‘We Don’t Get What We Deserve’ by Rev Allister Lane
Luke 13:1-9
In this passage Jesus is discussing two events that occurred in Jerusalem – the city he is going to,
to his death.
These (presumably) recent events in Jerusalem emphasise the precariousness of human life.
And we Jesus discusses these.
There is an atrocity and a calamity.
Atrocity
The first is an atrocity.
Pilate, the Roman authority in that occupied region exercises political violence.
Pilate is identified as the one responsible for this massacre.
This sort of political action was not unusual.
It’s a particularly grisly incident because the Galileans targeted were at worship in the temple;
they were caught off guard – and (we are told) “their blood mingled with their sacrifices” (v1)
Calamity
The second event is a calamity.
This tower in Jerusalem had collapsed and 18 people had been killed.
No one appears responsible – it’s just one of those things, like a natural disaster.
It seems some in this discussion with Jesus may have been wondering about these events.
Just as perhaps, we sometimes wonder:
Why do these things happen?
Why do bad things happen to some people (and not others)?
There are two common ways to answer this.
1) Religious explanation:
The first is the religious explanation.
If you obey God, you’re life will go well.
And it seems this may have been suggested to Jesus.
Because we hear Jesus ask the question:
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”
“do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?”
The assumption is comeuppance (I love that word)
If you experience problems and pain in your life, if things are going wrong for you, you must’ve done something wrong.
If the towers falls on you, you’ve been doing something wrong.
This is a very natural/instinctive human assumption.
You get what you deserve.
EXAMPLE: Sound of Music ‘Something Good’
“somewhere in my youth or childhood I must’ve done something good…nothing comes from nothing”
[this couldn’t be grace, which is goodness out of the blue]
If you assume you get what you deserve,
you accept your comeuppance.
Do you feel this sometimes…?
That’s the religious explanation
2) Irreligious explanation:
The second explanation can be called the irreligious explanation.
If your life is not going well, the Universe/gods are unfair and cruel.
The gods are doing something wrong.
But both of these explanations are mistaken.
What does Jesus say in this passage?
Jesus points us to the Gospel.
He says: were these people worse sinners/offenders? No.
But unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.
Huh? Isn’t that paradoxical?
Are they being punished? No.
(John 9 did that man born blind sin, or his parents? Neither)
Suffering is not retribution for sin. But you need to repent.
People who suffer are no worse AND everyone who ever lived deserves to have a tower fall on them.
Don’t you dare be smug;
if God gave you want you deserve, you’d have a tower fall on you too!
Jesus is trying to teach us a new way.
If we accept that God is full of grace and love, we can think we’re not that bad.
If we accept that we are full of sin and junk, we can think we’re not lovable.
In other words…
“If I’m really loved – I can’t be all that bad.”
“If I’m really that bad – I can’t be loved.”
Jesus holds these two things in tension perfectly.
It’s about grace.
God would never pay us back for our sin
…think for a moment how brutal that would be if you got what you deserved
· for every lie,
· every time you let down a friend,
· every time you made a stupid choice,
· every time you turned your back on God.
We DONT get what we deserve.
This is grace; this is the Gospel.
You are much more floored and bent out of shape than you’ll ever be able to admit
AND
you are much more valued, treasured and loved than you can ever comprehend.
These support each other.
The grace of God gives me the freedom to be honest about what’s wrong with me, without being devastated.
If you don’t live in this grace,
when life is good, you risk being a proud Pharisee,
and when tragedy comes, you’ll lose all hope.
Jesus tells us “I’m here to give you this grace, so you can deal with evil honestly and accept the fullness of God’s love”
Jesus is saying don’t respond to falling towers by blaming those who suffer or blaming God.
· If we believe those who suffer did something wrong, we risk being full of pride.
· If we believe God did something wrong, we risk being full of despair.
Jesus says we need to repent.
In his poem TIME IS RUNNING OUT, Bruce Prewer identifies our situation that Jesus is revealing…
Luke 13:1-9
When rulers kill
the meek and poor
it’s not the stars’ cruel fate;
when towers fall
and people die
it’s not some heavenly hate.
Yet no proud fool
should dare presume
the god’s are sleeping still;
the mills of God
grind very slow
but grind they surely will.
Now is the year
to bear the fruit
that love alone can give;
the axe is stayed
that fools may gain
another chance to live. © B.D. Prewer 2000
Jesus says we need to repent.
Why, what’s the problem?
Is it because you break the rules?
Repentance isn’t primarily about breaking the rules, because that’s not the essence of sin.
The essence of sin in putting yourself – or something else – in the place of God.
Trying to find your ultimate meaning/salvation yourself, or in something else.
Jesus is warning self-righteous people, people who feel superior to sufferers.
When things are going well, we are most likely to think we can find ultimate joy and meaning in things other than God.
Repentance is not so much for doing bad things,
as over-trusting good things.
The grace of God is what gives us true fulfilment.
Religious repentance is ab-normal: you repent when you blow it, and make a mistake.
Gospel repentance is all the time: all of life is repentance, it keeps the good things in correct perspective.
Finally, Jesus is proof that the Religious understanding of falling towers is wrong.
He lived the most perfect life and yet he received extreme pain and suffering.
Jesus says to us, the reason you can know that if you repent towers won’t fall on you is that the ultimate tower has fallen on him.
Jesus gets what we deserve - on the cross.
The only towers that could ever destroy you are divine judgment, and that has fallen on Jesus, instead on you.
The Westminster Confession of Faith (a creed of faith of our Presbyterian Church) says:
“there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation;
so there is no sin so great, that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent.”
(Chap 15; IV)
Amen