The three amigos of pain, suffering, and death continue to interrupt our life fiestas. Instead of being blessed by a plethora of piñatas our days seem to be nothing but repeated encounters with El Guapo. Why?
A purely materialistic understanding of the world would render these concerns meaningless because pain, suffering, and death are merely the sculpting tools of our evolutionary maker. Only when the chisel drips with blood can we be assured that the natural selection artist is hard at work. Why would we question the tools of the trade when they have produced such amazing pieces of biological art? Disdain at its palette of pain would seem to be quite odd if evolution was the one that held the creative brush. If evolution is our maker then the devastation produced by floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters should be viewed as biological art studios buzzing with activity. Communities near Three Mile Island and Chernobyl should be enclaves for evolutionary artists whose creative potential radiates from every pore. Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory does nothing to assuage pain, suffering and death, it only gives it a scientific stamp of approval. Thankfully, it is the rare materialist who doesn’t cringe when he or she sees natural selection ply its “Art.”
Most people, however, view pain, suffering, and death as a very bad aspect of what should be a very good world, a wilderness gate crasher at a perfect Garden party. Interestingly, instead of grinning and bearing this physical discomfort most people seek a spiritual solution. Why would we think that physical irritation could be remedied with a spiritual balm? It appears that one of the primary purposes of religion is to deal with this troublesome trio. But if this is true, then which religious system best explains the appearance of pain, suffering and death and then offers the most satisfying solution?
The Buddha was quite astute because he recognized that the primary problem of existence was suffering. He felt that the reason for suffering was our desire for permanence in an impermanent world. We are constantly searching for unchanging things in a world where everything changes. He then offered his followers a pathway to help them avoid pathological attachments. While we can admire the Buddha for correctly identifying the problem, we need to question whether detachment is a sound solution. Mental health professionals know that avoiding those things in life that cause us to suffer has a very poor therapeutic track record. Counseling is effective because it forces us to come to terms with the events and people that have caused us to suffer. Alcoholics Anonymous is a prime example of this modality. Alcoholics admit the problem, accept the fact that they are powerless to overcome it by themselves, take a personal inventory of hurts, and then take steps to make amends. Ironically, the alcoholic is actually recovering from a chemical form of Buddhism where they have detached themselves from their problems by the practice of right intoxication. Instead of adhering to the eight-fold pathway they chose to minimize suffering by practicing the six-pack pathway.
The Hindu also recognizes pain and suffering but attributes it to a bad case of unwanted karmic pounds. Instead of detaching from the world it encourages its adherents to jump on the elliptical trainer of reincarnation and keep peddling until they are svelte enough to be absorbed into the unknowable God Brahman. As an aid they are told to focus on the divine atman spin instructor within to motivate them to shed some sinful cellulite. The problem is that nobody seems to know what the target weight should be, and our postmortem weigh-ins only qualify us for more time in the samsaric gym. Reincarnation ends up being an eternity of fat-shaming for a people with sinfully slow metabolisms. Pain and suffering are viewed as the consequences of failed moral dieting and death the inevitable consequence of just one more piece of cake.
New age religions also recognize pain and suffering but attribute it to negative thoughts. They tell us that the universe wants the best for us but is unable to help us unless we also want the best for ourselves. We are called to speak success into our lives, but all too often find that we murmur discontent. We are told to identify with the force within, but all too often find it to be the dark side. The problem is that cancer strikes the happy and the hopeless, the selfish and the sacrificial. Poverty afflicts the hard working and the lazy, the diligent and the disinterested. Sadly, therapeutic happiness only works when you aren’t feeling pain and suffering but then becomes quite useless when the real world intervenes. Interestingly, you won’t find new age literature in a homeless shelter or a mission because the residents have already spent their lives naming it and claiming it and found that in the end it actually claimed them.
I would argue that the Bible offers the best explanation and solution for the inevitable pain, suffering, and death we will all encounter. The reason we bristle at the way of the world is because we know it is not the way it should be. We haven’t forgotten the Garden life but are only capable of seeing it dimly through a veil of thorns and thistles. We know firsthand how a good day’s work can become a sweaty mess and how being fruitful and multiplying can be a pain in the butt. We all have a distant memory of a very good Eden that operated perfectly before the intruding trio rode into town and declared themselves the new sheriff’s in town. We recognize that something went horribly wrong, but instead of grinning and bearing it, detaching ourselves from it, trying to beat it at its own game, or putting a happy face on it, we worship a God who took it upon Himself in order to make us citizens of a new heaven and earth where every tear will be wiped away.
Christianity is not wishful thinking because God became incarnate and stared pain, suffering, and death in the face and never blinked. Jesus went to the afflicted and healed them as a way to reveal what the coming Kingdom would be like. He cried when He encountered death but did not let it have the last word. Interestingly, Jesus implied that the healing process went hand in hand with the forgiveness of sins. Resolution of sin was an important part of the restoration process. In the end, Jesus personally took on the pain, suffering, and death of the world in order to free us from its bondage. We worship a God who not only intimately identified with the wilderness but also showed us the path back to the Garden.
For the atheist, pain and suffering are the price of admission and death the ticket out. For the Buddhist, pain and suffering are the result of being too clingy. It calls us to break-up with our worldly flirtation so that when we die, we won’t have to be part of the insufferable dating scene ever again. For the Hindu, pain and suffering are the result of being karmic hoarders. It calls us to perform a house cleaning every lifetime, but the problem is that just when we think we can move to a new location we find we overlooked a bit of karma in the corner of our life storage facility. For the New Ager, pain and suffering are the result of being a negative Nelly and not a suzy sunshine. All we need is a $19.95 attitude readjustment but even if we find change difficult, we are still assured that we will go to our happy place when we die. For the Christian, however, pain and suffering remind us that we aren’t in Kansas anymore and cannot return until we accept the gift of the blood red slippers. The click of the nails on the cross brings us back to the Sonflower state.
The Good News of the Gospel is that the triumvirate of trouble has met its Trinitarian match. God’s Garden has once again opened for business, Jesus has shown us the way out of the wilderness, and the Holy Spirit is taking reservations for the grand reopening.
Photo by Camila Quintero Franco on Unsplash
