I know that my Saviour lives!

[AI translation] A famous sufferer, the biblical old Job, said these words once upon a time. One after another the terrible plagues fell upon him. First he lost his fortune, then he lost all his children, sons and daughters, all at once, and then his health. A man who once lived in prosperity, happiness, joy, is now in physical and mental agony, writhing in the tomb under the burdens that fall upon him. Surrounded by friends, they try to comfort him, to make sense of his great suffering - all in vain. When all human explanations, all human goodwill and consolation have failed, the great realisation finally breaks from Job's soul: 'I know that my Saviour lives!' In the light of this and of the Word we have just read, I would like to talk now about the only true consolation in the fire of human suffering.For suffering is and always will be as long as man lives in the world.There are people who suffer from illness, who, because of physical pain or because of the need to take time out of their daily lives, have a very difficult time spiritually during their illness. Death brings more suffering than sickness: the pain of grief makes the soul almost collapse, not knowing how to go on with life.- Then there is the suffering of an unhappy marriage, family unrest, or a lack of satisfaction, recognition or difficult working conditions. Almost every person has some secret thorn in the side of their soul that hurts to prick. In fact, the problem of any suffering is always the same: what is the meaning of this suffering? In fact, I would say that what makes physical or mental pain suffering in the first place is precisely the question: what is the point? This is the real sting of suffering. Those who suffer usually suffer under the nagging question, WHY? Because if one has in any way discovered the meaning behind one's suffering, one can already rest in it and accept it. But it's hard to get to that point. "There is always a message in suffering, and that's what keeps you busy. That is what keeps him going, that he feels that suffering is speaking to his soul, to his innermost self, but he does not understand what it is saying. The suffering man stares into the void with wide, silent eyes, as if searching for what lies behind the painful event: a demonic force, or God, or mere chance? And he sees nothing but the painful question mark over and over again, WHY? Oh, it is difficult to say anything here! To talk about God! Because one feels as if one's communion with God has been broken by the very thing that is making one suffer! He feels as if he had been disappointed in divine power, love, providence! Yes, this is the problem, the question, and what is the answer?
Kind-hearted people surround the sufferer and try to comfort him, like Job's friends. They try to alleviate the suffering by trying to bring out the little ray of sunshine that can be found even in that sad event. Who knows how much suffering God has spared him? How good that he did not die suddenly, you can say goodbye to him! Or: He had a good, useful, long life, and his mission on earth is over. Or: how good that you still have a life partner or another child worth living for! Or: in the end it could have been so much worse, it's lucky that it happened the way it did! And so on! Such consolation, even if there is some truth in it, is ultimately very poor consolation for the suffering soul. It doesn't help it, it even irritates it, it hurts it, because it tries to bypass the real problem! Likewise, the kind encouragement that comes from the suffering soul when he hears it from someone else is worth very little: Pull yourself together, do not abandon yourself! Well, the problem is, what makes you strong? These empty words are like saying to a seriously ill person: don't be ill! Until one has worked through the suffering spiritually, one cannot pull oneself together! All his thoughts and feelings will end up in a big mess of nonsense. What is the sense of it all?
In search of the meaning of suffering, the soul gropes in two directions. One is to see God's punishment behind the suffering. Our Word also speaks of the Lord's rebuke, scourging, chastisement, reproof. He feels God's punishment on him for his suffering, for his sins, or for some special sin! Our Word also says. So, obviously, God is preparing him for something through suffering, training him, binding him more closely to himself, to his life, to his heart, to his soul! This was the way his friends wanted to comfort Job, who was in agony. Three of them wanted to prove, to explain that he was suffering the penalty of some sin. The fourth spoke to him of the educative purpose of God's love shown in suffering. But Job was burdened with the comfort of all four friends. He could not believe the flat, cheap, ready-made theories of his friends; he could not believe in the punishing or educating God of whom his comforters spoke. The great mystery, the meaning of suffering, was not revealed to him by any of them!
