Dear Friends,

If we were standing at the foot of the cross, looking up at Jesus’s savagely beaten, punctured, bloodstained body, would we stop demanding to know “How could a loving God allow XYZ suffering?” and start saying, in a spirit of peaceful humility, “I’ll understand it farther along”?

Open series outline

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This is it

I started writing about the “Problem of Evil” (how could a loving, all-powerful God coexist with so much human suffering?) back in August 2019. With this 16th post in the series, God willing, I’m putting a bow on it.

I tried to look at the problem from many different angles, but I didn’t keep you in suspense…I named the whole series after what I think is the most salient response to the Problem of Evil: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And I said as much in the 3rd sentence of the very first post 🙂

The thought experiment at the top of the post was something I picked up on the Brant and Sherri Oddcast (1)…and it has stuck with me.

You don’t have to be a historian or a doctor…

…to grasp the significance of the Crucifixion. I already talked about the crown of thorns and the scourging (see Part 6c, “Yes, but horribili flagello”, in series outline above), so we’re zeroing in on the crucifixion today.

God’s bleeding, mutilated body was nailed, hands and feet, to a cross:

[Psa 22:16 KJV] 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

That’s the Biblical description…if you want historical documentation of this process of crucifixion, this LIVESCIENCE article on it has some interesting details, including German experiments from the 1960s which document the breathing difficulty caused by crucifixion (2). I will also mention one quote I found on studylight (3):

“Regarding it, however, as an ignominious doom, the Romans reserved it for slaves (whence it was called servile supplicium), the worst sort of criminals such as robbers (Sen. Ep. vii.), and provincials.”

Yes, my friends, this was long before the days when corrections officials debated whether a convicted rapist and murderer experienced any suffering after receiving a lethal injection as part of a non-public execution. Crucifixion was intentionally painful, ostentatious and humiliating…a gigantic !*#$%@ on the victims and their entire social stratus.

As a side note, this horrible, detestable, very public method of execution played right into God’s hands:

[Jhn 12:32 KJV] 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all [men] unto me.

😉

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? 

His body “was so marred more than any man”, and yet…it was a body He had only walked around in for approximately 33 years.

Suspended between heaven and earth, His mutilated back rubbing against the rough wooden cross, His scalp perforated by the crown of thorns, His bones grinding on the nails in His hands and feet, His breathing become more and more labored, His mother weeping at His feet, His rebellious, jeering subjects crowded around Him, Jesus experienced another suffering so terrible and intimate that it almost feels disrespectful to even write about it.

The thing the 2nd Person of the Godhead had always experienced, from eternity to eternity, independent of any physical body, was perfect fellowship with the Father:

[Jhn 1:1-2 KJV] 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.

[Jhn 17:24 KJV] 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for THOU LOVEDST ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.

And on the cross, Jesus felt that perfect fellowship break:

[Mar 15:34 KJV] 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Simply do a word search through the gospels for “my Father” and “my God”, and compare the results. Then you will begin to understand the pathos of Mark 15:34.

The man of sorrows, the man Jesus, felt that God had forsaken/left/abandoned Him in that moment, à la Psalm 22. It’s bad enough, it’s scary enough, when we feel that way sometimes…but my words and imagination utterly fail to capture the level of grief Jesus must have experienced.

Yes, my dear friend, I think this scene would silence us.

Which one of these does not belong?

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ can help you decide which one of these claims to reject:

• God can “do every thing” (Job 42:2)
• “God is love” (I John 4:8)
• Some human suffering is so barbaric and pointless that it proves at least one of the first two bullets is false

I considered rejecting the first bullet in Part 3a (link in series outline above). From a technical standpoint alone, I cannot do it. For more, I invite you to read a discussion between me and atheist reader Bob on that same page.

When it comes to rejecting the 2nd bullet…well, I mentioned other problems with this option in previous posts (e.g., Part 5a, “Yes but a bride adorned”), but today is about the Biggest Problem with this option. Do you really think you could look up at God’s crucified body, and listen to the cries of anguish from the depths of His soul, and still claim that He doesn’t love you? I don’t.

So, I reject the 3rd bullet…and I hope you do too.

• God can “do every thing” (Job 42:2)
• “God is love” (I John 4:8)
• Some human suffering is so barbaric and pointless that it proves at least one of the first two bullets is false

It doesn’t mean I can always tell you the point of every instance of suffering. I don’t always know why God suffers or brings about our suffering. But I think at this point He has earned our trust, don’t you?

Yes, but the cross

I never set out to answer every question you have about human suffering. But I pray to God I’ve convinced you that human suffering is not a reason to turn away from God or sit on the fence year after year.

Yes, there is a parasitic worm that causes children to go blind.

Yes, evil depraved miscreants prey on the weak and often fly under the radar due to their selfish, cowardly associates.

Yes, that Thing happened to you.

Yes…but the CROSS!!!

So, follow Him, because He’s earned your trust by dying for you. You’ll be glad you did 🙂

Links:

(1): Brant and Sherri Oddcast

(2): Crucifixion on LIVESCIENCE

(3): Crucifixion on studylight