Reality of Consequences and Accidents

Introduction · 4 min

Introduction

Hook

We have all heard it, and most of us have said it. “Why is God doing this to me?” “Why isn’t God helping me?” “The devil is working double time on me this week.” “That’s just the devil’s work.” The diagnosis comes back, the storm takes the house, the phone rings in the night — and before the tears dry we are looking for someone to blame.

Need

Behind those words is a belief that every hard thing is a message: either God is punishing us or Satan is attacking us. It leaves us accusing God or giving the devil credit he has not earned, and it hides the one thing we can do something about. Some people once brought Jesus two tragedies and waited for Him to say who deserved them. His answer is still the answer.

Read

Read Luke 13:1–5 aloud. Ask the congregation to listen for the question the people expected Jesus to answer, and the question He asked them instead.

The Galileans died because Pilate chose to kill them, not because they were worse sinners; much of what we suffer, and most of what tempts us, comes from choices — other people’s and our own.

• Pilate’s sin, not God’s verdict: “Think ye that these Galilæans were sinners above all the Galilæans, because they have suffered these things? I tell you, Nay” (vv. 2–3). The disciples asked the same question of a blind man, and got the same answer (John 9:1–3).
• Our own desire: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God… but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:13–15). “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (v. 17) — good comes from God; temptation does not.
• The devil is real but on a leash: he needed God’s leave to touch Job (Job 1:12; 2:6) and “asked to have” Peter (Luke 22:31). He is a roaring lion, but one we can withstand (1 Peter 5:8–9): “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7), and “neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). No temptation comes without “the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
• The oldest excuse: “The woman whom thou gavest… she gave me.” “The serpent beguiled me” (Genesis 3:12–13). God heard both excuses — and judged the man, the woman and the serpent alike (vv. 14–19).
• Some trouble is simply the harvest: “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

On screen, one click each

1. Others’ sin Pilate’s sword was Pilate’s sin, not God’s verdict on the worshippers. Luke 13:1–3
2. Our desire God tempts no one; temptation grows from our own desire. James 1:13–14
3. The devil Satan is real but on a leash, and he flees when he is resisted. Job 1:12; James 4:7
4. The harvest Some trouble is simply the harvest of what was sown. Galatians 6:7

Illustration

Adam blamed Eve, and in the same breath blamed God — “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me.” Eve blamed the serpent. Not one of them said “I did it.” Today we have a shorter version: “The devil made me do it.” James will not let us say it. The devil can bait the hook, but the desire that bites is our own (James 1:14).

Potential Activity to Recommend

Think of one temptation you keep losing to. Stop calling it an attack and name the desire behind it. Then find the way of escape God promised was there (1 Corinthians 10:13) — the door you can close, the place you can stop going, the friend you can tell — and take it this week.

Transition

Pilate’s soldiers chose to do evil. But the tower in Siloam chose nothing. Jesus raises that second case Himself.

The tower fell on eighteen people who were no worse than anyone in Jerusalem; in a fallen world disease, storms, accidents and death come to the righteous and the wicked alike, and they are not a scorecard.

• No one to blame: “Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell… think ye that they were offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay” (vv. 4–5).
• Time and chance: “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong… but time and chance happeneth to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). God “sendeth rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Even the priest in Jesus’ parable came down the road “by chance” (Luke 10:31).
• A groaning creation: since sin entered the world, death has passed to all (Romans 5:12), and “the creation was subjected to vanity… the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:20–22). Cancer, floods and car wrecks belong to a world that is not yet what it will be (Revelation 21:4).
• Suffering is not a scorecard: Job’s friends insisted it was, and God said, “ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath” (Job 42:7).
• We are seldom told why: “The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Job never learned of the conversation in heaven (Job 1–2; 38–42).

