Why?
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning hours of March 26 has been the focus of national and world attention these past few days. One of the main support columns for the massive bridge was hit by a 213-million pound loaded cargo vessel that caused the bridge to crumble within seconds. Six maintenance workers, who were repairing pot holes, were killed when the bridge fell into the Patapsco River.
The men who lost their lives were immigrants from Mexico and Central America. In the words of one reporter, the kind “few people notice.” I’m sure their families noticed, especially their children, who will never again feel their father’s embrace or hear the sound of their father’s voice.
As I watched the accident replayed on television over and over again, I thought, if only God would have nudged the ship a little further away from the support column, then it could have slid by harmlessly. Then the fathers would still be alive, families would still be intact, and countless lives would not be disrupted by the closing of one of the main ports on the East Coast.
The tragedy in Maryland was only part of the horrific news that took place the week before Easter. In South Africa a group of worshippers were on their way to an Easter worship service when their bus veered off the road and plunged over a cliff. Everyone on board was killed, with the exception of an 8-year-old girl. While some people are calling the girl’s survival a miracle, and I am grateful she wasn’t killed, I can’t help but wonder why God’s helping hand didn’t steer the bus back onto the road in the first place, allowing all 48 people to escape death.
I suppose people have been asking the question “Why?” ever since the first human being unjustly suffered. The psalmists repeatedly ask the question, as do the prophets, and Job is the poster-child for raising the question “Why?” Throughout Scripture the question surfaces again and again. In Luke’s Gospel (Lk. 13) people of faith ask Jesus, Why didn’t God intervene when Pilate slaughtered worshippers who were offering their sacrifices? And why did God allow a tower to collapse that killed 18 people?
These are the kind of perplexing events that gnaw at people of faith. If God is behind all that happens in the world, and if God is good and just, then why do bridges and towers collapse and kill innocent people? Why are people killed on their way to Easter worship? Why? Why? Why?
Thornton Wilder struggles with this universal question in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. The story takes place in Peru when a Franciscan friar, Brother Juniper, tries to piece together why five people fell to their deaths when a rope bridge suddenly gave way.
Juniper investigates the lives of the individuals who died and even those who survived the tragedy in an attempt to learn why some people died while others did not. Before his research, he had believed that those who perished must have somehow offended God, while those who survived must have deserved life. Juniper’s theology concurred with the psalmist who wrote in Psalm 1 that there is a correlation between suffering and sin. In other words, if bad things happen to people, then somehow they’re justified.
Job’s three friends resonate with the age-old theological perspective that only the sinful suffer. They tried to persuade Job that the reason he suffered was because he had disobeyed God. If only he would repent, then God would favor him once again. But Job refused to heed their counsel and continued to plead his innocence before God. In the last chapter of the book, however, it is Job who is exonerated, while Job’s friends are chastised by God.
After Juniper’s exhaustive investigation into the lives of the people who were on the San Luis Rey Bridge when it collapsed, he rejected his earlier beliefs and found himself in agreement with Job. He concluded that those who were killed were no guiltier than those who were spared. It is a stunning admission by a friar who has been taught by church doctrine that only the guilty suffer God’s judgement. Unfortunately for Brother Juniper, God did not vindicate him as he did Job. He was burned at the stake for his supposed theological heresy.
The truth of the matter is, in this world the innocent suffer as readily as the guilty. Jesus said as much in Luke 13. The people who were tragically killed, Jesus tells us, were not more deserving of death than anyone else. Tragedies just happen, sometimes without rhyme or reason. People of faith recoil at this observation because we convince ourselves that obedience to God earns us immunization from many of the calamities of life. And, of course, there is some truth to this perspective. If we live disciplined lives, that is, take care of our bodies, guard against over indulgence and reckless behavior, then we are more likely to be spared some of life’s ravages, just as passages like Psalm 1 tell us.
Yet Scripture also acknowledges that life is unfair and inexplicable suffering makes little distinction between the sinner and the saint. The crucifixion of Jesus proves this very point. The best human who ever walked on this earth was unjustifiably murdered.
The lesson from Scripture is clear: Life is uncertain and incredibly fragile.
When I hear of tragic events that result in the loss and suffering of innocent life, the question “Why?” is foremost on my mind. While the question is not unimportant, it is also one that will never be solved on earth. Besides, the question can serve as an excuse that distances me from those who have experienced tragedy. Every death, whether the person is an immigrant or a South African, weighs on me and presents me with an opportunity to show God’s love. Jesus didn’t prevent tragedy, but he did care for those who were held in its grip, and teaches us to do likewise. John Donne’s famous poem For Whom the Bell Tolls expresses a profound truth: “Each man’s death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind.”
For a person of faith to hear of the deaths of immigrant workers or the deaths of people in a faraway land and nonchalantly think, “That’s no skin off my nose” misunderstands what it means to be a follower of Jesus. All life is to be valued, and our responsibilities to care for the least of these stretches far beyond geographical borders. We are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. The question, “Why?” though daunting, becomes a mere theological distraction compared to the more important question, “How can we show God’s love when tragedy strikes?”
