I tell you, "No!"

About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 "Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?" Jesus asked. "Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too." (Luke 13)

Why do bad things happen? I mean, we could make a list:

• Theater shootings.
• School shootings.
• Cancer.
• Accidents that leave loved ones in a coma.
• A child is abducted.
   

You can make the list as long as you want. We are not the first to ask the question of why bad things happen. But I'm so glad that someone bothered to ask Jesus that question. Now you might already be way ahead of me. You may have already figured out that Jesus didn't give us all the answers we wanted, but I got a feeling he gave us all we needed.

The above passage reveals three fallacies of Tragedy.

1) The false equation. When someone suffers (when you suffer) there is a temptation to think, "Well, we deserved it". We did something wrong and Karma (or whatever) is evening the score. That's what Jesus was talking about when he said, "What? You think these Galileans were worse sinners?"

Jesus answered with a resounding, "I tell you, NO!"

And then he turned the contemporary event of a terrible accident. "You think these guys on whom the tower toppled, you think they somehow deserved it?"

Again, "I tell you, NO!"

Jesus said, "There is no correlation between the bad things happening in your life and what you deserve".

And then he turned to the opposite issue. Not why do bad things happen to some people, but what does it mean if you DON'T have bad things happening? Is that good news?

2) A false assumption. On the other side of the issue, we can find ourselves convinced that if my life is quiet, relatively free from suffering, uneventful or even seemingly safe; or if I somehow escape the tragedy - then we can assume that we are under God's approval on my life!

This kind of thinking goes way back in the annuals of God-speak. If my life is blessed, God must be really happy with me!

Read again what Jesus had to say: 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Well, that's not very comforting! Makes you wonder where Jesus got his pastoral care degree. He tells the survivors, "if you don't clean up your act you're going to get it too!?" What is up with that?

Well, it means simply this: the occasion of tragedy in someone else's life should be the awakening in your own life that it won't always be the other guy.

See, Jesus wasn't being cruel here when he told the inquiring crowd, "Repent because next time it could be you." I believe Jesus knew what they were thinking in their hearts.

• They felt secure.
• They felt safe.
• And all the while their eternal destiny was in the balance.

In a world of tragedy, Jesus says "throw away the false equation and shake off the false assumption".

 

3) A false security. Now, as was his custom, Jesus tells a story.

6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

8" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

The fig tree occupied the center of the Jewish Garden. It bore fruit three times a year. This tree had been dormant for nine seasons! If it was ever going to produce fruit, it should have by now. It makes sense to cut it down. Jesus' point is sometimes we are like that fig tree. We are planted in the garden of life and we feel so secure, but like the tree we miss opportunities of productivity. We are not bearing fruit as we should.

You see, you only have so many seasons when you can really bear fruit.

• You only have so many days when you can hug your children.
• You have only so many days to love your spouse.
• You have only so many days to share laughter with friends.
• You have only so many days to share Christ with a neighbor.
   

And the real tragedy we experience, we sometimes don't even notice: Namely, that life passes us by and we surrender the precious moments of life because we feel a false security - that there will always be another day.

And we waste the precious gift of life by majoring on the insignificant or dealing in the truly unimportant - because like the fig tree, we think we'll always be firmly planted in the garden of life.

You and I have been called to bear fruit. The Bible reminds us that "the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23).

This is the fruit that matters in your life! And it is a tragedy of immeasurable consequence when we allow even one season of life to pass and we do not bear fruit. Don't waste a moment. Don't be like the fig tree.

Now just a word of clarification about the parable. It is not our heavenly Father who is the one calling for the tree to be cut down. He is, rather, the man who begs for one more year, three more seasons to give the tree another chance.

So the lesson from this parable and the lesson from the tragedy of this past-week is that we only have so many seasons. Job 14:5, "Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed."

Make the most of your days.

Pray for the people of Aurora, Colorado. Pray for our nation. Pray, that you will make the most of the gift of this day.