The other day, someone asked me, “How are you?” I said, “Things are going along just fine” and the retort came back, “You must be living right.”
A while back, I played a round of golf in Montreal at the second oldest golf course in North America. On one hole I hit a lucky drive that bounced off a rock and then through an opening in a stone fence and landed on the green. I then commented to my non-Christian friend, “If you live right, those things happen all the time.”
Now when I said that, I said it jokingly. But what I said is a popular belief. People think that if they live right, things will always turn out right. They also believe the opposite, that if things go poorly, they must have done something wrong.
Comments like that indicate people believe there is a connection between the amount of suffering or happiness in our lives and the level of sin in our lives. If there is a lot of suffering, there must be something wrong and if there isn’t any difficulty or suffering, then you must be doing everything right.
This is popular thinking today, but it really isn’t a new idea. It was a common belief in the time of Jesus and Jesus confronted this issue head on. The teaching is found in Luke 13:1-5.
THE NEW TESTAMENT STORY
Luke 13 tells one of the most unusual stories in the New Testament. As Jesus was teaching, some people came to Jesus and told him of a tragic, bizarre event that had just happened. The story concerns some people from Galilee who died tragically. As you read the story, it’s clear that their sorrow was merely a disguise because underneath their sorrow was a great deal of joy and pride
Here’s what had happened. Some people from Galilee in the north had come down to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to God. We don’t know all the details, but for some reason Pilate’s soldiers had moved in and massacred these Galileans. They not only killed them, they went much further. After butchering and slaughtering the Galileans, they took their human blood and mixed it with the animal blood of the sacrifices they were offering in the Temple.
It’s a rather gory story. It sounds like something that would happen as a ritual in some strange cult.
As these Judeans told the story, it was clear from the way Jesus responded to them that they had put their own interpretation on the events that had taken place. What they were really saying to Jesus was this: those Galileans sure must have been terrible people for God to allow this to happen to them!
But Jesus didn’t agree with them and didn’t accept their interpretation of events. He didn’t believe that what had happened took place because they had done something terribly wrong. He asked these people a question, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?” (v. 2).
Jesus answered his own question: “I tell you, no!” Then he made a powerful statement: “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (v 3).
Then, before they could react, Jesus asked them about another incident that had just happened. “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?” (v. 4).
Jesus brought up an incident that didn’t concern people from Galilee. Rather, it was an event concerning some Judeans, people who lived in Jerusalem. The Tower of Siloam was a tower in the Southeast part of Jerusalem. As these people were standing or walking near the tower, it collapsed and 18 people were killed.
Jesus asked if they thought these people died because they were great sinners? Was there greater sin in their lives than everyone else in Jerusalem? Were they more guilty or deserving of sudden death than any one else?
Jesus said “no way.” He said that was too simplistic an explanation of what happened.
He said, further, there’s something more serious they should be looking at instead of gloating about what happened to others. They should be looking in on the condition of their own hearts. And again he repeated his warning, “I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (v. 5).
Jesus was trying to get at the heart of the thinking that said all tragedy and suffering is the judgment of God for wrong behavior. He was saying that kind of thinking just doesn’t hold water. He was saying that if you believe that if you’re righteous you will always prosper and be in health and live to be 110, or, if you believe that if you sin you will always in this life receive judgment or suffering. If you believe that, you are wrong. There’s just too much evidence to disprove that thinking. There are just too many situations you can’t explain, because life is too complex for such simple answers.
The people of Jesus’ day had some strange beliefs and we share some of their thinking today. Not everything they believed was wrong but neither was it all correct. What they believed was a mixture of truth and error. They fell into the trap that people today fall into. People like simple answers to complex questions, but things aren’t that easy. Some questions can’t be answered with simplistic clichés. Sometimes life is hard to explain.
Here are four ideas that were commonly held beliefs in Jesus’ day and which are common today. These have some truth and some error. They are dangerous beliefs and if you follow them, you’ll face situations you won’t be able to handle.
1. ALL SIN ALWAYS LEADS TO SUFFERING
– in this belief, the people of Jesus’ day were basically right
– the Bible says, “the way of the transgressor is hard”
– the Scriptures teach, “be sure your sins will find you out”
– that means more than your secret sins will be discovered
– it means you will receive the consequences of your sins
– we need to remind ourselves of this today
– a life of sin leads to turmoil and suffering
– it was true long ago and it is true today
– it’s true in a primitive society; it’s true in sophisticated homes of this city
– whenever a man sins, he turns loose a cycle of retribution upon himself
– he reaps the natural results of his behavior
– this isn’t true just because of the judgment of God
– it’s simply the law of sowing and reaping
– if you sow corn, you are going to reap corn
– if you sow sin, you are going to reap sin
– sin does lead to suffering
– and the deeper the sin, the greater consequences of that sin
– if you sin by gossiping or being critical, you are going to reap the consequences of that sin, it will come back to you
– if you abuse your body with alcohol and drugs, you are going to pay the price
– sin does lead to suffering
– but we have to be honest
– does sin always lead to immediate suffering?
– if we look around, it seems that there are a lot of sinners who don’t seem to be suffering very much
– this is something King David wondered about
– sometimes some sinners escape the suffering
– there are people who live a life that is in total violation of the laws of God, yet they seem to escape all suffering
– two things:
– first, you don’t always know what suffering is going on in someone’s private life…
– second, there will be eternal suffering for all who reject God and turn away from him
– not all suffering takes place in this life!
