The Opposite Of Karma - Repent

Kind of harsh, right? But we need to hear that answer too. We are not God. He doesn’t owe us any answers. We live in a world that we broke through sin, and God is dealing with it perfectly. He’s chosen to deal with it by allowing evil to happen, letting bad people do bad things, but then using that hurt and pain to drive people to Him for comfort and forgiveness and strength. God has been dealing with the world this way from the beginning. 99% of the time He has chosen to let evil be evil. He has chosen not to have the earth open up and swallow the rebels or to have fire come from the sky when people really step out of line. He calls on us to trust that He knows what He’s doing. He shows us from the Bible how in the end, He does work things out for good. Job ends up with 9 more children. Jesus rises from the dead. Lazarus ends up in heaven at Abraham’s side after suffering as a poor man his entire life.

Mary Ann Leslie’s funeral was yesterday. Her husband died about ten years ago. Her house and car were flooded at Wixom Lake. She then ended up with cancer that couldn’t be treated. Her favorite Bible verse was from Psalm 46. As the mountains quake and nations are in uproar, God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” How can we do that unless we trust that God is good, in spite of what we see going on in the world, and trust that He knows what He’s doing. A few months back a guy stopped into my office who was complaining about how bad our world was. He blamed God and said, “I could do better.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the hubris. Good luck with that.

So Jesus takes it a step further then “Be still” in today’s text. You see, there is a problem with the whole mindset of just trying to get by in life without getting zapped by God, so to speak . . . trying to find the secret code that will keep you under the radar of God’s wrath, the keep your head low type of mentality. It’s kind of like how we do it in our own society. Don’t speak out too loud against homosexuality or abortion, etc. Keep your head low. If you’re going to say something, say it behind the scenes. Don’t do anything to get the mob mad at you or have the government start investigating you for hate speech. That’s how these people were trying to get by with God. The bare minimum approach to religion. “What do I need to do to keep my membership here? I haven’t been here for a year? Ok. I’ll come once. Put my foot in the door. Is that good? I’ll give some offerings. Are you happy now?”

Jesus says, “No. It’s deeper than that.” He says it twice, doubling down on it. “But unless you repent, you will all perish too.” Notice the word that Jesus uses there? Perish. It’s different than just dying. He uses that word in verse 4 when the 18 were “killed.” Perish can mean a variety of things, but more often than not it means a complete ruination. For instance, in John 10:10 Jesus uses it to talk about what a thief comes to do. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Someone comes into their house, all of their valuables are gone, the front door is kicked in, and the house is completely trashed and ransacked. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus uses the same word when He talks about what happens to the soul in hell. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can DESTROY both soul and body in hell.” Here these people were worried about what they could do to keep a tower from falling on them, but they weren’t thinking about a worse fate of ending up in hell for eternity. That’s what they should have been thinking about.