Why Suffering? (Luke 13:1-9)

You can turn in your Bible to Luke 13. We will be in v1-9.

We are going to talk this morning about the problem of evil. I’ve titled the message, “Why Suffering?” It’s an important question people have been asking since suffering and evil entered the world.

The different religions and philosophies try to answer it. Some say all that matters is that you do more good than evil. That’s how you win in the end. Others say good and evil don’t exist. They’re just social constructs. But even the most honest attempts at answering the question seem to fall short.

9/11

Today is 9/7. We are 4 days from the 24th anniversary of a day that sits in infamy. If you’re older than 30, you probably remember where you were 9/11, 2001. I was in my 4th grade class in elementary school. There was just a stunned shock on the face of my teachers. All meetings and activities scheduled for later that day were cancelled. I was young, but old enough that no adult could hide that look on their face. I’m sure they tried. But something so awful had just happened. So awful they couldn’t comprehend it. And we knew.

Our entire country was brought to its knees that day. We were, collectively speaking, rocked to the core. Unimaginable evil had visited us. And we knew evil was real. It wasn’t just in our imagination.

Tim Keller

Timothy Keller was a pastor in New York in those days. He died about 2 years ago. His ministry influence has a very wide reach. And I’ve read other pastors influenced by him say his preaching fundamentally changed after 9/11. Basically, they say, his sermons pre-9/11 were good, biblical sermons. But they weren’t special or memorable. But something changed after 9/11.

He became a giant in the faith. Not because he put himself out there with great marketing campaigns. No, he became a giant in the faith because he spoke gospel truth with clarity and conviction right in the face of life’s hardest questions.

That’s what Jesus did. Listen to how he responded to a group of people who came and reported to him about an awful event in Jerusalem. Read with me beginning at v1.

Read Luke 13:1-9

The first thing I want you to see this morning is this...

1. Suffering is not Always Directly Correlated with our Sin (v1-5).

The people who came and reported to Jesus about the evil act committed by Pilate, they were astonished at what had happened. They were stirred up went to Jesus for answers. “Why did this happen!?”

Jesus responded very differently than what they were expecting.

We don’t have a historical record of this outside the Bible, but there’s plenty of evidence that Pilate was a brutal ruler at times, and it was not uncommon for him to treat the Jewish people harshly. And he didn’t like the Galileans because they were known for speaking out their displeasures with Rome.

Apparently, some Galileans had gone to the Temple to offer sacrifices, and some of Pilate’s soldiers murdered them while they were offering sacrifices. That’s why Luke says Pilate mixed their blood with the blood of their sacrifices. That’s a crude way of saying what Pilate did was very wicked.

This awful event must have happened while Jesus was out of town. The way it’s reported is that it was a recent tragedy. And it just shocked the people. They were rocked to the core. Notice Jesus’ response, catch this in v2…

“Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things?”

What Jesus is saying here is very important. The shock and sadness of the people don’t catch him off guard. He sees through it. His response tells us something about human nature.

You see, we have this belief, it’s not always a stated belief, but it’s deep down in us. It’s the belief that we always get what we deserve. For example, the more you sin, the more you suffer. Or in the reverse, the better you do, the more blessed you are.

We all believe this naturally. It’s just in us. We think a person's suffering is directly tied to their sins. And this kind of thinking has horrific consequences. It’s the kind of logic that says, “oh, you had a miscarriage? That’s what you deserve for getting pregnant before you’re married!”

I want you to imagine concrete. Thick concrete. Our mind and heart is like thick concrete. The Lord told the nation of Israel they were “a stiff necked people.” Now I want you to imagine a jackhammer. This distorted belief is in our minds like concrete. And Jesus showed up with a jackhammer to bust up that belief.

The Book of Job

The book of Job was written at least in part to bust up the myth that a person’s sin is directly correlated to their suffering. Over 15 times in the book Job is described as blameless and upright, yet he experienced unimaginable suffering. It wasn’t because of his sin. But his friends were convinced he deserved all of the calamity that came upon him. Eliphaz said to him...

“Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed? In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.”

That’s the belief. And what a shame it is. It’s just loaded with judgment. It only adds more shame to the one who is suffering. That’s why Jesus says in v3...

“No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.”

He’s saying, abandon that belief. Get rid of it. Because all it does is lead to self-righteous thinking. You think you have life and good things because you’re good and you think those who are suffering suffer because of the wrongs they have done. Jesus is saying it’s not that simple.

