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Bad Things Happen - Luke 13
Bad Things Happen - Luke 13
Luke 13 shows us an age-old belief: bad things happen because we did something bad. This idea goes as far back as the time of Job (somewhere in the Patriarchal period covered by Genesis story). The problem is that it wasn’t absolutely true then, nor in Luke 13, nor now. I say ‘absolutely’ true in that it seems more like a ‘parabolic truth’. Even a quick reading of the book of Job should broaden our concept of life and evil. The ‘bad things’ that happened to Job came not as a consequence of evil acts on his part! There were other people, weather, circumstances, even Satan. Along with that came good meaning people like Job’s friends and even his wife who added to his misery. BUT such shows us that SOME bad things in life are not a direct consequence of an evil act on our part.
SOME times though, it IS true. You can choose your actions but not your consequences (I don’t remember who first stated it this way, but I like it). A whole lot of problems in my life have come from poor decisions and actions on my part!
Here in Luke 13, we should learn to NOT automatically assign ALL trouble in our life to sinful acts in our life. BUT, we do need to stop and examine things. Some things ARE a direct cause of such trouble. What then? The proper course of action after such an examination and finding that I have sinned is to repent. Jesus said so. Jesus said that to NOT repent would bring even bigger problems – eternal problems.
Hugh DeLong
