1 Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? First Church (6-10-12) Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 Michael T. Powers 2 nd Message in series YOU ASKED FOR IT This morning, we will consider another concern that a member requested as a sermon topic for our YOUR ASKED FOR IT series this summer: Why do bad things happen to good people? How can people believe in God when there is so much pointless evil and suffering in the world? As Christian believers we believe that God is good, supremely good, all the time, and that God is all-powerful, the Creator and Sustainer of the world. We teach our children to pray a simple prayer, God is great. God is good, and yet the world is full of danger, disease, injustice, calamities,death and evil. We have a problem of evil in this world that we really want to be good. Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung declared that the problem of evil is the rock of atheism. We can think of evil in two ways: physical evil and moral evil. Hundreds of innocent persons are being massacred in Syria and the Sudan. Thousands of children die by malnutrition in overpopulated, underdeveloped countries around the world and even in our own communities. A loved one is diagnosed with incurable cancer, but this person has never smoked, and there is no record of cancer victims in the family. Twins are born congenitally, sharing one set of vital organs, and the parents must decide which child should live. An athlete who trains for years to compete in the Olympics bounds into the air as he has hundreds of times before but this time, he miscalculates his spin, crashes to the floor and sustains a severe blow to his head. Today, rather than being an Olympic champion, he is a quadriplegic. No wonder skeptics look at the world situation and refuse to believe in a loving and caring God who is capable of doing anything about all this. The problem of physical evil how can we explain all that? Then, there is moral evil. Over six million Jews were tortured and executed because of the madness of a leader to exterminate an entire race from the face of the earth. An unprincipled investment counselor embezzles millions of dollars from his clients, resulting in the loss of retirement plans for which many had worked their entire lives. To punish a six year
2 old for wetting the bed, an abusive father beat him into unconsciousness and ultimately death. Moral evil the intentional, destructive, negative attitudes and actions of human beings. In our comfortable middle-to-upper class lifestyles, we do not like to think about such horrible events. We live well. We are safe, comfortable, rather satisfied or at least able to take care of ourselves as we wish or prefer. The problem of evil and suffering is not something we choose to consider. The German theologian Helumut Thielicke said that American Christians have an inadequate view of suffering. Of course, that is a generalization because many in this country as well as this congregation have experienced tremendous pain and hurt. As a whole, however, we have difficulty understanding the weight of evil and suffering until they hit home. Until 9/11, we thought terrorism was a problem in other parts of the world. You have heard me refer to the Fonz from a favorite episode from Happy Days when he was not having a very happy day, looked up to heaven and said, Hey and I thought I was your favorite. Admit it have we not thought that as well? When bad things happen to us who are trying to be good people, we wonder why God is picking on us. We thought you were on our side! Reconciling faith in an all-loving, all-powerful God in light of the tremendous amount of pain and suffering in the world is one of humankind s oldest and most perplexing problems. Why does God allow such things to happen? Why do the innocent suffer and evil prevail? The other side of this question is just as perplexing, isn t it? Why do good things happen to bad people? Have you read the book of Job recently? These questions are at the heart of that ancient text, a story many believe is the oldest in the Hebrew Bible. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 22, God, my God! Why did you dump me miles from nowhere? Doubled up with pain, I call to God all the day long. No answer. Nothing. Are you indifferent, above it all? Those are honest feelings expressed in painful moments of despair, fear and confusion. Theologians have created a word for this problem of evil and faith: theodicy. Throughout the centuries the greatest religious and secular thinkers have tried to provide adequate explanations for the problem of evil on two fronts: the rational and the practical. One the rational side, philosophers have attempted to explain why God allows evil and suffering in the world. On the practical side, others have attempted to provide comfort to those who experience injustice, pain and loss. Words of comfort and encouragement can seem
