Remember the Cross the Next Time You Ask the Why Questions

I had a couple of interesting conversations today. A friend called to ask a question about trusting God. He had seen a 10 year old boy who was afflicted with epilepsy and wondered what good God could possibly bring out of that terrible situation. I told him I didn’t know but was convinced that God could bring some good from this evil. However, I am simply not privy to God’s intentions for that family, nor is my friend.

Then another friend called to talk about a terrible family burden he is bearing. He said it felt like God was not listening to him and he felt rather abandoned over this. He needs God to help him bear this awful burden and God apparently had gone into silent mode. I could relate to that as well because it has happened to me before, and more than once. I have great empathy for my friend because he too is forced to deal with an evil disease that has afflicted a loved one.

So why does this stuff happen? Why does God allow evil to apparently have its way in the world? If you are hoping to find an answer here you will be very disappointed because I don’t have the answer. Scripture is remarkably reticent on the subject as well. For example, you read Job, which is all about the mystery of suffering, and when you get to the end of the book, you hope God will let us in on the joke. He doesn’t. He basically tells us that we aren’t big enough or smart enough to handle all that God deals with and therefore urges us to be faithful and to trust him because God is big enough to handle evil and suffering. So I didn’t have an answer for my friends today in this regard nor do I have an answer for you.

But here is what I can tell you. When you get smacked in the face by some form of evil and are wondering if God really is trustworthy, or whether he really does love you, then remember the cross.

By all means remember the cross because it is a real antidote to doubt and despair.

The cross will not give you an answer to your why questions. What it will do is to remind you of God’s great love for you and his ability to deliver for you when you are being smacked in the face by evil or suffering.

How so, you ask? The cross is a tangible and powerful sign of God’s great love for you because it reminds you that God has done a terrible and costly thing to end the alienation that exists between humans and God, an alienation caused by our stubborn rebelliousness and our attempt to play God instead of letting God be God. Remember that when Jesus hung on the cross he was not some independent third party whom God had hired out because God didn’t want to get his hands all bloody and messy. This was God himself hanging there and dying for you so that you have a real chance to live, both in this mortal life and in God’s New Creation.

When you look at the spectacle of the cross and remind yourself that it is God himself hanging there, suffering and dying for you so that you have a real chance at having a restored relationship with him so that you won’t die, it boggles the mind–at least it boggles my mind. It also boggles the mind–at least it boggles my mind–to believe that a God who would do this for you does not love you or has decided to abandon you in the midst of your struggles or trials. It just doesn’t make sense–unless, of course, you choose to believe that God is the most capricious being in the whole universe. But then you are not worshiping the real God if you worship a god like that because the real God is not capricious at all.

The next time you are confronted with evil or suffering or any of the nasty stuff that can afflict us, remember Christ crucified. Bring your hurts, your fears, your anger, your anguish, your sense of betrayal, your sense of abandonment and whatever else you have, and lay them at the foot of the cross. If it helps you, make or buy an actual cross so that you have something tangible to lay all that burdens you and threatens to destroy your faith. Take a minute or two (or however long you need) and consciously do this. The God who loves you and gave himself for you in a terrible and costly act is big enough to help you handle anything you can bring to his cross and you are frankly not very bright if you do not let him. He may not deliver you or your loved ones in the way you pray for, hope, or fervently desire, but he will give you (and those for whom you pray) what you (and they) need. You can believe this precisely because you have spent some time at the foot of his cross and pondered his great love for you and all humankind.

And then after you have spent some time at the foot of his cross, open up your Bible and read Romans 8.31-39. Part of what you will read there is this:

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8.37-39).

Reflect on this carefully. Paul is reminding you to embrace your heritage that is God’s great love for you in Christ. Reflect on the breathtaking implications contained in this short passage. Paul reminds us that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus. Nothing. That means epilepsy cannot separate us. Terminal cancer cannot separate us. Blindness cannot separate us. Madness or dementia cannot separate us. Alzheimer’s cannot separate us.

Why? Because all of these evils exist in creation and nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Jesus.

This, of course, brings us back to the beginning of Romans 8 where Paul tells us that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because of what God has done for us in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Notice carefully that no explanation is given as to why evil exists. What is given is a declaration of God’s ability to deliver for us, and his great love for us in and through Jesus. If you do not think Paul is a liar, then you had better be prepared to do something with what he has just told you. Think about this. If God can raise Jesus from the dead, what can God not do? If he is willing to suffer and die for you when you did not want him to do so nor deserve anything like this great love that he has demonstrated for you, why would he abandon you in the midst of your struggles and trials?

Again, you either must believe this and do something about it or admit that you really don’t believe it and do something else about it. In the former case, your response will be hope, real hope. In the latter, you can expect to fall into despair and hopelessness sooner or later because try as you might, you don’t have very much control over the little things in life, let alone the big things. And unless you think you can raise yourself and others from the dead, you don’t have much to look forward to, either now or in the future.

In sum, when you need to ask the why questions, remember to bring those questions along with the rest of the accompanying baggage and lay them at the foot of the cross. Give them to God and ask him to help you bear them. Then do yourself a favor and memorize Romans 8.31-39. Repeat it anytime the stuff hits the fan. You will find the power, the strength, and the love and the grace that will be sufficient to help you bear your burdens. And you will have a real hope because you know that Christ is risen, and where he is so will you and your loved ones be. You’ve also got God’s promise that nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate you from his love for you.

But you cannot be an armchair quarterback. You have got to act. You have got to take the chance and trust Jesus by hanging out frequently at the foot of his cross. Otherwise, you will never, ever know the power that lies behind this truth.

Bet your life on this and dare to trust the God who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead and promises to raise you and everyone who is in Christ too.

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