Two Views of Suffering
Eternal and existential questions emerge in disastrous times. Why are we suffering? How can we deal with suffering? What does suffering mean?
As the world deals with the inevitable penetrating spread of the evil Coronavirus, Suffering is viewed differently within all religions, and it is important to know that difference since every religion and every worldview must explain the world as it is.
A fundamental tenet of Buddhism, e.g., is that life is suffering. As creatures of desire, we attach ourselves and cling to things such as things, health, youth, love, and even life itself. Thus, Buddhism teaches us we can only escape suffering by letting go of our desires and attachments.
Not only does this deny any real distinction between what is good and what is evil—such as health and sickness, love and loneliness, or even life and death—it denies two things Christianity affirms: The goodness of creation and the possibility that the outcome will be, as the apostle Paul put it, set free from all corruption.
While many Westerners work and play with a sort of pop Buddhism, the secular view of Suffering is still far more common. In that view, Suffering is real and we dislike it, but we do not have a foundation to make proper sense of it. Suffering interrupts our pleasure and happiness, but in a world without purpose or design, we cannot say that it is wrong or should not be.
We believe in preventing illness and calamity, as well as specific hardships as if we are entitled to be free from suffering or any form of unhappiness. As once said the cosmos is indifference personified However Dr. John Lennox pointed out, Suffering is utterly meaningless for a staunch atheist. It is not good or not bad. It happens.
Unlike Buddhism, Christianity doesn’t deny the objective goodness of the world, the objective nature of our Suffering, or the objective restoration potential. In 1 Corinthians 15, the author refers to death as "the last enemy" that Christ will destroy upon His return.
The author of the book of Hebrews in the Bible referred to the fear of death as a form of enslavement for men and women. Most of all, Jesus seemed to identify human suffering as something He literally felt in His inner and outer man, i.e., in himself. He entered the Suffering of others, such as the grieving sisters of Lazarus in John 11, and He prayed to avoid suffering Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The Bible is clear, as is the example of Jesus, that Suffering is bad and avoiding it isn’t possible. At the same time, Suffering is not seen as meaningless (unlike in secular life and atheism). On both the personal and cosmic levels, suffering points to the realities of higher truths and more significant goods, but is ultimately not the end of the cosmos.
The Eternal One through whom all things were made drank from the same cup of Suffering and death as all of us. The author of Hebrews says that He “tasted death for everyone.” And yet, rising from the grave three days later, Christ shows us that while suffering and death are real, they do not have the last word.
As John Lennox writes, a Christian “is not a person who has solved the problem of suffering, but one who loves and trusts the God who has suffered for them.” Christianity teaches neither resignation to Suffering nor detachment from the world. Christianity neither denies the realities of Suffering nor gives it more than its due. Therefore, Christianity alone offers a basis for hope, a true and firm anchor for the soul.
