MenuTragedies, Suffering and Repentance
“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” – Luke 13:1-5
Why does a disturbed teenager intentionally murder 17 high schoolers and maim many more? And even if there’s no human perpetrator to blame, why do tragedies have to happen at all? You might hear the question phrased this way, “Why does God let bad things happen to people?”
Today, just like 2000 years ago, many people believe that tragedies happen to people because of specific sins – that an angry God sits on His throne looking for people who step out of line so He can zap them in His wrath.
Some wrongly think that God simply rewards good deeds and simply punishes evil, dealing out cookies or spankings like a parent trying to teach right and wrong to a pre-schooler, or Pavlov trying to train his dog. Such people hear only the Law of God, and even then they only hear the first use of the Law – God’s own efforts to restrain evil in this world and restore some semblance of justice. But such weak theology leaves no room for righteous suffering nor salvation based on God’s righteousness.
And if this is all you believe about God, Jesus says, “you will all likewise perish” -and Jesus means perish eternally. On Judgment Day, you will face that wrath of that angry God you say you believe in, and you will be judged on whether you have lived a perfectly holy life and were born without sin… and you will be found wanting. And being angry or resentful at Him won’t help any more then than it does now.
So Jesus uses the occasion of these tragedies to spur us to self-examination and an honest assessment of our walk with God. If we do so, we see in these tragedies, that “there but for the grace of God go I” – that these very tragedies could just as easily have happened to me, for I am just as sinfully frail. Tragedy does not always strike people because they somehow deserve it (except in the very general sense that we are all sinners, or very specific consequences flowing directly their actions). Instead, in God’s unsearchable wisdom, He permits and even uses tragic events to warn us of judgment, to call us to repentance and faith (as Jesus does here – the second use of the Law), and even to work some good that we may not now understand.
The wounded and suffering Christ came for that very purpose – to intercede for all us sinners, to avert God’s wrath away from us and upon Himself, and to grant us HIS righteousness. No one saw any good coming from Jesus’ own suffering and crucifixion… until the morning of the third day. Now when the Father looks upon the suffering of His beloved Son, He hears Christ’s pleas for mercy on our behalf. So on Judgment Day we will stand in His perfect, holy righteousness and be granted eternal life. We are made righteous by Him. This is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So the righteous do suffer. In a world broken by sin, we all will suffer, righteous and unrighteous alike. But through the suffering of the righteous, God works His mercy and salvation, even if we often have a hard time seeing it. When tragedy or suffering comes, the righteous don’t automatically assume that God is punishing them for a specific sin, even though they are reminded to confess and repent of every sin they know. But they will entrust their bodies, minds and souls to Christ who accomplishes His purposes in the midst of suffering, trusting that God sometimes accomplishes His strange work in us first, in order to do His own loving work in us next.
May our merciful Lord and Savior guide our path together, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
-Pastor Nickel