– so this first belief is basically right
– sin leads to suffering
– but we need to remind ourselves that not all that suffering occurs in this life
– some of it may be delayed until the life to come
2. GOOD PEOPLE ALWAYS ESCAPE SUFFERING
– these people not only believed that cheaters never prosper and that sinners always suffer…
– they believed that good people never suffer
– they reasoned that righteous people always escape difficulty
– they believed if you press all the right spiritual buttons, you’ll never have any difficulty
– now there is a measure of truth in what these people believed
– but there was also a great deal of error
– God’s hand of blessing and protection does rest on those who follow him
– no one disputes that
– hundreds of people give witness to that
– I certainly do
– but it is totally wrong to believe that goodness is an infallible road to health, prosperity and worldly success and the absence of problems, because it just isn’t true
– it would be nice if all the rascals went bankrupt and all the good guys became millionaires
– but it just isn’t so…
– it never was and it never will be
– the psalmist wrote in Psalm 1 “whatever he does prospers…”
– he also wrote Psalm 73:3-5, “I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.”
– David had a point
– let’s be honest
– sometimes the sinful and arrogant prosper in this life more than the righteous
– if you don’t believe it, look around you
– sometimes good people go through difficulties and bad things do seem to happen to good people
– just because a person is good, does not mean that he will live a life free from illness and have a bank account with lots of money in it
– there’s just too much in the Scripture and in the experience of good Christians to show that good Christians do not always escape hardship and difficulty
– many people go wrong on this point
– they think that if they press all the right spiritual buttons, they will escape all the troubles of life
– the trouble comes when trouble arrives
– people who think good people don’t suffer don’t know how to handle adversity
– they are thrown for a loop in their faith when difficulties come
– they say, “I’ve done all this for God and look what he’s brought into my life!”
– the Bible does teach that the life of a person who follows Jesus will be blessed
– there is no question about this
– but let’s face the facts
– the overwhelming teaching of the Bible is that Christians are not immune from suffering
– certainly, Christians suffer a lot less
– certainly there is deliverance and healing and guidance
– but being good is no guarantee of escaping trouble
– the Bible teaches us to be patient in suffering
– it tells us to rejoice in trials
– it tells us that the testing of our faith makes us strong
– it tells us that longsuffering or patience in suffering is one of the fruit of the Spirit
3. ALL SUFFERING IS THE RESULT OF SIN
– this is another belief where these Jewish people had a half-truth
– all suffering is the result of sin
– it’s a partial truth: some suffering is the result of sin, but not all
– the moment some people meet a crisis or face a hardship, they feel that God is punishing them for some wrong they have done
– they think, “I have this difficulty, therefore I must have done something bad to displease God”
– it is true in a general sense that all suffering is connected with sin
– suffering was injected into the stream of human life at the fall of man in Genesis
– had sin never entered the world, neither would death or sickness or suffering
– and so, in a general sense, all suffering is the result of the original introduction of sin into the world
– but you cannot say that all suffering comes as a result of a particular sin
– the obvious example is Job in the Old Testament
– Job was a godly man, but he lost his health, his wealth and his family
– the Bible tells us how his body was so racked with boils, that he sat on a pile of ashes with a broken saucer scraping away the pus from his boils
– yet the Bible clearly says he was a righteous man
– Job had some friends who were misinformed
– they were convinced his suffering was the result of some sin he’d done
– they told him, “Job, you must have sinned…”
– their scorching indictment of Job was “Whoever suffered being innocent?”
– well the answer to that question is simple: thousands of people!
– thousands of innocent people have suffered and gone through hardship
– six million Jews in Germany are testimony of this
– think of Jesus himself
– he was on the cross, not because of his sin, but because he was good
– and there are many people today who suffer, not because they are bad but because they are good
– there are many people who face difficult circumstances simply because they are human and live in a body that is frail and subject to weakness
– and a word of caution. Don’t be so insensitive as to go to a person who is suffering and tell that person he is suffering because of sin in his life
– you have no right to judge someone else
– your job is to be an encouragement, not a judge
4. WE’RE NOT SUFFERING, THEREFORE WE MUST BE GOOD
– this is perhaps the most dangerous belief
– those people who came to Jesus not only believed …
– that sin always leads to suffering
– that righteous people always escape suffering
– and that all suffering is the result of sin…
– they went one step further…
– they believed that because they weren’t suffering they must be good!
– they thought, since everything is going well for us, we must be OK
– now that’s a rather neat conclusion, “I don’t have any problems, so I must be good
– a lot of people make that conclusion today
– life goes along very well, so they become very comfortable
– they think: why do I need God or church?
– I’m good, look I don’t have any problems
– my health is good, I have a nice wife, my kids are doing well
– this was the thinking of the people who came to Jesus
– they were not only commenting on the poor people whom Pilate had killed, they were making a big statement about themselves
– they were filled with arrogance and pride
– they didn’t look at the Galileans and say, “There but for the grace of God go I!”
– rather, they said to themselves, if they’d only been as good as we are, they’d still be alive today
– it was the attitude of the Pharisees
– “God, I thank you I’m not like other people…”
– they should have felt, “It is only because of the grace and mercy of God that we are not consumed”
– these people thought they were better than others
– they thought God was overlooking their little sins
– they considered the sins in their own lives too little for God to take notice
– they totally lacked compassion for those who had died
– they were morally colorblind to their own sins
– and this sin was disastrous
– because they had escaped calamity, they thought they were good, when in fact they were evil
– it’s the situation of many people today
HOW DID JESUS HANDLE THESE PEOPLE?
– Jesus didn’t play around with these people
– he cut right to the heart of the matter
– he said, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
– in other words, instead of thinking about the possible sin of the Galileans who died, think about your self
– take an honest look at yourself and you’ll see your own need to repent
– Jesus put it bluntly: face your own spiritual pride or perish
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