The Suffering of Blameless People
Comparing and contrasting Job & Zechariah
Walking together through both the gospel of Luke and the book of Job will present us with some interesting contrasts. In today’s passages, both Job and Zechariah are introduced as righteous and blameless before God (Elizabeth, too!). Both are caught up in divine action that begins in sacred space. Job’s story opens in a heavenly council where his faithfulness is discussed beyond his hearing. Zechariah’s begins in the temple, where incense rises and an angel speaks directly into his life. In both cases, something very much outside of human control moves first. A faithful life is interrupted not because of failure or sin, but because of forces beyond human comprehension or control.
Much of the Church’s message is focused on sin and the human culpability that surrounds it. There is good reason for that. But it seems that we could and should have much more space for conversations around the effect, ramifications, and consequences of things in the world that cannot be directly attached to a culpability for sin. Job’s story - an ancient one - places the blame for Job’s coming suffering on the “Adversary.”1 And a harder truth still: God allows it.
The longer one lives life, the more we realize and have to acknowledge that the problem of evil - “Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things to those who do wickedness?” - is a cruel fact of life. The book of Job, in part, is an attempt to acknowledge this phenomenon.
Back to Job and Zechariah. Between them, the tone could not be more different: Job’s righteousness leads into loss and silence, while Zechariah’s leads into promise and temporary silence. One sits in ashes not knowing why while the other stands in incense struggling to believe how.
What binds them together is not outcome, but posture. Job must live within suffering without explanation. Zechariah must live within promise without certainty. Both are humbled. Both must relinquish control over their own narrative. At the beginning of Lent, these two figures stand side by side: one in dust, one in temple smoke, both learning that righteousness does not shield us from disruption, but invites us into deeper trust.
Luke 1:5-20
During the rule of King Herod of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. They were both righteous before God, blameless in their observance of all the Lord’s commandments and regulations. They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to become pregnant and they both were very old. One day Zechariah was serving as a priest before God because his priestly division was on duty. Following the customs of priestly service, he was chosen by lottery to go into the Lord’s sanctuary and burn incense. All the people who gathered to worship were praying outside during this hour of incense offering. An angel from the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw the angel, he was startled and overcome with fear.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayers have been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to your son and you must name him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many people will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the Lord’s eyes. He must not drink wine and liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. He will bring many Israelites back to the Lord their God. He will go forth before the Lord, equipped with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will turn the hearts of fathers back to their children, and he will turn the disobedient to righteous patterns of thinking. He will make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? My wife and I are very old.”
The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in God’s presence. I was sent to speak to you and to bring this good news to you. Know this: What I have spoken will come true at the proper time. But because you didn’t believe, you will remain silent, unable to speak until the day when these things happen.”
Job 1:6-12
One day the divine beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Adversary also came among them. The Lord said to the Adversary, “Where did you come from?”
The Adversary answered the Lord, “From wandering throughout the earth.”
The Lord said to the Adversary, “Have you thought about my servant Job; surely there is no one like him on earth, a man who is honest, who is of absolute integrity, who reveres God and avoids evil?”
The Adversary answered the Lord, “Does Job revere God for nothing? Haven’t you fenced him in—his house and all he has—and blessed the work of his hands so that his possessions extend throughout the earth? But stretch out your hand and strike all he has. He will certainly curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to the Adversary, “Look, all he has is within your power; only don’t stretch out your hand against him.” So the Adversary left the Lord’s presence.
Prayer
God,
I will never understand the problem of evil. I both acknowledge and loathe its existence. Even so, I also acknowledge the ability of your grace to grow life out of such things. Or at least perspective.
But it’s hard when you are the locus of unrighteous suffering.
So help us, God. Give us that grace, indeed. Give us strength. Give us perspective that supersedes the anxiety and panic of the moment. Help us to see beyond the tyranny of urgency, even though the pain may be real. Give us the patient eyes of Jesus, who knew that suffering would come, but trusted your hand for the best in the end.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Just for now, avoid the temptation (no pun intended) of equivocating the Adversary (Hebrew - the satan) with the personified evil one known as the devil in the New Testament. This isn’t to say there is no overlap or that later Scripture won’t develop that overlap overlap between the Adversary and the devil. It’s just that to best understand Job as it stands, we should let it interpret itself for now. And the Adversary is part of this heavenly council, not a glorified chief of imps with a pitchfork and a tail. …or even the tempter we encounter in Jesus’ wilderness experience, at least not yet