The Wine Of Suffering

Suffering forces us to contemplate God in a way that is foreign to human understanding.  We are creatures who conceptualize things in a "cause and effect" paradigm.  We observe, we take in the data, we formulate an assessment of the data based on former experiences, human perception, and human assumptions.  We postulate, we pontificate, we presume, we presuppose.  We assess, we ascertain, we assimilate, we ascribe.  And the concept of suffering comes lumbering into our china cabinet of attribution and proceeds to shatter our fragile collection of conclusions.  Oceans of ink have been spilled over the course of our existence in an attempt to explain suffering.  Countless tears have spilled down countless cheeks in frustration, woe, confusion, and disconsolation over the concept of human suffering.  Why must we suffer?  Why does God allow it?  And the simplest conclusion I can come up with is that grapes have to be crushed to make wine.

When making wine, you are not just dealing with the juice from the grapes.  You are also dealing with the pulp, skin and fiber that make up the grape because every part of the grape is needed to provide body, color, and depth of flavor to the wine.  Without them, you would just have clear grape juice with minimal quality.  Crushing the grapes bursts the skins so that everything that is inside can be exposed and properly processed.  Once the grapes are crushed, they sit still and ferment for a short time, and then they are put into a wine press.  The crushed grape solids are pressed under great pressure to extract even more juice.  This can be done by hand, but you cannot get nearly as much juice from the pulp as a wine press can.

The notion that God would want to crush us like grapes to expose our weaknesses, and then unrelentingly press us into further extraction can be quite disconcerting to our human reason.  Like making wine from grapes, the crushing and pressing effect of suffering can be both destructive and productive at the same time.  Suffering can expose the ugliness that remains in our own heart, causing us to lash out at those closest to us, destroying friendships and relationships.  But it can also bring us to a place of sweet surrender in a way that helps us see what is truly important in life.  It can cause us to act in ways in which we will have to later ask for forgiveness, yet it can also cause us to see clearly all the ways in which we should forgive.  Like grapes, suffering can be both bitter and sweet. 

However, the fact of the matter still remains:  suffering exposes our weaknesses in a way that nothing else can.  If you want to see the true heart of a person, observe how they react to suffering.  Suffering strips us of everything and then ties our hands behind our back and taunts us-- daring us to respond.  When we suffer, we do it naked and exposed.  Suffering brings us into a chasm of vulnerability that we cannot traverse in our own strength, nor reach the other side by our own reason.  It breaks us down and then breaks us in half and then stomps us into pieces.  Nothing, and I do mean nothing, can reach the inner sanctum of the human heart like suffering can.  It is a sword with a driving force of incalculable power, piercing through layer after layer of vanity, ignorance, rebellion, anger, bitterness, and pride.  Perhaps that is why God allows it.  Perhaps, that is why those whom He loves the most, He allows to suffer the most.  That is what we see when we look at the suffering of Jesus Christ.  If God's love for us is measured by our suffering, then we can clearly see the degree of His love for His own Son. 

This simply does not make sense to us.  We cannot make sense of a God who metes out love through suffering, but that is what we find when we look at Scripture, and this simply does not compute in our human perceptions.  My purpose for writing this post is not to give a definitive answer about suffering because I do not think that one exists.  If you are looking for an answer as to why the innocent and guilty suffer alike, I do not have one for you.  I can only look at suffering honestly, and bring you along the journey of contemplation that so many others have tread before me.  And when we take a good, honest look at suffering, we are forced to wrestle with God in a way that we otherwise wouldn't.  Who is this God?  How can I understand Him?  What is He like?  These are the questions we must contemplate because we are creatures whose purpose is to reflect His image, and we can't do that unless we can see that image clearly.

For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit. (1 Pet 3:17,18)

How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps. (1 Pet 2:20,21)

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not...we all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. (Is 53:3,6,7)

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them from them all. (Ps 34:17-19)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit. (Ps 147:3-5)