Question 6 - The Paradox of Pain: Why Do Innocent Children Suffer?

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel podcast. My name is Jason and I am

the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast right now, we are going through a sermon series from 2021 entitled Questions.

The congregation of Faith Chapel was asked to submit any questions they had

about Christianity or the Bible, and the answer to those questions was given in the form of sermons.

Today the question is, why do innocent children suffer?

We take a look at God's original creation and then show why there is suffering

in this world, and we end with diving into this question specifically.

Thanks for joining us today.

There's a term out there that is an oxymoron. And an oxymoron is a phrase,

a really short saying that doesn't go, doesn't seem to fit with one another.

And so when you are dealing with a sickness, you may come upon a time where

you have a cold sweat, where you have like shivers.

You are trembling because you are cold, but you are also perspiring heavily

because maybe you have a fever or something like that.

And so just the term cold sweat in and of itself is an oxymoron.

And we have bigger sentences, bigger phrases where we call them not oxymorons, but paradoxes.

A paradox is saying something that is the opposite of what you're trying to

get across. So the simplest one I could find this week was the sentence, I'm lying.

All right. You have said something and then you immediately follow it up with the term, I'm lying.

But that sentence is for us a paradox.

Because in truth, if you are being truthful there, you're telling the truth

by saying, hey, I'm not telling the truth.

And so it is a paradox where two opposite things are completely true at the same time.

I'm not telling you the truth, but I'm telling you the truth.

Or I am so cold that I am perspiring very heavily.

I have a cold sweat. two things where we can look at them on opposite sides

of the spectrum, but they are both true at the exact same time.

This is a paradox. It is not a contradiction.

And as we get into today's question, as we are answering the questions that

you have left for us on the poster board out in the fellowship hall,

as we get to today's question, it really, to me, boils down to a paradox.

And so the question for us today is, why do innocent children suffer?

Whether it's from abuse or whether it's from childhood diseases,

why are the innocent children suffering?

And to answer this question, we have to open ourselves up to a paradox.

Like, I don't have the complete full answer, but I know enough of the answer to say, when we get to it,

it's going to seem like opposite things in the same sentence,

but I'm telling you they both are true.

And so I'm going to do a lot of reading in the Bible today.

So just bear with me, but I think it's all important to build the basis for

why there is suffering on this planet and then ultimately to answer the question

as best as our finite minds can about why innocent children suffer.

So before I get there though, let me pray.

Father, we lift up to you your word and we ask that you will illuminate us with it.

Just teach us and transform us by your mercy, your grace, and your love.

And Father, we need your spirit to funnel every word that we need to hear into our minds.

And let us, by the spirit inside of us, keep us captive by the words that we need to hear today.

Jesus, we pray this in your name.

Amen. Okay, so to start this, we really have to look at what God created back

in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. And we're going to start with the very last verse in chapter two.

And this to us is, while it seems a little silly and maybe even a little contrite,

it is a phrase or it is a verse that helps us to understand that there was nothing

wrong with what God created.

In fact, at the end of Genesis 1, God says he looked at everything he saw and

says it is very good. He has a very good creation.

And so Genesis 2, 25, last verse of Genesis chapter two says this,

now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

Now this helps us to know that shame was not a part of the original creation.

It was not a part of what God said was very good. I did.

So there was Adam and Eve and they were in the garden together and they were completely carefree.

They weren't hiding behind, oh, I wonder what she thinks of me or Eve saying,

I wonder what he thinks of me.

There were no concept of that to them.

They were perfectly happy, perfectly free to be themselves.

There was no judgment. There was no shame. There was no ridicule in them.

And this is the way God created it. This is the way God intended us to live

in a place where there is no shame,

where we didn't have to think about what other people think about us,

where we don't have to worry about how other people perceive us.

It would be so much freeing if we didn't worry about what other people thought

of us and Adam and Eve lived in that state of perfection for us.

But then if you know what happens in the next verse, We're introduced to the

physical representation of evil, the serpent, and he comes into the picture and he tempts Eve.