To drive the point home, Jesus added another example of tragedy. It almost sounds insensitive. Just pilling one tragedy on top of another like modern news coverage. Concerning the 18 people who died when the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, Jesus asked again...

“Do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?”

The correct answer is “NO!” He doubles down in v5...

“No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.”

What’s the point Jesus is making? The crowd wanted to believe the Galileans and the 18 people crushed by the tower deserved to die. That somehow their sinful choices were tied to their demise. You see, when you think that way, you think there’s a way to avoid suffering. Jesus is saying, “no, no you can’t.”

When you hear about tragic events you shouldn’t be astonished by it. We live in a broken world; we shouldn’t be surprised by it. Rather, you should ask, “why didn’t that happen to me?” Not out of fear but from a place of humility.

And here’s what you get. You begin to understand that every single moment you have breath in this life is a gift from God. The very fact that we are allowed to live from moment to moment is because of his grace and kindness.

When you begin to think that way tragedy hits you differently. Yes, it saddens you. You grieve. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13...

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.”

Christians don’t grieve without hope. We do grieve. We just don’t grieve like the world. Our culture wants to look down on us for that. The world wants you to be utterly devasted when tragedy strikes. The logic of the world wants to run to politics to try and fix whatever problem they think caused the tragedy. We see this all the time.

But Jesus is saying you can’t stop tragedy. You can’t stop suffering because the world you live in is broken. Yes, there are some political structures and policies that are better than others, but you cannot avoid tragedy and suffering. And it’s not always directly tied to our sin.

Now, to be clear, sin and suffering are related. Without sin, there would be no suffering. The link between sin and suffering is this: Sin brought death into the world. And with death, comes suffering.

In John 9:2-3 the disciples asked Jesus about a blind man. They said...

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.”

Sometimes we suffer because of our sin. But sometimes our suffering is just providential. What do I mean by that? Look at the second point in your notes.

2. What’s the Purpose of Suffering (v6-9)?

Some of our suffering is just there for God’s power to be displayed in us. It’s just there to bring him glory. You can try to find a rational answer, but you won’t find one. God could choose to display his power in some other way. But for some reason, something about suffering displays his glory the brightest.

The disciples had this baked in belief that someone's sin caused the man’s blindness. Yet, the irony of the story is that the disciples were spiritually blind until the Lord opened their eyes to the greater, spiritual truth.

You need more than reason and logic. You need spiritual eyes to see.

One of the truths that’s most difficult for us to understand... Suffering displays God’s glory in us more than anything else.

The rational answer from the Bible to the question, “Why suffering?” is the cross. The cross is at the very center of reality as God sees it. God the Son took on human nature, lived a sinless life, more blameless and upright than Job, yet Paul says...

“He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

If you’ve been perplexed by the problem of evil, I’m right there with you. But there’s no answer to evil, tragedy, and suffering better than the cross. Because suffering produces fruit in our lives… it grows our faith in ways like nothing else will.

Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 12:9...

The Lord said to him… “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.”

Suffering makes us weak. And weakness is the condition we need for Christ’s power to reside in us. And when we have Christ’s power in us, that’s the source of bearing spiritual fruit.

Jesus said in John 15:1–4…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit... Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.”

The nation of Israel is compared to a vineyard throughout the OT. Vineyards are supposed to produce fruit.

It was the common practice in those days to plant as much seed as possible in the vineyard, hopeful for a plentiful crop. Yet, in this parable, the vineyard owner goes out and sees that a particular fig tree had not produced fruit in 3 years. That was more than sufficient time to be fruitful. So, he wanted it cut down. It was wasting soil. But the worker was an advocate or mediator for the fig tree.

He responded… “just give it another year. Let me dig around it and cultivate it. Let me fertilize it. I’ll take extra care of it and perhaps next year it will produce fruit. If that doesn’t work, I will cut it down.”

What’s the point of this parable? How does it relate to suffering? The basic point is this. We don’t have forever to produce fruit. We have been given a certain amount of time that God has given us and Jesus is saying in very clear terms, God’s grace is sufficient to save you. But you don’t have forever to produce fruit.

Tragedy and suffering should make this reality clear to us. Death ought to be a very frank reminder to us that we don’t have forever to repent and we don’t have forever to produce fruit. The warning is straightforward and clear. If we don’t repent while God has given us today, this moment, we are not promised the next.

Jesus didn’t say that to scare people. I don’t say it to strike fear. It’s just the simple truth. We don’t have forever to repent, so let today be the day you surrender your heart to the Lord.

Let’s pray.