“There Was Once…”
In the gospel of Mark today, Jesus is asked (by the Pharisees) a question of law. It’s a tough question – a question about divorce – to test him. “Is it lawful…” But Jesus turns their question about divorce into a lesson about God. What God has done, human beings like us cannot undo or change.
And when his disciples grumbled about the children people were bringing to him for a blessing, he turned that into a lesson about God as well. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” God's kingdom is for all who come, seeking to be blessed by God. The kingdom – God present in their lives – is theirs. It is a gift. And because of God’s radical hospitality – everyone is received, all are honored. God welcomes us all.
Jesus tells his disciples, “Unless you receive the kingdom like a child, you will never enter it (even though it is right here).” Imagine the looks on their faces and the thoughts running through their minds when “he took the children up into his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” Do you suppose seeing that, they too gathered in close around him, to be held in his arms (if only in their minds) to receive his blessing?
There is nothing in Mark that would suggest Jesus told the children a story that day. Yet I can imagine Jesus doing that very thing, especially with all those children gathered around him. And I can imagine that if he did have a story for them (with another lesson about God), he probably began with words something like, “There was once… ”
The book of Job starts out that way, “There was once… ”
“There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who (was amazed by) God and turned away from evil.” (Job 1:1)
Now if anyone could be close to God it probably would have to be someone like Job, right? Someone who has never done anything wrong, someone who has always been good, someone who has always was in awe of God, amazed at what God can do, someone who has never hated anyone.
Job’s story is offered as a thoughtful/ethical/theological exchange of ideas, and in this story we are invited to see our world and ourselves in conversation with the various characters. It is a story that, on the surface, seems to be about the ‘cause and effect’ of suffering – why does suffering take place and who is responsible for what is happening. When things go wrong in our lives, it is only natural to want to know why. Maybe if we knew why, we could deal with it easier or maybe we could keep it from happening again. Yet think about Job’s question of his friends when he says, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”
This is what the story of Job is really about - how do we reconcile suffering and faith? Job’s wife asks later in chapter 2, “"Do you still persist in your integrity?" After all this, do you still believe what you did, do you still honor God?
The story of Job very definitely raises questions about the traditional theology of his day, a theology based on the practice of piety and the belief of divine retribution. In other words, the story of Job reveals that a life of ‘right living’ does not protect us from suffering or bad things happening to us. Job not only speaks to the thinking of his day, but to a dominant understanding of evangelical Christianity today — namely the so-called "prosperity gospel" - which can be misleading when it comes to an understanding of the real nature of God.
The idea of God blessing the faithful, rewarding the righteous with what they deserve, and reigning down pain and suffering on those out of sync with God is rejected outright by Job. It is rejected in his life – in the struggles of a genuinely "blameless and upright" man – and in his response – to both his wife and to his situation. “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” Job asks.
Of course, the answer is we shall – as part of life – receive both the good AND the bad. Job's question helps in our understanding because it anticipates and sort of sets up his struggle with suffering and faith, and his attempt to maintain faith in the midst of a struggle to which we also are invited. The important thing to note here is that these struggles result from a genuine and life-giving relationship with God. They are not signs of our sinfulness or faithlessness, period. And the story of Job bears that out.
“There was once… a man named Job. ” Over the next several weeks we will struggle with Job as he attempts to reconcile his suffering and faith. And in doing so, I hope we can all gain a better understanding of the suffering we experience in life, as well as a better understanding of God. During that time, we will hear Job’s “bitter complaint” to God; hear a little bit of God’s response and finally witness Job’s restoration. Job’s story is our story, or at least it could be.
Perhaps for us, the lesson today (and the good news) is: “What is impossible for us to earn, IS possible for God to give – a relationship and our being close to God.”
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