And he says, no, no, no. If you take from the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil and eat of its fruit, you're going to be just like God.

And this lie that is perpetuated because Adam and Eve in Genesis 1,

they are created in God's image.

You can't get as close to God, closer to God than you and I are right now because we are in his image.

But the serpent deceived Eve.

She took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ate its fruit,

gave it to Adam and he consumed it as well. And their eyes were opened.

And suddenly the world that God created was fractured.

It was no longer very good because in Genesis 3, starting in verse 10.

Adam replies to God walking in the garden of Eden, like he always did with great communion with them.

And God calls out, where are you? And Adam replies in verse 10,

I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid.

I was afraid because I was naked.

I was afraid because, like, I have self doubt now. I have shame about myself.

Like, I don't want you to see me like this, all vulnerable.

And shame and regret and fear came in to our world.

And it was fractured and it's broken and it's not the way that God intended it to be.

And then in verse 11, God says, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?

The man replied, it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it.

Then the Lord God's asked the woman, What have you done? The serpent deceived me, she replied.

That's why I ate it. And immediately there's shame, there's fear,

and then there's finger pointing.

They're like, no, no, no, it wasn't my fault. Like Eve gave it to me and he

was like, well, the serpent, like, well, he was tricking me.

So we cast blame upon other people and we deflect it from ourselves.

And you can see how this is not paradise.

This is not the perfect world that God created us to live in. But it gets worse.

Verse 14, then the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this,

you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild.

You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will strike your head and you will strike his heel.

Then he said to the woman, I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy and in

pain you will give birth and you will desire to control your husband,

but he will rule over you.

And to the man he said, since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree

whose fruit I commanded you not to eat.

The ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains

by the sweat of your brow.

You will have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were

made, for you were made from dust and to dust you will return.

And these are the curses of Genesis 3.

You can ask a farmer how they think the harvest season's going and with all the rain.

You can ask a gardener, hey, how's your weed problem? They're going to have one.

It's difficult to grow our food.

You can ask women. I've been a part of it. I've never experienced it firsthand,

but it seems pretty brutal to go and give birth to a child.

I know that I've been scared of serpents before and I don't want to walk into

the wilderness and meet a mountain lion or a bear and I don't want to go to

the African safari and meet a lion or into the jungle and meet a tiger.

I know that I would be very scared.

So all of this is a sign that the world that God created is broken.

It is not what he intended it to be and it started this day when Eve and Adam

took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and consumed it for themselves.

And so part of the answer to this question is why is there suffering,

especially for innocent children?

It started back in Genesis 3, when shame came in, when fear came in,

when strife between men and animals, when pain and childbearing was extended,

and where we gotta work by the sweat of our brow to get food,

and then eventually we're gonna return to dust.

This is where it all starts, but it's not the full answer.

And you may be authentically thinking, all right, well, Adam and Eve screwed

up, but why does that mean I am suffering today?

Or why does that mean this little child has to go through childhood cancer today?

Or why this, there's a child on our list that was born with holes in their hearts.

Why is this child really suffering? could it all be from Adam and Eve messing

up and just God's rejection of them and his consequences toward them?

Paul really picks up this motif in the book of Romans.

In the book of Romans, we're going to read from chapter 5.

And in chapter 5, starting in verse 12, Paul really discusses this issue about

whether or not it can all be the results of Adam's and Eve's sin.

In verse 12, we begin by saying, When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.

Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.

Yes, people sinned even before the law was given, but it was not counted as

sin because there was not yet any law to break.

Still, everyone died from the time of Adam to the time of Moses,

even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God as Adam did.

Now, Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ who was yet to come.

And so Paul begins this by saying, hey, all right, you have to understand and

you have to know Genesis 1 and 2, there was one rule to follow.

It was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And then they messed up, they ate from that tree, and then they were booted

out of the garden and no human being entered there again.

There was a flaming sword and a cherubim guarding the way to the tree of life.

