Looking Through A Dark Glass

Yesterday we were confronted with the horrible news that twenty young children in Newtown Connecticut were brutally killed in a place where they should have been safe.  Children sitting in an elementary school classroom is as innocent and important a space we have in our American consciousness.  It is a sacred space.  It is a space for learning, nurturing and growing.  And yesterday evil and violence visited that space and as Americans our collective hearts were horrified, angered and deeply saddened at the result.

In this kind of horrible tragedy it is natural for people to ask the question, "Why does such evil happen in our world?"

When people are seeking ultimate answers to difficult questions it is a temptation to give answers that seem reasonable and comforting.  But in truth there is no answer to that question this side of eternity.  Every answer we might formulate will be incomplete.  Any person who pretends to have all the answers is simply not being helpful.   There are questions in this life that are so complex they cannot possibly answered in this life.

Paul the apostle made this observation in 1 Corinthians 13:12:

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

So it is helpful at a time like this to hold on to the knowledge that it is only within the scope of eternity, looking back on this wisp of smoke that is our brief time on this earth, that complex questions have solid answers.  C.S. Lewis once said that he believes the first thing we will say as we enter eternity are the words, "Aha... now I understand."

Here are some of the common answers people give in response to tragedy that are incomplete and not helpful:

1.  There can't be a God if this kind of evil happens in our world.

This is an unreasonable and unhelpful response because if all we were left with in finding meaning in this life was to deny the existence of a creator and see ourselves strictly from the standpoint of biological scientific method and highly evolved protoplasm, then what would explain our sense of disgust in the presence of evil?  Why would our hearts crave answers to ultimate questions?  Darwinian science provides no solace and comfort when our hearts are shocked and angered by violent injustice.

2.  There is a God but he is helpless in the face of evil and human suffering.  

This too is an incomplete answer because it does not match up with our understanding of God.  None of us wants to believe in a God who is not all powerful and all knowing.  Such a God would not provide a sense of justice and meaning in this world.

3.  There is an all powerful God but he is not trustworthy

There are many people who question God in the face of suffering and come to the conclusion that God is either all loving and not all powerful or He is all powerful and not all loving.  He can't be both at the same time, because a loving God would not allow evil and since there is obviously evil and suffering in this world it only stands to reason that God is one or the other but not both.  So the only conclusion we can come to in the face of suffering is that either God is loving and powerless or all powerful and not trustworthy.  But this too is an incomplete answer because if He were not all powerful He would not be God and if were not all loving our hearts would have no place for love.  Because we know and long for love and joy in this life it can only mean that that impulse was placed there by a God who was loving.

It seems to me that the most helpful though incomplete answer to this question is to say that we know from scripture that God is both all loving and all powerful and that all the suffering that comes into this life is the result of the fall.  When we see evil and suffering we are reminded that something is terribly wrong and the fact that our hearts long for a solution is in itself evidence of His existence.   Our world is horribly broken and the only answer is the redemptive work that God has set in motion through Christ and will be culminated one day in eternity.  Tim Keller put it like this:

God did not create a world with death and evil in it. It is the result of humankind turning away from him. We were put into this world to live wholly for him, and when instead we began to live for ourselves everything in our created reality began to fall apart, physically, socially and spiritually. Everything became subject to decay.  But God did not abandon us. Only Christianity of all the world’s major religions teaches that God came to Earth in Jesus Christ and became subject to suffering and death himself, dying on the cross to take the punishment our sins deserved, so that someday he can return to Earth to end all suffering without ending us.  Do you see what this means? We don’t know the reason God allows evil and suffering to continue, or why it is so random, but now at least we know what the reason isn’t, what it can’t be.  It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he doesn’t care. He is so committed to our ultimate happiness that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering himself.

A grieving mother once asked the famous 19th century English pastor Charles Spurgeon "Where was God when my only son was tragically and violently killed?"  Spurgeon softly comforted her with these words,

"He was in the same place as when His only son was tragically and violently killed; He was on His throne."

This is not a complete answer, but it is a part of the answer that we desperately need. We need to know that God loves us and that He has provided a solution for what is so terribly wrong in our world.  We need to know that in spite of what seems so senseless and unanswerable, that God is still in control. And although we don't get it now, there will come a time when we will fully know even as we are fully known.