Suffering Part 2

So within a week or less of writing my post on suffering, I found out that I was in fact suffering and that my suffering could be soon reduced. After being misdiagnosed with Anxiety/Depression for 1-2 years, I found out that it is really my thyroid that has been making me suffer for that time, if not longer--I'd say since 10th grade when my hair started falling out (not unreasonable since that is when my Grandmother had a diagnosed goiter and had the entire thyroid taken out a year earlier--we think--It's nice nice to tell your decendents about your medical history since so much is genetic!) So after a few tests, I can be freed from oppression!

It is amazing to me that I never realized that my suffering could be diagnosed and then treated!

So today as I was using the oh so wonderful Sacred Space daily prayer, it included a passage from Luke. I'll admit that I haven't read Luke in years, which explains why I felt that it really just made me feel like I fell on my face. The amazing thing about Luke is that he was a Doctor, and much of his writings come through the lens of a physician.

So I am used to reading the passages about Jesus healing people by people being healed by their faith. But in Luke, the passage says that there was a woman who had a "spirit" that cursed her physically--making her severely disabled where her back has curved to make her walk around with her face to the ground. Her condition made me immediately think of what Dr. Smith claims as Augustine's understanding of sin. That not only are we capable of sin, but that we are so deeply marked by the Fall that our nature is deeply changed. Where we once were able to follow God and follow him with a straight back so that our face could look to God. After the Fall, our backs curved and our face could only look on ourselves and the ground. Therefore, sin is the product of looking to self and the world (ground) instead of at God.

In Luke, Jesus doesn't ask her about the condition of her faith. He doesn't ask her if it bothers her to be healed on the Sabbath. But Jesus claims that it is right for her to be healed on the Lord's Day since "she, daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years (Lk 13:16"). Clearly, Luke identifies suffering (and it is important to note even physical suffering) as a product of Satan and NOT of God.

Luke's Gospel lines up with some other thoughts that I had about Genesis. It is clear that evil existed before Adam and Eve sinned. They have been told that the fruit of the tree will lead to Knowledge--of good and evil. Evil therefore must have existed beforehand, and it could not exist in the person of God. The answer to the question of suffering that we should be asking is where does it come from...not why does God (fill in the blank). It is important to know too that that does not exonerate humans from causing suffering---but because humans are complicit in sin which leads to suffering--all of which result from Satan and not God.

I'm unsure as to whether or not this means that all suffering is direct action of a spirit, but I think regardless it is important to note and agree on the source of suffering. It is also good to know that Jesus is on the side of freedom from oppressive illnesses. Perhaps not every illness or shortcoming is a Pauline "thorn in the side". Both understandings of suffering (the ones to be healed and the ones to bring humility and wisdom of God).