allowing this calamity to happen to us?” In effect, on the cross of Calvary, God in Christ validated human suffering. God entered into the fellowship of our sufferings. God became our brother in adversity. And God in Christ himself became our advocate. Jesus became our lawyer, and he presented our case eloquently against God. “Why God? Why do you say you love us and then allow us to go through so much pain and suffering? Why do you sit back and watch as we get raped, tortured, robbed, killed, and destroyed every day? Why are you the Almighty, nevertheless you allow wars to happen, earthquakes to destroy, diseases and plagues to ravage? Why have you forsaken your people? Don’t you even care that we are perishing here every day?” These questions have led many to atheism. Many are convinced God does not exist because of the havoc they see in the world. Some insist that although he exists, he only took part in creation and, thereafter, went on sabbatical. Some are simply disappointed and angry with God. They were once believers but are not any longer. Others are very bitter against God. Thus, Naomi complained in the scriptures: “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” (Ruth 1:20). “Why,” they reason, “should we serve a God who allows our children to die of sickle-cell anemia?” “Why should we bother with a God who watches while we are raped and violated?” “What is the point of a merciful heavenly Father who stands by as our husbands marry other wives; as our sons contract AIDS even at the dentists; as our brothers and sisters die prematurely through human error?” Gods plea But oh, how God cares! He cares so deeply that when you read the prophets, you get the distinct image of God as a mother-hen so worried and concerned about the wrong choices his children keep making that he shouts himself hoarse reproving us. God begs man, he cajoles, he pleads and he threatens: “Please choose life, so that you and your seed may live.” But systematically and procedurally we choose death. Then we rant and rage against God when we are dying. The nature of this world, a place of sin, death and destruction, is not the making of God, but the making of men. We disobey God; we transgress against him; we refuse to follow his loving commandments; therefore we reap what we sow. Isaiah says: “Behold, the LORDS hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But our iniquities have separated us from our God; and our sins have hidden His face from us, so that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:1-2). Nevertheless, the Lord would not forsake his people. God had a plan and this plan was in motion from the foundation of the world. God was not just interested in comforting man. That would have been too trite and impersonal. In the person of Jesus Christ, God was first and foremost determined to share in man’s ordeal. Therefore, Jesus “was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his.. stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5).. Thanks to Jesus, God can no longer be accused of being indifferent to the human condition. In order to appreciate our plight fully, God became a man in Christ Jesus. What manner of man was he? God was a righteous, sinless man who went about doing good works. Thereby, he showed us what manner of man he created man to be. Jesus became the quintessential man. The God man When Balaam took up his oracle, he declared: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). According to Balaam, man is a liar by nature, while God is true. Therefore, he insists that God is not a man. But I have news for Balaam. Man can no longer be said to be a liar. Jesus is a man and he never tells a lie. Thanks to Jesus, God is now a man and a man is now God. That is the outcome of our atonement with God in Christ Jesus. Today, a man is seated on God’s throne in heaven and his name is Jesus. This man is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Jesus is our brother in the family of God. But God did not just become one of us; he became our brother in adversity. He was despised and rejected by men. Jesus was a man of sorrows. Thereby, he became intimately acquainted with our grief. (Isaiah 53:3). Doctor Jesus God took everything about us on himself. He entered into our pain and our sorrows. As our physician, Jesus did not merely prescribe a cure for our sicknesses. He decided to catch our diseases first, the better to understand our aliments: “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’” (Matthew 8:17). Indeed, Isaiah gives a graphic portrait of Christ in his passion: “Many people were shocked when they saw him; he was so disfigured that he hardly looked human.” (Isaiah 52:14). Therefore with Jesus, we can no longer say God is indifferent to human suffering. God not only cares, he does not separate himself from our pains. In our affliction, God became afflicted, and the angel of his presence in Christ came to our rescue: “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.” (Hebrews 4:15). God cares so much he even validated our weaknesses. In the Garden of Gethsemane, God, in the person of Jesus Christ, did not thank God confidently for the opportunity to lay down his life for us. Instead, he prayed: “Father, if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.” (Luke 22:42). Thereby, Jesus validated our weaknesses in the flesh. This teaches us to glory in our infirmities, for when we are weak; then God’s strength can be perfected in us. Through Jesus, God entered into a brotherhood with man. Thanks to Jesus, we now know that God can relate to our sufferings. Today, God is the very last person we can ever accuse of being indifferent to our plight. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Jesus affirms this again and again. He says: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down ones life for his friends.” (John 15:13). God himself is our shepherd who gives his life as a ransom for us. Amazing love But why would God go to such lengths just for us? Dumbfounded, the psalmist asks the Lord: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?” (Psalm 8:4). Indeed, what did we do to deserve this great love of God? It is not about us: it is all about God. God cannot help but be himself; and he is love. Many waters cannot quench the love of God. Neither can the floods drown it. Not even our sins, as black as they are, have been able to restrain his love. Our blackest sins are just a cry of repentance away from forgiveness and redemption. Even at the climax of the heinous crime of the crucifixion, Jesus still prayed earnestly for humanity: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34). They feared the boat would capsize. But Jesus woke up and proclaimed peace on the storm. They mourned that he had been killed at Calvary. But three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and declared peace unto his disciples. Jesus provides the answer of peace to every storm of our troublesome life. He rose again from the dead never to die again. He rose again, bringing mankind into a mystical union with the Godhead. Thanks to the God-man Christ Jesus, we are now heirs of God. God himself is the inheritance of the believer. The resurrected life The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ironclad insurance and guarantee of God’s determination that the believer will never perish. It attests conclusively that death is not the end, but the beginning, of the true disciple. The life we have in Christ is therefore ultimately more powerful than death. That is why the gospel is very good news indeed. It is the good report of being born again after the death of sin. It is the good report of being born again to a living hope; to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for us. The death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrates conclusively that: “(God’s) anger is but for a moment, his favour is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5). Sin is like a mosquito bite that infects one with deadly malaria. The sting of sin is death. But thanks be to God. With the resurrection, death is swallowed up in victory. Our captivity became captive. Christ pursued our implacable adversaries, overtook them and recovered all our losses. He ransomed us from the bondage of sin and Satan. The resurrection of Jesus is the revealed glory of the crosses of our discipleship. It is the revealed glory of all our pain and suffering here on earth. “I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’ Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” (Revelation 21:3-5)
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 16:22:00 +0000
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