First of all, let us observe that the Bible, the written revelation of God, knows suffering, knows about it. There is no other book in the world that presents suffering, injustice and all that is terrible in life on earth as realistically and unvarnishedly as the Bible does. There are many times in the Bible about people crying out up and down: But the most important is, as Jesus Christ points out, Who bore sufferings like no other, and Who, under the question of the meaning of suffering, broke down like no other when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" So also on His divine lips was uttered the agonizing WHY? And in this the miracle happens that God not only knows our suffering, but takes it on. He Himself, personally, enters into the depths of our suffering and searches for meaning! And this miracle, God's personal involvement in human suffering: is redemption for us! The suffering of pain and the agonizing questions is already made alive when I know that God is drawing near to me with His love, that the dark chasm of suffering separating me from Him is being bridged by Himself with His nearness, His solidarity, His acceptance of suffering; - when I know that death, of which all suffering is the harbinger, has already been conquered by His resurrection. Yes: that risen Christ, who died in terrible agony for our sins, is the Saviour Himself: the answer, the answer of God to our questions, our whys, our complaints, our groans,
He is our only consolation in life and death! God's answer to our question of the meaning of our suffering is not some beautiful theory, some theory that explains it, - nor is it a magic wand with which He turns it into joy, but the cross of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Himself, Who takes our suffering upon Himself. The fact that God in Jesus Christ Himself entered into suffering and conquered it by His resurrection, and that thus my literal comrade, my brother, my blood relative, God became the suffering man: this fact takes away the sting of suffering! We are not looking for a divine explanation for our suffering, but for God Himself, because He does not give light in the darkness of suffering by theory, but by His personal presence: that is, by the person and in the person of Jesus Christ. Job was not satisfied with all the pious explanations, only when he knew that God, his Saviour, his Redeemer, was alive, was he able to come to terms with his sad situation. Nothing changed in his outward situation, in his condition, yet it was as if a heavy stone fell from his soul when he cried out, "I know that my Saviour liveth!" I know, and not: I see, - not: I feel, - not: I experience, but I know! In spite of all appearances, feelings and experiences: I know! He, He alone, is the consolation in all suffering, and He, He alone, is the power to endure all suffering! Thus He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." I comfort you, I strengthen you, says Jesus to the suffering man, not time, not fine words, not wise explanations and theories - I alone, even in suffering, am your brother, your guide, your companion, your Saviour, your God.
Then, in the presence of the living Saviour, the suffering that was meaningless before is suddenly illuminated with heavenly light! That is why the apostle says: "Let us look to Jesus, the Prince and Finisher of faith, who, instead of the joy that was set before Him, He suffered the cross, not caring about the shame." So the exhortation to "pull yourself together, be strong" is no longer without foundation. Thus suffering has now lost its frightening dark depth. Looking to Jesus, the Prince of Faith, it is now a very different thing to see what we had just felt to be such a meagre consolation, namely, God's punishment in that suffering! For if I know that my Saviour, who suffered on the cross, is alive, I know that I am a sinner, and as such worthy of God's wrath! And then the suffering is transformed into a great, grateful humility, into the conviction that I deserve so much more! The real punishment of my sin has already been suffered by my Saviour! My suffering is only a reminder of what he suffered for me! Then it is true, at last, that the rod, whose smiting can be so painful, is in the hands of a Fatherly God who loves infinitely! So in suffering, God's educating love comes to the fore! That is why a friend of mine who suffered a lot could say, "I give thanks for it, it took God to crush me like a mortar, because now I see that He only crushed my pride!" This man has already experienced what the apostle says: "Though any chastening at present seem not joyful, but bitter, yet afterward it will be paid with the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." (Heb 12:11)
It is true that when one receives God into his pains and allows Him to have them, God turns what would have been meaningless suffering into spiritual gain. A better man, a more humane man, a truer man, comes out of his sufferings.
So, to sum up what has been said: the great why of suffering is made clear in the living presence of the person of Jesus Christ, in such a way that, with a fully reconciled heart, we can even give thanks for it!
Amen
Date: 18 March 1956.