Sárospataki Füzetek 21. (2017)
2017 / 2. szám - MISCELLANEOUS-SONSTIGES - Homoki Gyula: Where to look in suffering? A fictional round-table discussion with
Where to Look in Suffering? A Fictional Round-Table Discussion with J.B., J.C. and J.T. friends despise and disown us, Christ is not ashamed to receive us and call us his brothers. When men steal the inheritance of our parents, Christ acknowledges us as heirs of his Father and coheirs with him.. .”16 Look back! and Look to Christ! Another direction one shall look in in the hours of darkness is backward. Taffin dedicates quite some pages to demonstrate that suffering has always been the share of the true children of God. He recalls both Old and New Testament figures to illustrate that oppression and persecution took place in every age among the righteous. Starting from Abel murdered by Cain, through Israel’s slavery in Egypt and the exile in Babylonia, the brutal Antiochus, Herod and other tyrants always caused much suffering to the children of God. Job and David, Peter and Paul all suffered serious trials and horrors for their faith. Therefore, Taffin concludes that suffering and persecution, the oppression believers have to face is real evidence that they are the true church: “Only if the world were to love, honor, and welcome us would we have reason to doubt God’s Word as well as our election and adoption as his children.”17 Calvin suggests also another aspect of looking back. He is turning our attention not to the past warriors of faith and their suffering, but to our past sins and errors. He puts it like this: “Therefore, whenever we are afflicted we ought immediately to call to mind our past life. In this way, we will find that the faults which we have committed are deserving of such castigation.”18 However, he adds immediately that the reason for the troubles we had to face in the past is not that God would be cruel and enjoy giving punishment, but rather pedagogical: “that our most merciful Father requires not only to prevent our weakness, but often to correct our past faults, that he may keep us in due obedience”.19 Therefore, suffering can also serve as an educational instrument by which God cleanses us from sins and prevents us from future faults. However, the main reason that is worth looking back on is that we can see the story of the Calvary then, and the Precious Lord crowned with thorn, who accepted the suffering and became a partaker of our human experience in this way. However, in the thoughts of Calvin, the suffering of Christ and of humans are two distinct categories. While humans must suffer due to their disobedience, Christ had to suffer for he chose obedience.20 The troublesome earthly life of Christ started with the incarnation and had its lowest point at the cross. What the fate of Christ was on Earth is the fate of Christians as well: “Having begun this course with Christ the first-born, he [God, the Father] continues it towards all his children.”21 The whole concept 16 Taffin : The Marks of God's children, 116. 17 Taffin: The Marks of God's children, 86. 18 Calvin: Institutes, 111.8.6. 19 Ibid. 20 Theodore Minnema: Calvin's interpretation of human suffering, in David E. Holwerda (ed.): Exploring the Heritage of John Calvin, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House, 1976,150. 21 Calvin: Institutes, \\\.8A. 2017-2 Sárospataki Füzetek 21 139
