Venezuela Earthquake - Why do good people suffer?

On Wednesday evening, in Venezuela, the earth convulsed violently, causing such death

and destruction in a single event that it is hard to imagine. The current death toll is approximately 1,000 and expected to rise further, with thousands more killed, injured or made homeless.

We pray fervently for those injured, those trapped in rubble, all who are attempting to provide help and assistance, but how do we make sense of such suffering? Where is God for the people of Venezuela this week? We cry “Why, Oh Lord, Why”? Why are there earthquakes, floods, droughts, why is there sickness and disease, why are there wars and violence? If God is loving, just, and all powerful, why do bad things happen? Why do good people suffer?

Academics and theologians suggest many theories, all with biblical justification, but all to me, ultimately unhelpful in the face of natural disasters such as earthquakes:

• Perhaps suffering is our fault – God’s punishment for sin. But, although I would imagine that some of those who have died or been injured in Venezuela were indeed particularly sinful, surely not all of them. And what about the innocent, like children and babies?

• Or, perhaps suffering is someone else’s fault - a logical consequence of God giving us free will is that people can choose to do evil. Perhaps shoddy construction techniques rendered buildings vulnerable to earthquakes or economic systems kept people in poverty and result in overcrowded living conditions. But such is the scale of destruction, surely not all of it can be attributed to the sin of others.

• Or is suffering part of God’s plan, in the pursuit of some higher purpose we can’t see, like building our character or bringing us closer to God? But doesn’t this liken God to an abusive parent, causing their children to suffer because it is good for them?

• Or perhaps suffering is no one’s fault, it exists because that is the way it has to be - perhaps a perfect world without suffering just isn’t possible, even for God. This for me is the least bad explanation, but doesn’t it limit the power of God who could surely put things right?

Perhaps we just have to say that we don’t know the answer to this intellectual puzzle.

BUT suffering isn’t just an intellectual puzzle, argued over by academics in their ivory towers. It is real and pressing. Real for the residents Caracas and the surrounding regions of Venezuela. Real for all who have watched a loved one suffer in illness and pain. Real for all who, despite a deep faith have lived a life of suffering, physical, mental or spiritual.

What can our Christian faith tell us of our suffering then? Are there any crumbs of comfort?

Perhaps. Perhaps comfort can be found in love and hope, in faith and patience.

God is love and we see God’s love reflected in the loving actions of the many thousands who have felt compelled to help, to put themselves at risk to pull others out of the rubble. 

But I think there is more than God’s love refracted through us. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus, God made flesh suffered and died for us. Our creator god emptied himself to live as one of us. To become a human being who knew hunger and poverty, who wept in sadness, who was rejected by those he came to save, who suffered the most agonising torture ever invented in his death on the cross. We believe in a God who knows intimately what it is to suffer, not a remote deity protected in a perfect heaven. We suffer yes, but God loves us and suffers with us and suffered for us.

As Christians we are called to be a hope filled people. The hope that, through Christ we and all creation will be set free from the bondage of decay and death. In the words of our epistle reading on Sunday: “The end is eternal life… the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Love and hope. Faith in things unseen, but surely just as real as the suffering we do see.

And still we cry out to God in lament amidst our suffering: Why? Why have you forsaken us? How long Oh God, how long? Patience isn’t easy. We long for God’s presence.  but we wait, in faith and hope, for the coming glory, for our coming saviour who loves us and knows all too well our suffering.

And so we cry: "Come, Lord Jesus, Come."