Two Answers and a Parable

After any major tragedy such as the Islamist terrorist attack on Paris, the questions begin: Didn't anyone see it coming? Why didn't someone pick up the danger signals? The assumption being that the signs were there to be read but whether through negligence or wilfulness they were simply ignored.

But what if the world itself is one big tragedy made up of smaller tragedies? Do the tragedies themselves constitute some sort of warning signs that something is seriously wrong and that remedial action needs to be taken? Well one man who thought so was the poet W. H. Auden. I don't know if you like poetry. Poems are shorter than novels and often come with pictures - facts which appeal to me! I've been reading Auden and about him. Early on, Auden believed in the goodness of man and the absence of God. The religion he'd encountered was "nothing but vague uplift, as flat as an old bottle of soda water," as he put it, cynically also saying that, "people only love God when no one else will love them." But all of that was to change just before the outbreak of World War II.

In a cinema in a German speaking area of Manhattan he saw Sieg im Poland, about the Nazi blitzkrieg of Poland. When Poles appeared on the screen, the audience screamed, "Kill them! Kill them!" Auden was horrified. He left with his beliefs in tatters. First the belief that man was naturally good, for if that were the case then how could he explain what he'd just witnessed? Second, that he had to have a reason for thinking that Hitler was evil, for if there's no God and so no objective basis for deciding what's right or wrong, then he couldn't say Hitler was bad, only different, and he couldn't bear to live with that. Something was wrong with the world. Auden was picking up signals from the moral mess around him that there is a God and we need to seek him, which Auden eventually did. And the same signals are being sent around the world today if only we've the nerve to look and understand. The Islamist terrorism, the wars, the diseases - even aspects of Black Friday - are meant to remind us that all's not well between us and our Maker and we need help - desperately. And that's precisely the message of Jesus in Luke 12 and 13. Jesus is saying three things: the first of which, to go back briefly to 12.54-59, is:

1. Read the Signs

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, 'A shower is coming.' And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat', and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Jesus has been teaching that judgment is just around the corner, that since he's come into the world people are left with no excuse, the King has arrived and he calls people to follow him. The moment that happens, judgment and division occur. Jesus says so earlier in v.49, 'I came to cast fire on the earth', then v.51, 'Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.' And then he goes on to talk about the way families will be divided along lines of allegiance to him, those who are for him and those who are against him with the result that the whole human race is split right down the middle. These are part of the signs of the times to Israel.

'Look',says Jesus in effect, 'You pride yourself on being weather watchers. You can tell when a storm is brewing or when the drought is on its way and you prepare accordingly, either by battening down the hatches or getting the water and food in. Then why are you being so wilfully blind now? Can't you see that God's doing something extraordinary and new? All the signs are there, staring you in the face if only you'd look. Look, if someone's taking you to court, you know what the sensible thing to do is: get an out of court settlement, because if not you run the risk of paying the full penalty. Judgement day is coming and now is the time to get things sorted out with God.' This is the point of verses 57-59. But did Israel listen? No, by and large. The Messiah was rejected and Jerusalem was judged when in AD 70 it was razed to the ground with merciless brutality by the Romans, and in this they were to see the hand of God.

Jesus is Prophet, Priest and King. Jesus here is being prophetic. And in a derived sense that's what his church is meant to be doing on his behalf so that a world hell-bent on self-destruction will wise up before it's too late. A little while ago I visited the fascinating President Bush library in Dallas, which is largely about 9/11. In the aftermath of 9/11 many religious leaders were rather muted in response. It took a woman to respond prophetically - Ann Graham Lotz, Billy Graham's daughter. In a national interview she was asked:

'I've heard people say, if God is good, how could God let this happen? What do you say to that?'

Ann replied: 'I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has quietly backed out of our national and political life, removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of all and say we're sorry we've treated you this way and turn back to him through faith in Christ, and invite him to come into our national life. Trust in God is on our coins, we need to practice it.'

