Why Suffering? by Randall Smith

Many of us know that we’re supposed to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Christ.  We might also know that Christ, although He is the Son of God and the Son of Man, the great messianic figure prophesied in Daniel (7:13-14), is also the “Suffering Servant,” whose sufferings bring about our redemption, described in four “servant songs” in Isaiah. (42:1 – 53:12)

Knowing all this, we might still wonder: Why must we suffer?  The large number of dead in the flash-flooding in Texas, where I live, for instance, raises the question anew. Why?

We don’t want to turn Christianity into a cult of suffering – suffering for its own sake in a church for those “tough enough to take it.” There are many things admirable about the Stoics, but a theology based on a Savior who weeps at the death of a friend and whose chief act is called “the Passion” is not, at heart, Stoic. …