WHY?
Why? That’s everyone’s favorite question when it comes to the will of God. Why did the Lord allow this terrible thing to happen? Why did he let death take my family member? Why did he bring about this destructive catastrophe? Why did he sit back and watch me go through so much pain? Why did he find it necessary to wipe out almost an entire country? Why would a loving God seem so unloving at times? Why? We want to know the reason. We want an explanation. We want to somehow connect the dots so that this life and the horrible things that happen in it make some sort of sense. And it bothers us a little bit when we don’t get a satisfactory answer.
A 7.0 earthquake devastated the country of Haiti a month a half ago. It is estimated that well over 100,000 people died because of it and many more are still without food or water or electricity. And the question immediately asked by Christians and non-Christians alike was “Why? Why did God let this happen or even cause this mass destruction himself?” A few answers were attempted - some spiritual, some not - but any answer was just a guess. Recently an 8.8 earthquake struck Chile followed by a large tsunami and a 6.8 aftershock and then a 6.6 and then a 6.0. A few hundred people died in the quake and another 10,000 - 20,000 are now homeless. And again the question is asked: why? Suicide bombers in the Middle East, extreme poverty in Africa, physical persecution of Christians in China, thousands of babies legally aborted right here in this country every year … And we wonder, “Why, Lord? Why? Why do you let these things happen? Why do you allow your children to suffer? Why do you do things that seem to be contrary to the God you have shown yourself to be in your Word?”
And this is not just a question that has popped up in contemporary cultures. This one word inquiry of God’s will has been asked by his people for millennia. Christians have always wanted to see the blueprint behind the plan, and so when terrible things happened during Jesus’ day it was natural for his following to go to him for answers. One of the tragedies during that time had to do with the Roman government. Pontius Pilate had apparently been a little upset with a few Christians from Galilee and so he had them killed while they were offering sacrifices to the Lord. Around that same time a tower in Siloam fell and killed 18 people. And although these two tragedies were unrelated, the same question remained: why? And so the believers confronted Jesus with that very question hoping to get a satisfactory explanation.
Jesus gave them an answer, but it probably wasn’t the kind of answer they were looking for. And Jesus gives us the same answer to our “why” questions too - even though we are usually looking for something more. Because Christ’s answer here doesn’t get into the details. He doesn’t give us a bullet list of reasons that describe the specific intentions of the Lord for every person in every way in every situation. And that annoys us a little bit, doesn’t it! We are of the opinion in this world that if we can’t figure out why a person is doing something, if we can’t see the end goal, if we can’t understand the reason behind it, then it shouldn’t be done! If a parent asks a child why he/she is doing something, “because” is not a good enough answer. If a child asks a parent why a chore needs to be finished, “because I said so” does not put the child’s curiosity to rest because it doesn’t really answer their question. If “why” is asked in the business world, a financial goal better be in plain view or the plan will quickly be done away with. When “why” is asked about this world and the way things work in it, theories and best guesses and assumptions are made because “I don’t know” is an answer that is too unsettling to admit. We do not like to accept things without a convincing reason why. We want the proof; we don’t like to be left in the dark. Which really isn’t a bad thing until we begin to apply that way of thinking to what God does.
The Lord doesn’t need to run his plans by us for our approval. The Lord doesn’t need our advice, our insight, or our recommendations. The Lord doesn’t have to explain himself to us either. He doesn’t have to justify his actions to us nor is he obligated to give us enough information in Scripture so that we can understand it all. And because God has to answer to no one, we have no right to be frustrated with God when he doesn’t give us an answer we are satisfied with. We are not allowed to question his judgment, his will, or his power. We are not given the authority to determine whether or not he made a good or a bad decision. Because he is God and we are not. We are his creatures and he is the Creator. And so to demand an answer because we aren’t satisfied with what the Lord tells us in his Word is a very egotistical question to ask. Who are we to play supervisor to his decisions and demand an accounting from the Lord himself?
When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, he didn’t explain to him the reason why, he just told him to do it. When Satan ripped every earthly possession away from Job leaving him destitute and in severe physical pain, God never told Job why his life was disrupted, he just allowed it to happen. When the Christian church during the time of the apostles was persecuted so severely that believers had to run away from the capital city of the Promised Land, God didn’t sit them down and inform them why he was letting so many of his children be murdered, he simply permitted these things to continue and pointed the rest of the Christian church back to the promises of his Word. Rarely does God give specific rationale for his actions. Rarely does he gives us a detailed explanation of his plans. But he always gives us at least one reason why. And it is the same reason he gave to the followers in Luke 13.
