Suffering in Haiti

The news about the earthquake in Haiti and the subsequent reaction of a certain prominent Christian are what finally made me decide to start another blog. I felt like I needed to write down my thoughts.

Pat Roberton opined that perhaps the earthquake struck because Haitians had made a pact with the devil, as though they were deserving of this tragedy. I'm sure some folks agree, and some don't. I was reminded, however, of a little exchange Jesus had with his students about suffering. The text is John 9:

As he was walking along, he observed a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that caused him to be born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must do the work of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he spread the mud on the man's eyes and told him, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam."

So he went off and washed and came back seeing.

Jesus' followers, in effect, asked the question that was raised by the story of Job and by the Psalmist and by everyone around the world even today as we heard about and struggled to process the Haitian earthquake. Why? Why do bad things happen? Why do people, innocent, hapless people, children suffer?

It's a valid question, a hard question. But it was not a question that Jesus was interested in answering in this instance. Jesus seemed to indicate that it was the wrong question to ask about the blind man. Rather, the most relevant question for Jesus is what good is God going to accomplish through the suffering? As was his custom, he reframed the issue, spun the situation on its head, and refocused the attention of his hearers not on the evil they could not comprehend, but on the power of God at work in the person of the blind man. Jesus then went on to channel God's glory into the suffering and redeemed it.

I think Jesus' response to his disciples is instructive for us as we consider suffering and injustice now. Our focus should be on God's redemptive power. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:28, God is capable of bringing forth good from any set of circumstances. Even in the midst of death, there is the promise of resurrection.

One final word about Jesus' response: he acted. He did not end the encounter by blessing the blind man and telling him to believe that God was capable of accomplishing good. Instead, Jesus allowed God to work through him and healed the man. For the church, the body of Christ, the second incarnation if you will, we must not only believe that God can redeem suffering. We must be prepared to act as God's redemptive agents to work in the midst of suffering and injustice. God brought about healing through the person of Jesus. So it is with us. Jesus isn't walking around healing folks anymore. The world is left with us, the church. God works good, but He chooses to do so through his people.

The task of the church then is to trust in the grace of God to redeem any person or situation, while at the same time being prepared to be used by God as channels through which that redemptive power flows. To this work the church must tend in Haiti, in prisons, in factories that employ unjust labor practices, among the homeless, the elderly, the sick and dying. Lord, have mercy on your church.