Jesus Commends Different Response to Natural Disasters

Some words from Jesus, as reported in the Gospel of Luke, seem appropriate to consider today:

About that time some people came up and told Him about the Galileans Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar. Jesus responded, "Do you think those murdered Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileeans? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you will die. And those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day, the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them, do you think they were worse citizens than all the other Jerusalemites? Not at all. Unless you turn to God, you too will die." (Luke 13:1-5, The Message paraphrase)

So, what's the point? Just this. The particular temptation to which people of faith are most subject when they observe natural disasters like Katrina hit is to claim that God is punishing those who live in the affected region. Jesus says that's not true.

Responding to two different tragedies, one man-made, one a natural happenstance, events apparently "in the news" in first-century Judea where He lived, Jesus simply said that in an imperfect world, bad things happen. God, Jesus made clear, and in other places, isn't in the business of killing people who sin.

If God were to take the lives of sinners, you and I and every resident of this planet would have been killed a long time ago. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Instead, according to the parable--or story--that Jesus tells immediately following the statement above, God is patient with us, pouring out His love and compassion on us in good and bad times all aimed at persuading us to turn to Him and live. (By the way, I love this passage because only Jesus would be audacious or sufficiently heedless of religious niceties to tell a parable in which the grace of God is manure...and be a good thing!)

Rather than blaming victims for their misfortunes, Jesus says that we should have a different response to tragedy. None of us knows the times of our deaths, the point beyond which, we won't be able to turn to God and receive the life that only He can offer. Turning to Him--or repenting, as the Bible calls it--means to repudiate our sin,to ask God for forgiveness, offered through Jesus Christ, and to seek God's help in living our lives His way, with love for God and others.

When we witness others struck by tragedy, Jesus says to resist the temptation to blame and instead, to respond in two ways:

(1) Help the victims and pray for them;

(2) Turn our own lives over to Jesus Christ so that whatever befalls us, we'll be with Him in this life and in the one that comes beyond death.

That, it seems to me, should be our course today.