3 very empty, very inadequate in the midst of those painful moments, especially if there is no attempt to understand why. We want to know why, so we wrestle with this question and seek to find out whatever answers we can. Pat answers we do not want, especially when we are in the midst of hurt, pain and suffering. Three of the most common pat answers to the problem of evil and suffering include: 1. Evil is always the direct result of human failure. After all, the argument goes, one reaps what one sows. This was the consistent theme of the four so-called friends of Job as they tried to straighten out his thinking: Surely you sinned somehow or all this would not have happened to you! If something bad happens to someone, have you noticed how often people try to find a reason for it? Surely, someone caused this and has to be blamed. Response: Yes, there surely are consequences for bad decisions and actions, but that cannot explain why bad things happen to good people nor does it explain why good things happen to bad people. 2. It is God s will. We hear this or say it in a variety of ways: It was his time to go. His number was up. We have to accept that this was the way it was meant to be. God has a purpose that we do not understand. Heaven needed another angel. You have heard this from seemingly well-intentioned people who are trying to find some explanation in the midst of a great mystery of life. Response: Yes, there is great mystery about the sovereignty, omnipotence and omniscience of God all powerful and all knowing. Also, let s be honest: all things do NOT always work together for good. Some things do not work at all, and things can only get worse. If things always worked out for good regardless of who was involved, there would be no freedom or responsibility on our part. We d only have to sit back and wait for the good stuff to happen. 3. Evil is the result of demonic activity which is extremely influential in our thoughts and actions. By the way, this thought pre-dates George Lucas and the Force battling the Dark Side. People have long had the idea that suffering is the result of an evil cosmic plan that is in competition with the good, and for Christians, God s good plan. Some of you will remember the comedian Flip Wilson describing Geraldine s shopping trip. She came home with a very expensive dress one day. How could you spend so much
4 money on one dress? he asked her. She responded, The devil made me do it! Well, why didn t you say, Get behind me, Satan? Geraldine explained, I did say that, and the devil said the dress looked real good from that angle, too. Response: Yes, we have an enemy of our soul, spiritual adversaries who tempt and try us away from what is good and right and true, but we must not/cannot live as victims or with the paranoia of demons behind every bush. While Sherry was working on her PhT degree (Putting Hubby Through) during my seminary studies, she worked in a doctor s office. There was a sign on her desk that read, Some people have practiced being victims so long they had gotten really good at it. By God s grace, we are better and stronger than that. In spite of such futile attempts to explain evil and suffering, we can hold fast to some helpful insights from Scripture. On one occasion found in John 9, Jesus was confronted with this very issue. The situation was a man born blind, so the question was asked of Jesus, Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, causing him to be blind? Jesus answered, You are asking the wrong question. You are looking for someone to blame. There is no cause-and-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. In this situation, Jesus was dealing with the practical, the WHAT, rather than the rational, the WHY. On another occasion, described in Luke 13, Jesus used two current events to describe the fact that tragedies happened to Jews AND Gentiles (in the minds of many, the Good Guys AND the Bad Guys). Suffering, whether by the hand of Pilate or by the collapse of a tower, was no respecter of persons. One group of victims was not judged to be worse or better than the other. In our lesson this morning from Matthew 13, Jesus told the parable of the wheat and the thistles (tares for the KJV readers). Wheat is sown by the farmer, and the thistles were sown by someone else. According to Jesus own interpretation, the Son of Man is the farmer who sows the wheat, intending good things as a result. However, the evil, bad, tragic, undesirable things (thistles) came from another source, NOT God, NOT the Son of Man. God did not PLAN for the thistles to be there, but they made their way into the wheat field anyway. Rather than rooting out all the thistles and possibly affecting the wheat as well, the farmer (i.e., God) chose to allow both to exist for the time being.
