Today!

Luke 13:1-8

Why do bad things happen to good people?

This is one of the most important philosophical questions the Christian can answer. In seminary, this question is known as theodicy, and it deals with what is called “the problem of evil.” Simply stated, the problem of evil is, how can an all-powerful, all-loving God allow evil to happen. It is a valid question.

Before we deal with this question, we have to look at the context in which it is asked. In the passage in Luke, this question is being brought up for a specific reason. It is a distraction. Jesus’ preaching is making people uncomfortable. Luke 12 records Jesus preaching, first to his disciples, then to a crowd of many thousands, so many, the Bible records, that they were trampling on one another.

Jesus warns them to “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15). He also warns them against worry – reminding them that God will take care of them. Then he gets into preparation for the end times. “But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:39-40)

But Jesus isn’t finished. Anyone who thinks Jesus was just a nice teacher who spent all his time petting cute little lambs and blessing children probably hasn’t read the rest of Luke 12, where Jesus warns about coming division, saying things like, “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49) He warns the crowd that he will bring division to the earth, that families will be divided against one another. Some of us know this first-hand: that following God and trusting the Holy Spirit with everything can drive a wedge into family relationships.

Finally, Jesus ends chapter 12 warning about the future, calling the crowd out as hypocrites who can predict the weather but can’t read the signs of the times.

So now we find that there were some in the crowd who brought up the incident about Pilate mixing the Galileans’ blood with the sacrifices. Now, you have to know that when the Gospel authors wrote down their accounts of Jesus’ ministry, they did not always do it chronologically. They ordered the stories to suit the purpose of writing the Gospel. Sometimes they put certain stories together because they support one another. They left out stories – John even says: Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25).

This is why trying to write a harmony of the Gospels is not a good thing. You dilute the intent of each writer by trying to “harmonize” their accounts.

So anyway, this is a reason why time and place markers in the Gospels are so important. The writers will let you know if the setting has changed, and when they do, it’s a good indication that this is a segment change as well. But in this case, there is no setting change. The only thing that has happened is in the middle of Jesus’ teaching, some people bring up an objection. This happens all the time. When people find out that I am a pastor, one of the most common things to happen is that the conversation is immediately derailed so they can tell me why they don’t attend church anymore. This is the same thing that happened when Jesus met the woman at the well. He has told her that he can offer her Living Water. She wants this Living Water, so he tells her to go get her husband and come back. When she makes a partial admission - that she has no husband, Jesus tells her the hard truth, that she has had five husbands and the man she currently lives with isn’t her husband – all of a sudden she starts asking religious questions. I don’t think she really wanted to know where the right place to worship was; she was trying to distract Jesus’ attention from a touchy subject.

Likewise here. People in the crowds, knowing Jesus was targeting them as hypocrites, decide to distract Jesus with questions about a local tragedy. First of all, I wonder if they really wanted answers or if they’re just trying to get him off calling them hypocrites. Or possibly they are trying to find where his allegiance lies (the Galileans might have been rebelling against Rome, while the ones in Siloam could have been working for Rome – maybe if Jesus sided with one side or another or called one group sinners, suggesting that this was God’s judgment against them, then they’d know where his allegiance lay).

So they asked an age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? If you pay attention to the talking heads on TV, any time tragedy strikes, there are always more than enough so-called experts who chime in with their opinion about why it happened. When Haiti was ravaged by the earthquake, Pat Robertson asserted that the Haitians themselves were to blame for, as he put it, making a deal with the devil during their slave rebellion in 1791. He likewise blamed Hurricane Katrina on the sin of those in New Orleans and blamed the 9/11 attacks on gays and liberals and the removal of prayer in school. Bad things happen. There is no doubt about that. Sometimes we are happy when bad things happen to certain people. I didn’t lose any sleep over Osama bin Laden’s death. Nor did I mourn Fred Phelps.

There are times when we say (sometimes out loud, other times just to ourselves), “He got what he deserved.” If you ever catch yourself saying this, remember that the reason Jesus went to the cross for us while we were still sinners was because we deserved Hell.

In the example where Galilean pilgrims were executed while offering sacrifices, was their sin worse than others’? In other words, why did bad things happen to good people? Do you notice how Jesus responded to that question?  

He said their sin wasn’t worse. So if you’ve ever been told that someone suffered or died because someone didn’t pray enough or some other ridiculousness like that, know that Jesus already specifically debunked it. In essence, Jesus said, “Bad things happen.”

