Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Jeremiah 12:1-14:10. Jeremiah asks a great question. Why do evil people prosper? Why does God allow the nasty, horrible people of this world to be so happy?
Well, there are lots of answers to this question. One of them is that this life is just a blink of your eye. Those who are good, loving, kind, followers of Jesus in this life might suffer during this very short lifetime, but then they get an eternal reward. The ratio of their suffering to their joyful reward is ridiculous in how tiny the percentage of suffering turns out to be. On the other hand, those who do evil are only happy for a short time. Even in THIS life, they find themselves empty and hollow after a few short years of self indulgence. And then their eternity is very much impacted by their poor decisions in this life.
But there is a deeper reason. And it is found in the beatitudes. Jesus taught us something VERY PROFOUND when He said, "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, because the kingdom of God is theirs." It's a difficult concept for many people to grasp, so I have an allegory for you.
Have you ever met a really, REALLY pretty girl whose life is really terrible because of her beauty? I mean, an extreme example would be a beautiful girl who is kidnapped, raped, and murdered because she's so beautiful and some deranged psycho sees her and can't resist. But I meet pretty girls all of the time who are SO much less deep and rich and good because the very fact that they're beautiful means everyone does whatever they want, they never have to work for anything, and quite frankly their looks spoil them. On the other hand, have you met a kind of homely girl who is a great worker, is kind to everyone, and is very humble and loving? There are exceptions to both rules, of course. There are wonderful and kind girls who also happen to be beautiful. And there are homely girls who are horrible people. But in our society, being beautiful (and/or RICH) is a huge disadvantage to being a good, humble, kind person. You have to fight against what naturally happens in order to be nice.
And that's what Jesus means. When He gives us the beautitudes, and the logical corollary, the "woes", He is literally telling us that poor people have an advantage over wealthy people. Those who are persecuted for following Jesus have an advantage over those who live their lives free of such persecution. Because being poor, and suffering, and being persecuted, bring us closer to God. Living in luxury all of our lives is very bad for our souls. But suffering and working hard and living very simply is very good for our souls.
So that's another, deeper answer to the original question. Why do good people suffer? Because it's very good for them to suffer. Why do the evil have it so easy? Because that's not good for them. It seems like the poor are being punished and the evil rewarded, but it's actually just the opposite.
God, thanks for teaching us what's really important.
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