Thoughts From Luke - Day 62

                                                      Luke 13:1-9

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”


 In this passage Jesus deals with tragedies, natural disasters, the cruelty of man and the question of "If God is so powerful why doesn't He stop bad things from happening?" - in a unique way and maybe a way that we can use.

      Two listed tragedies happened around 30AD. One was a slaughter of some Galileans initiated by Pilate and another was a tower in Siloam had fallen and killed 18 people. Those two were well known around the area and they didn't even have CNN or newspaper or social media. Imagine all the bad things which happened that they didn't know about. As I look back on 2016, just in our area we had the wildfires in Gatlinburg which killed a similar number to the tower falling. Around the world there were earthquakes, killings in Syria, shootings in Charlotte and Orlando, and the list goes on. These usually leave us asking questions like, "why"? Jesus has a few comments on these why questions.

      First of all, He kind of hints at "why not"? I mean, if evolution is true and there is no purpose in life, no right or wrong, no reason for our existence, but we are cosmic accidents evolved by chance over hundreds of millions of years from primordial soup directed by mutations and survival of the fittest - we should expect death. Death is how our species advances. Obviously Pilate was a stronger, more advanced person who weeded out the lesser people. The tower falling on people weeded out those of inferior intellect leaving behind people who could build better towers. We are surprised by tragedy, and the reason the word "tragedy" even exists is that we have come to take for granted the goodness of God. We have come to expect the watering and the fertilizing of the tree but lament and blame God when the tree topples.

       Secondly, Jesus points to the inevitability of death. We all assume we are guaranteed or entitled to 80 years or so and premature death is unfair. This past year we had famous people who didn't make it that far from Prince to George Michael, Alan Thicke, Carrie Fisher, etc. and it shocks us. Should we be shocked by death? After all, 1 out of 1 people die. Do we live like we are immortal? Probably. Jesus replies to the effect of, "Why are you surprised these people died - everyone dies." We are shocked by death because something inside us tells us that death is unnatural - we weren't created to die. If evolution is true, we wouldn't have those thoughts but since we are created beings, we do. Jesus came to defeat death and hell and Satan, and to bring eternal life. Tragedies, "premature death", serve as a megaphone saying, "Things aren't right in this world. This world is broken. The Kingdom of Earth is not your home. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Trust Jesus. Repent of your sins. Enter into the Kingdom where death and evil have been defeated and live forever in Heaven with your Creator." The grace and mercy of God is giving you a little more time to come to Jesus but don't assume you have unlimited time. The time is now!