Suffering and Christian Hope: III. Where is My Hope?

Where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?
–Job 17:15-16

Job is my favourite character in the Bible, because he has something that I admire but lack, namely, perfect moral integrity. He is someone who can stand before the judgment seat and challenge the justice of God, for though he is blameless, he has endured the worst sufferings that any human being could bear. By contrast, I cannot rightly challenge divine justice, because most, if not all, of my sufferings are caused by my own failings and follies.

The Paradox of Despair

I distinctly remember the times in my life when I despair of myself. There was the time when I was fresh out of graduate school, unable to find a job, penniless and living on the support of family and friends, when I constantly wished I were someone else, anyone I met in the street, rather than myself; there was the time when I felt I was having a nightmare, and wished I could somehow wake up from the dismal reality; many times I become so overwhelmed by my own failings, that it seems better if I ceased to exist, for then those failings would disappear too. (“So cure the disease, and kill the patient”, as Francis Bacon put it.) I thought about suicide. But another thought held me back, “What’s the point of suicide? You’re already dead. Why not try living for a change?”

Paradoxically, what caused me to despair and what kept me from utter despair is one and the same: the presence of the Good. On the one hand, I can’t help but be aware of the presence of beauty in nature, and of the presence of goodness and beauty in the people around me; On the other hand, I’m keenly aware of the lack of goodness in myself. “In humility regard others as better than yourselves.” In my case, it is self-evidently true. No humility required.

Hope is neither existent nor non-existent. It is like the footpaths on earth. There were originally no footpaths in the world, when the number of people who journey increased, footpaths came into being.
–Lu Xun

The Christian Hope

From an existential perspective, hope, like faith and love, is an act of choice. It doesn’t exist unless and until we choose and act on it. And, to hope presupposes an object of hope, just as there must be objects of faith and of love. The presence of Good makes hope a possibility, and choice of the Good makes it a reality. Every moment, every day, we have a choice between despair and hope.

The Scripture speaks of Gentiles as “having no hope and without God in the world”, suggesting that God is the only true ground of hope for man. For God alone is Good, and every good and perfect gift is from Him. There was no hope for the Gentiles, for the road to God was non-existent. Jesus, who is the Way, has become both forerunner and guide, the One who has journeyed ahead of us, and is now leading us into the presence of God. Jesus has brought to light the Christian hope, which has become a reality in Him and through Him, a reality for the many generations of Christians who have walked in His footsteps on this earth.

“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Just as a traveller on a journey has not yet reached his destination. So Christians have not attained our object, and despair constantly intrudes on our journey and presents itself as the only choice. But we press on. To quote T. S. Eliot, human kind cannot bear very much reality. We’re protected from heaven and damnation, that is, the zenith of Hope and the abyss of Despair.

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4 comments

  1. Since you mention Job, on of my my favorite biblical characters is God, as he is depicted in Job. That God is unlike the Hod of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob. And quite unlike the God of Jesus. Job’s God is is Greek-like. Egotistical and lacking in compassion. God is screwing with Job to win a bet he has made with the devil.

    It is almost as if the Book of Job does not belong with the other books of the Bible.

    1. To have compassion entails understanding the cause of another’s suffering and relieving it. I think that’s what God did for Job. What tormented Job the most was not his suffering per se, but the seeming lack of justice. He was relieved by the presence and word of God in the end.

      As for “egotistical”, there seems to me no better situation to exhibit, or show off if you like, virtue than in adversity. Through his suffering, Job proved his mettle, and gained twofold of what he had before. It’s a win-win. Don’t you think?

  2. Hope is something I have only recently been thinking about consciously (if I ever thought about it before, at all). If there is one thing harder than trust, it’s hope, and the two go hand-in-hand.

    I’m off now to read your review of “The Sickness Unto Death,” a Kierkegaard still on my to-read list.

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