Answers and Questions: Job 38:1-11, 25-27 - Healing Service / Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Whenever I see a bumper sticker or church sign that says, “Jesus is the Answer,” I wonder, what’s the question? Indeed, Jesus is God’s answer to the pains and longings of life. In other words, God answers with the gift of relationship. For many, though, the quest for answers is a quest for knowledge and understanding. The Book of Job chronicles Job’s search for answers to the question, why am I suffering? His friends believed they had the answer: Job was not as righteous as he believed himself to be, and his suffering was deserved. Photo by Aldebaran S on Unsplash But Job found this answer to be unacceptable. Not because he was proud or self-righteous but because he was smart enough to understand that explanation to be garbage. Job kept pressing God for an answer, while his friends kept telling him the same thing. After they wear themselves out, Elihu, a fourth friend, steps in to convince Job that God is disciplining him to avoid future sin. But Job rejects this answer, too. ...
