March 7, 2010
Pastor Dwaine Bruns
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" Luke 13:1-9
WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE
Back when I was in seminary, a Jewish rabbi named Harold Kushner wrote a book called, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” If you’re close to my age, you might have read it – millions of people did. In fact, it was on the best seller lists for months. And that’s not surprising, at least to me, because the author sought to address a question that people have been asking since time began.
From the beginning, folks have looked at the world around them and witnessed pain, struggle and tragedy. They have seen awful things happen to seemingly good people and they have wondered, “How do you make sense of this? This isn’t the way things should be. Bad things really shouldn’t happen to good people. They should only happen to bad people.”
Take for example what took place after the earthquake couple of months ago in Haiti. Some people wondered, why does this one country face an unending stream of trouble. Wasn’t it enough that they have experienced decades of poverty and bad government? Why an earthquake on top of that? It doesn’t make sense. Of course, there was one TV preacher who had an explanation. It’s not just random, he said. It’s all a result of a 200 year old deal that some Haitian slaves made with the devil. It’s not just bad luck. It’s payback.
Of course, that TV preacher took a lot of flack for his words. Not many of us bought his explanation. But like it or not, he was just trying to do what all of us do. He was trying to make sense of human tragedy. He was trying to address that age-old question – Why?
You’ve heard that question, haven’t you? Maybe on your own lips, or perhaps in the words of another. It makes me think of the time I spent doing chaplaincy training in the Intensive Care Unit of a Twin Cities Hospital. In those three months, I saw a lifetime’s worth of pain and suffering. It was a rare day when I wasn’t confronted with a person asking this question in one form or another. Why? Why did this happen? What did I do to deserve this? This doesn’t make sense. Why? And behind their words was the implication that because I was a person who represented God – who understood God, I should have the answer to their questions.
It appears that Jesus is facing a similar situation as today’s Gospel begins. Like those people who looked to me for answers in those hospital rooms, folks come to Jesus with two tragedies from his own time.
First, was something that happened to worshipers at the Temple in Jerusalem. Pilate, the Roman governor, had killed them just as they gave their sacrifices, mixing their own blood with the blood of the animals they had offered to God. “What do you think about that Jesus?” they wanted to know. “What did they do to deserve such a fate?”
Or how about those 18 other folks who got crushed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – whose fault was that? Did the builder screw up? Were they just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Were they a bunch of scoundrels who got what was coming to them? Why Jesus? Give us an explanation.
Now since we know Jesus as a compassionate person, a man sensitive to the needs of others – we might expect him to give a consoling word to those in such obvious grief. In fact, we too, lean in close to hear what Jesus says, hoping for an answer to our own questions about why bad things happen.
But instead, we hear Jesus say, “Do you think these people who died were worse sinners – more terrible offenders than other people. No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” What an answer. I suspect if I had given answers like that back when I was working as a chaplain, they would have never let me out of the seminary.
So, what’s Jesus point? People ask a good question. Why doesn’t Jesus give a better answer? I mean, if anybody knows the answers, shouldn’t it be Jesus?
Yet, perhaps what we learn here is the answers are never as simple as we hope or expect. Take those people who came to Jesus with their questions that day. It’s not surprising that they wondered if the ones who died in these tragedies were to blame for what had happened. They had read their Old Testaments. Verses like, “I have never seen a righteous man’s children beg for bread.” Or, “Blessed is the one who walks not in the way of sinners, everything he does will prosper.” It makes life sound pretty simple, doesn’t it? Or course, it’s in the New Testament too, “As a person sows, so also shall that person reap.” Doesn’t it sound as though there must be some correlation between sin and misfortune – between bad luck and bad people? Isn’t that the way things work, Jesus?
Of course, if we have been listening to Jesus, we shouldn’t be surprised that he won’t go along with these simple explanations. He is the one who has told us that God makes the sun to shine on both the good and the bad – and sends rain on both the just and the unjust. According to Jesus, both the good and bad know blessings. And when his disciples meet someone who was born blind and come to Jesus wondering whether it was the man’s sins or the sins of his parents that had caused his blindness – Jesus said it was neither. Sometimes there is no place to point our fingers.
