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THE GOD OF JOB AND JESUS CHRIST: AN UNACCEPTABLE REALITY IN THE MODERN SOCIETY
BY ONYEUKAZIRI J. NNAEMEKA
BACKGROUND
Suffering is still a reality in our modern society; many people still hold tenaciously to the doctrine of retributionthe worldview that a just life begets a prosperous life but an unjust life begets punishment or destructive life. In the modern society many innocent people have lost there life during wars, tsunami, flood, drought, famine. Many good and just people face all sought of political and religious persecutions and tribulations; many are imprisoned for no just reason, good and devout children of God in there very face see their life time businesses grounded, building collapse or razed on fire, and there love ones die of accidents. Some very pious Christian, especially ladies, who kept their youthful ages serving and worshiping God find it difficult to get married, some that got married find it difficult to conceive of a baby, some that had children see there innocent children dying one after the other, some are victims of premature and untimely death of their husband or wife. All these are some of the real life misfortunes that confront people in their relationship with God. And people in their relationship with God are desperate for solutions of there problems leading to the aversion of pain and suffering and the unacceptability of a suffering God or a God that could behold his people suffering. To this effect this write-up aims at exposing the God of Job and Jesus Christ as the full and definite revelation of God, the creator and sustainer of the world and to establish that this revelation of God has been an unacceptable reality in the modern society.
THE GOD OF JOB AND THE GOD OF JESUS CHRIST
A critical look at the message of the book of Jobthe main message of the book of Job is the relationship between God and God's people which raises the questions according to Roland E. Murphy in his work The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature (1992:34): do human beings serve God for God's sake or for their own profit? (c.f. Job 1:9) Do I love God or myself when I love God? Is a selfless, disinterested worship of God possible?is not just similar or parallel with the message of the life of Jesus Christ in the New Testament but it comes to its perfection or fullness in the person and life of Jesus Christ. Thus the definition of the authentic and essential relationship between human beings and God that is exposed in the book of Job is made concretized in the passion-relationship between Jesus Christ and his Father. So there is a parallel and correlation between Job and Jesus Christ. The just and innocent Job was committed and steadfast in his relationship with God even amidst hopeless kinds of sufferings; and Jesus Christ suffered betrayer, denial and abandonment from his closest companions, was unjustly condemned to death, suffered all sought of criminal chastisements and was crucified shamefully on the cross as if abandoned by God his father. During his ministry Jesus Christ made it clear that to be his disciple and to have a relationship with God his father is to walk the way of the cross and to live the life of the cross. Hence the God Jesus of Nazareth reveals to us in the scriptures is the Crucified God, the God that is glorified in the crucifixion and this is the God the author of the book of Job attempts to presents to us. This revealed crucified God is an absurdity in the western society, where they are making fruitless effort to murder God and a stranger in Africa, where every effect must have a cause and cosmic and natural suffering in the life of a person is conceive as divine punishments and one of the factors that disqualifies one to becoming an ancestor in Africa.
THE CRITICAL QUESTION TODAY
The critical issue at stake is the question: is a disinterested relationship or worship of God possible? Is it possible for human beings to worship God as God the creator and sustainer of the universe, not because of the fear of being punished by God or because of intentions of receiving blessings from God? The author of the book of Job is not only telling us with the story of Job that it is possible but he is telling us that that ought to be the essence of human beings relationship with God and this Jesus Christ, the Crucified God came to show us in his life. Thus the book of Job is a call for a different interpretation and deconstruction of our understanding of our relationship with God and our understanding of suffering in life. What is most important in our relationship with God is our faithfulness and steadfastness to God but not how successful we are in life. Our relationship with God is a faith commitment and not mere attitude of positive thinking.
