Warning Signs
Before today’s devotional, let me mention two things: First, this is late getting out because I came down with some kind of nasty stomach bug. Hopefully, I’m on the mend. Second, I will be wrapping up my effort to get some funds to Myanmar to help with earthquake relief this week. If you would like to give to help the suffering in Myanmar you can donate through our ministry web site: Equipping Pastors International.
There isn’t a way to designate for Myanmar, but everything given through Easter Sunday will be used for that purpose. 100% goes to Myanmar. There is no administrative fees, nothing goes to my other ministry efforts. Everything you give for this purpose will go for this purpose.
Now to today’s devotional…
Scripture Reading: Judges 7-8; Luke 13; Psalm 93
Stories of tragedies and disasters have always gotten the “above the fold” treatment. Its the stuff people talk about. Plane crashes, earthquakes, tornadoes, outbreaks of deadly violence...It makes you wonder. Just recently, a helicopter crash that took the life of a young family – the husband, wife, and three daughters – was dominating the news cycle. I saw the picture that was taken just before they boarded the chopper and minutes before they plunged to their death. They looked so happy, all smiling, a beautiful family completely oblivious to the knowledge that they would all be dead within half an hour.
If makes you wonder…
People were wondering about stuff like this back in Jesus day as well. In Luke 13 they were wondering about some Galileans who Pilate had slaughtered while they were worshiping. The details are lost to us. The way Luke describes it, what happened was common knowledge, and an event so horrific that everyone knew about it. And they were wondering and wonder what Jesus was wondering.
While it implies their question was more general, it implies that behind their questions were questions about God’s justice and ability to intervene in such things, and whether or not the people killed were just getting some kind of Karmic wrath for being really bad people and God was just using Pilate as a means to carry out his divine punishment. What they asked seemed simple, but behind their simple question were a lot of complicated theological issues.
Jesus seems almost unsympathetic. He doesn’t try to comfort them. He certainly doesn’t make excuses for God. He doesn’t try to answer the “why question.” He just warns them of judgment. He tells them to repent. He says that the people they are wondering about weren’t any more sinners than they are and they are no less in danger of judgment than they were.
When we see something tragic happen to others, rather than wonder why it happened to them, we should instead wonder why it didn’t happen to us. Most importantly, we should prepare for the inevitable reality that we are going to die and our sins will either be on us, or they will have been laid on Christ.
It is an eternal difference between those two.
