Luke 4.31-37
Jesus [said]..."Come out of him!". When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm.
It is possible to come unharmed out of suffering because Jesus will always be master of the situation.
This seems actually impossible to me, that I could be changed by an experience of suffering without being harmed. That Jesus really is, or chooses to be, master of all the suffering in my life, in the lives of people I love. It is difficult, I suppose, not to take the hard lesson, the negative lesson, not to confront God with confusion, suspicion, anger. It's true that I sometimes don't understand why, if God really loves me, as 'master' of the situation, he doesn't protect me from all the ache.
But I suppose it is only the foolish tantrum of a child to say this. Like in Psalm 73 - 'When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.' Because neither does a small child understand why their parents won't let them stay up all night, eat only sweets and never vegetables, bang pots continually with a wooden spoon, play with matches. They don't understand the purpose of this apparently cruel treatment, but in retrospect it all makes sense. In retrospect they see that their parents were actually looking after them more carefully, more lovingly, than they could have looked after themselves. Because they are the joy of their parent's lives: the tenderest, most precious gifts their parents will ever be given, and that they long to protect.
This is true of my life. Or I hope it is. Jesus IS master of my life, of my suffering. And although I may suffer all kinds of insults, humiliations, bruises, pain, God cares for me more lovingly than I could possibly care for myself. And the important things will remain intact, will even be enhanced. My confidence in him. I hope this is true, that after all the questioning, all the fear and doubt and confusion there will be a perfect moment when it all will make sense. My life. The truth is, that even if I never get all of the things I want, or, in fact, any of the things I want, God will never leave my side and I would not part with his presence for anything.
God
I am definitely not master of my life. My weaknesses prevent that. It is such a relief to me that you are master of my life, of the situations that cause me pain. I'm glad that they are not meaningless, that you will not let them permanently harm me. You are close by. And you care for me so lovingly because you know what I need better than I know myself. I selfishly and impatiently seek to end my suffering. But you know when the right time will be. And then, at that moment, you will step in and demonstrate that you are master. I want it to be soon, but know it may not be. Please give me patience.
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1 comment:
I cannot acccept the view of Jesus or God as master because to me this is seeing God as the 'interventionist', and that is definitely no longer a workable definition of God for me. I was supposed to be reading about this issue last year and this year, and I did read just a little bit. I want to further explore the question 'why does god let bad things happen to good people'? If you view God as one who intervenes and brings good, you then either have to say he also causes the bad, or perhaps that God doesn't view it as bad, or that God is not all powerful, or... that God does not intervene and cause things to happen.
What do you think? I really haven't thought about these things at all deeply and don't have any arguments in reserve, but if I don't open up the topic with someone, I'll continue to be lazy intellectually and spiritually and then I'll never get anywhere.
By the way, this is jO. I'm not sure what it's going to show when I post this comment, so I thought I'd better clarify my identity.
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