This Sunday morning we will finish our overview of the book of Job. I can’t let this sermon series pass without making reference to an interesting verse-play written by Robert Frost about Job that is entitled A Masque of Reason. This is not the kind of devotional poetry that you will find on a Thomas Kinkade card. It is written as a play; it is sharp; it is biting; it is the kind of thing an old man writes who is somewhat jaded. Yet ironically it is also something that an older, jaded man writes who is still seeking for an explanation for life in the Bible. Frost is wrestling in A Masque of Reason with God’s reasons for letting bad things happen to Job — and ultimately to all. Job, his wife, God, and Satan meet for a “reunion” and discuss what happened to Job. The play is like a group of VFW men (and a wife) meeting to discuss the war they were in — except Job of course was “put upon” by Satan and God.

Here is a brief excerpt that will give you an initial flavor for the kind of questions Frost is wrestling with:

GOD. Oh. I remember well: you’re Job, my Patient. How are you now? I trust you’re quite recovered, And feel no ill effects from what I gave you.

JOB. Gave me in truth: I like the frank admission. I am a name for being put upon. But, yes, I’m fine, except for now and then a reminiscent twinge of rheumatism. The letup’s heavenly. You perhaps will tell us if that is all there is to be of heaven, escape from so great pains of life on earth. It gives a sense of letup calculated to last a fellow to Eternity.

GOD. Yes, by and by. But first a larger matter. I’ve had you on my mind a thousand years to thank you someday for the way you helped me establish once for all the principle there’s no connection man can reason out between his just deserts and what he gets. Virtue may fail and wickedness succeed. T’was a great demonstration we put on.

Frost is asking good questions and wants to find a reason for suffering, but it is masked. Job, for Frost and for many, is apparently an example of gratuitous suffering. The OT does help us understand suffering, but not the way Frost and others would think. It points us to Christ — and to our God who knew suffering — who knew that glory followed the cross. The cross is foolishness to some, and to others life.

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