The question of theodicy has always plagued us: Why does evil exist? How can a good God
allow bad things to happen— doesn’t that mean God is either not all-good
because he allows evil or not all-powerful because he cannot prevent it? Why
didn’t Jesus cure blindness itself rather than just heal a few random blind
people? Why didn’t he eradicate sickness, demonic possession, and evil once and
for all?
Clearly, answers to these questions are elusive. Rather, the question “What about us?”
is asked in order to hear it echoed through the ages, not just on the tongues
of the nameless individuals in the city of Capernaum at the time of Jesus, but
also as it has risen up from thousands of their ancestors in the two millennia
since. Indeed, the cry rises up still today.
I’ve never been a proponent of the saying “If it happened, it must be God’s will” or even
“Everything happens for a reason.” I have found that when I am looking for
words to speak to someone experiencing tragedy, neither one of these two
statements helps much, and they actually sound hollow even to my own ears. What
I do believe with all my heart and soul, however, is that God can take the
worst of what life presents— tragedy, violence, even sin—and transform it into
something else, something good. I believe that if we can traverse the agonizing
terrain of pain, sorrow, and doubt, we will come out on the other side of it.
The Christian story is based on this belief. We are a resurrection people,
believing that every Good Friday will lead to an Easter Sunday, that every tomb
will be emptied, that death is not the last word.
