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Luke Chapter 13 is the focus of our attention this week and in particular, verses 1-9. Please read them every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 13:2-5 (NIV)
‘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.”’
Last year, several of my work colleagues were taken ill with cancer and while some battled with it for months and months, others passed away very, very quickly. In one of the funeral services, I was chatting with some friends and I heard the following phrases ‘She was too good to die’, ‘Only the good die young’ and ‘She didn’t deserve to go like this’. The implication is that there has been some sort of travesty of justice and that only bad people should suffer in this way. A ‘premature death’ should be reserved for people who don’t deserve to live.
I believe that for each one of us, God has our entire life in His hands. As I said yesterday, He is the perfect Judge and He alone has each moment and each breath under His government. Therefore, I do not consider it possible to have a ‘premature death’. None of us are guaranteed to live a long life. We see in the Scripture that a reward of a long life seems possible “With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:16).
However, I think this has more to do with an acknowledgement of a ‘full life’ rather than the span of its days. Psalm 91 talks about a life of complete and utter surrender to God and to His will and in return, God promises a life that is protected, fulfilled and complete. However long the person lives, they can look back and say, “I am satisfied with all that God has given me”.
Regardless of the length of life, surely the best thing is to be satisfied? We see so many in the Scripture whose lives are seemingly taken from them as if ‘before their time’. Stephen was stoned while still a young man. Many of the disciples were martyred before they’d had the opportunity to reach old age.
You see, what Jesus is saying in our verses today is to lift our eyes from the temporary concerns and cares, to move beyond the fleeting few days of life and look at the things that are eternal. I’m paraphrasing Jesus’ question here: “Do you think the people who were accidentally killed were more guilty than anyone else who survived?” In Jewish culture, when people were killed like this, they laid the ‘blame’ on the person. They were almost the exact opposite of us today; we push the ‘blame’ onto God.
The life lesson from the Scripture today is for us to cultivate a right attitude. Jesus says that we should use events like this to reflect the reality of the situation inwards. In other words, it is up to each person to examine their own heart and life, asking the question of themselves “If this were to happen to me, do I know for sure that I have a right standing with God?” That’s the message Jesus is preaching here. Every one of us is no more or no less indebted to God than the people who had died. We all have a debt of sin that we could never pay. Praise God, Jesus came to pay it all. Let us look to Him this morning and know for sure that our hearts are free before God.
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