“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something,” Westley (a.k.a. the Man in Black) tells Buttercup in the iconic Princess Bride movie. At first glance, he appears to be saying the same thing any Lutheran realist would about suffering. Our theology of the cross allows us to be honest about the fact that suffering and pain permeate our life in this world even as Christians. But is it correct to say that life is pain? Though Westley may accuse me of selling something, I must disagree.
It turns out the exact opposite is true. Death is pain. Even the context of the quote supports this. Buttercup’s indignation at the Man in Black for mocking her pain at Westley’s supposed death was what prompted this statement. Death, not life, was to blame for Buttercup’s sorrow. The torture contraption that Westley faces later in the movie also supports my theory. It caused pain by sucking away years of his life. That is to say, his pain can from dying, not living.
Westley’s mistake is looking at life in a fallen world and assuming that this is all life is. Because of sin, we are dying. God had commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, warning him, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). But Adam and Eve ate anyway, and humanity has been dying ever since.
Death is pain, and that pain invades every aspect of our earthly lives. Even our entrance into this world involves pain for our mothers (Gen. 3:16). And as we go about our daily work, the pain of death is always with us (Gen. 3:17-19). Sometimes death’s effect on life is so pervasive that we can wonder if life is pain. But Scripture tells us of God’s “very good” creation of human life before our sin brought death into the world, and it tells us of a life without pain after “Death and Hades [are] thrown into the lake of fire” (Gen. 1:26-27, 31; Rev. 20:14; 21:4). Christians know that life is not pain, for we look forward to life with God and the passing away of death and pain (Rev. 21:4).
By His death and resurrection, Christ Jesus has conquered death. When we look at a crucifix and consider the pain and suffering Christ endured, we remember also the life and salvation that flow from the cross. Our own pain and suffering find meaning in His, and the cross shows us that this is not the end.
For now, “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth” (Rom. 8:22). Even as Christians we “groan inwardly,” but our groaning is one of eager expectation as we await the completion of God’s work of adoption and redemption (Rom. 8:23). We take comfort in knowing we are not alone in our groaning, for the Spirit “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8:26).
In this valley, the ugly shadow of death looms over us (Ps. 23:4). Death would have us think that is has beaten life, that it has reduced life to nothing but pain. But our Good Shepherd came that we might “have life and have it abundantly,” and to give us life He laid down His own (John 10:10-11). He is here with us–leading, restoring, comforting, preparing a table (Ps. 23:1-5). He will not abandon us to the grave but will show us “the path of life,” giving us “fullness of joy” in His presence and “pleasures forevermore” at His right hand (Ps. 16:10-11).
The Man in Black was wrong: life is not pain, death is. And death will not get the last word.
Is life pain? Or is the pain we face in life a result of death? How would you answer the Man in Black? Is God “selling something”? Let’s talk in the comments!
Coram Mundo 