TED SCHROEDER - GOD'S SUFFERING AND OURS

Ted Schroeder, in a devotional piece for Lent titled "The Tears of God," explores the profound mystery of God suffering on the cross, which reality sustains and inspires us in coming to terms with our own suffering.  Schroeder writes:

During Lent I am going to reflect on portions of the four Psalms that Handel uses in Messiah. Psalm 22:7,8 is used to describe the religious leaders' ridicule of Jesus during his agony on the Cross as quoted in the Gospels.

"All they that see him laugh him to scorn: they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying: 'He trusted in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he delights in him.'"

"Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God.' In the same way the chief priests and teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he cannot save himself. He's the King of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" (Matt.27:39-44)

They saw suffering and God as incompatible. If Jesus were God he would not be suffering an ignominious death. His claims to be the divine Son are shown to be false by his crucifixion. Is this true? It provokes us to consider the relationship between Christian faith and suffering.

As a teenager Ted Turner was religious and decided he was going to become a missionary. His twelve year old sister contracted systemic lupus. Ted tried to comfort her and prayed for her recovery. After years of misery she succumbed to the disease. Ted lost his faith. "I was taught that God was love and God was powerful, and I couldn't understand how someone so innocent should be made or allowed to suffer so." (Ken Auletta, The New Yorker, 23 April, 2001)