Job, Jesus and suffering

Christmas has never been my absolute favourite time of year. At one level, it's because Christmas—and the month leading up to it—is always ridiculously stressful. It's the season of having to brave the crowds at the shopping mall in order to find that perfect gift, scrabbling together the annual newsletter and writing in all those cards, and attending the seemingly never-ending whirligig of office parties, end-of-year dinners and carol services.

But it's more than that. Christmas is also the season when things that we wish would stay buried rise to the surface. Relatives come together to celebrate, but cannot last an hour without sniping at each other. Simmering tensions between husbands and wives erupt into open conflict. Children grieve the break up of their families, the bereaved mourn absent loved ones and the depressed contemplate suicide.

But it's even more than that. Christmas is supposed to be the season of good cheer—of peace on earth and goodwill towards all men. Yet behind the Santa suits, tinsel and fake snow, there's a weight of human suffering that borders upon overwhelming: war, sickness, natural disasters, murder, rape, poverty, relationship breakdown ... the list goes on. This side of Jesus' return, suffering is inevitable: to live is to suffer.

So what better subject for this Christmas Briefing than suffering and the problem of evil? Rob Smith teaches us some lessons he's gleaned from Jesus and Job about how to think about the issue, and Eddie Larkman shares his testimony about his own struggles. In addition, we present an insightful interview about evangelical ethics with Oliver O'Donovan, Professor of Christian Ethics at Edinburgh School of Divinity (which appeared in our podcast last month), and finish with some lovely poems by David Hastie which remind those of us who suffer to take refuge in Jesus, the Lord of all. KB

Couldn't Help Noticing

• Thanklessness and thankfulness
• When it's just not working
• Sometimes answering back does no good
• Christmas books for children

• WordWatch: Incarnate—Kel Richards gets into the meat of this doctrine.

Bookshelf

• A Clear and Present Word—Gordon Cheng explains why Mark Thompson thinks we can know God through his word.

Resource Talk

• Giving ourselves—Tony Payne reflects on giving away his most precious possession this Christmas.

Suffering

• What Job and Jesus teach us about suffering—Rob Smith shares some lessons he's gleaned from the Bible.
• The perfect gift of right now—Eddie Larkman shows us that how we suffer depends entirely on us.

Ethics

• The mystery of our time: An interview with Oliver O'Donovan—Tony Payne speaks to one of the world's leading Christian ethicists about ethics, politics, evangelism, the Bible, and the mystery that is the time we live in.

Pastor's Brief

• What hearers want—Jon Guyer helps preachers listen in to what their congregation is thinking.

Bible Brief

• 1 Kings 1-11— 20 daily Bible readings by Jason Ramsay.

Epilogue

• Poems—David Hastie reminds those of us who suffer to take refuge in Jesus, the Lord of all.

The Longing

Stuff that didn't quite make it into The Briefing:

• Living with grief: A personal journey—Hugh Begbie shares his reflections on suffering.

The Briefing Library

Recent additions to our online archives:

• Top Shelf: Suffering (Review)—Michael Hill (Briefing #135)
• Making sense of disaster—Andrew Lansdown (Briefing #255)
• Why ministry is hard: The suffering minister—Gordon Cheng (Briefing #290)