No human being could disobey that rule again.

It's not possible. And so until Mount Sinai, when God handed down the Ten Commandments

and all of the other 603 commandments that the Israelite nation observes,

there was no law that they explicitly broke.

And yet everyone still died. And so what Paul is saying here is that we are

all guilty of sin because of Adam's sin,

because of his rebellion, because of his ignorance,

ignoring of God's rule.

And seriously, that sounds pretty unfair. But Paul continues.

But there is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many.

But even greater is God's wonderful grace that.

And his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.

And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin.

For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made

right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many,

but even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness.

For all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

And so what he's saying is if you think it's unfair that God holds us personally

responsible and we have the consequence of dying a physical death because of Adam's sin,

then you don't think it's right that God will hold you righteous through one man's sacrifice.

Through one man's obedience, through one man's death on the cross.

And so he's saying we really need to shift our idea of fairness and equality

with God because he, God,

thinks it's fair in his ultimate wisdom to hold us accountable for Adam's sin,

but he also gives us grace and abundant grace of that to hold us righteous,

to look at us and see us as perfect through the death, the sacrifice, and the blood of Jesus.

We're not perfect of our own accord. We're perfect because God gives us the

righteousness that Jesus earned for us.

And it's through that lens, through the lens of his blood, that he sees us as perfect.

And so, yes, God can hold us accountable for Adam's sin.

And yes, it does explain to us why there is suffering in this world.

While this world is broken, while there is shame, while there is fear.

It does explain it. But as I said earlier, we really need to learn and describe

to look at this issue as a paradox and not as a contradiction.

Because God is good. Innocent children suffer.

God is good. And innocent children suffer.

Continuing on here, Paul says, yes,

Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness

brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.

Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners, but because one other

person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were,

but as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant.

So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death,

now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and

resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

In his intimate and his infinite knowledge, God says, okay, everyone's guilty through Adam.

There is sin and there is suffering in this world, the consequences of the curse.

Even the returning to dust, as the Bible says, of all human beings is the result of that one action.

But I'm going to make people righteous by faith in Jesus Christ and by really

going and pursuing a relationship with him because he was obedient to me to

the point of death, even death upon a cross.

And so we really intimately need to know in our hearts.

Yes, there is suffering as a result of the sin of this world.

And I think we can see that.

I think especially when you go and talk about children and abuse,

you can see how one man's disobedience to God of treating your neighbor as yourself,

as loving another person as you love yourself is not being done there.

And yes, we can see that.

We can see while they're in neglect, abuse. We can see that in the pain that

parents provide for their kids sometimes.

Yeah, that's brokenness, and we get that. But why does a newborn have to be

born with holes in his heart?

Why does a two-year-old have to go through cancer treatments?

Why is there pain? Why is there suffering in this world? And honestly,

for that, I have a very shallow answer.

I don't know. But I know what the answer is not.

And it's not that God isn't good. It's not that God isn't perfect.

It's not that God isn't unjust or just. He is just.

And I know this because of the story of Jesus.

And he came as a human being. He walked on this earth and God,

the infinite almighty God, who is good in every way, took upon our afflictions, our diseases.

He brought all of this upon himself so that he could resonate with us,

so that he could be there and say, I know what suffering you're going through.

I know how you, I know how this world works.

I know you intimately because I put on flesh. I became a human being and I saw

exactly what you go through.

And so he has this ability to be good and yet still allow childhood diseases and suffering.

Because he went through it all. And so for the rest of the time I have today,

I'd just like to go over with you several passages from the last chapters of

Mark, where we pick up in Mark 14, 42,

is right after Jesus goes alone.

He leaves three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John.

He goes a little bit further in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prays,

God, not my will, but your will be done.

I don't want to go through the suffering that I'm going to go through,

but I'm going to submit to you. I'm going to be obedient to whatever you desire.

And then he comes back and he says right before it, hey, my betrayer's here.

Get up. Let's get moving.