But he didn’t stop there. Jesus went ahead with the audacious warning: But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Luke 13:3) Likewise with the second tragedy, the eighteen who died when the tower fell on them. They weren’t more guilty than anyone else in Jerusalem. But their death should stand as a reminder: But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:5)

What Jesus says boils down to this: life is full of difficulties. Evil, even. But Jesus doesn’t go into why. He keeps to his context – look at the signs of the times; when disaster strikes, remember that it is by the grace of God that we don’t perish, not just in this life, but for eternity as well!

Just to be fair, there are all sorts of reasons why evil happens. It all goes back to the fall of humanity; not only are we are full of sin and do evil things, but the whole earth has been affected by the Fall. Human evil is based on sin and on our free choice – the choice to love God or not and the choice to sin or not. If we did not have free choice, there wouldn’t be sin at all, because God would cause everything, and we couldn’t go against God’s will if God’s will was for us to do evil. And if there wasn’t free choice, we couldn’t really love God, because we wouldn’t have the choice to not love him. But with free choice comes the choice to sin and to do evil. And because God values our real love, God gives us free choice. Including the choice to do evil.

Just because God allows us to commit evil, it doesn’t mean that God won’t use our evil acts. Jesus even shows how; use the evil around us as a reminder of the brevity of life and our need for repentance.

So Jesus tells a parable.

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. 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?’

I’m not a farmer, but even I recognize that if a tree isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do, all it is doing is wasting space and nutrients. If you look through the Bible, a fruitful tree is often used to symbolize godly living. Psalm 1:3 compares the one whose delight is in the Lord to a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:3. If you are taking notes, Jeremiah 17:7-8 makes the exact same comparison.

Yet, that’s not what Jesus pictures in his story. He presents a tree that for three years has borne no fruit. Again, most of us aren’t farmers, but imagine you are. Imagine your livelihood depends on growing a crop. Imagine you’ve got only a certain number of trees… and one of them isn’t producing.

Or if you can’t get your head around the farming motif, imagine you are a boss in a factory, and you have ten employees, and one of them just likes to sit at his desk and play games and goof around with his phone all day. When you check to see how much work everyone has done, he hasn’t done anything. For three years.

So the logical response is to cut down the tree. It is wasting valuable space and nutrients. It isn’t doing its job. If you have already figured out that the tree isn’t a tree, you’re a step ahead. The tree is us. And there are ineffective churches who aren’t making disciples and haven’t seen a baptism in years. There are “country club” churches where it’s more important to be seen there than what is being taught from the pulpit.

There are ineffective pastors who are more concerned with a paycheck or the benefits of the job than making disciples. There are ineffective pastors who are burned out or depressed or tired or hurting or just not good at being a pastor or serving in the wrong context.

We need to evaluate what we’re doing. If we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ, then we need to be doing something to make disciples. And we should be seeing some results. Some “fruit” if you will. And if there is no fruit, if we are not making disciples, then there is something wrong. You might expect Jesus to finish the parable with an axe.

After all, the tree is not doing what it is created to do.

But Jesus doesn’t end this parable with an axe.

Jesus finishes the parable with grace. “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” (Luke 13:8)

The message is clear. This tree, whether it’s an individual Christian or an entire church, needs someone to come alongside them with a plan. This is exactly what was wrong with the way the district dealt with Trinity Church and what is right with the way the district is dealing with Victory Chapel. I love the grace that the caretaker demonstrates.

There are times when someone who is wrong cries out, “Just give me one more chance” and then a chance is given and nothing has changed. The caretaker isn’t asking for that kind of chance. The caretaker is saying, “Let me work with the tree. Let me do the things that might lead to fruit on the tree.”

Notice that this isn’t cheap grace; the caretaker doesn’t say, “leave it forever.” The caretaker asks for a year. In other words, this parable goes along with Jesus’ response to the interruption earlier. Take every sign as an opportunity to repent, to grow with Jesus, to re-invite the Holy Spirit to take over. To use every opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to evaluate us and lead us back to himself and to his path. For even in the mercy shown by the caretaker, the message is still clear; now is the time to repent and live fruitful lives.

I want to close with this question: if you died today, how would you be remembered? One of the saddest things at funerals is when a eulogy is given, and we hear that “grandpa loved golf” or “grandma loved nature” or “mom was a great cook” and we never hear about the person making any impact whatsoever for the kingdom of God. The good thing is that most of us probably won’t die today – we have the rest of the day, and tomorrow even, to change that obituary. We can make a difference, starting today. The good news is that Jesus Christ can take a dead tree and bring it to life, transforming it! We can all bear fruit! So what would happen if we all decided to make a difference for Jesus Christ between now and Easter?