Luke 13:1-9
Debunking the Just World Theory
[Please contact me at kerry.n.haynes@gmail.com for sermon outline in Word.]
In a “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip sometime back, Calvin says to his dad, “Why can't I stay up late? You guys can!” Then with a wide-mouthed protest he declares, “IT'S NOT FAIR!” His dad replies, “The world isn't fair, Calvin.” Walking away with a sour look on his face, Calvin says, “I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?” Do you ever feel like Calvin?
Sometimes Veterans with PTSD suffer from life being unfair. In therapy, they struggle with something called the “just world myth,” which says that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. Sounds nice and tidy, right? Actually, we all start developing this myth the moment we’re old enough to get in trouble. A toddler reaches for the stovetop, and a mother slaps her hand and says, “No!” Or a child starts toward the street, and a father says, “No” loudly. In both examples, the lesson is that if you do the wrong thing, you will be hurt. And if you do the right thing, you will be spared from hurt. Parents seek to shape their child’s behavior to keep them safe.
Then we grow up. And we keep thinking, “If I do the right thing, I won’t be hurt, but if I do the wrong thing, I will be hurt.” And at some point, we learn it doesn’t always work that way. This past week I had a memorial gathering for a student psychologist a year after her death. I led the first memorial service a year ago; yet leadership felt the other students and staff were still processing her death, and asked for another memorial gathering. I read a scripture and a poem or two and gave a prayer. We opened it up to sharing. And one provider described the anger many of us felt over this untimely death. The psychology fellow was bright, resourceful, compassionate, energetic, full of life, and full of faith. How tragic, to be cut down in her youth! Bad things sometime happen to good people.
I tried to capture some of the right and wrong questions we ask in times of tragedy. They were the same ones asked in Jesus’ day. Look at #1 on your outline:
1. The question is not why good people get murdered.
The psychology fellow I mentioned was murdered. Some people in Jesus’ day believed that if a person died under horrible circumstances, then they must have deserved it. The case involved Pilate, who was known to be downright cruel in his treatment of the Jews. Look at verses 1-3:
“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!’” (vs. 1-3a).
Apparently, some Jews had come to Jerusalem to sacrifice animals to God, and for whatever reason, Pilate made sure they were part of the sacrifice, too. Maybe Pilate thought them to be rebels. We don’t know. We have no historical evidence of this event outside of these verses, although the event fits Pilate’s reputation. Jesus said there is no absolute link between people’s level of sin and their suffering of horrible deaths.
Notice what Jesus did NOT say. He did not say there are no consequences to our sin. A person recently had a lung removed because of a lifetime smoking habit. Sin affects our health in a myriad of ways, and not just physically. Sin affects us relationally, mentally, and yes, spiritually. Elsewhere, Jesus told a man healed of blindness, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you” (John 5:14). Sometimes our sin leads to dire consequences. At the very least, it will lead us to feel distant from God. Yet, just because someone dies a violent death does not mean they did anything to deserve it. And additionally,
2. The question is not why good people die in accidents.
Jesus brings up a natural accident in verse 4. He says, “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? I tell you, no!” (vv. 4-5).
Again, we have no historical evidence of this accident apart from this scripture. Scholars think maybe it was related to construction near the Pool of Siloam, but we’re not sure. Jesus makes the same point as he did with murder: there is not always a causal link between people’s sin and the way they die. Good people die in accidental deaths. Bad people die in accidental deaths. The real question is #3...
3. The question is why God allows any of us to live another moment.
That may sound harsh, but if the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and if we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), why do any of us get another single day of life? In the book of Job, Job’s friend Eliphaz asks rhetorically, “Who, being innocent, has ever perished?” (Job 4:7). The real answer: who here has been completely innocent? Even Job, a righteous man, suffered a little from pride.
R.C. Sproul asks the rhetorical question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” And he answers it, “That only happened once, and He volunteered.” The “He” is Jesus, the only one who is truly innocent. You see, “There is none who has done good,” according to scripture (Psalm 14:3, 53:3, Romans 3:12). We all have sinned; we’ve all rebelled against God in some way. We all deserve death. Yet, In God’s infinite mercy, he gives us a way out.
Jesus warns at the end of each of the earlier examples, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (vv. 3b, 5b). Now Jesus is talking about spiritual death, a perishing of the soul. And to avoid that, we must do something called “repentance.”
?To repent is to change direction, to turn away from your sin and to a person: Jesus. It’s not enough to stop sinning. We can’t really do that anyway, on our own, without God’s help. Repentance is not stopping something; it’s completely reorienting ourselves, turning away from the sin and back to God. It’s turning to our Savior to be saved: once when we are initially saved, and then daily and moment by moment as we seek help with temptations.
Jesus tells a parable to illustrate God’s mercy in waiting for our repentance. It’s about a fig tree in a vineyard. The prophets had often used a fig tree or a vineyard to symbolize the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people. So Jesus’ parable sounds like Israel itself. God is ready to chop it down, but because of one person’s intercession, God decides to wait, to relent for at least another year.
Later, when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, he wept over it, and predicted a day when Israel’s enemies would surround her and bring down every stone on her walls, all because she had refused to recognize God’s coming (Luke 19:41-44). That actually occurred in AD 70, when Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem.
Repentance is not just for Israel; it’s for us as well. The Apostle Paul writes about his ministry to non-Jews, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20b).
And that’s our final lesson today. When bad things happen to seemingly good people:
4. Tragedy reminds us to repent while there is still time.
With Jesus’ parable, the caretaker proposed to the owner of the vineyard, “If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down” (v. 9).
A time is coming when God will cut down those who have remained obstinate toward him. Romans 11:22 says, “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” No one knows how much time they have left. Every tragedy, every misfortune, every death—whether accidental or criminal—should remind us to repent while there is still time. Tragedy should give us a sense of urgency, for those we know need God.
If we are walking in step with God, then it doesn’t matter when we die. Death for the believer is simply the final promotion. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). We are immediately transported into the presence of Jesus. So we can welcome death, when it comes, because we have already repented.
Tragedy then reminds us to pray for our loved ones, to pray for our enemies, to pray for our acquaintances and neighbors—anyone who needs to repent, to turn away from their sins and turn to a Savior. Tragedy is God’s wake-up call. It’s a heavenly reminder that life is short, that repentance is urgently needed. It’s a call to prayer and to action.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Let’s pray:
Thank you, Father, that you can even use the most tragic of events for good, if it helps people to wake up and turn to you before it’s too late. We know you hate evil, even more than we do. So we know you mourn the senselessness of death as we do. Help us to hold onto you in times of tragedy, and to grow in our urgency of sharing your love with others who need it. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
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Luke 13:1-9
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 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? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