And then we go to verse 42. And immediately, even as Jesus said this.

Judas, one of the 12 disciples arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs.

They had been sent by the leading priests, the teachers of religious law and the elders.

The traitor Judas had given them a prearranged signal. You will know which one

to arrest when I greet him with a kiss.

Then you can take him away under guard.

As soon as they arrived, Judas walked up to Jesus, Rabbi, he exclaimed, and gave him the kiss.

Then the others grabbed Jesus and arrested him. But one of the men with Jesus

pulled out his sword and struck the high priest's slave slashing off his ear.

Jesus asked them, am I some dangerous revolutionary that you have come with

swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn't you arrest me in the temple?

I was there among you teaching every day, but these things are happening to

fulfill what the scriptures say about me.

Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away.

One young man following behind was clothed only in a long linen shirt.

When the mob tried to grab him, he slipped out of his shirt and ran away naked.

I didn't mean to have three references of naked in this sermon, but there we go.

But the point here of this is that Jesus felt betrayed.

He was somebody who had a disciple, a close follower of him say,

hey, how much money will you give me to betray him? and then led him right to

him and betrayed him with a kiss on the cheek.

He had 12, multiple other people, more than the 12 in the garden with him and

not one of them stayed with him. They all fled away.

He knows what it's like to be abandoned by our friends.

He knows what it's like to be abandoned by people that you are close to and to be betrayed by them.

He put on human flesh and he became us to experience the suffering that we go through.

Again, God is good, yet he allows suffering.

They took Jesus to the high priest's home where the leading priests,

the elders and teachers of religious law, had gathered.

Meanwhile, Peter followed him at a distance and went right into the high priest's courtyard.

There he sat with the guards warming himself by the fire.

Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find

evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death, but they couldn't find any.

Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other.

Finally, some men stood up and gave this false testimony.

We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands.

And in three days, I will build another made without human hands.

But even then, they didn't agree, get their stories straight.

Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus,

well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?

But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him,

are you the Messiah, the son of the blessed one?

Jesus said, I am. And you will see the son of man seated in the place of power

at God's right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said,

Why do we need other witnesses? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?

Guilty, they all cried. He deserves to die. Then some of them began to spit

at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists.

Prophecy to us, they jeered, and the guards slapped him as they took him away.

So we see here Jesus going through another bout of suffering.

We see that he was unfairly tried.

That when he claimed to be the Messiah who he truly was, these accusers were

like, he deserves to die.

Experienced people who didn't like him, who hated him, who wanted him to die.

He experienced that kind of suffering, that pain, that grief.

He experienced the unfairness of a trial and false witnesses coming against

him, accusing him of saying things he didn't say.

Jesus experienced suffering. We're going to skip a little ahead.

We're going to skip the section where Peter talks where Peter denies him three times.

We've already talked about him being betrayed, and we're going to go right to 15 verse 1.

Very early in the morning, the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers

of religious law, the entire high council, met to discuss their next step.

They bound Jesus, led him away, and took him to Pilate, the Roman governor.

Pilate asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus replied, you have said it.

Then the leading priest kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him,

aren't you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?

But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate's surprise.

Now it was the governor's custom each year during the Passover celebration to release one prisoner.

Anyone the people requested, one of the prisoners at that time was Barabbas,

a revolutionary who had committed murder in an uprising.

The crowd went to Pilate and asked him to release a prisoner as usual.

Would you like me to release you to the king of the Jews?

To you, this king of the Jews, Pilate asked, for he realized by now that the

leading priest had arrested Jesus out of envy.

But at this point, the leading priest stirred up the crowd to demand the release

of Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Pilate asked them, then what should I do with this man you call the king of

the Jews? They shouted back, crucify him.

Why, Pilate demanded, what crime has he committed? But the mob roared even louder, crucify him.

So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them He ordered Jesus flogged

with a lead-tipped whip Then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified And again,

Jesus continues his hours and hours and hours of suffering.

