Tell me this. Why is there so much suffering in this world? God lets it all happen and we’re the ones who get caught in the fray. If God is supposed to be all love and blessings, why are we sitting between maybe a million deaths due to a pandemic and who knows what this war may escalate into and become? Come on Jesus, meet us where we live in this mess.

Step back a second and see what he was doing. Face it, followers came to Jesus because he did address them where they lived and a lot of that was in their suffering. So he healed people of all kind of diseases and he fed them and he calmed the seas and asked that little children be brought to him.

But look what you do. When Jesus messes in the mire you’d rather not reveal, you deflect, try to change the conversation, bring in some drama that attempts to distract from the point he’s making.

Like that time when he’d been talking about rich fools and seeking God over money and being prepared for the final wedding feast and divisions among families and settling your disputes before going before a judge.  Lord knows, that’s at least two seasons’ worth of televised drama. But the point is, Jesus was speaking into what’s real for many of us. He can get close, too close. When that happens, people would rather turn the talk somewhere else.

Actually, it’s not only interruptive but maybe downright rude to the Teacher to whom the Jews were thinking might be the one to relieve them of Roman rule. But those listening drag it up. Headline news had it some Jews from the north, Galileans, were slaughtered right in the holy Temple as they offered sacrifices. Pilate, ruthless governor in Jerusalem, may have thought some kind of seditious activity was being planned. Apparently, not only did Pilate want them gone, he wanted to send a horrific message to the populace.

Expectations likely were that Jesus would call down heaven’s fury on the regime. If you’re trying to get the people to follow, you have to speak to their sentiments. Yet, Jesus distinguishes himself from the political ploy and stays on message. He will not concede that Rome and Pilate are extensions of God’s justice.

Superstitious Perspectives

Jesus uses the opportunity to correct erroneous views of why bad things happen to good people. He rhetorically asks, Were these people worse sinners than anybody else? Same thing with his own example of eighteen laborers who died when a tower fell on them. Were these bad people getting their due? You know what people think. If these kinds of calamities happen, it must be that God was raining down judgement for the evil they propagated. You hear the same thing when people claim Covid-19 was sent because God is angry with the world and the way it is going.

Jesus doesn’t find that narrative helpful, so much to the point he answers not once but twice: Not at all, as in NO. But he doesn’t drop it there. He returns the focus right where it needs to be.

Sure, unpredictable bad things are going to happen in life, no escaping that. Whether it’s a pandemic or war or cancer or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, people can feel like they live in the crosshairs of a sniper ready to take them out. Rage about it if you will, but at the bottom we know there are things beyond our control. Sit with the Serenity Prayer on this one.

What Jesus does point out is what we know for sure. The only thing we can change is ourselves. The old word for it that Jesus uses is repentance. At its core is the journey of not just regret for how one has lived that has brought separation and hurt to relationships as well as God. It requires a reversal of heart and mind for living life in mercy, forgiveness and love as God loves. Such intentional living requires love of neighbor and of enemy, having concern for the poor, those living on the edge of society, and generosity for others with one’s blessings. The right to oneself becomes secondary to what God calls for in honoring, leaning into divine will in the community and realm of heaven.

Whew. That’s a lot. Know though this reversal does not mean it will prevent untimely tragedies. But a life that seeks good over the negative, even the most evil forces of the world, will prepare one for trials with strength to face the next day, the next hour, or just the next moment.

If Not?

Stern warnings are not easy to swallow. Perish, again an old word, is how Jesus expresses the outcome of those who insist on their own way, who refuse to repent. He follows with a story to illustrate why he tells it. Note though, its tone is one of mercy and compassion.

A man planted a fig tree but for three years it never produced a single fig. The owner tells the gardener to get rid of it, cut it down, for it’s not doing what it was meant to do, wasting space where something better could be.

But the gardener advocates for the fruitless tree. “Give it one more chance, leave it another year,” he tells the owner. “I’ll give it special attention, more fertilizer,” he promises. Should it not produce figs next year, “you can cut it down.”

A simple story with a major point. Yes, those who don’t produce fruit, who refuse to add to the world what God would have, are in danger of being cut down. But Jesus is saying he is there to buy more time, to work with people, to heal and to teach and to show another way.

And That Way Is?

While the world may have people like Pilate who are ruthless in efforts to control and murder whoever stands in their way, Jesus promotes forgiveness for those who would reverse their lives.

While superpowers may oppress and write their history in blood, Jesus advocates mercy for those who see another way for the world.

While misfortune and natural disasters, horrendous accidents and debilitating disease sometimes are part of life, Jesus’ message is how to get through life in faith that this is not all there is to life.

Note as well the owner has no reply in this conversation with the gardener. The tree still stands, the opportunity to change one’s mind and how one lives is still there.

Jesus knew what was to come. Not long from that day he’d be looking eye to eye at Pilate himself. Roman guards would torture and murderously take his life, spill his blood in another kind of sacrifice. He would perish.

And yet, he talks confidently of what would happen in the next year. Jesus knew he’d return to continue that conversation, advocating for more time to teach, to heal, to love and to grow lives from more than they are into what God would have them be.

None then should have to perish by that grace.

Luke 13:1-9