Our modern society has aversion to the idea of a Crucified God. Today people want to know Christ and experience the power of his resurrection without sharing in the fellowship of his suffering in contrary to what Paul says in Philippians 3: 10. So, people in our modern society need a God that would always solve their problems and meet them in their points of need. People find it difficult to reconcile a relationship with a God who can not keep them from sufferings. They see worship of God and suffering as contradictory. Our society today is a hedonistic society where pleasure is the terminus ad quo and terminus ad quem of human existence, the beginning and end of human life. Today's humanity wants a painless life. Hence many serve God as a way out of pains and sufferings in life. Many serve God today because they want God to meet their needs. And still many serve God because they do not want to face the wrath of God. In any of these cases there is an interest in serving God. This thus makes the message of the book of Job which is that the essence of human service or worship of God should be a disinterested relationship between humans and God, very pertinent to the modern society.
To this effect the decline of religion especially Christianity in the worldmore particularly in Europewould be checked if every one in this modern world knows and accepts that every one has a fundamental commitment to have a living and steadfast relationship with God as the creator of the world and the sustainer of every one's life and not for any material or spiritual benefit or punishment. This means that the rich will still worship God even if they are materially comfortable and the poor would still worship God even if they are materially impoverished and uncomfortable. More so the discoveries and inventions of science and technology to make the world a better place for human existence would not be a rival for the worship of God but a more pertinent reason to worship and adore God.
A THEOLOGICAL RESPONCE TO THE QUESTION OF GOD TODAY
The above reflection on the God of Job and the God of Jesus Christ contends that the quidity of God, that is what makes the Christian God God is not His potency to solve the problems of humanity. To this effect specificity of the Christian God, the God revealed in the book of Job and the God of Jesus Crucified is a theological critique of the problem-solving image of God in our contemporary society. The question on God had been and still is a perennial problem in Philosophy; the unfathomable ground of Theology and the awesome ultimate reality of Religion. There have been unresolved arguments on the question of the existence of one or many gods piloting the affairs of the universe. There have been also claims by different religions to the authenticity and perhaps superiority of their respective gods over the god(s) of other religions. The implication of this is the staging of war between one god against another by the adherents of each religion in demonstrating the potency and superiority of their god over the gods of other religions to prove or justify the authenticity of their god. On the other hand within the Christian religion, the power of God, has been demonstrated in the manifestations of signs and miracles as evangelical means to show the authenticity of God and the fact that the Christian God is pragmatic concerning the needs of His people. This pragmatic ideological relationship towards God and the concept of functional God though a global phenomenon, is more prominent in emerging nations of the world especially Africa perhaps due to poor socio-economic structures and dearth of basic amenities of life. In recent times especially in the African continent, many scholars have argued vigorously against the functional or pragmatic conception of God. There argumentations are numerous, but one interesting but skeptical one is that it is an importation from African Traditional Religion. It is skeptical because the God revealed in the Christian Scriptures and in the tradition of the Church is also a demonstrative God in His relationship with His people. Thus the problem is how are Christians supposed to understand this demonstrative or functional revelation of God against the nature of the God of Jesus the Crucified One. This definitely raises the question of the specificity of the Christian God and the dialectics of the wonder working Jesus the son of God and the shamefully crucified Jesus, the son of God. Hence, this write-up calls for a reaffirmation of the specificity of the Christian God, the Father of Jesus of Nazareth and to deconstruct the problem-solving image of Jesus our definite Lord and Saviour.
Thenceforth this write-up contends that the doctrine of no-suffering and the doctrine of retributionthe teaching that holds that upright living begets God's blessings and wicked living begets God's curses or punishments. Edward I. Kissane in his work The Book of Job (1939: xv), articulates the problem of retribution as "the apparent contradiction between the doctrine of the justice of God and the facts of human experience. If God is just, why is it that the innocent sometimes suffer and the wicked prosper?"are completely unchristian.
CONCLUSION
This write-up has attempted to expose the God of Job and Jesus Christ as the full and definite revelation of God, the creator and sustainer of the world and to establish that this revelation of God has been an unacceptable reality in the modern society.
