Come What May

In our Wednesday Evening class last week, one of those attending asked about the cause of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Did we think that God brought about events such as this in order to teach us a lesson? Was this a "knock in the head" to try to point out our sins to us, and to motivate us to change?

Why is it, do you think, that we have a deep need to assign blame, even if the one upon whom we are placing the blame is God? We blame each other, we blame ourselves, we blame God. In reality, there are some events that just happen.

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Matthew 13:1-5)

Accepting that not everything has an explanation, that somethings events just "happen" isn't neat. It doesn't appeal to our sense of order or our sense of fairness. We don't like that. I do think it is better than believing that God sets out to "teach us a lesson" by sending a horrible disaster to a city.

What about the rest of the passage? What about the idea that "unless you repent, you too will all perish."? What is the end result of repentance? Could it be that Jesus is saying that unless we repent, we will die far away from God? That if we repent, we will be closer to God? None of that protects us from disaster, but it does bring us closer to where we need to be, come what may.