03202022 – Luke 13. 1-9
The 8th grade confirmands have been spending time with the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
Presently, they have been looking at Deuteronomy.
When translated from the Greek- Septuagint, the word “Deuteronomy” means “second law,” as in, Moses’ RETELLING of God’s laws.
This is where we find – A LOT of Biblical REPETITION. (Hey, didn’t we just read that?) Yep, you did!
For example, the 10 commandments shows up in the Book of Deuteronomy, even though we also have them in the book of Exodus. Repetition.
The Second Law…the retelling…
The emphasis IN DEUTERONOMY is always on OBEDIENCE.
So, in Deuteronomy 28, we read, “If you fully OBEY the LORD your God and CAREFULLY FOLLOW ALL his commands I give you today, the LORD your God WILL set you high above ALL the nations on earth.
ALL these BLESSINGS will come ON YOU and accompany you IF you OBEY the LORD your God.
However, IF you DO NOT OBEY the LORD your God and DO NOT CAREFULLY FOLLOW ALL his commands and decrees I am giving you today, ALL these CURSES will come on you and overtake you.”
But alongside that, there are “COUNTER VOICES,” both in the PSALMS and in the book of JOB and in the book of ECCLESIASTES…(the wisdom writings.)
‘Proverbs says “DO THIS and life will go WELL with you”.
Ecclesiastes says “I DID, AND IT DIDN’T”. Now, WHAT?
Who knows what lies around the NEXT CORNER…or, in the on-coming lanes of traffic!
Even though we DO NOT LIKE IT, LIFE sometimes seems to have a bit of “RANDOMNESS” to it…that is difficult to swallow…and hard to fathom.
Wrong place. Wrong time. YIKES!
In reply to the ASSUMPTION – that the Galileans ‘DESERVED’ their fate at the hands of wicked Pilate, or that the Jerusalemites ‘DESERVED’ their deaths at the hands of “whimsical fate,” Jesus’ answer was the same: an emphatic ‘No, I tell you!’ TWICE OVER!
It is TRUE that good old Deuteronomy–INSISTS that judgement will overtake those whose lives are characterised by DISOBEDIENCE, but this IS NOT the same thing as – arguing that DISASTERS come ONLY to those who are DIS-OBEDIENT…
Because we know that is simply NOT TRUE and not the CASE!
Disasters happen to ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE, good and bad alike.
Look at UKRAINE.
Are those people any worse sinners than anyone else? Are they DESERVING of what is happening to them?
Of course NOT!
Disasters HAPPEN. Calamities do not discriminate. Bad things happen to innocent people…all the time.
In fact, Jesus’ reply DOES NOT deny SINS its consequences, nor that sin leads to judgement; instead, he rejects the theory that those WHO ENCOUNTER CALAMITY have been “marked by God” as MORE DESERVING of judgement that those WHO DO NOT.
STUFF happens, you know that it does!
In doing this, Jesus is BOTH acknowledging “the UNPREDICTABILITY of DISASTER”—but at the same time “refusing to let go of the notion” that WE are “morally REASPONSIBLE agents.”
All of us are sinners.
All of us, sin.
But that DOES NOT MEAN that we DESERVE whatever befalls us or happens TO US. Many times, we DO NOT CAUSE IT.
Sometimes we DO NOT DESERVE the situation that we find ourselves in.
We are NOT to blame.
We are NOT at fault.
And our sinful nature has nothing to do with it.
BUT ALL NEED TO REPENT, Jesus says. Everyone needs to feel sorry for their misdeeds and go in “another direction.”
In the PARABLE of the FIG TREE Jesus makes it clear, the desire of “the gardener” is that the tree WILL BECOME FRUITFUL.
For those EAGER to JUDGE others as MORE DESERVING of God’s judgement than THEMSELVES, Jesus continues by insisting that the UNREPENTENT have escaped judgement NOT because of their “goodness, holiness, or sanctity,” but because of God’s MERCY.
God is MERCIFUL.
And may HIS MERCY continue…especially on those in PERIL at the hands of ruthless, non-caring, callous, cruel, and inhumane OTHERS…
May it be so. Amen.