Did you then or do you now hear anything like that said by our religious leaders? No. The Archbishop of Canterbury said the Paris attacks made him doubt the presence of God. Do you think that Ann Graham Lotz was loved for what she said? Hardly. But what she was doing was in line with what Jesus is doing here when he calls his listeners to:

2. Heed the Warning (13: 1-5)

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them,

Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Do you see how contemporary and direct Jesus is? He doesn't avoid the hard questions, he tackles them head on and uses them as a gospel opportunity. Two events were on the minds of his hearers, which they found repulsive. The first is manmade, a massacre. The Roman governor Pilate, had allowed his troops to go on the rampage, killing Galilean Jews when they were about to perform a sacred religious duty. They weren't immoral people; they were religious people, so why did God allow it? Why didn't he protect them, after all they're on his side unlike the heathen Romans? And given that these were Galilean Jews, it's likely that some of them would've been known personally to Jesus - people he would've grown up with as a boy and gone to religious festivals with. So this isn't theoretical or abstract, it's personal and practical.

The second event is more of a natural disaster, the collapse of a tower killing eighteen people. The tower of Siloam was right next to the pool of Siloam, just south of the Temple area in Jerusalem. On the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles, water was drawn up from Siloam's pool in a golden vessel to be carried in procession to the temple. Perhaps it was during this procession, which would've taken them past the tower, that 'good' religious folk were killed. Why does God allow that? It doesn't seem right. Sure, one might see how he could allow the odd Roman soldier to be crushed as those who've violated the holy land, but not his own people. What would you say? Well we might mutter something about 'God's ways being mysterious', 'who are we to judge', 'these things happen'. But not Jesus.

When Jesus spoke you would've been able to cut the atmosphere with a knife. You see, in our self righteousness we see human suffering and demand: 'God what are you going to do about it?' 'How can God be good?' But Jesus looks at tragedy in a different light and asks very different questions. He plays it back to the enquirers: 'What are you going to do about it? In the light of the precarious nature of life how can you be so bad, complacently living as if life is meant to be happy and carefree with no personal accountability to your Maker?'

Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias gives an illustration of this approach. He was at Ohio University when a woman stood up and yelled, 'I know what this is all about. You're trying to take away my moral right to make my decisions over whether I can abort what is in my womb.' In fact he hadn't even mentioned that. But she pressed on, 'I know what you Christians are trying to do; take away my right as a woman to do with my body as I please.' Ravi turned to her, 'Well since you've brought it up, I find it interesting that you've worded it this way. You call this 'your moral right'. You know, if a plane was to crash and 90 people died and 10 people lived then you'd be asking 'What kind of God is this who chooses who should live and who should die? I can't believe in this kind of God, he must be evil... When God makes a selective judgement on the basis of his sovereign knowledge and will, you call him evil. At the same time when you make a judgement to do away with life in your womb you call it your moral right. Can you explain this conundrum to me?'

Notice Jesus doesn't assume that those who died did not in some way deserve their fate. The fact that he turns to the crowd and urges them to repent or they too might perish indicates that in Jesus' mind at least, death is in some way or another linked to sin. 'The wages of sin is death' writes Paul.

However, having said that, we're not to go rushing on and drawing the wrong conclusions. Here Jesus insists there's no evidence whatsoever that those who suffer in this way are more wicked than anyone else. Rather, if the same were to happen to us it would be no more than we deserve anyway - v.2 "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? and again in v.4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? The answer Jesus gives to both is a resounding 'No!' But that doesn't mean that others deserve anything less – v.3 but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." So there's no room for smug moral superiority, looking down upon those who are suffering as if they especially deserve it and we don't. We're all in the same boat - by nature we're on the wrong side of our Maker, our relationship with him is dead and physical death is a poignant reminder of that tragic fact.

You see what Jesus provides us with here is a perspective for viewing tragedy which the world doesn't have. What might God be saying through it, what angle does the Bible give? During World War II, C. S. Lewis said:

War does something to death. It forces us to remember it. War makes death real to us. Most of the great Christians of the past thought it was good for us to be always aware of our mortality. If we thought we were building heaven upon earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon.

Now please don't misunderstand. This doesn't make war or terror in itself good, but it can act as a wake up call to both an individual and a nation to get right with God before something even worse happens - the final judgment.

