What should you think when you observe or find out about the suffering of others? When tornadoes level an entire town or a tsunami overwhelms an entire coast or a person dies in a car accident or someone gets cancer or a spouse commits adultery or...., what should you think? Fortunately we are not left to our own wisdom or imagination. Jesus addresses this exact question. His answer is recorded for us in Luke 13:1-5. There is a crowd of people around and there were some in the crowd who informed Jesus about a horrific incident that had taken place in Jerusalem. Some Jewish people from Galilee had gone to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and for some reason which we are not told, the Roman governor, Pilate sent his soldiers into the temple to kill them while they were making sacrifices so that their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Here is a report of terrible suffering which has come upon a group of Jewish Galileans.
Here is what Jesus says in response to this bit of gossip: "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; 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 offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Did these people, both the Galileans who were butchered by the Roman soldiers and the 18 people who were killed when a tower collapsed, die like this because they were worse sinners than all the other people of their region or city? Jesus is confronting a persistent, self-righteous and erroneous attitude that regularly prevails among religious people. "These people are suffering because they have done terrible things, far worse than others." Implicit in this condemnation is not simply the assertion they are worse than others but that they are worse than me. Implicit in the accusation is the claim that the reason I am not suffering like that is because I'm not as bad as they are.
It is the same attitude and opinion that animated the condemnation of Jobs four friends as they insisted that the reason all the bad stuff happened to Job was because of his terrible sins. Jesus, in agreement with what the Lord says at the end of Job to his "friends" tells us that whenever we see the suffering of others we should NEVER think or say, "It must be because they are worse sinners than me and lots of other people." Pat Robertson, the famous host of "The 700 Club" and supposed Christian spokesperson asserted, following the horrible earthquake in Haiti, that the reason God sent the earthquake to Haiti is because of how prevalent voodoo was in that country. By implication he was saying the reason he has never been in an earthquake is because he is better than the Haitians. He did exactly what Jesus says we are to never do. Rather than taking the occasion to repent he took it as an occasion to boast of his goodness and judge others as worse than he.
However, the main point that Jesus wants to make is this: when we see the sufferings of others we should think: "Lord have mercy on me for I am a sinner." We should see ourselves as we truly are: hell-deserving sinners who need to turn from our sins and seek forgiveness on the basis of Christ's death and resurrection. Their are two implications in what Jesus says. First, we are all sinners who deserve to suffer and die. Perferct justice in the world would be for all of us to be killed and sent to hell forever. Second, all the sufferings in the world are the rumblings of hell. They are signs of the impending judgment that is going to come upon the whole world and so we should take every occasion of suffering that we observe to make sure that we have repented and are trusting in Jesus and fighting against our own sins. Obviously, we are also called upon to help those who suffer, like our Savior helped the suffering. But our first response to all observed suffering is to repent so we do not perish forever in hell and never think that others are suffering because they are worse than us.
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