Pain

"Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, and said, 'Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?'"
-Matthew 26:67-68
      Sometimes I am really distressed when I hear people questioning if a god actually exists. Specifically, people will question how the world can be such a bad place if a good god does exist and rule over it. Wouldn't a good god never allow pain and suffering to happen in this world? Why would he allow it? I don't have a straight answer to that question, but I do have two things that we should think about when we or others ask this question. The first thing to think about is where our standard of what is wrong and what is right come from. I already wrote about this before (http://aforbes.blogspot.com/2012/04/morals.html), so today I will talk about the second.
      The second thing we should remember when thinking about pain, suffering, wrongdoing, injustice and evil in the world is that we (Christians) believe in a Savior who endured all of these things to the full. I'm fairly certain that no other god that people believe has ever experienced all these things like our God has. Many other gods are portrayed as being far off, judging, expected us to do something good in this world. That's not even a fair thing to expect us to do, because people are naturally evil.
      I'm not an expert in other religions, so if I am wrong on what I may say I apologize, but I'm speaking from my experience and what I hear about other religions. I have a question; do other gods even want us to be saved? Do they want us to go to "heaven?" I know in some religions they believe that in order to get into "heaven" you have to do a lot of good deeds and rituals. Do those gods want us to get into heaven? Do those gods even love us? Do they truly care about us?
      I think the misconception a lot of people who ask the question I proposed at the beginning of this post is that our God is also like that. They believe that if God exist He just sits in heaven and watches as people suffer, and does nothing about it. It seems like God isn't even there, that He doesn't even care about people who are in pain and suffer greatly. What people need to understand is that God isn't like that. God does see the pain in this world, and even more so, He understands it.
      People who believe God just sits in heaven or wherever and watches people suffer don't understand the cross. God sent Jesus to Earth, who was Himself in human form, to suffer and die for us. He didn't avoid pain; He embraced it and endured it. He was the only innocent man to ever walk the Earth, yet people mocked Him, beat Him, cursed Him, mistreated Him, and eventually crucified Him. He helped people by healing them, yet people beat him and crushed Him. He preached good news to people, but they mocked Him. He forgave sinners, but they crucified the innocent.
      Jesus endured suffering and pain that we could never understand. Suppose a man breaks his finger, and always complains that no one cares about him and no one understands him. Then suppose his friend broke his whole arm. Surely the man's friend understands what it feels like to suffer from a broken bone. That friend is Jesus. Jesus suffered more than just physical pain, but emotional and spiritual pain as well. Jesus understands our suffering because He endured more suffering than we ever could. "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed (Isaiah 53:5)." 
-Smart