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September 20, 2015
*Read Lu 13:1-5 * -- Will Rogers once gave a clock to friend engraved thus: “The clock of life is wound but once, / And no man has the power / To tell just when the hands will stop, / At late or early hour./
Now is the only time we own; / Love life, toil with a will; / Do not wait until tomorrow, / For the clock may then be still.”
You say, That sounds a little morose!
But it’s not, Beloved.
That’s a daily reality we tend to deny.
And not only will time soon run out, but outside of Christ, we are under a spiritual death sentence.
Disasters are one way that the Lord graciously reminds us of that truth.
This passage has two – one natural and one imposed.
But Jesus finds the same warning in both.
At the end of Lu 12 He has warned His audience that while they may be great at reading signs of the weather, they do not read spiritual signs well at all.
Then He urged them to settle with God out of court for their sinful natures.
They respond, “Hey, you’re wrong.
We know signs.
We know that those Galileans that Pilate killed a few days ago must have done something pretty bad.”
They made two devastatingly bad moralistic assumptions that Jesus immediately attacks.
They assumed that people always get what they deserve, which is sometimes true and sometimes not in this life.
And they assumed that the “good” people – namely them – didn’t need to settle with anyone.
They were good enough.
So last week, we looked at* I. Two Great Tragedies* and* II.
Two Grave Traps* – bad ways of explaining those tragedies.
Today we want to focus on Jesus’ response which consists of III.
Two Gospel Truths.
It is another presentation of His core message.
*III.
Two Gospel Truths*
Note the similarity of Jesus’ response to each tragedy.
V. 2: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?”
Obviously that is exactly what they thought or Jesus would not have responded in this way.
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?”
Again the answer was, “Yes.”
Their whole theological system was moralistic.
They believed that all adversity, all hardship, all disability and all disasters were a direct result of the sin of the person involved.
That was exactly what they believed.
And, of course, it left them feeling pretty good about themselves because, after all, they had not been slaughtered or had towers falling on them.
As we saw last week, that was flawed thinking.
But on this occasion, Jesus does not go there.
He doesn’t argue that point at all.
Instead He just presents the gospel with emphasis on the negative side.
V. 3, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
And then for emphasis, He presents it again in v. 5, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
It must be important and it is.
It implies two critical truths that these people were not getting that we must all get if we are to ever see heaven.
*A.
We are all living on borrowed time*
Notice that twice Jesus asks a telling question.
V. 2: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans?”
And v. 4: “Do you think that they [those killed by the tower] were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?”
They would have answered yes, but clearly in asking these questions, Jesus is implying that’s the wrong answer.
He is aiming straight at the heart of their whole religious system.
They see humanity divided into two groups – the good and the bad.
Those who keep the law and those who do not.
Judgment falls on those who do not.
It was a tidy little system that allowed them to look down on anyone they considered less righteous than themselves.
But Jesus comes right out and says, “No!
When you see people suffer, that is not necessarily retribution for sin.”
Then – He turns right around, tho, and says, “But repent, lest you perish too!”
That puts it in a whole different light.
If He had simply said, “No, no.
God doesn’t treat people like that.
It’s not punishment for sin,” we’d have to say, “But wait a minute then.
Life does stink then, huh?
If they don’t deserve that, then what’s going on?”
But He doesn’t say they didn’t deserve it.
He just says they were no worse than anyone else.
He just says it wasn’t the direct result of some certain sin.
But He doesn’t say they didn’t deserve it.
Instead he turns right around and lays a haymaker on them: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
With those words, Jesus has just thrown everyone under the same bus.
He’s saying, “One the one hand, don’t think those people are worse because they suffered.
On the other hand, realize that every person on earth deserves to have a tower fall on them.
Don’t feel smug.
You deserve to have a tower fall on you just as much as they did.
If God gave you what you deserve, you’d have a tower fall on you too!” Sounds harsh to us.
And it was not calculated to win friends and influence people – but it was calculated to bring reality into the tidy world of these people.
It was calculated to bring them face-to-face with their own condemnation.
Like most people, these had never considered they might be that bad.
They were Jews.
They brought their sacrifices and attended the yearly feast.
They kept the law outwardly.
But they had a fatal flaw.
Their hearts were far from God.
They were trusting in what they did rather than in a God who wanted to change their heart.
Jesus is trying to startle them into a true look at themselves.
He is urging them to realize that they are living even now on God’s mercy, but judgment it coming.
They are living on borrowed time.
Jesus says, “You – likewise!”
He is urging them as He urges us, “Don’t look on your works.
Look at your heart.
Think of all the lies you’ve told that you never got consequences for.
Think of all the stupid choices you’ve made that you got away with.
Think of every time you’ve betrayed a friend, coveted what someone else has, lost your temper, taken revenge, harbored bitterness, chosen your way over God’s.
See yourself for who you really are from the inside.”
Few have ever received even a fraction of the consequences for the stupid, wrong, proud and selfish things they’ve done.
God is graciously again and again, day in and day out NOT giving us what we deserve.
Our hearts are filled with denial and excuses, but if we saw them as God sees them – saw the pride, alienation, hatred, murder, immorality and idolatry as God sees them, we’d realize – borrowed time!
He’s looking for a broken and contrite heart, and we give Him pride, defensiveness and arrogance.
And Jesus says, “You – likewise!”
Here’s the truth.
The gospel is that we are much more flawed and lost than our heart dares believe.
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