The Day That Jesus Took His Newspaper to Work...Continued from page 2

What Jesus says here is interesting, but I’m even more intrigued by what he doesn’t say. He addresses the “why” question but he doesn’t really answer it. Unlike many preachers and prophets today, Jesus doesn’t attribute these tragedies to God’s judgment on Israel or blame the Pharisees or others who didn’t believe in him. If anyone would have been qualified to discuss the why’s and wherefore’s of divine causation behind human catastrophe, it would have been the Son of God himself, but Jesus doesn’t go there. We would do well to learn from his example. When people are lost in their pain and grief, it is much more important for us to speak redemptively than it is for us to probe the mysteries of God’s providence that we are unqualified to explain in the first place. Biblical historian V. Philips Long provides us with a healthy caution: “We, unlike the prophets of old, are in no position to pronounce authoritatively on the significance of this or that current event.” ¹

We cannot answer the “why” question, but what the Bible teaches assures us that God did not cause the sickness and the sinfulness that led to the rampage in Norris Hall. God has allowed humans the freedom to make choices, and human sinfulness has opened the Pandora ’s Box to things that God never designed or wanted for His creation. As long as the effects of the curse are still with us, unanswerable tragedies will be a part of our experience.

Jesus Calls on Us To Make the Ultimate Decision

Notice what happens because the message of Jesus becomes very personal. In one sentence, Jesus goes from talking about a tragedy that happened to others to calling for us to examine our own lives. Twice, he tells us: “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” I’m not sure what the people were wanting Jesus to say when they asked him about Pilate killing a group of fellow-Jews, but I’m quite sure they were not ready for what he did say. Jesus could have denounced Pilate for the vicious person that he was and fanned the flames of revolt against the Roman government. But, instead, he warns simply and directly that we all need to be ready to face death. If CNN had been interviewing Jesus this week in Blacksburg, this is where the producers would have pulled the plug. How insensitive of Jesus to turn this around and make us face our own sin and our own mortality. We’re uneasy and uncomfortable because Jesus sounds a bit too much like a preacher giving an altar call at the funeral home.

Please understand that Jesus is not speaking here to the grieving families of the victims trying to come to grips with their loss. Those who turn to Jesus in their sorrow can know the comfort of his presence. He always knew the right thing to say to hurting people and he invites all of us whenever we need him: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” If Jesus were standing with the mourners in front of those memorials on the drill field, his face would be streaked with tears like it was when he stood by the grave of his friend Lazarus.