Mercy & sufferingSuffering often leaves us asking questions we cannot easily answer. Why did this happen? Why has God allowed it? Why have my prayers not been answered in the way I hoped? Where is God when life hurts?
Christian faith does not require us to pretend that suffering is easy or that faithful Christians never struggle. The Bible gives us the words of Job, the tears of Jeremiah, the laments of the Psalms, and the grief of those who came to Jesus for help. Jesus Himself wept at the grave of Lazarus. In Gethsemane, He was sorrowful unto death. From the cross, He prayed the words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
God is not offended by the cries of His suffering children. He invites us to call upon Him in every trouble, even when our prayers come through tears.
The Christian Faith Does Not Promise an Easy Life
Christianity is not a promise that faithful people will enjoy constant health, success, prosperity, or happiness. Jesus never promised His disciples a life without crosses. He told them plainly that they would experience hardship, opposition, grief, and loss.
Suffering is not necessarily evidence that God has rejected you, that your faith is weak, or that you have failed as a Christian. We live in a fallen world marked by sin and death. Our bodies become sick. Relationships break. Natural disasters strike. People we love die. Christians experience these sorrows alongside everyone else.
Faith does not mean always feeling strong. Faith means receiving Christ’s promises even when we feel weak, frightened, confused, or alone.
We Know God Through Christ Crucified
The theology of the cross teaches us to look for God where He has promised to reveal Himself most clearly: in Jesus Christ crucified for sinners.
At the cross, God’s victory was hidden beneath what appeared to be defeat. His glory was concealed beneath suffering and shame. The sinless Son of God carried our sins, endured judgment in our place, and entered death for us. What looked like weakness became the means of our salvation.
The cross does not tell us that suffering is good. It tells us that God has entered our suffering and acted decisively to save us. Jesus did not remain distant from our pain. He took on human flesh, lived among sinners, bore our griefs, carried our guilt, and died our death.
God’s answer to our deepest suffering is not an abstract explanation. His answer is Jesus.
The Cross Tells the Truth
The theology of the cross tells the truth about our world. Sin is real. Evil is real. Death is an enemy. Some wounds remain with us for years, and some questions will not be answered in this life.
The cross also tells the greater truth about God’s mercy. Christ has borne the punishment for our sin. Our guilt has been answered by His forgiveness. Death has been conquered by His resurrection. Satan has been defeated, and nothing can separate those who are in Christ from the love of God.
At the cross, God does not minimize our suffering. He takes it seriously enough to bear it Himself.
Christ Crucified Is Also Christ Risen
Good Friday cannot be separated from Easter morning. The One who was crucified for us has risen bodily from the dead. Because Christ lives, suffering and death will not have the final word.
The resurrection does not make our present grief unreal. Christians still mourn, but we do not mourn as those who have no hope. We await the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come, when Christ will wipe away every tear and make all things new.
Our hope is not that we will eventually become strong enough to overcome every sorrow. Our hope is that Jesus Christ has overcome sin, death, and the grave for us.
God Comes to Us Through His Promises
When we suffer, our feelings can become unreliable. God may seem distant even when He is near. For this reason, He does not direct us inward to search for evidence of His love within our emotions. He directs us outward to His concrete promises.
In Holy Baptism, God placed His name upon us and joined us to the death and resurrection of Christ. In Holy Absolution, Christ speaks His forgiveness to troubled consciences. In the preaching of His Word, He creates and strengthens faith. In the Lord’s Supper, He gives us His true body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins.
These are not symbols of a distant God. They are the means through which the crucified and risen Christ comes to His people with forgiveness, life, and salvation.
When our strength fails, His promises remain.
There Is a Place for Lament
Christians do not need to cover grief with cheerful religious language. Scripture teaches us to lament. Lament is the prayer of faith spoken from within suffering. It brings sorrow, confusion, anger, and fear before God while continuing to cling to His promises.
Sometimes the most faithful prayer is simply, “Lord, have mercy.”
The Church does not exist to offer shallow answers or religious clichés. We do not tell grieving people that everything happens for an easily identifiable reason. We do not suggest that greater faith would remove every illness or hardship. We sit with those who mourn. We listen. We pray. We bring meals. We visit the sick and homebound. We bear one another’s burdens. Most importantly, we speak the promises of Christ.
You Do Not Have to Suffer Alone
Christ gathers His people into a congregation so that no Christian must carry every burden alone. At Redeemer, pastoral care is not reserved only for emergencies. Your pastor is available to listen, pray, bring Holy Communion, offer private confession and absolution, visit during illness or hospitalization, and walk with you through grief, fear, guilt, family difficulties, and other burdens.
You do not need to have the right words before contacting us. You do not need to solve your problems first. You may come honestly, with your questions, tears, doubts, and fears.
The Church cannot promise an immediate end to every hardship. We can offer something better than a slogan. We can point you to Christ crucified and risen, proclaim His forgiveness, pray with you, and remain beside you in Christian love.
Christ Crucified and Risen, for You
Where is God in our suffering?
He is not absent. He is present in the crucified Christ, who entered our suffering and bore our sin. He is present in His Word and Sacraments, where He delivers the gifts He won upon the cross. He is present through His Church, where Christians are called to bear one another’s burdens. He is present with promises that remain true even when our feelings tell us otherwise.
The cross does not answer every question we may ask, but it tells us who God is and what He has done for us. He is the God who comes near, the God who has mercy, and the God who saves.
Christ crucified and risen, for you.
Pastoral Care
If you are grieving, ill, overwhelmed, burdened by guilt, facing a family crisis, or simply need someone to listen and pray with you, please contact Redeemer Lutheran Church. Pastor Johnson would be glad to speak with you confidentially and arrange a visit.
