Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do bad things happen to good people? I imagine this question has been asked since the beginning of human life. I can picture the earliest humans wondering why a child died, or a flood killed, or a village succumbed to the plague.

Today, when a superstorm hits the east coast, or a hurricane drowns New Orleans, or a tsunami overcomes coastlines, or cancer claims one we love ... we ask the same question.

Our answers to this question have a lasting effect on our love for God (or lack of love) and our trust and belief in God.

There is an answer that I find unhelpful. It is that God is punishing that person, or town, or country because of the sins found in those places. Think this one through ... who among us is without sin? Who among us could claim a righteousness above the baby who died in Katrina, or the child ripped from her mother's arms in the tsunami, or a 2 year old hit with a neuroblastoma, or the 80 year old who died in the superstorm? I know I couldn't claim such goodness, such righteousness!

So, what might I make of it? Here is a musing ...

We live in a world that is loved by God (remember in the creation story where God says what he has created is good, and, humans beings are very good?)

Yet, this world shows many signs of being out-of-whack with God's intentions. Why?

Scripture (Revelation 12) tells us that a rebellious being (one less than God), a "dragon" also called the "deceiver of the whole world" and the dragon's angels were thrown down to earth. This dragon is also called Satan and the Devil.

It is this dragon, this devil and his/her angels, that are living here on earth and causing havoc and destruction on the earth. They are working to establish control in our lives and thoughts. 

Now I don't think there is a guy running around in a red suit, with a tail and a pitchfork. But, this depiction is symbolic of the reality that we live in a world that is at war with God's intentions.

That is why bad things happen to good people. That is why every living thing dies. 

But, God has an answer ... Jesus!  Jesus coming to earth in human flesh, living and dying, and conquering death is a sign that God's intention for this world and for you and me cannot be defeated. Revelation speaks of a new heaven and a new earth, coming down out of heaven. In this place will be perfect peace and harmony and love.

On this earth we experience the power of evil. In Christ we are promised that this evil will not have the final say! 

Jesus' death and resurrection is our promise that God has the victory over all that the world (or the devil, if you will) might throw at us. We have a hope and a promise that because Jesus has lived and died and is risen from the dead, we too will have a new life!

That is Good News. 

And this Good News has a "social ethic" as well. As God's people, we are called to join the fight against all those things that ruin the goodness of God's creation.

For a little more about this type of issue you might want to read the blog called "Shocking." 

Pastor Dave Anderson