The "Problem" of the Glory of God

 In church, thanks to some assertions from the minister preaching, I got to thinking about how we talk about the Glory of God. The passage was John 11, about which I have written a Bible Study (forgive the plug, but I think it would be helpful to a small group) https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-According-Lazarus-Study-John/dp/172604291X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1599401269&sr=8-4

The preacher, and rightly, pointed to John 11:4 where Jesus says, "This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it." This connects with 9:3, when He was questioned about what had caused the blind man's disability. 

I felt the preacher went a little far, though, in saying that "Our suffering is for God's glory." So let's parse this out. In both cases in John, the God's glory part was that there would be triumph over the suffering, not that the suffering in and of itself was glorifying to God. 

I have prayed for COVID to be lifted from the earth and people healed, for the glory of God. I have not prayed that it continue to for the glory of God. 

Perhaps this makes me a bad Calvinist (that would be a good name for a rock group), but I don't believe our suffering alone is for the glory of God. This idea makes no sense to me, and actually makes my flesh angry. These kinds of things are usually said by people who have not suffered or are not suffering. In the midst of suffering, the message that your being in despair and pain and tragedy is for the glory of God would make all but the most spiritual (and most masochistic) say, "I can do without the glory of God right now."

This is a rather rebellious thing to say, but my point is that suffering itself does not glorify. Triumph does, even if the triumph is the ability to trust God while continuing through it. 

To think otherwise is to deny the compassion and empathy of Jesus. Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb; He comforted the sisters; He raised the dead. He didn't say, "Keep suffering, keep mourning, keep being dead so God can be glorified." The displays of love and grief and power glorified God. 

Today I believe it is the same; our Lord Jesus does not say, "Oh, yes, keep being miserable so I am glorified, I'm not getting enough glory in this world so I'll make you suffer." He comes alongside because He knows suffering and rejection but was Christus Victorius.