"-- If God is all he`s cracked up to be, then why do bad things happen? That is one of the most frequently asked questions, and it is one reason that a lot of people give for why they are not Christians. The question isn`t just theological. For all of us, it is deeply personal, because all of us at one point or another suffer in some way. Some of you have had horrible things happen to you -- parents who have abused you, disease that has ravaged your life - not to mention the more daily forms of pain like jobs that are unfulfilling, marriages that go south, loneliness, and boredom. As a pastor, one of the questions I get asked a lot is "If God loves me, why does this happen?" Well, I`m going to give you a theological answer, and then I`m going to give you the real answer "the answer that the person of Jesus gives us.

-- First the theological answer. The theological answer is that most suffering is caused by human beings making sinful choices. God didn`t want to make us robots, so he gave us free will, and we have misused that. Wars, famines, heartbreak, violence all are a result of our collective sinful choices. Now, suffering is not punishment for sin, but it is the consequence we all reap from our collective choices. Of course that doesn`t explain suffering that comes from natural phenomenon like tsunamis or cancer. Humans don`t cause those. Again, the theological answer for that is that when we rebelled against God all of nature went with us. Somehow, that opened the door for all kinds of evil to enter the world that God never intended to be there. Theologians have explained it in a couple of different ways. We used to live in paradise with God, surrounded by his protection, but when we left him, when we abandoned him, we also abandoned that protection. The result is we live in a fallen world that is hostile to us. Or, perhaps before we rebelled against God, our bodies were more perfect -- immune to destruction and disease. But because what happens in our souls affects our bodies ''a truth modern medicine confirms -- if I worry too much I might have a heart attack or have an ulcer'', because what happens in our souls affects our bodies - when we corrupted our souls by running away from God, who is the source of wholeness, we corrupted our bodies as well. And our once perfect, invincible bodies became weaker - now our genes don`t work right and our bodies are vulnerable, and so we get disease and we get hurt and we die. Suffering is not a PUNISHMENT for sin, so hear me clearly; if you are suffering right now it is not because God is mad at you. Suffering is the natural result of our collective sinful choices. Those are the theological answers to the problem of suffering, and they`re pretty good, as far as theological answers go. They are at least as good as any other. Atheism doesn`t have a better answer for why people suffer " they just do" other religions don`t offer a better solution. Suffering is either because you deserve it because of something you did in this life or another life ''which really depresses me; I`ve got enough trouble with my current life, let alone worry about something I did back in 1850'', or it`s just an illusion that we need to escape ''which doesn`t work for me either, because when I`m in pain it doesn`t feel like an illusion''. So the Christian theological answers are at least as good as, and maybe a tad bit better than, any other answer.

-- But let me ask you this: Do they help? Do you feel better knowing them? Do you feel like this sermon could end right now? ''And I know some of you are saying, "Yes, Lord Jesus come quickly! Deliver us from evil."'' Would you feel like you had gotten the whole answer? Not to mention getting out early for lunch. For me, when I am in pain, when I am suffering, I want a different kind of answer than that. I want something more personal. And this is where Jesus is so different. Not Christian theology, but the person of Jesus Christ, offers a couple of unique responses to suffering that no other religion or philosophy offers.

The first is Jesus shows us that:

1) God suffers with us. Whatever we want to say about suffering "if Christianity is true "then God, the one being in the universe that did not have to suffer, chose to because he loves us. Jesus is God in the flesh, and look at his life. He was poor; his friends abandoned him; he was considered a failure; and he died one of the most painful deaths ever devised by human beings. Whatever we say about suffering "Jesus, God in the flesh "shows us that we have a God who suffers with us, and there is no other God in any religion that has that much guts. That is one of the top five reasons why I am a Christian, because what am I supposed to do with all those other Gods that remain up there somewhere blissfully unencumbered by the problems I face every day? I will choose the God who chooses to suffer with and for me every time, because that`s the God who loves me. It`s not a complete answer, but it means I`m not alone.

-- It`s like Job in the Bible, if you remember the story. Job`s kids all die; he loses all his money; he gets sores all over his body, and all of his friends say, "You must have done something terrible to deserve this." ''Helpful.''. And his wife is no help at all; at one point she says, "Why don`t you just curse God and die?" ''Supportive, right?''. It seems that one of Job`s curses was that he lost everything except for the wife and the friends.'' But in the middle of his agony Job asks God: "Do you have eyes of flesh? Can you see as a human being sees?" In other words, do you get how hard this is God? And the answer that Jesus on the cross gives us is, "Yes, I do. I get it, and I`m here." We have a God who doesn`t explain suffering; he joins us in it, and gives us the strength to get through it. And that`s good, but it wouldn`t be good enough if that`s where it ended, because that would still be kind of depressing.

Which is why the second thing that Jesus shows us is:

2) God uses suffering for good. That`s what Jesus is saying in the passage we just read about the man who is blind and receives his sight. The disciples say, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Kind of a gossipy question, right? And Jesus says, "Nobody; he is blind so that the glory of God can be revealed." In other words, don`t even worry about the causes of suffering; nobody has a good answer for that. The real issue is not why, but for what? What can God do with this?" In our culture we are disturbed by suffering because we think it has no redemptive value at all, so we think it is the worst thing in the world. In our culture the number one goal in life is to be happy. I am totally guilty of this. I am a suffering wimp, which is bad because the smallest things make me think I`m suffering. I have this great life, I get to be pastor of this great church, and I get to live in this beautiful city. You can see why I`m miserable, right? The smallest things set me off: "We`re out of margarine; I can`t go on under these conditions! I am not happy at the moment." But as I`ve told you before, God is not into happiness; he`s into making us whole. What scripture says is that God can use suffering to make us whole. For one thing, suffering can deepen and refine our character. Have you ever met someone who has NEVER suffered at all, ever? Sometimes they can be kind of shallow people. It takes some hurts to make us human.

-- God can also use our suffering to help other people. People who have gone through cancer have a ministry to cancer patients. God used my divorce for a lot of good things. It taught me to be less arrogant; it taught me to be more compassionate. He used it to get me into ministry. He didn`t cause it, he didn`t like it, but he used it. God turns suffering around and uses it for good. Again, only Jesus does this, and the place we see it is at the cross. This terrible thing; we crucified our creator, but God turns it 180 degrees around and makes it the best thing that ever happened, by using it to forgive our sins and reconcile us to himself. The person of Jesus, particularly Jesus on the cross, shows us that God uses suffering for good. But it gets even better than that, because not only does Jesus show us that God suffers with us, and not only does he show us that God uses suffering for good, Jesus shows us that:

3) God will eventually put an end to suffering. For Jesus the cross was not the end of the story. His resurrection three days later was. What that shows us is that whatever suffering we endure, it is not permanent. We are destined for a better place. Revelation 21 says that God himself will wipe away every tear, and he will be our God, and we will be his people. All this pain and suffering will be just a memory and we will be with God forever. We will have eternity to ask God, "Hey God, why did bad things happen to good people?" I`m sure he`s going to have a great answer. As a friend of mine says, the most commonly heard sound in heaven will be, "Oooohhh, that`s why." Jesus shows us that God is with us in our suffering, that he will bring good out of it, and that he will bring it to an end.