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Why Does It Have To Hurt?Highly ratedWHY DOES IT HAVE TO HURT? McCartney's task is to explore the experience of Christian suffering and prepare us for it before it comes. He begins with the problem of suffering in a world ruled by a good God, moves via God's sovereignty and an exploration of Job into four reasons why Christians suffer today, and then how we handle the experience. He concludes with an exposition of eight psalms. This is an exceptionally good and short book on a notoriously difficult topic. Here are three reasons (among many) why I rate this book so highly. First, it is consistently biblical. McCartney believes it is because of fundamental problems in Christian experience of suffering that we do not accept the partial reason (not definitive answers) the Bible gives. God has spoken, but much that he says does not fit easily with Western comfort. We find it an offence and scandal that we should suffer. McCartney says that there are meanings God has given, if only we are obedient enough to believe them. He is careful in his exegesis too - Job is to be understood eschatologically, the Psalms Christologically, and so on. Here is deep thinking which is served up very attractively. Second, his biblicism is radical. Sometimes his headings show this (I particularly liked 'They'll know we are Christians by our suffering' and 'How shall we then suffer?', which dates me and anyone who recognises them, but shows where McCartney is coming from). There are frequent extended insights which confront easy evangelicalism. 'If you look at the word for 'suffer' in the New Testament, you will notice it is never used for just pain; suffering always refers to oppression, or something caused by wickedness' (p.6); 'Jack Kevorkian could not be in business unless there were people who thought the way to deal with pain is to avoid it - at all costs. This option is not open to Christians' (p.93); 'A popular evangelistic tract refers to the 'abundant' life enjoyed by the Christian. This method sometimes gives the impression that the Christian life is inherently more pleasant than the non-Christian life. But the number of passages that speak about the Christian as a sufferer suggests that this may not be a totally honest approach' (p.102). Third, his radical biblicism is personal. He knows what it is to have suffered, he has counselled and befriended those who have suffered, and he gently interacts with people like Elie Wiesel, the holocaust survivor who lost his Jewish faith in the camps. So this is not a sustained academic treatise, which perhaps would have dealt with Rwanda, Bosnia or other horrors, but a book from one Christian for others. This is not a comfort book for those who are going through the fire. It is written for Christians before they suffer, as the final sentence makes clear. So the book is intended for all of us, and, in particular, for anyone who has to hold the hand of weeping Christians. A church staff could read it together, and a serious-minded home group would find the discussion questions after each chapter helpful. Chris Green,
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