The Opposite Of Karma - Repent

3.23.25 Luke 13:1–5 (EHV)

1 At that time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 He answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? 3 I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse sinners than all the people living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too.”

When you read your Old Testament history, God made it pretty obvious at times when He didn’t like what someone was doing.

When Korah tried to lead a rebellion against Moses, the earth opened up and swallowed him and his followers alive.

When the Israelites started complaining in the desert, a bunch of poisonous snakes came out of the earth and were biting them left and right.

When the men of Sodom and Gomorrah were going to rape two angels, God sent fire from heaven to consume their cities.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was happening here. Fire from heaven? God no likee. Earth opens up to swallow you alive? Yeah, that’s not good. Even in the New Testament there was the example of Ananias and Sapphira who dropped dead on the spot for lying about how much they had given in the offering plate. Life would be easy to figure out if God worked that way all the time. Punch someone in the nose, lightning bolts fell from heaven. Treat your spouse right, win a thousand dollars at the casino.

What would be the consequences of God doing things that way? You’d be scared of doing anything wrong, and you might try a lot harder to do things right. Instant gratification and instant justice. The world would be a much better place to live in. So why doesn’t God do it that way? Because we’d all probably be damned.

How so? 1. When we were doing things “right,” we’d assume we are then we are the good people, that God must be happy with us. We’d be proud of what we have because we were living a good life. 2. We’d be terrified of doing anything wrong, scared to death of the lightning bolt. We’d live our lives in terror of God. Everything would revolve around the results. “What do I need to do to make sure I don’t have a tower land on me?” We’d be anything but free, constantly thinking about what Big Brother is going to do. We’d end up living our lives in a very shallow way, only thinking about the consequences and doing things for the consequences. (On top of that, most of us would probably also be angry at God for putting some of our own friends and family to death over things that we didn’t think were that offensive.)

Think about the modern day influencers. They go to the beach and bring along their photographer and outfits. They go to a restaurant and they pose while drinking their drinks or eating their food. But they aren’t there really to enjoy the sunshine or the sand. They are thinking about how they look while they are sitting on the beach or eating their food. It’s all about getting approval. Everything is about appearance.

You can approach your religious practice like that as well. You can turn it into a checkmark. I’m going to get released from membership for not attending. What should I do? I’ll attend once to let them know I still want to be a member. I’ll spend two minutes memorizing my Bible passage for class, and then forget about it once I’m done with my Catechism homework. Well that’s kind of hypocritical. Some see that and say, “Here’s what I’ll do instead to be a more genuine Christian. I’ll be a good neighbor. I’ll say my prayers at home and read the Bible on my own. I’ll be nice and giving to my co-workers. I don’t need to belong to a church. I’ll be my own church.” We simplify life down to the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you want them to do to you.” After all, it’s in the Sermon on the Mount. But how did Jesus end the Sermon? He went deeper than that. “Be perfect, as the Lord your God is perfect.”

In the context of this text, the people were trying to figure out why the tower fell on the people at Siloam. Why did God allow Pilate to slaughter the Jews and mix their blood with sacrifices? What did they do? It was the same question that Job’s friends tried to answer when Job was being attacked by Satan. “What did Job do wrong?” Job knew that he didn’t do anything to deserve what was happening to him, but he didn’t know why God was doing it either. He wanted an answer as well. What was God’s answer to Job? “You’ll get no answer. I’m God. I know what I’m doing. Live with it.”