The Pericope Adulterae
- Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery, by Guercino, 1621
A couple of weeks ago I read a column by Fr. Ron Rolheiser that really bothered me - The Problem of Suffering and Evil. I've been thinking about it ever since, trying to find a way, I guess, to prove him wrong.
Here's a little of what Fr. Rolheiser wrote ...
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How can there be an all-loving and an all-powerful God if there is so much suffering and evil in our world? Perhaps that is the most difficult religious question of all time. Why does God not act in the face of suffering? ........
Inside of Christian theology, Peter Kreeft, C.S. Lewis, and Teilhard de Chardin, among others, have written insightful books on this question. Christians believe that what is ultimately at stake is human freedom and God's respect for it. God gives us freedom and (unlike most everyone else) refuses to violate it, even when it would seem beneficial to do so. That leaves us in a lot of pain at times, but, as Jesus reveals, God is not so much a rescuing God as a redeeming one. God does not protect us from pain, but instead enters it and ultimately redeems it. That might sound simplistic in the face of real death and evil, but it is not. We see a powerful illustration of this in Jesus' reaction to the death of Lazarus. In essence, this is how the Gospels tell that story:
The sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, send a message to Jesus telling him that "the man you love" is gravely ill. Curiously though Jesus does not immediately rush off to see Lazarus. Instead he stays where he is for two more days, until Lazarus is dead, and then sets off to see him. When he arrives near the house, he is met by Martha who says to him: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died!" Basically her question is: "Where were you? Why didn't you come and heal him?" Jesus does not answer her question but instead assures her that Lazarus will live in some deeper way.
Martha then goes and calls her sister, Mary. When Mary arrives she repeats the identical words to Jesus that Martha had spoken: "If you had been here my brother would not have died!" However, coming out of Mary's mouth, these words mean something else, something deeper. Mary is asking the universal, timeless question about suffering and God's seeming absence. Her query ("Where were you when my brother died?") asks that question for everyone: Where is God when innocent people suffer? Where was God during the holocaust? Where is God when anyone's brother dies?
But, curiously, Jesus does not engage the question in theory; instead he becomes distressed and asks: "Where have you put him?" And when they offer to show him, he begins to weep. His answer to suffering: He enters into peoples' helplessness and pain. Afterwards, he raises Lazarus from the dead.
And what we see here will occur in the same way between Jesus and his Father. The Father does not save Jesus from death on the cross even when he is jeered and mocked there. Instead the Father allows him to die on the cross and then raises him up afterwards ......
And what we see here will occur in the same way between Jesus and his Father. The Father does not save Jesus from death on the cross even when he is jeered and mocked there. Instead the Father allows him to die on the cross and then raises him up afterwards .....
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I gave what Fr. Rolheiser wrote a lot of thought because I have a serious emotional investment in believing Jesus/God does intervene. I mulled it over each night and I almost gave up finding an instance of intervention, remebering times in the NT where Jesus came on the scene after the bad thing had happened to someone, and restoring then them. But then I thought of the story of the adulteress in John's gospel (I know that passage is thought to be an add-on and not part of the original text, but it's the only instance I could think of, so I'm not giving up on it).
John 7:53-8:11, the Pericope Adulterae, describes a confrontation between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees over whether a woman, caught in an act of adultery, ought to be stoned. Jesus acts, he intervenes, and keeps the stoning from taking place, rather than standing aside, letting it occur in all its "free-will-ness", and then raising her from the dead afterwards, like he did with Lazarus.
So to those who think God doesn't intervene, I quote the Dude from the Big Lebowski ..... "That's just like your opinion man." :)
OK, maybe I should give some time to figuring out why it's so important to me that God does intervene and make bad things right, rather than letting the bad things happen and somehow redeeming things after the fact, but I doubt knowing why will change my feelings.
posted by crystal | 12:14 PM
17 Comments:
I think part of the difference with the story of Jesus with the adulterous woman is simply this: the men that brought her to Him wanted Him to make the decision, therefore He was able to intervene in her life. If we go to God and allow Him to make the decision, He can do the same for us too. The question then is whether or not we are willing to let Him have so much control over our lives ;)
Hi Dyan,
That's interesting about the men asking Jesus to make a decision - he decided to do something. Lazarus' sisters sent a messenger to ask Jesus to come and heal their brother, but he chose not to.
Usually when I ask God to help, I give him detailed instructions on just how to do it :) It's only when I'm really desperate that I tell him he can fix it however he wants to.
But I get the feeling Fr. Rolheiser thinks he just doesn't get intervene at all aside from emotional sharing. I so much don't want that to be true.
I kind a like the last paragraph of The Problem with Suffering and Evil by Fr. Ron Rolheiser where he tells us in so many words that sharing our helplessness, our distress, our tears and I believe that Jesus would want us to share so much more of our Suffering and Evil with no attempt to try to explain God’s seeming absence, but rather a trusting that, because God is all-loving and all-powerful, in the end all will be well and our pain will someday be redeemed in God’s Embrace and that would certainly make us all feel better, would it not?
Crystal, I don’t know how you really feel but it certainly answered all the problems that I have with Suffering and Evil. When someone still hurts me in ways that are usually not wise to mention because we all have free will, I simply give all of my helplessness, distress and blindly go on believing that God will never abandon me. You know what Crystal, God always tells me more, more and more which on occasion literally brings me to tears cause I know that I won’t be believed if I tell and why should I be?
We could all go on and on hurting each other but what good would “IT” do?
God Bless,
Peace :)
Victor,
I think you're right about the trusting and the worth of having God share our distress. But I'm not by nature very trusting and I've noticed I do all I can to avoid suffering. Maybe everything will be made right after we are dead, but I don't understand what that means about the suffering that does happen to us while we are here.
