When Jesus encountered a sick person, he never delivered a lecture about "accepting your lot in life;" He healed whoever approached Him. When the Son of God met a person in pain, He was deeply moved with compassion. Philip says after reading all the gospels form beginning to end that, if we would spend our lives as Jesus did, ministering to the sick, feeding the hungry, resisting the powers of evil, comforting those who mourn, and bringing the Good News of love and forgiveness, then perhaps the question "Is God unfair?" would not be asked with such urgency today.
Jesus on a cross was not fair. The persecution He suffered prior to and on the way to that cross was not fair. The way those closest to Him reacted to this unfair treatment was not fair. Many things that are spoken about Him to this very day are not true or fair. The cross of Christ overcame evil but it did nothing for unfairness. Easter gave us the assurance that one day God will restore "physical" reality to its proper place under His reign.
Is God unfair? If God Himself was not exempt from tragedy or disappointment then why would we be removed from it. If Jesus was not offered and He Himself did not offer immunity or a way out of unfairness then what are we thinking. BUT.... God and Jesus did give us a way through the unfairness, a way to get to the other side of it. Good Friday demolished the idea that life is supposed to be fair. Easter showed us that out of darkness a bright light shinned.
We often think a miracle or two would change us, life and the world around us. We need more than a miracle. We need a new heaven and a new earth, and until we have them, unfairness will be an every day staple of life.
To be committed to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying for thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, you shall love Him. Fredrick Buechner
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