"There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them,“Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5 NKJV)
In these verses we find two different tragic events had happened. First, some Galileans had been killed by Pilate, the Roman ruler, while they were in the temple offering sacrifices. Second, a tower in Siloam had fallen and killed eighteen people. These were two recent events that had happened in Luke 13 and had cost the lives of over eighteen people.
Now let's see what Jesus said about these events. Did you notice that He basically says the same thing about them? He says that we should not assume that the people who died in these tragedies were worse sinners than any others and therefore this tragedy fell on them. Jesus is refuting a commonly held conception the Jewish people had in His day - the conception that tragedy was a sign of God's judgement on wicked sinners. That simply is not the case. We can adopt a similar attitude today when we hear about tragedy falling on people and assume that it's God's hand of judgement on them and therefore they were killed in that plan crash, earthquake, etc. That is not the lesson Jesus would have us to learn from tragedy.
What Jesus would have us to learn is to take tragedies as a warning. Jesus is warning us that we do not know when tragedy will strike so we must be prepared now for where we will spend our eternity. The word 'perish' has the meaning of eternal suffering apart from God. Look at how Jesus used the word in the familiar passage John 3:16. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." There is a contrast - if you have everlasting life you will not perish, and if you don't have everlasting life you will perish. To perish is not to die physically. To perish is to die eternally, separated from God through all eternity. Revelation 20:11-15 tells us exactly what it means to perish, "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."
We do not know what will happen when we leave home for the day, so we must be prepared by being in a right relationship with God. Tragic events should make us focus on whether or not we have repented of our sins, trusted in Christ as Lord and Savior and are prepared to stand before Him. There will be no opportunity for salvation after you die, so are you prepared? If you are not sure about your relationship with Jesus Christ, I urge you to please review this story.
Please consider Jesus' words from Luke 13, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish."
No comments:
Post a Comment