When the followers of Jesus told him about the Galileans who had died at the hands of Pilate, Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." Why did the Lord allow some of his children to be martyred by Pilate and other people to be crushed by the tower in Siloam? Not because they were such horrible sinners and not because they needed to be punished, but God allowed those things to happen in order to bring people closer to him! He wanted others to see these events, confess their own sins, and turn back to Christ. Now, notice that Jesus doesn’t deal with the reason for allowing these specific people to die or why he decided that they should die in these specific ways; he simply gives the reason why these events happened for the sake of others. He wanted to bring others closer to him. And this reason can be applied to every event that has ever happened in the history of this world.
Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? To bring Abraham closer to him by testing his faith. Why did God allow Satan to attack Job from every direction? To bring Job closer to him by strengthening his trust in the Lord’s love and his will. Why did God permit his new Christian church to be scattered from Jerusalem after Stephen’s death? To bring other people in other countries closer to him through the Christians who were forced to travel to those far away places. The Lord’s goal is always to bring people closer to him and his Word. And that’s exactly what he did through the things that happened to him personally while he was on this earth.
Many of his disciples and even his own brothers wondered why Jesus wouldn’t publically proclaim himself to the world through the incredible signs and miracles that they all knew he could do. The reason? People would not have been brought closer to the gospel in that way; it would have simply fed people’s greed for material blessings - as his miracles did on a number of occasions. At one point the apostle Peter critically questioned why Jesus would ever say that he would betrayed and suffer at the hands of the chief priests and elders. The reason? Because that was a way in which Jesus would bring people closer to him. And I’m sure all of the believers during the last few days of Jesus’ life were struggling with the reason why Jesus would allow himself to be arrested and tried and convicted and tortured and nailed to a cross when he could have easily prevented any of that from happening as he had done before. It wasn’t until after that fact that they figured out the reason why: that was the way in which Jesus would bring all people closer to himself. That was the way in which he would mend the relationship between sinful human beings and the perfect Father. That was the only way in which Jesus could forgive all of our sins and make it count. That was the greatest way he could show us the extent of his love.
And that’s really the reason why. When it gets right down to it, when a simple answer is needed for the reason why God does whatever he does in this life, the answer is this: Because he loves us. That is the reason behind everything that God allows, everything God creates, everything God does, and everything God decides. Because he loves us. There may very well be other specific reasons that fall under that broad category, but when it comes to God’s will with his children, you can be sure that everything he does he does because he loves you.
Why does God allow you to hurt? Because he loves you. Why does he allow you to suffer? Because he loves you. Why do you struggle or fail or lose? Because he loves you. Why don’t things work out the way you planned them? Because he loves you. Why don’t your prayers get answered with a “yes” even though they are good, godly, Christian prayers? Because he loves you. Why have you experienced the things you’ve experienced? Why have you seen the things you’ve seen? Why do you sometimes have to deal with sadness? Why are you sometimes suffocated by loneliness? Why do you sometimes feel overwhelmed? Because he loves you. God loves you and so whatever he lets you go through is meant to bring you closer to him in some way every time. It may be to remind you of your sinfulness like it was for those who witnessed Pilate’s persecutions and the tragedy of the tower in Siloam. It may be to remind you of your weaknesses so that you will trust in God’s strength and not your own. It may be to remind you of your blessings so that you thank your Lord for everything he has given you. It may be to keep you humble. It may be to give you comfort. It may be to supply you with peace. In any case, whatever God does in this world and whatever God allows in your life is because he loves you.
How do some things work out according to his love? “How” is another question - another question that God doesn’t always reveal a detailed answer to either. But the “how” shouldn’t bother us if we know the “why.” Because the fact of the matter is: there will be things that happen in this life that are ugly and unpleasant and downright painful. And we won’t always know how they will be worked out for our good. But we do know the reason why God lets them happen: because he loves us. Why would we need a better answer than that?
Amen.
“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” - Romans 11:33,36
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment