In past generations it was customary to talk about cause and effect. To a degree this is still the case – but only now with regard to self-inflicted things.
A person is diagnosed with lung cancer. Doctors ask, “Do you smoke?” Another is depressed or has a nervous breakdown. The question may be, “To what stress or trauma have you been exposed?” In our past experience in a less mobile society the cause of a person’s poverty might well have been identified as a laziness streak in the family. Today, we’d say “in the genes”.
None of these present-day examples, however, go so far as to identify the root cause(s) of the one tragedy which we all face – the tragedy of our own death.
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(1) Will you take a look, with me, at what Jesus had to say about this to the crowds around him in AD 30? It’s in bold above. Jesus was faced with a serious and difficult tragedy. Pilate, the Roman Procurator, had mingled the blood of Galileans with the blood of their sacrifices. Many had died through this despicable act by a person who could not be brought to account.
Jesus’ response was this: “Do you think that these Galileans were unrighteous rather than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this?” It’s very clear from this that Jesus taught that these tragedies in Galilee were not caused by the particular life-style or deeds or failures of those who died but by evil in another. But Jesus added, “No, I tell you; but unless you change your minds, you will all likewise perish.” Am I correct in understanding from this sentence that these victims were not “innocent”? Am I correct in understanding that, like those victims, I’m not innocent either?
(2) Jesus didn’t stop there. He needed, for the good of the crowds (for my good also?) to add a further statement. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were indebted rather than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?" This time the tragedy was in Jerusalem. No one was directly responsible but were humans again to blame? Tellingly in this case, Jesus doesn’t speak about that. Nor does he ask the crowds whether the 18 were “innocent” or not. Instead he asks about their debts. Were the 18 the most heavily indebted in Jerusalem? What on earth?
Are we to understand by this that the 18 who died were all in debt? Was the crowd correct in deducing that, like those 18 victims, they were all in debt as well? Do you recall the sentence referring to debts in the Lord’s Prayer – the prayer Jesus taught his disciples? "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name … forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors….” Do I owe anything at all to my Father above? How much do I owe to him? Jesus said I’m not a greater debtor than the 18 who died such a tragic death – or than those in Manchester. “No, I tell you”. Then he added, “But unless you change your minds, you will all perish as well.”
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‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a dead world.’ (C S Lewis, novelist and academic, 1898-1963)
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Now I can try to understand (3) above. “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”
Thus speaks the man who offers the forgiveness of God and eternal life. Thus speaks the man who rose from death. I need help. To whom shall I go?
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