The Problem of Evil

Sermon Text || Seventh Sunday After Epiphany

I haven’t found any satisfying answers to the “problem of evil,” and I’m okay with that.

In my studies, one of the most frustrating subjects has been the problem of evil. I’ve read books, listened to podcasts, and watched debates, but I’ve never really heard something that made me say, “Ah, well that settles it.”

The Bible itself tends to offer more questions than answers. The Book of Job is the most exhaustive example of this. Half the book is dedicated to dismantling conventional explanations for Job’s suffering. In the second half, God shows up, demonstrates great power, basically says that we know way too little to be able to understand such things, but then vindicates Job by saying that his complaints were valid while his friend’s “defense” of God through appeals to conventional wisdom was invalid.

After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Job 42:7

Psalms and the prophets are filled with similar back and forth between God and man about the problem of evil. Specifically, the main question on people’s minds is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Later on in history, Jesus would offer us a deeper insight into the character of God by setting up the question, “Why do bad things happen at all?”

Here’s how he does it.

In Luke 6, Jesus said,

Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:35–36

The Most High is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. God loves his enemies. As Matthew has it, God causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the good and the bad.

So it’s not just that bad things happen to good people; it’s that bad things happen at all.

Habakkuk’s Question

Let’s turn for just a moment to the book of the twelve, the minor prophets.

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack, and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous; therefore judgment comes forth perverted. Habakkuk 1:2–4

Can you hear the pain the prophet’s voice? How many mothers of sick children have said these words? How many children of abusive parents have prayed this very thing at night? How many wars have gone by without someone saying this prayer? How many teachers have had this prayer in their hearts when they send home children to households with no food? How many families have prayed this prayer while they sat kneeling in what used to be their home before the fire or the water or the wind or the mud or the snow came?

As we read Habakkuk’s prayer, we may be tempted to quote Isaiah 59 where the Lord seems to answer this question, “See, the Lord’s arm is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”

But Habakkuk is part of the righteous, and the Lord definitely heard his prayer because he answered him.

So let’s not jump too quickly into the shoes of Job’s friends here.

Let’s sit with this question in silence for seven days.

One of the things that strikes me about Habakkuk here is one word prayer, “Violence!”

When there is a fire, we yell, “Fire!” When the there is a shark, we yell, “Shark!” When our child gets hurt, they cry, “Help!” Or the one that gets me, “Dada!”

There’s no need for explanation or extended commentary.

Habakkuk is so concerned with what’s unfolding before his eyes that a simple “Violence!” will do. It’s the cry of a child to his father. It’s the cry of someone who has no time for explanations.

Typically, when we hear someone cry “fire” or “help,” something within us takes over and we spring into action. We don’t make calculations, we don’t think, we don’t reason. We act.

Yet here, that’s not the response Habakkuk gets from God.

While they received relief from the Assyrians, as Nahum had just spoken of in the previous book, the victory Nahum foresaw never really came because Assyria was replaced by Babylon, and the temple would fall just twenty years after Nineveh.

The righteous perished along with the wicked.

What I Think God Would Do

So what’s to be done? What should God do?

Well if God really wanted to take my advice, here’s what I’d say.

God needs to become human for a few years to see how bad we’ve got it. If God really is Love, if God really is compassionate, if God really does care, then he would take on flesh, walk a few miles in our shoes, and see what it means to be human.

He would learn what it feels like to lose a best friend. He would feel the pain of losing his father and have to become the man of the house. He would have to feel rejection, hunger, pain, and death.

Then I think he would get it.

I can imagine it now. Can you?

Can you picture God becoming human and placing himself, not in a palace, but in war-torn province somewhere in the backcountry? A place nobody would expect?

I bet if God were to live like this as a child he wouldn’t be able to help but to go from town to town healing everyone oppressed by the devil. I bet thousands upon thousands would bring their sick and their blind and their lame to him.

I bet if he came across a crowd of several thousand people who hadn’t had any bread that he’d create them all lunch.

Man, if God did all this, can you imagine the trouble he’d cause for the people in charge? The kings, the authorities, the religious elite who preach a prosperity gospel? I bet he would have a few choice words to say to them, don’t you think?

But, if I’m being honest, I think this project would be short-lived because after God gets the attention of the higher-ups, they’d probably use propaganda to get the people to side against God and then kill him.

Once God really gets going, I bet he’d last three, four years tops.

At the end of his life, he may even end up asking the same questions Job and Habakkuk did. He may say something like, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death…”And then he would pray, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not what I want but what you want” (Matthew 26:38–39).

And why would this happen?

Because humans don’t want evil and suffering to end.

Humans Don’t Want Suffering to End

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a human, and I want suffering to end, and I bet you are a human and would ideally like suffering to end as well.

But think about this…

We hold elections, we create humanitarian organizations, churches spend money to help people, individuals give their lives to serving those who are in need, but we only make a dent in human suffering.

Why?

Well, John said it like this…

How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? 1 John 3:17

To change this from a question into a sentence…

Suffering, pain, poverty, hunger, and violence exist in the world because people have the means to help but refuse.

If we really wanted to, could our countries spend just a fraction less on war and put every dime towards healthcare and food for children? What if every billionaire took just a tenth of their wealth and contributed it towards cancer research or some other cause?

Or let’s do this another way…

What if a politician ran on the fruit of the Spirit? What if a politician stood up and said, “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4). What if someone running for President said, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets” (Luke 6:24–26).

Do you think a person like this could ever get elected? I don’t think so…not now at least.

Why?

Because we don’t actually care about getting rid of pain and suffering and hunger and disease.

If we did, we could, but we don’t, and this is evidenced by the people we continuously put up for election. And when people stand up who do, we crucify them, stone them, or put them into a deep, dark prison somewhere.

Or, maybe even worse, we turn them into saints so that people think their example is impossible to replicate “in the real world.”

This world is not hopeless. We’ve been given an example of ultimate compassion. We’ve been shown what it means to be a human being. We’ve been shown that it is possible to heal and to feed and to care for those who are less fortunate. This is what Jesus, the incarnate God, modeled for us.

But until our faith in Christ finds its way outside of our comfortable buildings and Sunday best, we won’t “be merciful, just as” our “Father is merciful.”

So why is there evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do bad things happen at all. Well, if you look in the mirror, you will see the problem, but if you look deep down into your heart, you will see the solution, for God did not say “Behold, it is very good!” in vain.

Lectionary Reading: February 23, 2025 - Seventh Sunday After Epiphany

Old Testament: Genesis 45:3-11, 15
Psalm: Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40
New Testament: 1 Corinthians 15:35-38
Gospel: Luke 6:27-38