Silent God teaches faith to those who listen

Editor’s Note: Voices is a weekly commentary by a panel of Maine columnists who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.

Wanna stump a roomful of theologians?

Ask them this question: “Did God will the crucifixion of Jesus?” If their answer is, “Yes,” ask how it is possible that God would ever will sin, which is, by definition, against his will.

If their answer is, “No,” ask in what sense God can then be considered sovereign.

Many years ago I read a moving personal account by Harold H. Wilke. He was born in December 1914, with no arms and hands. Remarkably, he learned to compensate by using his legs and feet.

Once he wrote: “I was two or three years old, sitting on the bedroom floor of our home, having an extraordinarily difficult time getting a shirt over my head and around my shoulders. I grunted and sweated while my mother just stood there and watched. Her arms remained riveted to her side even though every instinct in her must have wanted to reach out and do it for me. Finally, a neighbor friend turned to her in exasperation and said, ‘Ida, why don’t you help that child?’ My mother responded through gritted teeth, ‘I am helping him.'”

Wilke then shared this observation: “Mother’s pain in withholding help was actually a granting of help. She helped me by not helping.”

It seems that there are occasions in this fallen world when God deems it helpful for evil to have its way – at least in the short run. It is probably even correct to say that it is good that there is evil (which, however, does not make evil good), reasons R.C. Sproul. Pain is not always necessarily mere pointless misery. Consider two examples:

1) Adversity in the life of the believer.

2) The cross of Christ.

The Bible indicates that even Jesus “learned obedience” (Hebrews 5:8) through his sufferings. But of course the primary reason that God withheld his power as Jesus cried out on Golgotha was to effect the great plan of human redemption, thus bringing glory to himself.

The fact that God can use evil for good does not make evil any less painful – even for deity.

Near the conclusion of “The Passion of the Christ,” the camera suddenly pulls back and up from the hill of the three crosses. “A teardrop, which is actually a single drop of rain, falls from the storm-wracked clouds hovering over the crucifixion. It falls just after Jesus gives up His spirit. To us, the raindrop symbolized our Father’s anguish at the death of His Son. … All of His pain, all of His anguish, makes the very earth itself tremble under the weight of that single drop.” (The Ledger, Hemingford, Neb., March 12, 2004)

Are we suggesting here that God sometimes wills affliction unwillingly?

Actually, yes. Lamentations 3:33 makes that exact point. But what sense are we to make of it?

One answer to the conundrum is that there are evidently two wills in God, i.e., a moral will and a sovereign will. In terms of his sovereign will, God certainly did will the crucifixion of Jesus. Herod, Pilate, the Roman soldiers and the Jewish hierarchy were all acting on a script that God himself had written long before (Acts 4:27-28).

Christian believers also often struggle when God stands by in silence. He seems absent, uncaring. We doubt and despair. Good Friday was at first Bad Friday, with not so much as a hint of an imminent resurrection.

Yet in even the darkest hours, the believer is afforded what may be the greatest opportunities to learn unconditional obedience and to demonstrate unconditional faith.

By not helping us, God actually helps us. He is wiser than the child who, watching a butterfly struggle to get out of its cocoon, finally decides to help the poor creature. So he snips away the rest of the cocoon. The butterfly is now free.

The child watches for the butterfly to soar. But the butterfly cannot even take off. It will never be able to fly. Why not? Because in order to fly it needs strength that could only have come from the struggle just denied it.

That’s why Romans 5:3-5 encourages us to “exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

The God who may will crucifixion today is the God of tomorrow’s resurrection.

Happy Easter!

The Rev. Daryl E. Witmer is pastor of the Monson Community Church and founder and director of AIIA Institute, a Christian apologetics organization. The views expressed are his own. He may be reached at AIIAInstitute@aol.com.