[i] Job 4:7
[ii] John 9:2
[iii] Luke 13:5
March 14, 2004; The Third Sunday of Lent, Year C
The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector
Among the words that we learn early in life is the word – why. It isn't until later on in life that we grow out of the habit of misusing this word as an act of antagonism, or to delay having to do something; and begin to use it to seek answers to genuine questions that we have, thereby realizing the full potential of the word.
For a person of faith, the word why is an important part of their vocabulary. Take the people who had been listening to Jesus talk about the coming judgment. Some of them, as reported in our Gospel reading for this morning wanted to know why some Galileans had been killed by Pilate. The people wanted to know why God would allow these good people to be killed and then to add insult to the murder, how could God stand by and allow their blood to be used in a pagan sacrifice ritual. The people wanted to know what the Galileans had done wrong, what sin they had committed to deserve this.
Before I go on to try and to provide an answer, let's pick up another situation with which we are often confronted. In Jesus' response to the people he mentions an accident that happened. The details are sketchy, but as Jesus reports it, innocent Jewish people were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them. What runs through our minds when innocent people are killed in an accident, say like the boat taxi that capsized out east a week ago? What do we think, and say, when tragedy injures or kills "good" or "innocent" people. We have all heard the responses - from, "There number is up, to "God has something better in store for them."
These attempts to come up with an answer to satisfy our questions of why bad things happen to good people are fallacies. There is no divine lottery whereby we have each been given a number that determines when we will die. And there is really no support for the notion that God participates in someone's death in order to give them something better.
I don’t know of anyone, except maybe the terrorist who we behind the blowing up of trains in Madrid on Thursday, that would claim that God directed or participated in their killing of those almost two hundred people. I find it hard to imagine God telling me, or anyone, to kill innocent people – whether it be some kind of holy war, or a way to cleanse humanity of infidels. An infidel by the way is defined as an unbeliever in respect to a particular religion.
A popular notion in Jesus' day, and one that is still prevalent today, is that sin is the cause of all tragedy. Anyone who is familiar with the story of Job knows that this question of sin and its consequences played heavily upon his conscience. Even Job's friends did not help matters any when they asked of Job, "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?"[i] And in the Gospel of John, the disciples asked Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"[ii]
Implied in these thoughts and others is that God is directly responsible for everything that happens. If God is a just God, then tragedies must be the punishment of human sinfulness. Such thinking implies that God is the immediate cause of all events, which leaves no room for human freedom or the freedom of the created universe.
I am not claiming that sin does not cause things to happen, or that there are no consequences to sin. As we understand sin, it was sin that caused the death of the people in Madrid. I will label it the sin of selfishness, of putting oneself and ones' desires before the love and respect that Jesus talks about for other people. The terrorist had the freedom to choose to commit this sin.
Yet we cannot say or claim that everything bad that happens to us or other people is the result of sin. To claim that something like, let’s say tornadoes are caused by someone's sin does sound a bit foolish. Perhaps it was El nino, or nature, getting back at us for something we have done to the environment.
Who is in control? Many times we like to think that we are. But when something goes wrong, or something bad happens, we often raise questions as to why God could let this happen.
Why do bad things happen? Jesus' answer this morning is not very satisfying. He essentially said that life is an uncertainty, the innocent are often victims, and that death comes to us all.
But that is not the end of the Gospel. Jesus' response in the form of a question cuts to the heart of the matter. In his question he is saying that the true question is not why it happened but, how do we stand before God? His call to repentance is a reminder that while we are very concerned about what happens to us and others in this life, our ultimate concern should be about what happens to us after this life. Why? Because in Jesus’ words if you are not concerned, "you will all perish just as they did."[iii]
Perish like a fig tree when it is cut down and thrown away. The parable tells the Good News of the gardener who persuades the owner to give him a chance to lovingly care for the tree one more time so that it might bear fruit. This is a parable of judgment. God is the owner, Jesus is the gardener, and we are the fig tree. We are like the fig tree in that we have an original purpose. But unlike the fig tree we can make the conscience decision to “bear fruit” or not. We have the freedom to choose God and a relationship with him through Jesus Christ or to reject him. We have the freedom to choose to do his will for us or to rebel and sin.
It is Jesus who lovingly cares for us so that we will not only repent of our sins but turn again to God and renew our commitment to him. Jesus is there to help us by taking our sins from us and giving us a new chance to bear the fruit of faith by loving God. Not that it will exempt us from the tragedies of life, but so that we might endure in faith through this life so that we will receive life eternal is the kingdom of God.