Yet, lots of us understand the question of those disciples. While most of us probably wouldn’t blame an earthquake in Haiti on some 200 year old curse, we know how our minds work. A teenager runs into problems, and we wonder, “Was it something those parents did, or didn’t do?” A person is injured in an accident and we ask, “Do you suppose he was speeding? Is it possible she had too much to drink?” We want somewhere to put the blame too. There must be an answer.
And who knows, maybe sometimes there is an answer. But even if there is, Jesus isn’t interested in it today. Instead, he says, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than the others – worse offenders than you? No, but I tell you that unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
The words are hard. Yet perhaps what Jesus knows is how often our questions – questions about life’s fairness – or why bad things happen, lead us away from what is a much more critical question. And for Jesus that critical question is this: How do you stand before God?
That’s the issue Jesus is getting at with his challenging words. Don’t look at someone else’s life – those who died beneath that tower, or the ones whose lives were ended by Pilate’s swords – pay attention to your own life. Where do you stand with God?
What Jesus knows is that sometimes all of our questions about life’s fairness – our assumptions that life should always make sense – are a way for us to keep God at a distance. If every thing that happens in life is fair – then I don’t really need God. All I need to do is get things right. If I just make the proper choices and live my life the right way, I won’t have to worry. I’m set – whether in this life or the next.
If that’s how life works, as long as my life goes well, as long as good things are happening to me - I can assume that I’m doing just fine with God. My righteous life, my goodness is resulting in God taking good care of me. On the other hand, if I am struggling – well, that’s my own fault. My mistakes and sins have finally caught up with me. I might just as well give up, because I’m just getting what I deserve. There isn’t any hope.
But today, Jesus says no to that kind of thinking. He says, “I didn’t come here to give you simple answers about life. I came to bring you to God. To a God who is with you no matter what happens – joy or sorrow – success or tragedy.” That’s the God who meets us in Jesus.
So today, instead of giving us answers, Jesus calls us to repentance. Many of you have heard me talk about repentance before – sharing with you that it’s a word that means to turn around – to have our minds changed – to see things in a new way. And I think the repentance that Jesus calls for today – the change he wants us to make, is to let go of the notion that everything in life is up to us. To let go of the belief that if I can just be good enough, only good things will happen to me. To reject the assumption that if I want to know I have a place in God’s family, it’s all in my hands. It’s simply up to me to get it right.
Because you see, the problem with those ideas – is that too often, I don’t get it right. If life is simply fair – If the best thing I can expect is to get exactly what I deserve, then I’m in big trouble. But Jesus offers us another way. We can repent. And as we let go of the idea that it’s all on our own shoulders, we can turn and see a new path. Instead of trusting only in ourselves, we can in trust God.
We can trust God for everything – for forgiveness, life, salvation. We can even trust God when we face questions that don’t have easy answers – even when the world around us doesn’t make sense.
Because as Jesus makes clear today, that painful question “why?” sometimes doesn’t have a good answer. We often don’t understand why bad things happen to good people. In fact, the notion that only good things will happen to good people was put to rest when they hung Jesus on a cross.
At the foot of that cross, all of our questions about fairness and deserving fall silent in the face of such amazing love. Here the only question that matters is: Will you trust a God like this – a God who is willing to die for you – a God who gives up everything for your sake?
God’s love for us carries no promise about good or bad – except for the promise that no matter what we experience; joy or sorrow, questions or answers – none of those things will be stronger than the love of God we know through Jesus our savior.
In a few minutes, we will come to the Lord’s Table, and there we will receive not answers, but bread and wine, which are for us nothing less that Jesus’ own body and blood. In the end, this is how Jesus responds to our questions – not with answers that make the world simpler than it is, but with this promise that he gives himself to make us God’s own. So today, and throughout this Lenten season – we come with repentant hearts that trust in his love alone.
Amen
*I am thankful to Dr. William Willimon for some of the ideas and images used in this sermon.