The Varieties of Suffering

Scripture

Jesus wept.

John 11:35 KJV

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Big idea

Summary

Keller begins by insisting that people who have suffered little tend to be, in his words, shallow and unresilient, unacquainted with their own weaknesses and strengths — but he quickly complicates any simple “suffering is good for you” formula by cataloguing genuinely distinct kinds of suffering the Bible records. Self-inflicted suffering (Jonah’s flight from God’s call, David’s affair and its aftermath) grows from a person’s own choices; suffering from betrayal (Paul’s and Jeremiah’s experience of hostility for doing right) comes precisely because someone acted faithfully; universal grief (Jesus weeping with Mary and Martha at Lazarus’s tomb) touches everyone regardless of merit; and mysterious suffering (paradigmatically, Job’s) resists any explanation at all.

Because sufferers also differ by temperament — Keller invokes French philosopher Simone Weil’s concept of “malheur,” an affliction combining isolation, anger, and hopelessness that goes beyond ordinary pain — he insists that timing and manner matter as much as the content of what is said to someone hurting: the same true, biblical comfort offered too soon, or too bluntly, can wound rather than heal. He closes with a personal account of facing cancer, in which surrendering the need to control the outcome, rather than resolving every question, became the doorway to a settled peace.

Key points

• Suffering comes in distinct biblical categories: self-inflicted (Jonah, David), betrayal for doing right (Paul, Jeremiah), universal grief (Lazarus’s death), and mysterious, unexplained suffering (Job).
• People with little experience of suffering can be, in Keller’s words, shallow and unresilient — but that doesn’t mean all suffering is equally purposeful or explicable.
• Simone Weil’s concept of “malheur” describes an affliction combining isolation, anger, and hopelessness that goes beyond ordinary pain.
• Comfort must be tailored: the timing and manner of biblical truth matter as much as its content, since the same words offered too soon can wound rather than help.
• A personal account of facing cancer illustrates that surrender to God’s will, more than a resolved explanation, is often what produces real peace.

Illustrations & stories

• Jonah and King David as biblical examples of self-inflicted suffering tied to personal choices.
• Paul and Jeremiah as examples of suffering brought on precisely by faithfulness, not failure.
• Jesus weeping with Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11) as the paradigm of shared, universal grief.
• Job as the paradigm of mysterious suffering that defies any tidy explanation.
• Simone Weil’s concept of “malheur.”

Notable line

People who have not suffered much are often shallow, unacquainted with both their weaknesses and strengths, naïve about human nature and life, and almost always fragile and unresilient.

Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, ch. 10

For reflection and discussion

1. Which of the four categories of suffering Keller names (self-inflicted, betrayal, universal grief, mysterious) best describes something you’ve walked through?
2. Have you ever offered, or received, true comfort that was nonetheless badly timed or too blunt?
3. What do you make of Simone Weil’s idea that some affliction (“malheur”) combines isolation, anger, and hopelessness in a way ordinary pain doesn’t?
4. Why might a “one-size-fits-all” approach to comforting sufferers actually cause harm?
5. The chapter closes on surrender, not explanation, as the path to peace facing cancer. Does that distinction resonate with your own experience?