Rev Lindsay Johnstone, Chaplain,
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney
How
theologically and Biblically do we understand pain and suffering within the
present order?
When relating with
patients, do we treat all pain as the same?
Patients have their own perspectives on suffering. One said:
…The enemy … the accuser of the brethren,
Satan. All evil comes from him … I know
that we live in a fallen world, and horrible things happen every day all over
the world. ... And people choose to do the wrong thing … He (God)
doesn’t take away our freedom of choice, for good, or for evil… I know that
God is heartbroken too…
Chaplains have
their perspectives too and know that they should not impose them. At the same
time, the clearer and most comprehensive is the chaplain’s own understanding of
the issues, the more space they have to respond to what the patient brings
them.
Paul Grimmond has
dedicated his book Suffering Well to
the many who have travelled to the other side of the world to speak to complete
strangers about our Lord Jesus Christ. They
have counted the cost, lived for Jesus, and encouraged me by their example to
suffer well [i]. However,
Grimmond deals inadequately with the pain of the fall. His treatment of James 5
neglects most of James 5: 14-18. He says only
- And in James 5, James seems to suggest healing is possible – but the
way to find it is by confessing your sins[ii].
Helpfully, Romans 8: 18-23 deals with two categories of pain in the
present time between the first and second comings of Christ. All pain is experienced in the fallen world. Some
is in consequence of the fall. Some pain is connected with the inauguration of
the Kingdom of God.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For
the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons
of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because
of him who subjected it, in hope that the
creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the
freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole
creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And
not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (ESV)
(1)
There is the Pain of Decay – pain which
arises out of the old order
Suffering of this type includes: all sin, relationship breakdown, human
rejection, self-rejection, inner turmoil, curses, natural disaster, pollution,
ecological disaster, demonic attack, sickness, physical death, blaming of God,
rejection of God.
(2) There is the Pain of New-Birth –pain which
anticipates the new order
Suffering of this type includes: mortification regarding one’s own sin,
pain for others affected by their sin (or by our sin as well!), persecution and
rejection for professing the Name of Christ and for trying to live for him, the
care of the churches, acceptance of a missionary life-style, the groaning of
intercession, the discipline of the Lord whereby we are reproved by the Word of
God, and the wrestle not to express sinful desires.
Christ links the two. From
the fall, pain in child-birth was symptomatic of suffering outside the garden –
yet the seed of the woman born in the mother’s pain would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15,16). In Romans 8 the term
“birth-pangs” has now moved from a focus on the fall to a focus on the coming
new order, as Christ has now bruised the serpent’s head.
Pain of the first type is neither to be glorified nor blamed upon God[iii]. Pain
of the second type is commendable – even though it hurts. The establishment of
the new order will involve a reversal of the pain of the old. We currently
negotiate the “now and not yet” paradox of life between the First and Second
Comings of Christ. In Romans 8: 17 believers are already adopted as God’s children, but as verse 23 says, when
Christ returns we shall experience
that adoption in our resurrected bodies. Although flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, yet when the trumpet sounds this mortal body will
put on immortality[iv].
Any healing which was tentative will be absolute. There is a connection between
the present and the future. Our inner-most spirit is forgiven, restored and
healed, and we are in process of this newness being manifested in our minds,
feelings, wills and bodies – in preparation for the unfettered experiences of
all this newness to be completed in heaven. We should function on the basis
that God is at work now on his restoration plan; and not just passively wait
for it all in heaven.[v]
[i]
Paul Grimmond, Suffering Well (Matthias Media 2011) p.7
[ii]
Ibid, p.83
[iii]
“blamed upon God” in this context refers to a theological stance accepting a
sickness as “the will of God” and does not necessarily here refer to the
emotional experience of a hurting person in the process of ventilating.
[iv] I Corinthians 15: 50-58
[v] See Ephesians 1: 9-10, 22-23 and 2:6 – Christ
as Head over the Church is continuously working through the church in the
Father’s ongoing process of recapitulating and restoring all things, using
every means.
