DAY 298 - When Bad Things Happen

Luke 13:1-9 (NIV) 13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” ⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

“Why did this happen to me?” This is an instinctive reaction to the experience of human suffering, in everything from the rejection of a friend to the loss of a loved one. Some people will try to help by saying things like, “It is just God’s will; something good will come of this; this is going to make you a stronger person,” and other well known phrases that sound good but help little. Regardless of what people are saying to us, we still hear the question “why me, what did I do to deserve this?” In Jesus’ time, the stock answer was that it happened because you deserve it. Somehow you sinned and got what you deserved. Of the Galileans who were killed, though, Jesus emphatically states that God does not punish people by causing misfortune to happen to them. This message is repeated in the Gospels. But Jesus does talk about God’s punishment. We are held accountable. We do pay a price for refusing the good way of life God has ordained and ordered.

Tragedy and misfortune represent warnings that carry a message more powerful than words can say. Did God cause the death of the rowdy, crude Galileans? No. Did go push the Tower on some hard working, upstanding folks in Judea? No. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. And what are we to repent of? Repentance is recognizing where we have drifted away from God. It is the shock of seeing how we have dug in our heels against God, or sealed away our life from God in the callous, cold cell of self-centeredness. Sometimes the pains and miseries of life help us to see that. But that seeing is not automatic. Misery can lead us to repentance or it can drive us deeper into trouble. Once we get past the “why me” and “I don’t deserve this,” we discover a God who is like a tender gardener, not desiring to cut us down with misfortune, but to nurture and care for us in all that happens to us, a God whose will and desire is to give life.

This is not an invitation to rejoice in our misery. It is a hope that in whatever misery we experience and for whatever reason, whether caused by circumstances beyond our control or by our own self-will, that it will drive us toward God rather than deeper into our darkness.

From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope March 19, 1995

© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell (Broyles)