Yes, Jesus was asked to do something about Lazarus too . . . and the outcome of His decision was WAY cooler to behold than just another healing, don't you think? I agree with you - I don't want (and don't believe) what Fr. Rolheiser thinks is true to be true - too many examples in my own life. Recently something happened to me that I just need to share: my 4 year old daughter was sick and I was having fears during the night that she would die. I kept telling myself I was being ridiculous, etc. but the thoughts and fears wouldn't leave. finally I turned to God for comfort and help and He said to me, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." That's all I heard and yet the peace I received from simply being reminded of our hope as Christians was amazing! Of course my daughter recovered (just the flu) but I really needed that peace from God. He's SO good to us! We just need to let Him work in our lives.
Dyan,
I'm glad your daughter got better :)
I guess my cat Kermit is as close as I'll get to having a child. She is very sick with kidney disease and other problems, and I'm afraid she won't be around much longer. I don't know if pets go to heaven, but even if they do, when I watch her suffer, it makes me so sad and angry.
Dearest Crystal
Don't fret about your beloved cat. Remember, until recently unbaptized children didn't get to go to heaven! We can't get to Denver if the only maps we have are of Sacramento - printed in 1963. Our window of understanding is so abysmally small. We can't see the entire world through our window, just a bit of our own yard! The recipe for striving toward GOD - The Divine - Great Mysterious - The Story - is one part understanding to ten parts trust. In Christ it's not that we don't go through suffering, but that we don't go through it alone.
Crystal,
I'm sorry that Kermit isn't doing so well.
I just finished Bart Ehrman's book God's Problem not too long ago. I felt so sorry for him, the way he'd lost his faith struggling with the enormity of evil and with God's silence and inaction in the face of it.
I agree with him that the free will argument (and if fact, most arguments) don't satisfy the question. I don't think there is an answer to it that we can fully comprehend. It may make it tough to believe in a loving God, but what is the alternative? Nothing but an abyss... St Paul seemed to realize that because the incarnate Jesus had suffered so, that our suffering must be somehow united to his in a redemptive fashion. As Paul says in Romans 8 18-25:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
I think all we can do is to recognize that for whatever reason or other, the world is essentially good but also seriously flawed somehow, and that we must trust in a loving and benevolent God to put it all to rights someday, somehow, here or elsewhere.
I don't want to believe anything else, because if the world is just the product of a blind watchmaker, in a cold and impersonal universe, the roll of the dice came up too cruelly.
Hi Steve,
We can't get to Denver if the only maps we have are of Sacramento - printed in 1963.
Heh :)
I'm trying to appreciate that God keeps us company in our suffering, but sometimes that just doesn't seem like enough.
Jeff,
I think I posted something about Bart's book when it came out. I guess he ended up not believing in God anymore because he couldn't resolve the problem of evil with a good God?
I'm like you - even though I can't resolve the problem, I don't want to give up on God. The alternative is just too bleak and empty. But, having said that, I'm still really mad at God, I guess, and keep wanting him to come up with a better plan.
I guess he ended up not believing in God anymore because he couldn't resolve the problem of evil with a good God?
He's not an atheist now, but he did go from being a fervent evangelical to becoming an agnostic.
Hi Crystal,
I totally understand how you feel about Kermit. We have a small dog that we almost lost last year due to a serious illness. I was crying so hard, my husband had to take over dealing with the situation. It seems so silly to some people but our animals become real family members that we love and when you love there's pain involved too!
I like what Steve and Jeff posted! It's okay to feel sad and angry - God gave us our emotions too! I go to God when I'm angry about something - even if it's directed at Him. He's big enough to handle our anger, He just wants us to trust Him even when we don't understand. Proverbs 3:5-6
Thanks, Dyan. It's still hard for me to be mad at God - keep waiting to get turned into a pillar of salt :)
Hee Hee! I know what you mean ;) Good thing He sees us through Christ!
Crystal,
Some Bible passages to provide food for thought:
"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." [Hebrews 12:7-11]
"Trials of every sort come to us, but we are not discouraged. We are left without answer, but do not despair; persecuted but not abandoned, knowcked down but not crushed. ... For we, the living, are given up continually to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may appear in our mortal existence. ... Therefore we are not discouraged. On the contrary, while our outer being wastes away, the inner self is renewed from day to day. The slight affliction which quickly passes away prepares us for an eternal wealth of glory so great and beyond all comparison." [2 Cor 4:8-9,11,16-17]
I think it is all about our attitude. That difference that Paul describes... suffering but not discouraged, our questions left unanswered but we don't despair, our inner selves renewed while our outer selves waste away... that difference depends a lot on us and the attitude we take. If we submit to the suffering, if we accept it - not as if we are resigned to our own worthlessness in God's eyes, but in real and difficult trust of God's love - then the suffering becomes bearable and sometimes even an opportunity for joy.
But sometimes God doesn't want us to surrender to suffering; sometimes he wants us to fight it like the evil it is. Did he not heal everyone who came to him, and command his disciples to heal in his name?
God bless,
Anna
comment and the scripture passages. I have to admit, I think all suffering is bad and the idea of God as a dispensor of tough love creeps me out. But I know that a lot of people feel differently about it and do find suffering redemptive. Probably my attitude has a lot to do with my own personal baggage .... I'm working on it :)
Crystal,
I was sorting through my email inbox today and came across a notification for the last response you had posted to this thread.
I also happened to write this today on my blog. It seemed related, somewhat, so I thought I would offer it to you.
God bless,
Anna
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