Lent 2 – 21 February 2016 – Year C
Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 13th
Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 9.
There
were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose
blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he
answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans
were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this
way? 3 No, I tell
you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and
killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others
who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you rrepent,
you will all likewise perish.”
6 And he
told this parable: “A man had ta fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking
fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years
now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down.
Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also,
until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good;
but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
Today’s Gospel
presents a very hard and very important question. In fact, it is so important
that theologians have a special name for questions like this. Theologians call this the Question of
Theodicy. The basic form of the question
is, “If God is both almighty and good,
why is there evil?” There are all
sorts of variations on this question: 1). Why do bad things happen to good
people; 2). What have I done to deserve this; or, as in today’s Gospel, 3). Why
did Pilate kill these men and mix their blood with their sacrifices? Jesus Himself reminded the questioners of the
tower disaster in Siloam that killed eighteen.
The cultural belief
at the time of today’s Gospel was that that bad things did not happened to good
people. (I still hear it today!) They thought that if a catastrophe struck, it
was because you had done something bad.
Likewise, they thought that if good fortune came your way, you had done
something good. They didn’t see God as a
God of love, but as a God of justice. He
punished evil and rewarded good.
Other cultures dealt
with the Question of Theodicy in other ways.
For example: the myths of the Greeks and Romans simply assumed that the
gods were not totally good. The gods had
the same weaknesses of character that humans had. Read the mythology and you will read about
petty gods who were sometimes very selfish and immature. Sometimes it seems as though their
supernatural powers caused them to be spoiled brats.
Jesus taught that both of these ideas were wrong. He showed that we ask the wrong question when
we ask why bad things happen to good people.
You know we can begin
to understand the mistake in this question if we just think about some words
that we fundamentally use in the words of confession. Though confession of sins
in worship services differ among parishes and denominations in actual wording;
we all basically confess; (1) “that we are by nature sinful and unclean”.
(2) We have sinned against God in thought, word and deed, by what we have done
and by what we have left undone. (3) We have not loved God with our whole
heart. (4) We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. (5) We rightly deserve
God’s present and eternal punishment.”
- Friends, with these words, we confess that we are not good people. We are bad people. We deserve misery on earth and torment in
eternity. How legitimate then is the
question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
We confess our sins
in this way because God’s Word clearly teaches that we are sinful people. Here are just a few of the many passages that
teach of our sin. [Psalm 51:5]
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. [Romans 3:9-12] We have
already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is
written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for
God. All have turned aside; together
they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” [Romans 3:23]
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. [1 John 1:8, 10]
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. …
If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar, and his word is not in us. These are but a few of the passages that teach
us that we are sinners before birth and we only add to our sin every day.
We sometimes use
theological words and forget what they really mean. When we say that we sin, we are saying that
we are bad people. When the Bible tells
us that all have sinned, it is saying that all people are bad. They are not good. It follows therefore that the question “Why
do bad things happen to good people,” is neither helpful nor useful.
When we ask the
question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” we are assuming that there
are good people out there somewhere. The
Bible clearly teaches that there are no good people. In our confession of sin, we clearly confess
that we deserve bad things now and forever because we are bad people. So, the question, “Why do bad things happen to
good people,” is not a question about real people. We have no clue what would happen to good
people because there are no good people.
Since we confess that
we are bad people and deserve both present and eternal punishment, we should be
very, very afraid to ask why God does not take evil out of the world. If God were to take all evil out of the
world, He would have to start with you … and me. We are the sinners. While the devil and his evil angels are the
ultimate source of evil, we humans are a great source of evil in this
world. We should ask, “If God is both
almighty and good, why doesn’t He destroy us for being so evil,” or, “Why do
good things ever happen to us sinners?”
We have confessed
that we deserve a bad day every day
and yet, that is not what happens. Our
normal days are actually pretty good.
For one thing, we wake up. If you
think back through your life from birth until now, most of our days are pain
free. Although we get sick from time to
time, there are many more days when we are not sick. Once in a while, we put the key in the
ignition and the car won’t start. Most
of the time, it starts just fine. Think
back through your life. Yes, there have
been some life changing tragedies, but for the most part, we have to admit that
life has been pretty good. We can be
very thankful that, although God is almighty, and He is good, He is also
merciful. His justice demands punishment
of evil, but He has worked out a way to punish evil without punishing us.
You see, while the
question, “Why do bad things happen to good people,” is useless, the question,
“Why did all those bad things happen to the one and only good person,” is very,
very useful. There actually was and is
only one good person. That person is
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s
answer to the question of evil in the world.
That is because Jesus Christ is both God and man in one person.
Many bad and horrible
things happened to Jesus. He was beaten,
flogged, and crucified, but those were not the worst things. In a transaction that we cannot even begin to
understand, Jesus cried out, [Matthew
27:46] “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” From these words, we learn that all the bad
days that we deserved and all the eternal punishment that should belong to us
came down on Jesus as He hung on that cross.
In suffering that we can’t even begin to understand, God the Father
forsook God the Son. These are the bad
things that happened to the one and only good person, Jesus Christ. This is what the almighty, good, just,
merciful, and loving God did in order to deal with evil. He sacrificed Himself in order to show mercy
to evil sinners.
Jesus Christ did not
remain dead, but He returned to life. He
now offers the forgiveness of sin to us through the work of the Holy
Spirit. He and God the Father send the
Holy Spirit to work repentance and the forgiveness of sins in us. The Holy Spirit; gifted at Holy Baptism;
works these things in us through faith in Jesus Christ, the one and only good
person who was crucified and lives again.
Jesus Christ
continues to intercede for us before God as the Holy Spirit inspired John to
write, [1 John 2:1] “we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Jesus illustrated that intercession with a
parable. Just as the gardener interceded
for the fig tree with the owner, so Christ intercedes with God’s justice on our
behalf. Jesus intercedes for patience
while the Holy Spirit works on us. God
is looking for the fruit of repentance in us.
Jesus intercedes, but
there is a limit. Two times, Jesus said,
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” There is a limit to the amount of time God
allows for the fruit of repentance to form.
There comes a day when it is our turn to leave this world. Those who grieve for their sin, but rejoice
in the forgiveness earned for them by the one and only God man, Jesus Christ
will live in eternity with the good man who loved them enough to suffer for
them. Those who do not show the fruit of
repentance will join the devil and the evil angels as they suffer forever in
hell. Jesus illustrates this in the
parable with these words: “If [the tree]
should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
There is one and only
one good man, Jesus Christ. The rest of
us are all bad. Jesus Christ, the one
and only good man suffered the punishment we deserved for our sin. Through that suffering, He earned the
forgiveness of sins for us. He now works through the Holy Spirit to
offer that forgiveness to us. Jesus lovingly and urgently calls for us to
repent now and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins whilst our tree of
life is still standing. Now is the time
for forgiveness. Now is the time of
salvation. [Acts 16:31] “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved.” Amen
The love and grace of
our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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