On screen, one click each

1. Chance Time and chance happen to all, the swift and the slow alike. Ecclesiastes 9:11
2. Creation A creation subjected to decay groans, and we groan with it. Romans 8:20–22
3. No scorecard Hardship is no measure of guilt; Job’s friends were wrong. Job 42:7; Luke 13:4
4. Not told why The secret things belong to God; we are seldom told why. Deuteronomy 29:29

Illustration

When the tower fell, the people under it were not singled out. They were standing where towers stand. Every one of us has stood under a tower like that — a drive home in the rain, a routine scan, a tree in a storm. Most days it doesn’t fall. When it does, the question “What did they do to deserve it?” is the very question Jesus said “Nay” to, twice.

Potential Activity to Recommend

The next time tragedy strikes someone near you, do not explain it. Don’t say “God needed another angel,” and don’t say “the devil is attacking you.” Sit with them, weep with them (John 11:35; Romans 12:15), and help carry the load. Save the theology for when they ask.

Transition

If the Galileans were no worse than anyone else, and the eighteen were no worse than anyone else, then the question is not really about them at all. Twice Jesus turns it around and points it at the people listening.

Twice Jesus turns the question from “Why them?” to “What about you?”: we cannot hold up every tower, but we can repent while there is time, prepare wisely, answer hardship with faith instead of accusation, and trust God to bring good out of it.

• Repent while there is time: “except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish” (vv. 3, 5). The fig tree was given “this year also” (vv. 6–9); the Lord is “longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9).
• Prepare wisely: “A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it” (Proverbs 22:3). The rain fell on both houses; what differed was the foundation (Matthew 7:24–27).
• Answer with faith, not accusation: Job lost everything and said, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly” (Job 1:21–22). The opposite: “The foolishness of man subverteth his way; and his heart fretteth against Jehovah” (Proverbs 19:3).
• Be trained by it: whether a hardship is chance, consequence or the Father’s chastening, the response is the same — be “exercised thereby,” and it yields “peaceable fruit” (Hebrews 12:11; Romans 5:3–5).
• Trust what God can do with it: “ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Paul’s thorn stayed, and so did the promise: “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

On screen, one click each

1. Repent Ask “What about me?” before “Why them?” — and turn while there is time. Luke 13:3, 5
2. Prepare The prudent see trouble coming and build on the rock before the storm. Proverbs 22:3; Matthew 7:24–25
3. Respond Grieve honestly, but do not charge God foolishly. Job 1:21–22
4. Trust God can work all things together for good to those who love Him. Romans 8:28

Illustration

Joseph had every reason to say “Why is God doing this to me?” — sold by his brothers, lied about by Potiphar’s wife, forgotten in prison by the butler. Joseph never excused his brothers: “ye meant evil against me.” But he kept doing right in every pit he was thrown into, and years later he could see God’s hand in it — “God did send me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5) — and say, “God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20). He could not stop what was done to him. He could decide what he would do with it.

Potential Activity to Recommend

Take one hard thing in your life right now and sort it honestly: what in it came from my own choices, what came from someone else’s, and what simply happened? Repent of the first. Forgive the second. Grieve the third. Then ask God, in all three, for the grace to be trained by it rather than embittered by it.

Transition

Jesus did not answer the question “Why did this happen to them?” He answered a better one: “What must I do?”

Conclusion · 4 min

Conclusion

Recap

When people choose evil, it is their sin, not God’s verdict — and our temptations grow from our own desires (vv. 1–3). When towers fall, it is a groaning world, not a scorecard (v. 4). And what is in our hands is to repent while there is time, prepare, respond in faith, and trust God with the rest (vv. 3, 5).

Gospel

Jesus did not stand at a distance from suffering. He “suffered these things” (Luke 24:26) — not for His own sin, for He had none, but for ours. The cross is the place where human evil, Satan’s worst, and God’s purpose met, and God brought from it the greatest good the world has ever known. Because He rose, death and pain and mourning will one day be no more (Revelation 21:4).

Invitation

Jesus said it twice: “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” None of us knows when our own tower will fall. If you have not obeyed the gospel, do not wait for another year: believe in Him, repent, confess Him, and be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9–10; Galatians 3:27). If you are a Christian and a hard season has made you bitter toward God, come home today.

Close

Read Romans 8:28 together, and let it be the last word.