Everything Happens For A Reason?

Today, we are going to start a new devotional series for the week about things we say or assume came from the Bible, particularly from the Gospels, and from the mouth of Jesus himself, that he simply never said. 

To be fair, there are more than five days' worth of things people assume are in the Bible but aren't, but we'll focus on just five, starting with a doozy:

 "Everything happens for a reason."  

Let's start by reading what is arguably the shortest verse in the Bible.  

“Jesus wept.” — John 11:35

When something terrible happens, we want an explanation.

Maybe that is why we reach so quickly for the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason.” We mean well. We want to reassure someone that their pain has a purpose—that somewhere behind the tragedy, God has a plan.

It's easy to make that assumption when you read some of what Jesus says in John's Gospel.  Out of the four Gospels, it's the one where Jesus most often seems to have a plan. 

But sometimes even the plans he has formed get interrupted by the realities of life, death, grief, sickness, need, or any number of very human and unexpected emotions.  

When Jesus arrived in Bethany after his dear friend Lazarus died, Lazarus' sister Martha confronted him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Later, her sister Mary said exactly the same thing.

Jesus could have explained everything. He could have offered a theological answer about suffering, death, and God's mysterious purposes.  He could have waxed eloquently about all of this and more.  

But he offered only vague comfort with words about resurrection and eternal life that they didn't fully understand.  

And then, when Jesus stepped into the raw grief of the sisters and the people who had gathered to mourn Lazarus, he did something interesting. 

Jesus wept. 

I find something profoundly comforting about that.

Sometimes we are so anxious to find meaning in suffering that we rush past grief. We try to explain what cannot be explained. Worse, we can unintentionally make God responsible for things that break God's own heart.

A child dies.

A marriage ends.

Cancer returns.

Someone we love develops dementia.

A drunk driver crosses the center line.

Did God really cause these things because God needed them to happen for some larger reason?

I don't believe that, not for a second.

What I have come to believe instead is that God doesn't cause all things, but God is present in all things. 

Paul writes that “all things work together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). Notice what he doesn't say: All things are good.

They aren't.

Some things are simply heartbreaking.

The promise of our faith isn't that everything happens according to some secret divine blueprint. The promise is that nothing—not tragedy, suffering, failure, grief, or even death itself—is beyond God's ability to redeem.

At Lazarus's tomb, Jesus doesn't stand at a safe distance from human suffering and explain it.

He enters it.

He weeps.

And then he brings life out of a place everyone thought belonged only to death.

Maybe that is the better promise.

Not, “Everything happens for a reason.”

But this:

Whatever happens, God will meet us there.

May we all know what it means to feel God's presence with us through times of trial and tribulation.  

May we embrace the knowledge that though God doesn't cause all things, God is present with us in all things. 

May we come to know that there doesn't have to be a reason for whatever trouble may befall us, only that we trust that God is with us, and we are not alone.  

May it be so, and may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever. Amen.  

Prayer

God of compassion, when life hurts, keep me from reaching too quickly for easy answers. Help me trust that you are with me even when I cannot understand what is happening. Meet me in my grief, hold me in my questions, and remind me that nothing is beyond your power to redeem. Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. When have you heard someone say, “Everything happens for a reason”? Was it comforting or difficult to hear?

2. How does the image of Jesus weeping at Lazarus's tomb shape your understanding of God?

3. Where in your life do you need to trust God's presence more than you need an explanation?