Like many of you, I have been watching events unfold over the last week with a sinking feeling in my stomach. It can be easy to take an event like this, especially in our hyper-partisan environment, and use it as an opportunity to rail against the current president or scapegoat the prior administration. In some ways, maybe a little bit of that is warranted. However, I think it would be a travesty if that is all this moment in history boils down to.
One story in the Bible which has always been difficult to teach is what we find in Luke 13. Several people approach Jesus and ask him what to think about tragedies which occurred in Galilee. This is how the story unfolds...
At that time, some people came and reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And he responded to them, "Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well. Or those eighteen that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed - do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well." (Luke 13:1-5)
Jesus' response to questions about a local tragedy seem odd to us today. However, Jesus' contemporaries would have looked at the events of any tragedy and automatically assumed that those events occurred as the result of some sin in their lives of the victims. This is why Jesus responds to these people telling them that the slaughter of the Galileans... or another tragedy which befell some worshippers in Jerusalem being crushed by a falling tower... didn't have anything to do with their sins.
So what explanation does Christ offer? Does he tell everyone why bad things happen? No, instead he focuses on a simple word: repent. Without diving into a long, drawn-out study of hermeneutics, it's safe to say that Jesus was explaining to these people that no one... not you nor I... are entitled to safety, pleasures, luxury, comfort, or even life itself. In the subsequent verses, Jesus offers a parable which explains that we all, in fact, rightfully deserve death but God in his grace and mercy affords us more life.
When we look at our own lives, it can be hard to fully grasp the prosperity we enjoy. We don't worry about a suicide bomber detonating a vest in a crowd. We don't worry about law enforcement and the military totally abandoning us to radical extremists. We have so much that we don't even think twice about and the relative oppression against individuals for specific ideologies or religious beliefs is almost nonexistent.
It's easy to look at our calling, and our mission as Christians, and simply say "it'll work itself out" or "someone else will do it". It's convenient to look at things we want to do and act like we're entitled to it. I mean... why not? That's what the rest of society would tell you. When we see the events which have unfolded over the last week in Afghanistan, it is a painful reminder of how great and infinite the blessings are that God has bestowed upon us and that goodness and generosity should drive us to do better... to be better... than what is comfortable and convenient.
If we're trying to live a life focused on God, constantly compromising our work by what is comfortable or convenient, then we're doing it wrong.
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