Truly, you are a God who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior" (Isa. 45:15).
Where is God? Why didn't he do something? Why do bad things happen to good people? These are the questions asked in the midst of suffering and death. For Lutherans, there are only two theological frameworks from which to answer such questions-the theology of glory and the theology of the cross. In the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518, Martin Luther distinguished between the two:
That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things which have actually happened. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is. That wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.The theology of glory is the theology of fallen Adam, who, being "like God," experiences the creation through the categories of good and evil. He does not trust God's Word but relies on his own reason and senses. He moves from the seen to the unseen, judging God by what he sees and experiences. This is how Eve rationalized her rebellion: She sensed that the forbidden fruit was good for food; she saw that it was pleasing to the eye; she reasoned that it was desirable for gaining wisdom. And so she and Adam "bit into" a way of doing theology that sets the creature over and against the Creator. With eyes wide open, they saw themselves as autonomous creatures, independent of God, having no need to take God at his word and trust him. They were self-enlightened, self-sufficient, self-aware, self-actualized-their own persons and their own gods. The theology of glory is the natural theology of fallen humanity, centered in the self.
The theology of the cross is the theology of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. His glory is the cross; his death is his hour of power. The theology of the cross sees the glory of God hidden under the suffering and death of the Son of God. The cross of Christ is the starting point and the focal point for all theological thinking, comprehending the visible and manifest things of God through Christ's suffering and his cross. Centered in the cross of Christ, the theology of the cross is uniquely positioned to deal with suffering and death.
The theology of glory calls suffering "evil" and the absence of suffering it calls "good." It sees suffering and death as defeat and loss, a failure on God's part to be a decent deity. It sees the sufferer and says, "There but for the grace of God go I." The theology of the cross sees things as they are and names them for what they are-sin and death, grace and mercy, body and blood. It sees in suffering and death the hidden hand of God at work in, with, and under all things. It sees the sufferer and says, "There by the grace of God goes he."
This question arises from a theology of glory. It adopts the categories of good and evil and assumes a person has the ability infallibly to discern the difference between the two. Bad things ought to happen to bad people and good things to good people, if an almighty, merciful, and respectable God runs the cosmos. But bad things routinely happen to good people, and good things to bad people. So the theology of glory concludes that something is wrong with God. The Creator is placed on trial by the creature. The clay judges the divine Potter's handiwork and finds it to be less than acceptable. God has dropped the ball, and so explanations are demanded.
In the Bible, bad things happen to good people (as in the book of Job), good things happen to bad people (as with the wealthy man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus [Luke 16:19-31]), and many things happen for no apparent reason at all except that the work of God may be manifest (as with the man born blind [Jo