The Sufferers' Questions

My wife and I had a brief conversation with a good friend at Church yesterday as we passed in the hall. He and his wonderful wife are going through a very difficult experience as they watch their son suffer through a heart-wrenching divorce. My friend expressed to us essentially this question through tears, “Why do people have to be so mean?” His son, desperate to maintain some custody of his little girl who was unexpectedly taken from him when his son's wife unexpectedly left with the baby, is the brunt of false accusations and entangled in a legal battle due to no fault of his own. My friend’s question represents the anguish of so many good people who suffer or watch loved ones suffer despite their faithfulness, waiting for the Lord’s hand to be manifest in their lives. His question reminds me of that of Amulek who also suffered immensely watching the torment of others: “How can we witness this awful scene?” (Alma 14:10) The Prophet Joseph, suffering not just because the conditions in Liberty Jail were terrible for himself but because he knew the Saints outside the jail had been killed and raped and beaten and driven from their homes in the dead of winter, also questioned: “O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:3) These deep, yearning questions also remind me of the anguished questions of Enoch who beheld in vision the wickedness of the children of men and their future destruction in the floods: “And it came to pass that Enoch looked; and from Noah, he beheld all the families of the earth; and he cried unto the Lord, saying: When shall the day of the Lord come? When shall the blood of the Righteous be shed, that all they that mourn may be sanctified and have eternal life?” Enoch then heard the earth itself, suffering under the wickedness of the children of men, also express pleading questions: “I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?” (Moses 7:45, 48) So many who suffer, even while holding on to faith and righteousness, likewise plead to know from the Lord: “When shall I rest?” When will these trials end?  

Perhaps the sufferer’s question most powerful of all in scripture is that posed by the Savior Himself when indeed the blood of that Righteous was shed as Enoch foresaw: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” Matthew translated this for us as “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) It is perhaps fitting that this question would be recorded for us in another language that we do not understand, underlying the fact that we cannot comprehend His suffering and nor do we really understand the suffering of others. But the Savior experienced His and understands all of our anguish. The Savior’s suffering during that fateful week should leave us all with great hope, though, that no matter what the trial we face, the suffering will come to an end in His time and through His power. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin powerfully spoke of the Savior’s experience on Friday—the day He would wonder why He was forsaken—and taught us this: “On that Friday the Savior of mankind was humiliated and bruised, abused and reviled. It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow that gnawed at the souls of those who loved and honored the Son of God. I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest. But the doom of that day did not endure. The despair did not linger, because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind. And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried. The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as the firstfruits of the Resurrection, the proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.” He then bore this powerful witness to each of us: “Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.”  

Whatever our questions of suffering are—and we are not shallow or lacking faith to ask them in the anguish of our hearts—we can look to the Savior trusting that our Sunday will indeed come. To Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail as he questioned, the Lord gave this answer to him and all of us: “Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever” (Doctrine and Covenants 122:9). With Amulek we may question why some must experience such awful things, and with Joseph we may yearn to know how long the righteous have to suffer, and with Enoch we might plead to comprehend when the wickedness around us will end, and with my friend we may long to understand when the world won’t be such a cruel place for us and our loved ones anymore. No matter what our suffering questions are, we can find hope and strength and power through Jesus Christ as we trust in the assurance of a future Sunday where these questions will all be resolved. And we can cling continually to His words to all the faithful: “Fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.”