WHEN GOD DOESN’T MAKE SENSE | Pastor Matthew Johnson

"When suffering becomes your lens, everything turns dark, hope fades, clarity disappears, and bitterness grows." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

There is a question that many people carry quietly for years. They bring it to church. They bring it to prayer. They bring it to the middle of the night when sleep won't come. The question is not complicated, but it is heavy: why doesn't God make sense?

In part two of the Reconstruct series, Pastor Matthew Johnson stepped into that question without flinching. He did not offer easy answers or rush past the tension. Instead, he sat in it - and then walked the congregation through what Scripture actually says about suffering, trust, and the lens through which we choose to see God.

Pastor Matthew opened by revisiting the foundation of the Reconstruct series. Deconstruction, as it was originally conceived, was not meant to be destructive. The concept was introduced by philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1960s as a way to examine something, identify what was weak or untrue, and replace it with what was stronger. The goal was always to make things better.

Pastor Matthew used the image of a home inspector. When an inspector walks through a house, the purpose is not to condemn it. The purpose is to find what needs attention so the house can be safer and stronger. That is what healthy deconstruction looks like.

But the version of deconstruction that has spread through culture today looks very different. Instead of removing what is weak and replacing it with what is true, people are being taught to take everything and throw it away. Pastor Matthew acknowledged that some things genuinely do need to go. But the Reconstruct series exists to make sure the good is not discarded along with the bad.

Every relationship in life carries expectations. Pastor Matthew made this personal and honest. He has expectations for his wife, Mary. He has expectations for his children, his friends, the people he leads at the church, and even the drivers sharing the road with him. Expectations are simply a natural part of being in a relationship with anyone.

The relationship with God is no different. God has made specific claims about himself in Scripture. He is the creator. He is the sustainer of all things. He is the redeemer. And because those things are true, people naturally arrive at two expectations: that God should protect them personally from evil and suffering, and more broadly, that God should stop all evil and suffering in the world.

Both expectations feel completely reasonable. And both, at one point or another, go unmet.

When expectations go unmet, there is always a fallout. Pastor Matthew explained that the size of the fallout is usually proportional to the size of the expectation. Small expectations, small fallout. Large expectations, large fallout. And because the expectations placed on God are among the highest any person carries, the fallout can be significant.

But the fallout is also shaped by a second factor: relational equity. Pastor Matthew described relational equity as the healthy history built over time in a relationship. The trust, the memories, the proof of love and faithfulness that accumulates across shared experience. He and Mary will soon celebrate 25 years of marriage, with 33 years of relational history between them. That history gives him a way to interpret difficult moments. When something goes wrong or an expectation is not met, he can remind himself of what he knows to be true: she loves me. He is not convincing himself of something uncertain. He is stating a fact the evidence has already established.

That lens matters more than almost anything else. When a person chooses to view someone through the lens of relational equity, it reframes the moment and builds trust. When a person chooses to view someone through the lens of unmet expectation, it magnifies the moment and erodes trust. It begins to distort reality, coloring everything that follows with suspicion and hurt.

Pastor Matthew was direct: this is exactly what happens in many people's relationship with God. When suffering becomes the primary lens, everything read in Scripture starts to look darker. Every unanswered prayer feels like further evidence of abandonment. Trust fades. And for many, that is the beginning of walking away from faith altogether.

Pastor Matthew turned to Hebrews 11 and 12 to show a different way forward. The writer of Hebrews spends all of chapter 11 listing men and women who trusted God and saw extraordinary things happen as a result. Kingdoms were conquered. Lions were silenced. People were raised from the dead. Reading that list, a person would naturally expect what comes next to be more of the same.

But it is not.

The very next section describes people who were tortured, mocked, whipped, imprisoned, stoned, and killed. They wandered in deserts and hid in caves. They suffered deeply and died without seeing the fulfillment of what had been promised to them.

And the writer of Hebrews celebrates all of them together.

That is the point Pastor Matthew wanted the congregation to hold. Both groups - those whose expectations were exceeded and those who suffered without resolution - are held up as examples of faith. What they shared was not a particular outcome. What they shared was a choice to trust God anyway. They looked at his character, his faithfulness across history, the evidence of his love and power through generations, and they said: we trust you. Their suffering did not become the lens. God's faithfulness did.

From Hebrews 12:2, Pastor Matthew anchored the rest of the message in Jesus. The writer of Hebrews points to him as the ultimate example - the founder and perfector of faith who endured the cross because of the joy set before him. And Pastor Matthew offered three truths from the cross that give believers a way to view suffering differently.

The first truth is that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was the greatest act of love ever done. Pastor Matthew walked through what he described as the four things people need to hold together: God is present, God is fully aware, God has the power to change the situation, and God loves more deeply than anyone else ever could. Most people who struggle with suffering hold the first three and stop there. They reason that if God is present, aware, and powerful, and still allows pain, then he cannot be trusted. But the cross is the proof of the fourth. It demonstrates that God loved the lost, the broken, and even his enemies enough to leave heaven, take the form of his creation, and die for them. That love gives a new perspective on everything that follows.

The second truth is that Jesus was willing to trust the Father in suffering, knowing the outcome would be worth it. The night before his crucifixion, Jesus went to the Father three times asking if there was any other way. He knew what was coming - the physical violence, the emotional abandonment, the spiritual weight of carrying the sins of humanity. And yet each time, he returned to the same posture: not my will, but yours. He endured because he trusted that the Father's plan was better. Pastor Matthew pointed to Paul as a further example. Paul was beaten, whipped, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned - and he described all of it as light and momentary troubles. Not out of denial, but out of a deep confidence in what had been promised. Even when Jesus said no to removing the thorn in Paul's flesh, Paul continued to serve joyfully. The relational equity was that strong.

The third truth is that the work of the cross gives hope for eternity. Pastor Matthew quoted Romans 8:18, where Paul writes that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed. He was careful to note that Paul was not minimizing pain or loss. He was reframing it. He used the analogy of two workers hired for the same hard day of labor in the hot sun - one paid one hundred dollars, one paid ten thousand. The man who knows what waits at the end of the day experiences the difficulty differently. For those who trust in Jesus, the cross provides not only God's sustaining presence in this life but the promise of an eternity without suffering, pain, loss, or death. That context changes everything.

Pastor Matthew closed by naming several reasons God may allow suffering in a person's life: consequences of decisions, preparation for future purpose, a reminder of dependence on him, the shaping of ministry through pain, or a reminder that this earth is not our eternal home. He was clear that not every answer can be known this side of eternity. But the call is not to figure everything out. The call is simply to trust.

Trust begins at the cross. And it deepens as a person walks in a relationship with Jesus, building relational equity, experiencing his faithfulness, and discovering that his ways - even the confusing ones - can be trusted.

Pastor Matthew closed the message in prayer, inviting everyone in the room and watching online to bring their hurt, their confusion, and their frustration directly to Jesus. He reminded the congregation that God is not distant, not fragile, and not offended by honest struggle. He meets people there.

If you are searching for a church in Lancaster, Ohio, or a church in Logan, Ohio, The Tree Church would love to welcome you. We gather every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both of our campuses.

Lancaster Campus: 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, United States
Logan Campus: 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, United States

Whether you are new to faith, somewhere in the middle of hard questions, or simply looking for a community that takes Scripture seriously and welcomes honest conversation, there is a place for you here. We hope to see you this Sunday.