All Suffering is Not the Same

There are still a few religious kooks around saying the Corona Pandemic is the handiwork of God, a punishment for _______; fill in the blank. The usual reasons in their narrow minds are society’s tolerance of homosexuals and abortion. They would have you believe that God has sent this horrible plague on human kind as some way to get humanity’s attention regarding these few hobby horses they like to ride. They could have sent a telegram.

No matter how their hatred arrives, it is pure theological bullshit, plain and simple.

It is not God’s will that:

• People are suffering and dying by the tens of thousands.
• People are losing their homes and their livelihoods.
• People are frightened and lonely in the uncertainty of it all.
• Some are suffering at the hands of another in an abusive relationship.
• Financial ruin is a constant threat hanging over so many peoples’ heads.
• First responders and hospital staff do not have the personal protective equipment they need and are falling ill and dying.
• People are grieving and broken hearted over the death of their loved ones and their inability to be with them.
• Whatever else I have failed to name that is a result of Covid-19.

If there is any message you take from this blog, let it be that this is not God’s will or God’s punishment.

Coronavirus happened somewhere a half a world away because this virus jumped from an animal to a human for reasons that are not entirely clear even now. The contagion of this virus took a little while to figure out and during that time it spread from an area of China to pockets throughout the world. The horrible suffering of people is squarely at the feet of the virus. Those who came to know of its volatility and contagion and did nothing are complicit. Those who failed to lead in the distribution of personal protective equipment are complicit. Those who minimized the threat and failed to listen to scientists whose knowledge of the virus grew daily are complicit. None of this suffering is God’s will.

This is a week where people of the Christian tradition focus on suffering, particularly the suffering of Jesus as he faced the inevitability of the cross.  The problem with suffering is that we tend to lump it all together and make it the same. And then we wrap it up in some language about holiness. We end up with a convoluted theology of suffering that is associated with being or becoming holy. We have made suffering salvific and it is not.

Jesus suffered and died on the cross because he was a threat to Roman power and the religious leaders of his time. Jesus died because he exposed the collusion and evil visited upon people by the Roman Empire and the religious leaders of his day. He was put to death as a criminal who dared challenge the powers of his time. He was a prophet who spoke truth to power. It was the prelude to his suffering on the cross. The cowardice of religious and political leaders who were threatened by Jesus cannot be overstated. Jesus’ death was all about religion and politics run amok in the most evil of ways.

I do not believe that Jesus suffered and died for my sins or anyone else’s. This belief is called substitutionary atonement. I don’t buy it for a minute. Jesus’ death was a particular event in an historical time. The meaning we make out of it for our faith is a matter for lifetime exploration. It is related to what we believe about sin and what we believe about God. If God is so good and loving and wonderful, why did God demand the sacrifice of his only son for appeasement? Are we born sinful because of Adam and Eve in the garden? What we believe about Jesus’ suffering is connected to everything else we believe.

I believe that sin is inevitable, not intrinsic. It is easier to follow in the ways of the world than submit to the relentless love of God that never lets us go and never lets us off. We are always and ever God’s beloved. God, however, calls us to a life of faithful obedience to the ways of Jesus. We are to be people of love and justice, mercy and peace. To the extent that we benefit from the powers and principalities of the world that privilege us and deprive others, it is the same scenario that put Jesus to death.

Jesus’ suffering and death at the hands of political and religious corruption is not remotely connected to the suffering caused by the Corona Pandemic.

In this week let’s be clear about the difference between human suffering and what caused Jesus to suffer. Human suffering is often capricious; Jesus endured suffering because he refused to give up his convictions.