This time, he experiences an unjust ruler, an unjust government official who

just wants to pacify the crowds.

And he deals with a mob of people who are completely and absolutely against

him, who six days earlier were singing his praises and saying,

this is the king of Israel.

They are now turned away from him.

They have rejected him. They have abandoned him.

This is really, really difficult. This is suffering.

The story continues with his suffering. The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard

of the governor's headquarters, called the Praetorium, and called out the entire regiment.

They dressed him in a purple robe,

and they wove the thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head.

Then they saluted him and taunted, Hail, King of the Jews!

And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him,

and dropped to their knees in mock worship.

When they finally tried, tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe

and put his own clothes on him again, then led him away to be crucified.

And again, he experiences suffering. This time he's being beaten,

physically, physically beaten.

The crown of thorns is meant to puncture holes into his head to make his scalp bleed.

He's whipped in the back He's flogged And his back is bleeding He's being mocked

He's experiencing a tremendous amount of suffering.

21. A passerby named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the countryside

just then, and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus's cross.

Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus, and they brought Jesus to a place

called Golgotha, which means place of the skull.

They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.

Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross.

They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece.

It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. A sign announced

the charge against him. It read, the king of the Jews.

Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.

The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery.

Ha, look at you now, they yelled at him.

You said you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

Well, then save yourself and come down from the cross.

The leading priests and teachers of religious law also mocked Jesus.

He saved others, they scoffed, but he can't save himself.

Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down from the cross so that we can see it and believe him.

Even the men who were crucified with Jesus ridiculed him.

And again, he suffered because he had to carry a heavy instrument.

The object that was going to ultimately take his life, carry that, but he couldn't.

He was so weak. He was in so much suffering and pain that he couldn't do it.

He was beaten. And then his hands was stretched out from his body and had nails driven through them.

Complete and utter agony. He was put up on a cross where it became harder and

harder for him to breathe.

And lastly, we have this. At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock.

Then at three o'clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Eloi,

Eloi, lima sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me.

Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah.

One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on

a reed stick so he could drink.

Wait, he said, let's see whether Elijah comes to take him down.

Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last.

Jesus. Hebrews describes Jesus as the one and only human being who has never sinned.

He's the essence of innocence.

God himself who created us, who created everything that we can experience.

He's the one who created you intimately and personally. He knit you together in your mother's womb.

There was anyone innocent who didn't deserve to suffer. It was Jesus.

And yet he went through all of that so that through his obedience,

you and I could be made right with God.

So I don't know the answer to why innocent children suffer, but I know what the answer is not.

And it's not that God doesn't care.

And it's not that God isn't good or just or fair.

It's a paradox where we see children on one hand, who are going through really

difficult seasons in life that we obviously know and think that they don't deserve.

But on the other hand, we know that God is good, that he is just,

that he never makes a mistake.

These two truths, when put together, it's like an oxymoron.

But in reality, it's more like a paradox, where they can both be true.

Let's pray. Lord, I come before you today simply not knowing,

but just trusting in you.

We thank you for the suffering that you went through.

We thank you that when we go through trials, when we go through suffering, you will be.

You know what we've gone through because you've gone through it yourself.

Whether it's abandonment, by friends, and even by God himself.

Why have you abandoned me, you cried out.

Whether it's physical pain through scars, whether it's through ridicule and

mock, you've experienced the suffering we go through.

So we can trust in you and we can rely on your goodness and your mercy and your

grace, even though in your sovereignty, you allow suffering and pain.

Help us to always see that both of these truths are real and accurate,

that you are good, even though there is suffering in this world.

Jesus, we pray for this in your name. Amen.

Thank you again for joining us in our discussion on suffering in this world

and specifically why innocent children go through such hard circumstances.

This series was designed to promote questions in and amongst followers of Jesus.

Remember, it is good to ask questions. Questions show you want to learn.

Be curious and always ask questions.

In our next episode, we will look at the question, How do we stay positive as

workers for the Lord in difficult and trying times? Have a great week.