Lamentations 3:25-36 (NIV)  

²⁵ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; ²⁶ it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  ²⁷ It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.

²⁸ Let him sit alone in silence, for the Lord has laid it on him.  ²⁹ Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope.  ³⁰ Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace.

³¹ For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.  ³² Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.  ³³ For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.

³⁴ To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land, ³⁵ to deny a man his rights before the Most High, ³⁶ to deprive a man of justice—would not the Lord see such things?

Luke 13:1-9 (NIV)

¹ 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, planted 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.’”

Jesus addresses a couple of tragedies.

First tragedy: Pontius Pilate is in charge of Israel and makes political retribution on his enemies and destroyed them.  This killing was at the Temple and their blood was mixed with the blood from the sacrifices.

Second tragedy: took place where the southern and eastern walls of the Jerusalem merge and there was a tower with 18 people on it and drowned in the Pool of Siloam.

Why do tragedies occur?  The hurricane, earthquake, why did these people die?  Why does God allow these occurrences happen?

Did they deserve this?  Did they sin?

Jesus uses two ways to answer these questions.  First the moralistic, religious way to look at suffering and trials.  Jesus says, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than the others because that happened?  Do you think they were more guilty than all the others?”

That is the religious moralistic view of the world.

This is how prosperity gospel adherents have organized their world. If you live a good life, they assert, then you will have a good, safe, non-tragic life. If you obey God, He will bless you and prosper you, answer all your prayers in the way you want.

If you get sick, have unconfessed sin in your life, or you are doing something wrong, then bad things happen to you.  It is your fault.

People want to take credit for the good that happens in their life, and if something bad happens to us, we think we deserve it.

The other approach to tragedy is an irreligious view, that is more skeptical slant that blames the universe or God, or life, or whatever.

This view says everyone is relatively decent, but many people struggle in life, why would that be?  they decide the universe is unfair, life stinks, God, if there is a God, doesn’t know or care about what happens.

There are two camps that people fall into.  Either they deserve it, or God is unconcerned. Jesus says both are wrong or inadequate. Neither view will really work in our lives. 

Jesus says, ‘Do you think they are worse sinners, they deserved it?  No, but you repent.’  Says both, ‘No and repent.’  These two responses work together.

If Jesus simply said, ‘no’, then everyone would say ‘ok great, but then God’s unfair’.  Because if the answer was just ‘no’, then we would revert to the other viewpoint.  That God doesn’t care or is unfair.

Jesus is trying to explain something we don’t want to hear.  We know that God is a God of grace and love, and perhaps therefore, this is where the reach is, we’re not that bad.  Or, if we are sinful, we are bad and that God loves us deeply, these two thoughts are hard to hold together.  Jesus says God is a God of grace.  For we can be forgiven for anything and everything.

God continuously gives us what we do not deserve.  Jesus is saying, in these two thoughts, if we knew clearly what is wrong with us, we see how truly deep is God’s love, and of we can see the infinite grace and patience of God, we will be able to handle the truth about how depraved, how fare from God we are in and of ourselves.

John Calvin says the more we know ourselves, the more we understand God, and the more we understand God, the better we understand ourselves.

If we cannot take an honest look at ourselves, it is because we are not clear on God’s grace.  I have been given the freedom to admit I’m broken without being totally lost.

All the brokenness around us comes from us saying to God, I’ll do this myself, my way, I know best.  Jesus says repent; hate evil and brokenness, come to me He says, because I’m coming to do away with the evil of the world.

When we are in a period of life where life is fairly smooth, you are in dangerous spiritual territory.  Jesus says, watch out, lest you perish! Perhaps the greatest spiritual trial is to have no trials.

When things are well, repent.  When blessings are falling down on you, repent.

Our response should be a deep gratitude, God help me, remember that everything I have is because of Your kindness and grace.  We should be repenting all the time, no matter what is going on in our lives.

Repenting should bring joy every time; because when things are good, I remember it’s all about God’s grace, and when things aren’t going well, I know God isn’t punishing me.  God bless.