5 Let me point out three things from this parable that will help us with the problem of evil. FIRST, the world is not a perfect situation. This parable is rather matter of fact about this point wheat and thistles will both be found in the garden. Don t be surprised or alarmed at that. Disappointed, sure. Discouraged, at times. But don t panic. This is the way the world is. We live in a world that operates on the basis of a natural order/a system of physical laws. That means this world continues to exist according to some relatively stable laws. Normally, the laws of nature provide the conditions for the many good things we enjoy in life: rain, sunshine, wind, snow, heat, etc. Laws of gravity and friction help us to stay on the ground and walk around as we will. A greater understanding of the laws of aerodynamics in the past 125 years (out of how many years of human history??) has made air travel a marvelous experience. The natural laws of our emotions and psyche allow us to experience pleasure and joy. However, these very same laws by which we enjoy so many good things in this world can also hurt us: floods, droughts, tornadoes, blizzards. The law of gravity allows objects like a jumbo jet fall and crash into the earth. Emotional discouragement can cause depression. Getting bigger is a delight to a child; getting older and more feeble is a bummer to an adult. The natural order cannot be altered to prevent evils without removing the natural goods. The rains will fall on the just and unjust, believers and non-believers. Wheat and weeds both are in the garden, do don t be surprised. This is a very good what a wonderful world, as Satchmo sang but it is not perfect. SECOND, Christians are not called to be weed-eaters. When I was pastor at Harrodsburg, I went into a store and told the owner, I would like to buy a weed-eater. He had this very unhappy look on his face when he looked at me, and then said very directly, bluntly, unmistakably clear, Trimmer. They are called trimmers. It trims grass. We do not sell Weed-eaters here. We sell trimmers. My first thought was to say, Well, excuuuuuuse me! but I got the point, and bought a Stihl trimmer which was NOT a weed-eater.
6 The first thing the servants in this parable wanted to do when they recognized the thistles growing in the garden was to clear them out, deal with them, take care of business, make everything right and proper. When problems and problem people come our way, our first tendency is usually the same: surprise, disappointment, and THEN anger. We want to take charge, right the wrongs, straighten things out, get it all right on OUR terms. In other words, we want to get things under our control. Jesus advice is rather disappointing in itself: Don t bother. It s not your problem. Rather, he said, Keep cultivating the good stuff, even in the midst of the bad, disturbing, troubling stuff. Trust that God will have everything in good order at the end of the day. You are not called to be weed-eaters or trimmers. God is God, you are not, so you need to leave some things for God to handle. THIRD, evil will not overcome good. This is so important to hear especially in the midst of pain, suffering and evil. At times, it seems that evil, pain, hardship, and suffering will have the last word that faith and hope simply are empty and meaningless. We wonder, What s the use? Like the Psalmist, we cry out, My God, are you indifferent about all this? Like looking at your garden or your lawn, and all you see is weeds. A pastor tells the story of calling a lawn service to take care of his yard, only to be rejected because it was in such bad shape. Think about that that is a hard word for someone who cares for his yard Sorry, your lawn is hopeless. One member of his church offered to totally remove his old lawn and start a new one, something he was seriously considering. Makes sense, doesn t it? Then, a farmer friend offered him some advice: Don t worry so much about getting rid of the weeds. Just grow grass, and the grass will inevitably take care of the weeds. Growing the good stuff eventually overcame the bad stuff. Friends, I believe that is the caring word of encouragement Jesus meant for us to receive from this parable this morning. Through the good and the bad experiences of life, God is intent on creating a people of faith and hope and love. Some believe that God could have created people with tendencies to always make right choices, a world void of problems and fears and pain and suffering, and thus avert immoral, evil decisions. However, right and wrong would never be an issue if we were never given the choice. How would we know what a good decision is if we were never given the choice? This marvelous, mysterious gift of free will allows
7 us to become better by God s grace or bitter by ignoring God s grace. Here s a thought for the day: God has limited himself in making us free. Goodness or love or faith that is forced as the only decision is not true love or faith or good. God calls us to continue on, trusting in his faithful love, believing that the weeds will NOT choke out the wheat, that evil will NOT have the last word, that even though in this world we will have tribulations and trials and tragedies, we are confident that when all is said and done, through Christ, we can overcome all the hurt and pain. So, let s be very, very careful NOT to offer glib, pat answers to some of the most tender mysteries of life, including why bad things happen to good people. Some things we simply do not understand. Maybe we will some day, but that is not for us to demand or even expect. On the other hand, we can say that God is intimately aware of our pains and suffering. Rabbi Harold Kushner makes this point in his best-selling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, first published in 1983, as he described the presence of God as he grieved the death of his young son. As Christians, we believe that as we look to Jesus Christ, we see God who reveals love, compassion, healing, hope and a future. I have no simple answer for you this morning, my friends, but I offer you Christ who will never leave you nor forsake you through all the disappointments and detours you may encounter.