Shark Week

Moving from Job’s week to Jesus’ week

 09/28/2020

Job 1:6-22 One day, when the angels of God came to present themselves before the LORD, Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, “Whence do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming the earth and patrolling it.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil?” But Satan answered the LORD and said, “Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing? Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock are spread over the land. But now put forth your hand and touch anything that he has, and surely he will blaspheme you to your face.” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person.” So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

This week we begin what we might call “Job Week.” That is kind of like “Shark Week” on the Disney Channel, where every day you see a new episode about the life of sharks. This week features the book of the Bible called “Job” named for its chief protagonist, the righteous man, who is not even identified as a “Jew,” he could just as well be a “pagan,” a non-Israelite. In other words, “Job” represents “everyman” or “everywoman.”

Today’s reading is Job 1:6-22. Tomorrow is the feast of the Archangels, so we take a break from Job and read Daniel 7 or Revelation 12. Wednesday we return to Job and hear from Job 9:1-12, 14-16. Thursday we skip ahead ten chapters to Job 19:21-27. Friday we dip into two chapters, Job 38:1-2, and 40:3-5. And finally Saturday we conclude “Job Week” with the climax of the book in Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17, where Job’s faithfulness in the face of suffering is richly rewarded with even more family and fortune than he had before his great trial.

If you want to read a modern-day rendition of the book of Job, I don’t think you will find anything better than Rabbi Harold Kushner’s classic book called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Rabbi Kushner experienced his own “Job Week” when he learned his three year-old son was diagnosed with a degenerative disease that meant the boy would only live into his early teens. Kushner wrote the book as an exploration into the suffering of the innocent (like the suffering of Job) touching on his own pain and that of his Jewish congregation. The book of Job and the book of Kushner are both well worth reading.

I would, however, caution Christians who read these two books because of two glaring deficiencies, at least from a Christian perspective. First, both Job and Kushner – being true to the spirit of the Old Testament – seek a solution to the problem of suffering within the time-frame of earthly life. That is, the question of the suffering of the innocent must have an answer from the time we are born to the time we die. That is why the book of Job ends in chapter 42 with a restoration of Job’s fortunes on earth. Job’s faithfulness for enduring suffering is rewarded in this life. That, of course, is not the Christian view, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The second deficiency is the lack of understanding that suffering has meaning beyond merely a punishment for sin. That is, suffering has “redemptive value,” a positive meaning. Put succinctly, suffering can save. But if someone’s sense of suffering is subordinated to what good things I will enjoy on earth, then suddenly suffering is emptied of its redemptive value, and is only seen as something to be endured for no other reason than enduring it. The sooner suffering ends the better. Again, I say this with all due respect for both Job and Kushner, but really the whole Old Testament suffers (no pun intended) from a twofold inadequacy: (1) earthly life is everything, and (2) suffering has no spiritual significance.

Fortunately, all that changes dramatically and decisively in the New Testament and the coming of Christ. In a very real sense, Jesus is the “new Job.” How so? Well, Jesus will undergo his own “Job Week” which we call “Passion Week” or “Holy Week,” from Palm Sunday till Easter Sunday. On Palm Sunday Jesus enjoys the company of his disciples and the praise of the people in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus is “living large” just like Job at the beginning of his book.

Then, by Good Friday, Jesus has lost everything – friends, family, fortune, and even his clothes – dying naked on a cross. He is accompanied and comforted by three people at the foot of the Cross: his Blessed Mother, his Beloved Disciple, and Mary Magdalene. Again, just like Job had lost all his world goods, and only had the consolation and company of his three friends who draw close to him: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar in Job 2:11.

                The difference between Jesus and Job, however, is that Jesus’ answer to suffering is not found in this world but in the next, that is, in the Resurrection, which occurred on symbolically and significantly not in one week but on the first day of the next week, not on Saturday (the Sabbath), but on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, the first day of the next week. Several people have asked me lately why Christians do not observe the Sabbath (Saturday) like the Jews do. The difference between Saturday and Sunday is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

In other words, to find the answer to why the innocent suffer, we have to go beyond “Job Week” and the confines of the old creation, the seven days of Genesis. We must sort of step into “Jesus Week” which is Sunday, the 8th day, the first day of a new week, indeed of a new creation, not of Genesis but of Christ. In Jesus we discover that the reward of our suffering will be found in heaven (not on earth), and that our earthly pains and problems can be charged with spiritual power, namely, redemptive suffering. And that is why “Job Week” is a lot like “Shark Week.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!