The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Luke 13:1 “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 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? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (NASB)
Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is the Father to the Old Testament and New Testament Christians, then why does He allow bad things to happen to His children? If evil exists, then how can God exist?
This is called the problem of evil. The problem of evil is both a philosophical and theological conundrum. For if God is all powerful, all knowing, and all good God, then why does evil exist? In the philosophical realm, the argument is used as a “proof” that God doesn’t exist.
In the theological realm, some hold to a theological doctrine that is called “process” theology. This argument says that God Himself is in the process of evolving. While God might be good, He might not be all powerful or all knowing. As an evolving being, there might well be things that are outside God’s ability to control. God might even be capable of making mistakes.
Other religiously minded folks believe that bad things happen to people because they are bad or at least aren’t as good as they could or should be. In other words– karma.
I suspect that there are a great many people in Ukraine these days asking God why these bad things are happening to them. After all over the past 20 years church attendance in Ukraine has increased. Relatively speaking, Orthodox and liturgical churches have been thriving, while church attendance has significantly decreased in the West and in the United States. So why is the former being razed to the ground and the latter untouched at the moment?
In this morning’s Gospel lesson, some Jews approached Jesus with a problem of evil type question. Some men came to Jesus and “told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” This is a reference to some Galilean Jews who had been killed by Pilate in a gruesome way and did so while they were worshiping—like a church shooting today. In an act of mockery and desecration, Pilate had their blood mixed with the blood of the animals sacrificed in the temple.
The people who reported the event to Jesus seemed to think that the Galilean Jews had some how brought this fate upon themselves. A bad thing had happened to bad people.
Jesus corrects them. “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Jesus answered emphatically. He used the words and Greek construction: ouchi . . . alla, which means “by no means,” “not at all,” “very much to the contrary!” This indicates that they had approached the topic in a wrong headed way.
At first Jesus dismisses the question regarding the problem of evil. He doesn’t weigh the question of whether this was a case of a bad thing happening to good Galileans. Instead, Jesus offers up a different way of thinking about such events.
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? Galileans are sinners too, just not worse sinners than the questioners. In other words “Galileans—and you—are bad. You are all in need of repentance.” In other words, every human being is a poor miserable sinner deserving of temporal and eternal punishment.
Instead of comforting them, Jesus calls on them to repent and directs their attention to another example of unexpected death. 4 “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?” Then again the refrain. V. 5 “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
The eighteen were sinners too. Death comes to all sinners. Sometimes un-expectantly as in the case of the eighteen or in the natural course of life. Sooner or later everyone will meet their end and impending death is always a good occasion to repent. The important thing, do we live and die the state of grace and and a life style of repentance.
Jesus refuses to buy into a theology of glory by attributing human tragedy to individual sins, as the Jews often did. Remember the exchange in John 9:1–3? “Jesus saw a man who had been blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”
Jesus doesn’t care about the philosophical question of the problem of evil. And He rejects all theologies of glory or religious answers that hang on a foundation of works righteousness.
Jesus is more interested in the result of the realization of death than He is about the event itself. He uses the reality of death as an occasion to save sinners from ultimate death. Every story of tragedy is a call to repentance and a moment in time to cry out to God for the forgiveness of sins given in Jesus Christ. To all those who do repent, Jesus gives life.
When it comes to evil and death, the Bible gives Christians the knowledge they we need to fulfill our duty to speak the Gospel. Based on the Bible’s teaching we can speak to sin and death generally.
That means we can talk about original sin– sin that is part of our human condition and nature. We sin because we are sinners. We are not sinners because of our sin. We are talk about sin and death in the same way as the Bible does. Sin brings death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
All die on account of sin. Even Jesus died on account of sin, our sin though not His. Sin and death are now part and parcel of human life because of Adam and Eve. 17 “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19)
Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned—”
When it comes to why a particular sinner died in a particular way at a particular moment in time, the Bible doesn’t give us a license to accuse or speculate. It teaches us that impending death or the even of death are opportunities wherein we can speak the Gospel and call those who are still alive to faith and repentance.
Jesus moves the conversation from un-expected death and a call to repent, to a picture of His patience and the fruit of faith-repentance. “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.” Three years had come and gone since the tree had been planted but still no fruit. So the master ordered it cut down. The servant pleaded with the master to give it more time. He offered to give it some tender loving care time. If it produces fruit, then all the better. If not, what’s one more year?
The vineyard is Israel and the fig tree is Israel’s center of worship, the temple and Jerusalem, and the fruit faith that expressed itself in repentance. God doesn’t want any one to perish. Rather, He seeks faith and repentance. He looks for that contrite heart that trusts in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone.
So what is repentance exactly. Based on the Bible’s teaching, the Augsburg Confession Article XII defines repentance in this way. “Now, repentance consists properly of these two parts: One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors. Then good works are bound to follow, which are the fruits of repentance.”
Faith, repentance, and the other fruits all brought through our connectedness to Christ. John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. . . . Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [the Father] takes away, . . . But “whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. . . . As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (John 15:5a, 2, 6, 5b, 4–5a, 3).
Just as true faith is a gift from God, so also are the fruits of faith are a gift from God. Galatians 5:22-23. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Jesus was crucified on the cross to atone for our sins so that we would have the forgiveness of sins– and where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life and salvation.
Jesus was resurrected so that we would have a new life; a life of faith and love that bears fruit. “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” (John 15:16)
In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus was not talking only to those who are thought to be “really bad sinners.” He was talking to ordinary sinners about their sins– to us. Through His written word, He is calling us live in Him by faith and faith brings the fruit of repentance and good toward our neighbors.
Brow beating people with demands to repent doesn’t produce true faith. Theological or philosophical theorizing doesn’t produce repentance. True faith and repentance only come by way of God’s Law, the knowledge of our sinful and hopeless condition and the Gospel, that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone for Christ’s sake alone apart from good works.
Those people in Siloam were likely God’s people. The Galileans were at the time of their deaths were offering sacrifices to the Lord God in church. Still Jesus says, unless you repent, you will also like them perish.
Among us ordinary sinners, there is still so much sin. Yet God patiently calls us to trust in Him and repent. Like the fig tree God isn’t done with us yet. He comes to us in His Word. He washes us clean in Baptism. He feeds us with heavenly food in the Lord’s Supper. When bad things happen to you and yours, God isn’t punishing you. Instead He is calling you to get ready to enter heaven and meet Him.
Jesus was never interested in theological or philosophical debate. He wasn’t about answering all our questions in such a way as to make complete sense to sinful human reasoning. He wasn’t interested in connecting all the dots and creating a theological symmetry. He was interested in saving people, saving you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. He was interested in using all of life’s experiences to call for true Christian faith, repentance, humility, and service to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and service to your neighbors.
AMEN
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen