Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?
Why have I never read this, or understood this before? I’m guessing I actually have read it, but perhaps I didn’t need to hear it like I do now, so the meaning passed over me. Jesus asked the people around him about some people who’d died: some Galileans who’d died and whose blood Pilate mingled with other blood for sacrifices or the eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell. Jesus rhetorically asks the people if the people killed were worse sinners because of what happened to them. NO, he responds.
Doesn’t this singularly refute the whole notion that bad things happen to bad people? Or that if bad things happen, you haven’t prayed hard enough? That there’s some sort of cosmic quid pro quo?
To be fair, Jesus continues with the idea that if the listening audience doesn’t repent, they’ll meet a similar fate. But I still don’t think that means that the unfortunate souls who perished in his examples had done something wrong.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard the well intentioned but misguided theological arguments for the significant brain disorder of my loved one. Was this because of something they did? Of what their mother did? Is it because they don’t attend church? Perhaps you should just pray harder, and this will all go away. I’ve always known in my core that their illness was not something that should be blamed on them or their mother. I’ve known that my prayers aren’t the key to their immediate recovery. That didn’t make sense, but I came up short on the scriptural defense.
Jesus is saying that the people who perished weren’t greater sinners than everyone else. I definitely needed to hear that today.
This morning, I’m thinking about the fact that somethings things happen that inexplainable. We humans want to ascribe relationship and causality, because it helps us explain our otherwise chaotic world. But explaining that bad things happen because of the action of unfortunate victim is misguided.
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