What did they do to deserve that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus knew questions like this were on people\u2019s minds when they came to tell him horrible news: Pilate \u2013 yes, the same Pontius Pilate who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus \u2013 slaughtered some Galilean Jews. Making Pilate\u2019s appalling action even more offensive is that he did this terrible thing while they were offering their sacrifices in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s Jesus who asks the questions on everyone\u2019s minds: Is it because those Galileans were worse sinners than other Galileans that this happened to them? Did they do something to deserve such an awful death?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s Jesus who gives the answer: No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or when the tower of Siloam fell and eighteen people were killed, crushed because they stood in the wrong place at the time, is that because they were sinners? Jesus says no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question is this. Is God keeping track in some gold-leafed ledger who\u2019s been naughty or nice and whether to respond with earthly punishments or rewards? The answer is no. Does God allow tyrants to kill people or tsunamis to drown people because they\u2019ve done something to deserve it? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another time some people ask Jesus, \u201cRabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?\u201d \u201cNeither.\u201d says Jesus, and he cures the man of his blindness. Jesus denies a correlation between the man\u2019s problem and someone\u2019s sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, it\u2019s a persistent question. And it goes with a persistent assumption, that somehow what people get in life is what they deserve \u2013 that there must be a connection between the sorts of people they are and the bad or good things that come their way in life. We\u2019ve heard people say, \u201cI wonder what he did to deserve that?\u201d or make pronouncements, \u201cthis plague\/natural disaster\/fill in the blank is God\u2019s punishment for their sin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, says Jesus, take it from me, that is not how it works. Sometimes we do suffer as a direct result of some wrong we have done, some bad decision, some action we\u2019ve neglected to take and we suffer the consequences. Mistreat your body, and you will get hurt. Mistreat a friend, and you may damage your friendship. The negative consequences of our actions can be clear. But sometimes we\u2019re confused, not when we can see how a mistake or bad action has led to suffering, but when we\u2019ve been good, done right, tried hard, and still, nevertheless, we suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Christians, we really shouldn\u2019t be so surprised when this happens. The idea that only good things happen to good people should have been put to rest when Jesus was nailed to the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christian faith is no magic protection against tragedy. The cross is our central symbol \u2013 the cross, where an innocent man died the death of a criminal. Nonetheless, Christians have long wondered why bad things happen to people, even good people. In his book The City of God<\/em>, St. Augustine considered the great suffering that occurred when the barbarians sacked Rome, and he noted that when the barbarians raped and pillaged, Christians suffered just as much as non-Christians. Faith in Christ did not make them immune to pain and tragedy. Augustine wrote, \u201cChristians differ from Pagans, not in the ills which befall them, but in what they do<\/em> with the ills that befall them.\u201d The Christian faith does not give us a way around tragedy. Faith gives us a way through tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, no we can\u2019t look at tragedy and assume that someone did something to deserve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut,\u201d Jesus says, \u201cunless you repent, you will all perish as they did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What kind of a reply is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus is not saying that questions are bad or that \u2018why\u2019 isn\u2019t a vital human question. Jesus is saying, don\u2019t be distracted by the wrong question. To Jesus, the \u2018why\u2019 isn\u2019t important. God made us in love and gave us free will, freedom to choose how to respond, how to act. In freedom, humans have written symphonies and started wars. God made a dynamic world in which natural things change and evolve into beautiful new forms of life and into cancer cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good question to ask, according to Jesus, isn\u2019t: what did she do to deserve that suffering? The much more important question is: how is your relationship with God? Jesus says don\u2019t be distracted by looking at what happened to someone else. Don\u2019t spend your time wondering what must someone have done to deserve what they are going through. Instead, look at yourself \u2013 while you still have time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus refuses to get caught up in the question of whether or not someone else deserves to suffer, and instead asks another question: What in your life needs repenting, acknowledging, and turning around? What needs to be turned over to God? What needs to be forgiven?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things will happen. And while the gift of earthly life is still ours, we need to ask ourselves, how is our relationship with God? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? Are we relieving the suffering of others or just pointing our fingers at them and trying to connect the dots between their suffering and sin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our own repentance is the issue, because deserving isn\u2019t. The scandal at the heart of our faith is that God already loves us; that God doesn\u2019t need a ledger or tally sheet because we don\u2019t do anything to deserve God\u2019s love. We have no favor to earn, because God already sees us as God\u2019s beloved ones. All we have to do is live and explore the amazing mystery of our acceptance. We can\u2019t lose God\u2019s favor and make bad things happen to us because we don\u2019t earn God\u2019s favor in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life is short. Don\u2019t be distracted by the wrong questions. And don\u2019t be disappointed if Jesus asks you to love God more than you love answers. Because Jesus will do that. When people asked him questions he often responded not with an answer, but with a story. Like he did in the next part of the Gospel lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A man planted a fig tree. The fig tree used up a lot of nutrients but didn\u2019t produce any figs. \u201cWhy should I let this do-nothing fig tree use up good soil?\u201d asked the man. \u201cCut it down.\u201d But the gardener replies, \u201cLet it be for one more year. I will do everything I can for it. If it bears fruit, great! If not, cut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gardener in this story is not efficient, practical, or exercising his authority to do what\u2019s most logical. He\u2019s going to waste more nutrients, efforts, and space on a tree that doesn\u2019t show any signs of producing figs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does the fig tree deserve it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not the question. It\u2019s just a story about a fig tree and an extravagant gardener who should remind us of another gardener from way back in the beginning, who just couldn\u2019t help it when he picked up some dirt. God just had to form it into a human and breathe life into it. God just had to make it into someone to love, someone who would be free to choose to love in return. Maybe we can hear this gardener at work in our own lives, saying, \u201cWait. Give me another year. I\u2019ll do all that I can to nurture this tree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sermon was written by Dr. Amy Richter<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What did they do to deserve that? Jesus knew questions like this were on people\u2019s minds when they came to tell him horrible news: Pilate \u2013 yes, the same Pontius Pilate who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus \u2013 slaughtered some Galilean Jews. Making Pilate\u2019s appalling action even more offensive is that he did this terrible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,43,52,3],"tags":[306],"class_list":["post-512290","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lent","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-lent-3c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":51,"label":"Lent"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":306,"label":"Lent 3C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473280,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512290\/revisions\/3473280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}