I tell you, no, but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
Luke 13:3
There has always been a strong tendency for the human heart to draw either a definitive or an implicit cause and effect connection between suffering and just desserts. When someone suffers (calamity, accident, sickness and so forth) all cultures with strongly defined codes of right and wrong are likely to reason that calamity implies punishment of some kind.
The book of Job deals substantially with this error. Job suffered terribly—clearly at the hands of focused and deliberate divine intervention. His three friends spent a good deal of time and energy trying to get him to own up to whatever it was that had provoked God to such terrible wrath. They argued from the calamity to an underlying cause of Job's unknown and undefined evil. Job had to have done something terribly wrong, or God would not have dealt with him this way.
One of the crucial points of the book of Job is to demonstrate that one cannot draw such black and white conclusions from the sufferings of people. Things are a whole lot more complex and God's purposes are far too mysterious and multi-dimensional and multi-purposive than to allow such simplistic connections.
In our text, our Lord takes this subject one step further. It turns out, notwithstanding the lessons from the book of Job that there is always one black and white conclusion which we can always draw from human calamity and suffering. He insists upon a deep consciousness of one's own guilt and sinfulness when considering the suffering of others. Some people had come to him reporting that the Romans had slaughtered Jewish worshipers (“Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.”) Jesus asked the rhetorical question: “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this same fate?”
Well, it would appear so. Probably they were insurrectionists of some sort, maybe zealots or sicarri. At one level it would be perfectly reasonable to reason that this event would serve as a warning (but also a comforting reminder) that if one did not engage in rebellious activity against the Roman overlords, one would not suffer the fate of a criminal. I'm OK—I don't do that kind of stuff.
But our Lord presses the matter far more profoundly than that. He says, “Unless you repent, you will perish along with them.” He draws upon a deeper, more fundamental unspoken premise. Between the Galilean executed and all men there is no difference—all alike are sinners, evil, wicked and immoral. Therefore, don't think that because the sword has not fallen you are better or more ethical or more moral than the hapless Galileans. You will perish along with them if you do not repent of your own sin.
To drive the matter home more forcefully, our Lord repeats Himself:
Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Luke 13: 4—5
Thus,the warning and admonition is clear. Whenever we see another person whose life is cut off due to accident or crime or foolishness, they serve as a message from God, a warning. It is a reminder that we, who are in principle no better than they, will perish along with them if we do not turn away from our own sin and evil living and turn to God, seeking His mercy and forgiveness.
One is reminded of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee stood before God and thanked Him that he was not like other men. He was better than they, more scrupulous, more holy, more dedicated. He fasted and tithed and did all that he thought he was supposed to. Meanwhile, the tax collector—a Roman stool pigeon who betrayed and oppressed his own people—beat his breast and cried out, “Lord, be merciful to me—as sinner.” The tax collector, said Jesus, left the Temple justified—declared righteous by God—while the Pharisee remained under the indictment and guilt of his sin.
The ancient Puritan oath, uttered as a notorious sinner passed, “There, but for God's grace, go I” is far nearer the mark. When terrible calamity strikes the first response of the heart should be to remind ourselves that we deserve such a fate, whilst we continue in our own sins and repent not of them.
Then, unlike Job's comforters, we will be able to extend true love and support to those who suffer.
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