Passion Sunday – the day on which the Church turns its eyes on the sufferings of Christ. We do so this year, as every year, in a world beset and scourged by suffering – national, communal and individual – as each day’s news reminds us. Some of that suffering is the result of disease or accidents or natural disasters: but most of it is caused by the wickedness in the heart of human beings whom God has created with free will, able to do good or to do evil.

Nevertheless, the age old question is still asked, “Why does God allow suffering?” And a choice of two answers has been given: either he could stop it but does not care – he is almighty but not all-merciful; or he cares but cannot stop it – all-merciful but not almighty.

The Christian answer, in so far as there is one, is that he is the Lord of heaven and earth and, although he allows suffering, he cares, and cares unbelievably deeply.

The Old Testament sees suffering as a punishment inflicted by an almighty and righteous God on unrighteous people; and as a corollary, it sees prosperity as a reward for the righteous. Thus in the Book of Genesis, in the introduction to the story of Noah, we read, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth…And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created…’ ” (NRSV, 6:5-7).

And that fate would have befallen Noah, only that, “…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God” (NRSV, 6:9). So Noah was saved from the flood.

The New Testament, however, reveals that God is Love and in a way that revelation has made the problem of suffering more of a mystery than otherwise it might have been. But in another way, that revelation lifts the problem to a new and higher level where, although it remains a mystery, we see it in a new light altogether.

If God had not created the human race at all, then there would have been no human suffering and no problem. But he did create it, and we have to start from there. The question that arises is how he has dealt with the problem which results indirectly from his own action of creating human beings.

What God did was to assume personal responsibility for his creation of the human race, but without taking from them their freewill and turning them into a race of robots. Instead, he saw suffering as a symptom of which human wickedness was the cause, and he dealt with the cause. In the words of the hymn:

“Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
Should doom to death a universe,
Hast found the medicine, full of grace,
To save and heal a ruined race.

Thou cam’st, the Bridegroom of the bride,
As drew the world to evening-tide;
Proceeding from a virgin shrine,
The spotless Victim all divine”. (1)(our emphasis)

Spotless Victim! That brings us straight to Passiontide and to the mystery of innocent suffering which Jesus willingly embraced, in fulfilment of his Father’s will, as part of his mission of love to save sinners. When the sinless Son of God entered this evil world and testified against its evil, it was inevitable that the rulers of the world would do away with him. The Crucifixion, therefore, was the cost to him of his love for the world. But it was something more: it revealed that love in the most public and poignant way and will for ever make its personal and irresistible appeal to all those who have ears to hear, and eyes to see, and hearts to be touched – that same appeal which caused St Paul to exclaim in wonderment, “…the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (NRSV, Galatians 2:20, our emphasis).

And as the love of the Crucified captures our hearts, so the grace which the believer receives from the Crucified wins for our souls forgiveness and healing and spiritual life and fellowship with God.

That grace was dramatically symbolised when Jesus died on Calvary. Before he was taken down from the Cross one of the soldiers on guard took the routine precaution of piercing his side with a spear, whereupon, as St John solemnly testifies in words which endow the happening with great significance, “…at once blood and water came out” (NRSV, John 19:32-37).

The traditional interpretation of this strange phenomenon – and one which the Evangelist, who personally witnessed it, may well have had in mind – is that the blood and the water symbolised respectively the Eucharist, in which the Blood of the New Covenant is given and received, and Baptism in which water is the symbol of the cleansing power of spiritual life. Thus the Divine grace of the two chief Sacraments flows in the first instance from the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross.

We may not fully understand why suffering has to be, but its sting is removed by the one shining fact which we do know – God himself has shared it with us, and thereby has made us whole.

Reference

Unknown author, 7th Century, Conditor alme siderum; translated from Latin to English by John M. Neale, J.M. 1852. Available from: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/r/e/crestars.htm (Accessed 01 March 2017) (Internet).