“The history of our world is the history of our suffering together. Every act of evil extracts a tear from God, every plunge into anguish extracts a sob from God. But the history of our world is the history of our deliverance together. God’s work to release himself from his suffering is his work to deliver the world from its agony; our struggle for joy and justice is our struggle to relieve God’s sorrow. When God’s cup of suffering is full, our world’s redemption is fulfilled. Until justice and peace embrace, God’s dance of joy is delayed (91).”
Our God cries when children die.
The above quote captures this brilliantly on a day when unthinkable tragedy has taken place. It may be the most profound statement on suffering that I have ever read.
For those of us who recognize YHWH as fully revealed in Jesus Christ as one who meets humanity in their suffering, who experiences the full wrath of the powers of evil with us; his anguish reminds us of our coming deliverance. Rather than claiming, this was God’s will or God knows best or God has a plan for everything; Nicholas Wolterstorff, the author of Lament for a Son, rightly reminds us of a God who is trulywith us and is opposed to evil.
The world of Wolterstorff is a world that we are all well acquainted with on this painful day of violence in Connecticut. This is a world of loss. A world of instability. Today we grieve in light of such a world where a troubled young man can get to the point where he willfully murders children and educators.
Yet, we followers of Jesus believe that this is also a world filled with the hope that all things in creation will be set right at the return of Christ. “When the writer of Revelation spoke of the coming of the day of shalom, he did not say that on that day we would live at peace with death. He said that on that day ‘there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (63). This tension gives us hope, but if we are not careful, can give us a way to gloss over legitimate grief.
Until the day when “all things will be made new, ” Wolterstorff reminds us that death is not beautiful or a reality to be hyper-spiritualized to ignore the reality of its sting; “death is awful, demonic” (34). Scripture makes clear that the “…last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15.26). It is a power that brings grief, which makes the reality of today less fulfilled. To give easy answers to those who grieve would be to water down biblical theology and to offer “…ways of not looking death and pain in the face, ways of turning away from death out there to one’s own inner ‘grief process’ and then, on that, laying on the heavy hand of rationality” (54).
When we, as the body of Christ, care for our grieving sisters and brothers, we must not turn to simple fixes offered in self-help books or answers emerging from such philosophies; rather, we have the opportunity to help others find joy amidst the demonic pain of death. We can guide others to not ignore the evil of death, but to also honor the memory of those who have been lost by living in light of their life – which was stolen from them.
As we lament the loss of these precious 20 children and several adults, may we refuse to offer easy answers. As we pray, console, question, and cry, we are invited to throw our whole selves into the loving arms of a Father who feels our pain in solidarity with us. Remember these simple but truthful words: “Every act of evil extracts a tear from God.”
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Kurt Willems (M.Div., Fresno Pacific) is an Anabaptist writer preparing for a church planting project with the Brethren in Christ. He writes at: the Pangea Blog and is also on Twitter and Facebook.
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Newtown Bee, Shannon Hicks