We had a lively discussion last Wednesday evening in the Social Hall. “Bread and Bible” was in session for Lenten Wednesdays, and we were reading the opening of the book of Job.

We questioned why that faithful, observant man was so afflicted by the Adversary (Ha-Satan), and why God would allow such a thing to take place. We reflected on situations in our lives, and in the lives of those we love, where suffering and sorrow touched souls that seemed so good, so blameless.

We asked the question so many ask: what did Job, or any sufferer, do to deserve such punishment? In the ensuing chapters, Job is joined by three friends, then a fourth, and they all try to establish what Job did wrong… because he surely must have done something. Right?

In our gospel text for Sunday, March 2nd, John 9:1-41, Jesus encounters a man who is blind from birth. His disciples ask him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” They ask, in essence, the same question Job’s accusers ask.

We want a reason, don’t we? We want to understand, we want to be able to say, this happened because … We want to understand what we have to do or not do so that the bad thing, the unexpected thing, the unbearable thing, will not come near us.

This is a question from Holy Friday. How could God send Jesus to die on a cross?

Easter morning and the empty tomb do not directly reveal an answer. Not for Job, not for the man born blind, not even for Jesus. What we find in the empty tomb, what we receive in the risen Christ, is rather a promise: death has no power over you.

As I visit a person in hospital who is so sick, so bound up with medical machinery that I can barely reach his side to touch his feverish brow with the sign of the cross; as I pray for a family whose infant child has died inexplicably; I want to ask Job’s question.

But the gift, the bread of life I have to share, is that promise we receive on Easter morning. The promise is not that we will not know hardship, or illness, or despair. The promise is that God will have the last word, no matter what the Adversary may do. He is risen! Alleluia!

Pr. Parsons