Now we don't know Jesus' tone when he said: 'Repent or perish', but we can be pretty certain it was with compassion in his voice and tears in his eyes, as in v.34 when he agonises over Jerusalem's refusal to repent. And when we're faced with tragedy and sorrow in our society, Christians of all people should not appear gloating or self-satisfied. If words of warning have to be spoken (and they must), they have to be spoken with tenderness and should never be left at the point of condemnation. Again this was modelled by Ann Graham Lotz following 9/11. Because in spite of her political incorrectness in exposing America's rejection of God (and she could've said Britain) she went on to say:

...I believe God knows what it's like to see a loved one die a horrific death. He's emotionally involved in our pain and he can bring comfort beyond human understanding. I pray that God will use this event to change us forever - to strengthen our faith in him. I thought of all those people who've died in this tragedy. It doesn't matter right now what political affiliation they had or what denomination they belonged to or what religion or what the colour of their skin was or their stock portfolio. What matters is their relationship with God, what they'd done with Jesus Christ. I would like to see us begin to focus on the primary things, that are more important than just shopping, pleasure, and making more money.

So what's God looking for as he speaks to us through these things? Well, Jesus' third call is:

3. Bear the Fruit

This is the purpose of the parable about the vineyard in verses 6-9. The vineyard is Israel, God is the owner and Israel's God-intended purpose was to be a witness in the world so that Gentiles would come to know the one true God. Her fruit should have been wholesome and attractive. She was now in danger of forfeiting that by becoming inward-looking, harsh and exclusive. And God through his Son is warning her of that. And when a church forgets this calling, God may well send disaster upon her so that she too may wake up before it's too late, as Jesus' letters to some of the churches in the book of Revelation reveal. But it may also be what someone once called 'a severe mercy' that God speaks to an individual through difficulty, as out of a tough love he seeks to wean us off our idolatries so that we seek him and his kingdom first and see that what matters is eternity.

In a similar way verses 10-17 teach us that the Sabbath day epitomised the Jewish religion: a gift from God, full of spiritual meaning, but so fossilised and encrusted with traditions that it had become practically lifeless. To Jews such as the ruler of the synagogue, v.14, who was indignant because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, the re-creation of the crippled woman, far from being most appropriate to the day was most inappropriate to it. But that was a complete inversion of the truth! Again the judgment of Jesus is dividing between those whose 'religion' is a mere show of leaves, and those who really produce fruit; between those whose religious observance is a travesty of the Sabbath rest of the people of God, and those for whom it's a matter of rejoicing and praise.

Which are you? I don't know about you but I want to bear good fruit in Christ, I want him to bear good fruit in and through me. Not to earn his favour, but of love for Christ and for his glory. I'm passionate about getting God's Word out to people and not just to hairdressers, at a time when many can seem more interested in Black Friday than Good Friday. That's why I've put together the three books which are full of Scripture - to get the word out this Christmas. It's why Andy Gawn has put together the Children's Ministry Training on Clayton.TV. It's why we're starting St. Joseph's. So are you trusting and obeying Christ, seeking to put him first and bearing good fruit in him by the power of his Spirit? Or are you struggling either to trust Christ in the first place - you still have questions or your friends do, or that doing so is hard - the going is tough for you, you feel guilty and a failure? Well are you reading the signs, heeding the warnings and wanting to live a fruitful life?

You see, if God thinks that our eternal value is such that he considers it worth allowing tragedies to happen in our broken world so that we seek the only One who can fix it, and we judge that hard, then just think of this. Shortly after this incident, Jesus would go to Jerusalem and before a watching world he would undergo the greatest tragedy of all - the cross. This is the clearest signal of all that things are wrong and only God can fix it. In the cross of Christ, God says to us, 'That's where you ought to be. Jesus my Son hangs there in your stead. His tragedy is the tragedy of your life. You're the rebel who should be hanging there. But look, I suffered instead of you and because of you, because I love you in spite of what you are. My love for you is so great that I meet you there, there on a cross. I can't meet you anywhere else. You must meet me there by identifying yourself with the One on the cross. It's by this identification that I, God, can meet you in him, saying to you as I say to Him, my beloved Son.'

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