FROM RESURRECTION TO SUFFERING

Interesting how a benign group discussion on resurrection can lead to the topic of suffering. The title of this blog seems incorrect, because post-resurrection is supposed to be 'suffer-free' or 'pain-free', like a happy epilogue to a long story, as how it's always been taught in Sunday School. But I think that post-resurrection means becoming introduced to more suffering.

Jesus will return and all that accepted Him as Savior will be raised and transported to this place called Heaven (or stay on an earth that is cleansed and transformed into a magnificent place with roads made out of gold), where there is no more pain or tears. This is what I've been taught. I think that our resurrection is more of a state of being rather than an event that happens in the time line. Once I was asked by a Hindu friend that, because she did not follow Jesus, did I think that she was going to hell? I told her that, to me, hell is being in a state where one is separated from God. Kind of like when a parent makes the realization that their young child has been abducted, marking the beginning of a hell until they are reunited. In the same sense, heaven is also a state of being, the immeasurable closeness with God. So, although Jesus will return one day (defined as when the whole world is at one in worshipping God - which means when all the imbalances in this world are reconciled - which means until then there is still SO much work to be done), one does not have to wait until that point in the time line for resurrection. By this I mean a spiritual resurrection or a change of state. One may already be in a state of heaven or hell without even knowing it. Others can tell you for sure that they are going through hell, equating it to extreme suffering. Suffering and death seem to be a precursor to resurrection, as exampled by Jesus (link to RAC sermon on "Why Christ Had To Suffer That Way"), and so maybe one does not truly experience resurrection until they have journeyed through that valley.

I still think that suffering is a direct cause of what we have chosen. And I don't mean what I did yesterday or 10 years ago, but the fact that we HAVE the freedom to choose. Maybe it stems back to the Garden of Eden if one is to believe that there was an Adam and Eve. More importantly, it keeps whole the integrity of God's love for us by giving us unabated freedom to choose. We reap the wonderful rewards of choice but we also have to accept its consequences. Maybe it's like a covenant God made with us before time, and His acquiescence when we plead to Him to intervene would be a breach of that covenant, because He knows in the end, the final deliverable of this covenant that is kept intact is so much more valuable for us than one that is compromised. Being confined to the state of limited time and space, we don't know all the details of this covenant, so it's easy to persecute Him in the context of what little we know. We demand answers, we demand action. Why do we have to watch a family member die before our eyes? Why does a young and amazing man with so much future ahead of him have to painfully struggle with fibromyalgia? Why does a person who wants to honour God by passionately serving in a marriage relationship now have to wrestle with divorce?

I don't think that there are answers. Kind of makes God seem cruel to just let us wallow in our own pile of smelly anguish. Or is it some sort of sick auction that He's got going: He'll only respond to those who pray/read Scriptures/meditate/ the hardest? A deranged kind of contest where the prize to the successful candidate is His Response. Or some heavenly judge who adjudicates a favourable ruling to the one who presents the best argument?

Some suffering in this world is a direct consequence of our actions. Homelessness and hunger are just two very common but very solvable problems if choices are made to address these. Other more personal sufferings seem to have no root cause. Perhaps these are meant to be the process of dying. For only through my dying can I truly experience resurrection. But once I've resurrected, I'm still here, bound by this body, by space and time. And I am still surrounded by all these solvable sufferings. All of a sudden, I have this new awareness of the pain around me. And though it is not my own, I feel it nevertheless. Where once I only saw my own pain, now I actually see others' pains. It is the pain of someone being oppressed. It is the pain of someone being hungry. It is the pain of not having hope. But now, I feel like I can do something about it. I can give of my body and my soul. And though I don't think that I can solve all of these pains, I can try. No longer am I concerned about what happens to my life or what I am able to consume. Now I think about how much work has to be done before Jesus returns. My resurrection is a commencement.

I had lunch with my parents today. They were telling me how their church has just finished planning a retreat to be held in September where they've booked a famous guest speaker. I didn't recognize this person when they mentioned his name, but they said that he was quite active in community service. Intrigued, I pressed on to see what he has done. They said that one of his biggest accomplishments was his active involvement in lobbying Parliament regarding the same sex marriage bill. At that moment, I nearly choked on a "fong chow" (chicken feet) bone, shocked by what some people equate honourable community service with.