Not a Pretty Look!

One of the things that I love about the English language is the way in which it freely borrows words from other cultures and languages in its quest for clarity and specificity.  From the French language we have bon voyage and faux pas.  From the Italian, prima donna.    The Greek language gives us hoi polloi.  Yiddish offers kitsch.   Aficionado comes from Spanish.  Latin is the source for phrases like pro bono and bona fide.  All of these words, technically called loanwords, come more or less directly from their original cultural and linguistic contexts because the receiving language or culture doesn’t already have a single word or conventionally understood phrase that is as clear and specific as the foreign option.  One such loanword that has come to mind in my studies on the book of Job is from the German language: schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is the feeling of pleasure one gets when someone they do not like experiences misfortune.  From the German word schaden (which means damage) and freude (which means joy), The word means to rejoice at damage done to another.[1]  We live in a cultural moment in which schadenfreude is all too common.  We see it when folks are glad that a star athlete from an opposing team is injured or unable to compete due to COVID.  Politics is rife with it – your opponent’s pain is your pleasure.  Pastorally I see it in the smirking smugness some express when someone who hurts them “gets what they deserve.”

So what does this have to do with book of Job?

Well, Job is introduced to us as a man who is “blameless and upright, who feared God and turned away from evil.”  (Job 1:1)  God himself says of Job, “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”  (Job 1:8).  In short, Job is, by the Lord’s own assessment, the godliest man alive in his day.  Nonetheless, Job suffers greatly, and the balance of the book of Job consists of Job’s rather intense and polarized conversation about the cause of his suffering that he has with his three friends.  After his three friends have exhausted their arguments against Job, Job offers a lengthy speech in his own defense which concludes with a final appeal in Job 31.  In this last chapter of Job’s speech, the godly man defends his integrity by offering a list of sins that he has not committed – sins which, had he committed them, might have warranted his great and many afflictions.

In Job 31:29 Job says:

“If I have rejoiced at the ruin of others, or exulted when evil overtook him. I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse.”

When Job considered repugnant sins which might account for a punishment as severe as the suffering he was experiencing, schadenfreude made the list.  Would it make your list?  Have you rejoiced at the ruin of someone who hurt you?  Or experienced pleasure at some opponent’s misfortune? 

We live in very polarized times.  In a culture in which outrage and disrespect for others are becoming virtuous when expressed towards your opposites, schadenfreude is there as well.  Do you resent your enemy’s successes, and hope for their ruin?  When they suffer do you smile inwardly?  The example of Job anticipates the teaching of Jesus: Love your enemies.  Bless those who curse you.  (Luke 6:27-28)  Who do you need to bless today?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] American heritage Dictionary, s.v. “Schadenfreude.”