The Fourth of July flooding in the Texas Hill Country is an ongoing, unimaginable heartbreak. So far, 137 deaths have been reported. At least 27 children and counselors from Camp Mystic, a Christian camp, were among those who died.
It’s hard for us to make sense of tragedies like this. Disasters cause us to seek answers to some of life’s most difficult and perplexing questions.
Where was God when those flood waters rose? Could he not have prevented this from happening? Why did so many people have to perish?
As Christians, how do we explain this tragedy? Why did it happen? Why did God allow it to happen? If God is all-powerful, doesn’t he have the power to prevent natural disasters like this? If God is all-loving, where was his love for those who perished?
The question of suffering
We love to sing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.” That’s a hard lyric to reconcile with little children who die horrific deaths.
We love to sing, “God is so good, he’s so good to me.” If God is so good, where can goodness possibly be found in a catastrophic, deadly flood? It all seems so senseless. How can we make sense of the seemingly senseless?
The tragic consequences of the Texas Hill Country floods compel us to face an age-old question: Why is there evil and suffering in the world?
It’s a question as old as what many scholars believe to be the oldest book in the Bible, Job. Philosophically and theologically speaking, it’s the question known as theodicy.
Theodicy comes from two Greek words, theos-meaning God, and dike- meaning justice or justify. In simple terms, theodicy is the human attempt to explain or justify how or why an all-good, all-powerful, all-loving and all-knowing God could or would allow evil and suffering in the world.
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For centuries philosophers and theologians have grappled with the question of evil and suffering, attempting to formulate logical or rational theodicean answers.
Some would argue that theodicy is the greatest threat to Christianity today. After all, isn’t this one of the first questions skeptics ask?
“What’s the deal with this God of you Christians? He sure doesn’t seem to be very good, powerful, or loving. Innocent men, women, and children dying in a flood? Are we really expected to believe in a God like that?”
Honestly speaking, theodicy might be the most difficult question for Christians to answer. Why is there evil and suffering in the world? Why so much?
Maybe the best answer for us is, “We simply don’t know why.” As much as we might wish there were, perhaps there aren’t nice, neat, tidy, easy, simplistic, logical or rational answers to most of the questions of evil and suffering.
As good as all the theories of theodicy may be, remember that theodicy is the human attempt to answer questions that are essentially beyond human ability to fully understand or satisfactorily answer.
Paracletic theodicy
As God reminds us in Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Perhaps questions about evil and suffering are best left with God. As much as we wish we could, we will never fully understand all the ways and works of an all-good, all-powerful, all-loving and all-knowing God, especially in the fallen world in which we live.
Perhaps there’s another theodicean answer to the problem of evil and suffering to consider. It’s what I call a “paracletic theodicy.”
Paracletic is the adjective form of the Greek word parakletos (or the anglicized form, paraklete). The Greek word literally means “one called to one’s side or called to help.”
In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the word five times in his farewell address (John 13-16) to describe the Holy Spirit’s approaching ministry to his disciples. And parakletos is certainly a fitting word for the Holy Spirit himself as the word is often translated as helper, comforter, counselor, intercessor or advocate.
In a Greek legal context, a parakletos (an advocate) was someone who would plead a case before a judge on another’s behalf.
In connecting the term to the idea of theodicy and the problem of evil and suffering, I see two relevant applications we might make in response to the Hill Country floods. This would be a paracletic theodicy.
Pray and keep on praying
What can we do when a tragedy hits? We can certainly start with prayer. And this is where the Holy Spirit’s ministry as helper, comforter, counselor and intercessor comes into play.
We can pray that the Holy Spirit will come along side of (parakletos) those with hurting and broken hearts. We can pray in the words of Romans 8:26: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
That’s a paracletic kind of Holy Spirit intercession. What can we do for the hopeless and hurting? We can pray and keep on praying for the families of lost loved ones and those who have lost homes, campsites, and businesses.
We can pray and keep on praying for the Holy Spirit, to keep doing his work of coming alongside of and counseling and interceding for desperate people who are now in desperate need of his comforting ministry more than ever.
We can pray and keep on praying for the parakletos to do his advocating work of “pleading their case before the righteous judge.”
We can also paraclecticly put “some feet to our prayers” by giving to one of the many excellent flood relief organizations. My Sunday school class at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas recently donated $3,000 to Texans on Mission, who are boots on the ground, bringing the hope of Jesus and practical help to flood survivors.
In doing so, Texans on Mission is being parakletos. In doing so, a Sunday school class is being parakletos, becoming a part of a paracletic answer to theodicy.
A response to tragedy
What about you? What can we do when a tragedy hits? We can become parakletos ourselves. We can draw alongside of the hurting and broken hearted. We can offer them our comfort along with our intercessions.
We can paracleticly counsel them if the occasion arises, but only with great care in how we do it. When people are hurting, it’s not our human attempts at eloquent, rational or logical wording that becomes most meaningful or helpful.
Our human attempts at easy answers to life’s difficult questions are rarely satisfying and can often come across as inappropriate or even hurtful. Perhaps what hurting people need the most is not our ministry of words but simply our ministry of presence, just drawing alongside of them to offer practical help and meaningful hope.
We will never get completely satisfactory answers to the question of evil and suffering, at least not in this lifetime. All theories of theodicy, including mine, are essentially inadequate in the end because they are just that, human theories about divine mysteries.
Perhaps the ultimate question to ask in times of disaster and tragedy is not why? Perhaps the better question to ask is what. What will we do for suffering survivors?
As Texas Baptists, let’s answer that question by becoming parakletos ourselves in some form or fashion. Let’s be a part of a paracletic answer to theodicy.
Jim Lemons is director of the Master of Arts in Theological Studies program and Professor of Theological Studies in The Graduate School of Ministry at Dallas Baptist University. See a related Voices article here.
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