Magyar Egyház, 1975 (54. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-11-01 / 11. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 7 MAGYAR CHURCH THE HARDEST QUESTION HUMANS ASK “And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this’” (Matthew 13:27-28). “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:31- 32). What is the hardest question human beings ask? It is the question: “Why do people suffer?” When this question is asked, the questioner obviously means, “Why do good people suffer?” It is wholesome to ask this question, and to ask it not in the hushed tones which are often used in a funeral home. It is good to try to find an answer, however tentative, however inadequate, when the sun of health and well-being is shining, and not when sorrow strikes, or pain lacerates body and mind. One answer which commends itself to a Christian believer — to one who trusts that at the heart of all existence and around, beyond, and within us is holy, righteous, compassionate Love — is found in the words of the householder in Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares. Hear now the story told by Jesus in Today’s English Version: “Jesus told them another parable: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up. The man’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?” “It was some enemy who did this,” he answered’” (Matthew 13:24-28). Unmerited suffering is here. Pain is one of life’s realities. To live is to suffer at times. Jesus accepted this as a fact. “In the world (in your life) you have tribulation” (John 16:33). Paul said we should take our share of hardship. Hardship, suffering, and pain are realities of life on this planet. One man put it this way: “One day cancer strikes; one day a plane crashes; one day a foot slips off a ladder; one day a child opens a medicine bottle; one day a father gasps in the sudden pain of a heart attack; one day a mother dies and leaves a young family.... And through them all the same questions run: How and why and who? God? The devil? Chance? ‘What shall we say to this?’ cries Paul, facing as every age and every man faces, the same problem of human pain and suffering and the mystery of its origin and meaning.... Beyond the personal disasters and tragedies there are the impersonal. An earthquake shatters a city and hundreds, young and old, lie dead in the ruins; a volcano erupts and snuffs out with its hot breath a whole valley, man and beast and leaf; a tidal wave surges in silently from the sea and sweeps its helpless victims away; a hurricane slams into the coast and leaves a swath of destruction and death; an epidemic decimates a whole community, leaving tears and bitterness. .. . Why? How? Who? God? Fate? Nature? Is there any purpose of any meaning? Is there any comfort? What then shall we say to these things?” We must quickly acknowledge that there is no completely satisfactory explanation, no completely adequate solution to this age-old worldwide problem. As Christians we must say, “An enemy has done this.” What enemy? Evil. Certainly not God, although he is frequently blamed for our suffering, our defeats, our pain. “What did I do that God would send this to me?” persons still ask in their agony. “Why did God do this to me? Why did God allow this to happen?” For the Christian, or for the Jewish believer in God, in fact for any religious person, the problem is more acute. Not only in our personal and family lives does suffering and trouble come; the world is full of it. What shall we say to these things? This, at least: God has not willed it. It is really blasphemous to attribute suffering and pain to the God and Father of us all, the God and Father of Jesus Christ. In James Agee’s novel A Death in the Family, the young husband is killed in a senseless one-car accident. A little bolt came loose and the car swerved off the highway. Later, when the young widow’s brother
