Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Scripture Passages

Psalm 137:1–6 (NLT)

1 Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. 2 We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. 3 For our captors demanded a song from us. Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn: “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!” 4 But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget how to play the harp. 6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I don’t make Jerusalem my greatest joy.

John 11:23–35 (NLT)

23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” 28 Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” 29 So Mary immediately went to him. 30 Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. 31 When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. 32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept.

Focus Statement

It is difficult to understand how God could allow the pain and suffering we see in the world

and in our own lives.

Jesus is Emmanuel "God with Us."

Jesus reminds us that a better question to ask ourselves is,

“What can I do to help those who are suffering and in pain?”

Point of Relation

It doesn’t take us long to look at all the awful, evil, tragic and oppressive things that happen to people.

Hurricanes, train disasters, school shootings and murders, rapes, genocide, wars, and endless rumors of wars...

These are all in our faces on a daily basis...

Every time I turn the News on I end up cringing, anticipating what I may hear...

The truth is this world is broken...

And we are constantly seeing bad things happen.

However, we often see bad things happen to people we see as good...

While the schemers, the corrupt, the evil, the cheaters and morally bankrupt...

Seem to be skating on by on easy street.

That’s the perception any way and it can cause us to loose hope

and even wonder why God, if there’s a God would allow this to be.

Things to Consider

We have probably all heard different answers to the question,

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” –

some from a faith perspective and some not.

People commonly respond with cliché responses such as “to teach a lesson,” “it was punishment,”

or you may have heard that bad things (such as a premature death) happen to good people

because “heaven needed another angel,” or

“because God doesn’t exist,”

or “there is no rhyme or reason to what happens in the world,” etc..

Yet, all these answers come up unsatisfactory in the face of human suffering,

especially if we want to maintain belief in a good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God.

What’s more…when we think of it, bad things happen to all people....GOOD and BAD alike. As do Good things.

After all Jesus did teach us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike in Matthew 5:45.

The truth be told,

Some of these cliché responses a can cause more harm than good when people are hurting.

Scripture does not give us easy answers,

but it may direct us to ask different, more helpful questions and provide comfort along the way.

What Scripture Says

Psalm 137 is a psalm of lament, as are approximately one third of all the psalms.

The Israelites have been sent out of their homeland (Jerusalem) after the ruin of their temple by the Babylonians.

They are living under enemy rule.

They are far from home, not knowing if or when they’ll ever return,

their captors taunt them asking them to sing songs.

These are real people, just like us.

Think about our congregation right now, post-pandemic.

We are uncertain too, as are many church congregations.

And we wonder if and when will we return to church as we once knew it.

When will people come back and begin to care for their sisters and brothers in Christ once again.

And society taunts us by giving people OTHER options to “happtiness” than Christian fellowship.

And we are haunted by memories that keep us locked in the past, afraid to move forward into the unknown.

And make no mistake, all of this can leave us feeling abandoned by God.

How could god let this happen to us, when we’ve been a faithful congregation and we are a part of God’s kingdom, a part of God’s chosen people.

First, some of you here and many others out in the world may have learned it is wrong to question or complain to God.

The presence of this psalm and others like it in scripture show that lament is a valid and expected response to suffering.

That’s right, GOD expects it!

It is not explained away or edited out of the story.

God can handle our anger and sorrow.

In fact, let’s look at verses 8-9 of the same Psalm we read today, where the author calls out of anger for revenge:

New Living Translation Psalm 137

O Babylon, you will be destroyed.

Happy is the one who pays you back

for what you have done to us.

9 Happy is the one who takes your babies

and smashes them against the rocks!

This shows the depth and brutal honesty of the pain being expressed.

The inclusion of this graphic verse does not mean God will answer this prayer for revenge

or that God condones the attitude of vengeance.

But God is able to bear even our most difficult emotions.

Next, I want you to notice the psalm does not even attempt to answer the question of why God’s chosen people are experiencing exile and oppression.

God is not depicted as a puppet master who pulls the strings to make good and bad things happen to people.

So, what does God do and what is God’s role in relation to human suffering?

We have to zoom out from this passage to see the bigger picture.

As God’s people face oppression and different challenges through their history, God is always there and faithful to them.

God cares when people suffer.

And God responds (though, not always in the way or on the timeline people might want).

We see an example of this pattern in the New Testament in John 11:23-44.

Mary and Martha are grieving their brother Lazarus’ death and tell Jesus if he had been there, Lazarus would not have died.

Jesus does not rebuke them for their sadness or for blaming him.

He joins them in their grief (see vs. 33-35).

Jesus, God with us, feels our pain with and alongside us.

Finally, God responds to people’s suffering.

In the case of Lazarus, Jesus raises him from the dead.

For the people of Israel in Babylonian captivity, they were eventually allowed to return to Jerusalem.

Eventually, the temple that had been destroyed was rebuilt (then, eventually, destroyed again in 70 CE).

The point is not that “everything will turn out well in the end,”

or that God will step in and reverse our pain and suffering.

Rather, God comes into our suffering and brings redemption and goodness out of the midst of it –

moments of love, meaning, hope, and so on.

Again, this doesn’t make it any less difficult or painful,

but God is there in it with us doing what only God can do amid tragedy

What This Means for You

I want to encourage you to reflect on where you stand with respect to God and your own or others’ suffering.

Do they believe you’re not supposed to be angry or question God?

Are you currently upset or doubting God’s goodness?

I want to be a help and a resource to help you find a space and permission to lament and grieve.

Instead of turning away from God in our suffering,

how can you learn to let God into it?

Also, you can be a listening ear,

a calming presence, and a sojourner of faith with others who are experiencing suffering.

We are called to be the heart, voice, hands and feet of Christ to people who lament, suffer and grieve.

What This Means for Us

What would it look like if we all spent less energy trying to answer the “why” or the “how could God” of what we’re going through

and put that energy into compassion (towards others and self)

and opening ourselves to the compassion that God wants to offer us amidst our suffering?

What would it look like for our church to be the proof for people in our community that God cares when people suffer?

Reflect on that, pray on it, and let us ACT on it together as God moves from where we are to where God is calling us to be. Amen? Amen.