This is a message about terrorists and falling towers. Everybody still talks about that day; it was a day of tragedy and injustice.
People were going about their business when they were suddenly and brutally killed. And what about the tower that fell suddenly? Towers remind us of strength and security—and when a tower falls and people are killed, we feel a little less secure.
The initial reaction was shock; then we began to ask the inevitable questions: Why were those innocent people killed? Why did the tower fall? Where was God during all of that? The same questions people are asking today were being asked 2, years ago.
But more importantly, the answer Jesus gives is the same answer we need to hear. Now there were some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 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?
Cut it down! Whey should it use up the soil? If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down. And what about those 3, people killed when the World Trade Center was attacked? Or those 3, in New York City or those 22 in Natanya—were they worse people than anybody else? NO—but unless you repent, you will perish, too. A conversation with Jesus is never boring! Where was God during all of that? The same questions people are asking today were being asked 2, years ago. But more importantly, the answer Jesus gives is the same answer we need to hear.
Now there were some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 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? Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil? If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down. And what about those 3, people killed when the World Trade Center was attacked?
Or those 3, in New York City—were they worse people than anybody else? NO—but unless you repent, you will perish, too. You may not like His answer, or His non-answer. A conversation with Jesus is never boring! Christianity and the Bible can easily endure the light of honest intellectual scrutiny; it has for centuries.
This idea of suffering has puzzled us for centuries. There is an entire theological or philosophical study called theodicy. It asks the simple question: If God is entirely good, and entirely powerful—why is there suffering? I used to read a lot more than I do now, and occasionally I read some of the great literary classics. One of my favorites is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. It is a deeply spiritual book because Defoe was a committed Christian who wrote hymns and Christian poetry.
He teaches him to speak English and He teaches Him about God and about the importance of trusting Jesus Christ for salvation. He loses all his possessions and his family in one day. Then he loses his health and suffers from a horrible disease. Yet in all of this, Job does not sin against God. But the question of why bad thing happen to good people is much closer to home than some guy who lived thousands of years ago in a far away land.
Why did God allow my daughter Mary at the age of 7 to lose much of her hearing? Why did God allow Melissa at the age of 3 to lose much of her hearing and vision? They were surely innocent, yet God allowed this to happen to them. As I said, people of faith have wrestled with this issue for thousands of years.
The book of Job was probably written between 2, to 3, years ago. So there have been a number of different approaches to this issue. So really, bad things do not happen to good people because there are no truly good people. Well what about Job? Could he have been truly blameless? Maybe he was just as blameless as a person could be. Or maybe he was blameless by Old Testament standards. Like many of us, maybe he never actually stole anything or killed anyone.
Jesus says if we covet we have stolen and if we hate we have killed. By those standards we are all thieves and murderers — sinners all! Therefore he deserved his suffering as punishment. But this answer falls woefully short. It might cover most of us. But what about suffering endured by children and infants? The second answer is that bad things happen to good people because God chooses not to interfere.
This is based on the attitude I talked about last week that many people have——the idea that God is somehow detached from the universe. God started the machine going and people have messed the universe up.
As a result bad things happen to good people because we have messed up the way the universe is supposed to work. Our sin has thrown a monkey wrench into the internal workings of the cosmos and gummed up the machine.
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