In Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs we learn that Steve always questioned authority. Even as a young boy he was not afraid to challenge the conventional wisdoms of society and even religion. When Jobs was 13, he saw on the cover of Life magazine a photograph of starving children. The image shocked him. He asked his Sunday School pastor whether or not God knew that would happen to those children. The pastor didn’t really have an answer that satisfied Steve. And so, at 13 years of age, Steve Jobs gave up on Christianity.
I know a lot of people like that. They’ve grown up in a religious culture where God is like a great puppet-master, sitting above the world, pulling the strings of creation, in complete control of everything, sending blessings upon some, curses upon others, hurricanes over here, tornados over there, cancer to some, health to others, and even helping our favorite sports team win the big game!
That God who runs the universe from a control panel somewhere up in a place called “heaven” is an easy god to believe in – when life is going your way. But when life turns, when tragedy comes, or when you see a photograph of starving children on the cover of a magazine and it stirs something inside you that says, “That’s not right!”, you can’t help but wonder why the man at the controls would do that, or even allow it happen.
Did God know those children on the magazine cover would end up starving? What did God know, and when did He know it, about any of the tragedies we have seen and experienced?
Without an answer to such a question, Steve Jobs – and many others – have given up on Christianity.
I think they’ve made a mistake.
You see, it’s not that Christians don’t have an answer for why bad things happen to good people. The problem is really that we have too many answers – bad answers – simplistic answers – trite answers – like the preacher I once heard who said that since God gave life to people, God has every right to take their life away.
Try arguing that theory in a human court of law defending a parent killing their child. “I gave him life, I can take it away.”
No, you can’t.
No, it’s not that Christianity has no answer to peoples’ suffering, but rather that we sometimes have too many answers and most of them are overly simplistic, blindly nonsensical, and just plain wrong.
So how do we deal with these great questions of human suffering?
Not by placing the blame “up there”, but rather by bringing the cure “down here.”
Jesus is the answer.
Now, I’m not trying to say that believing some theology about Jesus is the answer. I’m saying that if you look closely at Jesus you’ll discover that he is all about making people well. His ministry is not aimed at trying to explain away human suffering, but rather, Jesus spends his life working hard to alleviate human suffering. Jesus is not at all interested in protecting the doctrinal positions of Judaism and defending the conventional wisdom that sees God as the puppet master of the universe. No, Jesus ignores all that and instead jumps into the middle of peoples’ lives to bring about healing and reconciliation.
And those who saw Jesus with their own eyes came to two wonderful conclusions: this is what God is like, and this is the life we are called to live.
And that life of responding to human need and suffering, bringing healing and reconciliation to the world, became a movement of people known in the early years as “The Way”, and eventually was given the name, “Christianity.”
You see, Steve Jobs had it wrong. Christianity is not about finding simple religious answers to life’s most profound questions. Christianity is not an explanation. It is a way of life – an active faith through which we are called to be the presence of Christ where we live, getting involved in healing human suffering, and getting busy transforming the world into a planet of justice and wholeness where ALL God’s children enjoy the fullness of life. Steve Jobs had it wrong because he didn’t understand what Christianity is.
And Steve Jobs had it right. You see, the compassion he felt in his heart toward those starving children in the picture was so right!! His belief that such suffering cannot be ignored and must be cured is so Christ-like. You see, Steve Jobs had the spirit of Jesus in his heart there as a 13-year old boy – whether he knew it or not.
Spot on Preacher !!