The Grand Mystery

As I was reading The Brothers Karamazov I came across a passage that struck me as rather odd. Father Zossima is discussing his younger years and mentions his affection with the Book of Job. Father Zossima says that the Book of Job is the most beautiful book in all of scripture for in that book the mystery of God is greatest. In fact, he explains that even in his old age, after all his years in the church he is still moved to tears every time he reads or even thinks about the Book of Job.

What is this mystery? What is so great about this story? It seems as if it is mere tragedy that Job suffers so much. For what did he suffer? He is never told. The book seems to accuse God and make Job look like a fool for believing so strongly in God for no apparent reason. And after all this, after all Job goes through in the very least couldn’t God have given him an explanation?

As I think through these frustrations it comes to me at once: that is the grand mystery of Job. God does not explain why Job suffered because neither Job nor any of us would be able to understand this explanation. God’s ways are not our ways and they are in fact so far above our ways that they are beyond our comprehension. It would be like me watching Bobby Fischer play chess and criticizing him for a move and demanding that he explain himself for doing something that did not understand and in fact took to be stupid. How could explain his move to me? He is thinking sixty moves ahead and is aware of so much that I am ignorant of. It is foolish of me to demand an explanation for the explanation would be far beyond me.

And isn’t God far greater than Bobby Fischer? We weren’t there when He laid the foundations of the earth. We cannot comprehend how He holds all the molecules in the universe together. So how are we to understand what He is doing in our lives? Is there not far more at work than what we see and understand?

And yet, in our pride we demand God make an explanation for Himself. The ancients approached God as an accused before his judge. They understood their fallen nature and need for mercy. For the moderns the situation is reversed. We position ourselves as the judges of God. We demand that He explain suffering and evil in the world and only if we deem His explanation satisfactory will we accept Him.

Consider what James writes. He says that we should consider it pure joy whenever we face trials. In the midst of these trials we should not, in our pride, ask for understanding, demand that God explain Himself; rather we should ask God for wisdom on how we should proceed and act in the midst of our trials.

But explanation of suffering is what the world calls peace. It is a counterfeit of our peace. The world only finds peace after it has received an adequate explanation, but Paul says that true peace, the peace that we Christians have, is a peace that transcends understanding. We may be at peace even when we are unable to understand.

That is the beauty of the Book of Job. God never explained Job’s suffering to him, but He did comfort Job in the midst of his suffering. We too may not get an explanation of our suffering, but the wonderful thing is that we do not need an explanation. We may be at peace and comforted in the midst of suffering, even when we cannot understand why we suffer. What a grand mystery this is. Yes we will suffer just as the world suffers and yes we too will not always be able to understand why we suffer, but unlike the world we can be at peace even when faced with situations that surpass our understanding.