Job 23:1-9

Then Job answered:

² “Today also my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
³ Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
⁴ I would lay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
⁵ I would learn what he would answer me
and understand what he would say to me.
⁶ Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No, but he would give heed to me.
⁷ There the upright could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.

⁸ “If I go forward, he is not there;
or backward, I cannot perceive him;
⁹ on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;
I turn^[c] to the right, but I cannot see him.

Mark 10:17-22

¹⁷ As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” ²⁰ He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” ²¹ Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money^[d] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” ²² When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

In Humility, Returning to God

The miracle is that we are here at all. Nothing is separate. Everything is connected, unified in God. The problem is when we lose this connection–when we feel separate–then we suffer.

In general, the Christian path goes from separation to union with God. Following Christ’s example, we move from suffering to return to God. We are healed in Christ: healed of our separation from God, healed of our suffering and isolation, so that we return to God, and to the fullness and the peace that is the experience of God, the experience of eternal life in God.

The Story of Job

If you have ever been devastated, I mean, if you have ever experienced a major catastrophe in your life, when something happens that completely changes your life, then you will be able to relate to the Book of Job. Job is a story about catastrophe, endurance, faith, and humility. It’s a story about a man’s adventure into humility. Despite all his ordeals, Job never curses God, but he becomes humble.

Job is one of the Old Testament wisdom books. The story deals with the question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The story is set up as a wager, a bet between God and Satan. God and Satan are talking, and God says, “Hey, have you heard about my man Job? He is such a great man. There is no one like him on earth. He is blameless and upright. He fears God and turns away from evil.”

And Satan says, “Well of course he is blameless and upright. It’s easy for him to be loyal to you. What problems does he have? None? He’s got it made. He lives in a bubble. You put a fence around him so that nothing bad can ever happen to him.” And then, Satan challenges God: “Stretch out your hand now and touch all that Job has, and he will curse you to your face.” And God takes the bet.

Then, the bad news starts to arrive. By chapter three, Job loses everything– his family, wealth, home, health, status, everything: all gone. Job finds himself devastated. At rock bottom, he sits down in a pile of ashes and scrapes the sores off his arms with an old broken piece of pottery. His wife looks at him and says, “Curse God and die.”

But Job does not curse God, and he does not die. He is devastated by catastrophe, but he does not lose his dignity or his faith. Everything else is taken away, but these things cannot be taken away. Job’s friends, so-called friends, attempt to convince him that it’s all his fault, that he did something wrong, and that God is punishing him. But Job is not convinced. He knows he did nothing wrong. He is blameless, and his suffering is unmerited. He did not do anything to deserve the catastrophic loss. It just happened. In our reading today, Job searches for God, but can’t find him:

Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
⁴ I would lay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁸ “If I go forward, he is not there;
or backward, I cannot perceive him;
⁹ on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;
I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.

Certainly, there are times in life when we can all relate to Job’s search for God.

Bad things happen. And as much as we struggle to find a reason, as much as we want to blame someone or something, often there is no reason, and there is no one to blame. And so, we can only accept.

And this is very difficult. To accept is very difficult.

Finally, at the end of the story, God appears to Job, and instead of offering some kind of apology or explanation, God tells Job he didn’t do anything wrong, but he needs to know his place in the larger scheme of things. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place?” God asks Job. Through all of this, Job becomes humble, and he accepts God’s will and purpose. “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted,” Job says to God.

The Rich Man

The story in Mark 10 is the opposite of Job. While Job becomes humble, the rich man does not. In the story, the man asks Jesus, “What must I do to gain eternal life?” The man is wealthy. He has everything, and yet he is still unhappy. He has not yet found peace.

Jesus tells him, “You lack something. You have everything, and yet, you lack something.” What does the man lack? He lacks something that is keeping him from experiencing eternal life, keeping him separated from God. The man is separated from God, he knows it, he feels it, and he is suffering because of it.

What does he lack? He lacks humility. But he is unwilling to take on suffering, unwilling to be humbled through suffering. So, he simply walks away.

When we are separated from God, we are separated from the source of eternal life, and this is the cause of great suffering. To be isolated, cut-off, alienated from life and from God: this is suffering.

The rich man needs to find humility before he can find eternal life. But the man in Mark 10 fails. He walks away. Christ gives him the teaching he needs, but the man is unwilling to accept it. In this case, the man lacks humility. But he is unwilling to give up his ego attachments to wealth and status.

Sometimes, to heal, more suffering is needed.

The rich man is attached to wealth and the status and power that wealth affords. But he is still unhappy because he is arrogant. He thinks he is better than others. And he is stingy. He is not generous. And because of this, he is separated from God. He is unwilling to do the thing he needs to do for salvation, to humble himself before God, to open his heart, develop compassion, lovingkindness, generosity, and especially, humility. And so, he cannot experience eternal life because his pride and attachment, stinginess and greed, keep him separated from God.

Separation from God, separation from life in God, is our basic human problem. When one is separated from God, one suffers because one is cut off from the source of life itself. This is the experience of being isolated and alone, disconnected from all that is living. This disconnection is felt in all our relationships.

The cause of all human problems in the world today, for example, the suffering of war: in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, and now, in Lebanon is separation: pride, arrogance, hatred, greed, killing, revenge, more killing, more revenge, this is the endless cycle of suffering, and all of it, the whole thing, is separation from God, and separation from life in God. Lack of humility. Lack of generosity. In other words: Hell.

Hell is complete separation from God.

There are many kinds of suffering, many levels of suffering, but Hell is the most complete, the most absolute separation from God.

In conclusion, the readings today invite us to consider suffering, and how we respond to suffering. Ultimately, suffering shows us our place. Our suffering humbles us. It is through suffering that we are humbled.

Suffering breaks us down. It makes us real. It connects us to others. It gives us compassion for others who suffer, so that we can enter the Kingdom of heaven, so that we can have eternal life, the life in God, the life of grace, the living water, the life that is right here and right now, so that we can see the goodness of life, and appreciate the goodness.

Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Why do catastrophes happen? Because they do. There are things we simply must accept, because we have no choice. And yet, in this acceptance, there is healing. The miracle is that we are here at all. Suffering makes us realize humility by forcing us to see how small and insignificant we are. This is what Job realizes. The Christian path we follow is a path through suffering, through the cross, that leads, in humility, to the wisdom and peace of salvation. May it be so for us today. Amen? Amen.