The Tower of Doom

First Lesson: Isaiah 55: 1-9
Responsive Reading: Psalm 63: 1-8
Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 10: 1-13
​Gospel Lesson: Luke 13: 1-9

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
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The news was not good at all.  A group of religious pilgrims had traveled from Jesus’ home in Galilee to Jerusalem.  These pilgrims were upset at Pontius Pilate.  They believed Pilate was a way to their way of life.  They journeyed to their holy city, peacefully but angry at Roman rule.  They traveled to their house of worship seeking prayer and guidance.  Pontius Pilate though was not a nice man.  Pilate saw these men put to death in a way that was certain to further all hatred.

The Galilean Pilgrims were not only slaughtered but endured having their blood mixed along with the animals that they intended to sacrifice on their holy ground.  This act went beyond bullying.  The massacre of these Galileans was outright cruel.  Sacrificing their blood with animal blood was a mockery of all that Jewish people believed.  It was easy to wonder why God would allow such an incident.  People were starting to talk about whether God had indeed abandoned these people.

So the Disciples decide to engage Jesus upon the meaning of this incident.  The Disciples I imagine knew some of these men from back home.  Now here they were standing before Jesus asking for answers regarding their deaths.  Was Jesus going to explain the cause of such violence?  Was Jesus going to blame the victims?  Was Jesus going to defend the creator[1]?

Jesus decides to invoke another well-known story to the Disciples in the collapse of the Tower of Siloam.  Jesus was going to answer the question in the Disciples’ minds once and for all as to “Why do bad things happen to good people?” 

Jesus begins to tell the tale of the Tower of Siloam.  The Tower of Siloam was a well-known Tower in Jerusalem, that one day collapsed without any warning killing eighteen people.  Jesus knew the Disciples were going to be wondering why these people suffered at the hands of such cruel luck.  Had they possibly done something to deserve all this?  Jesus talks about the victims in the Tower of Siloam’s collapse.  He explains that there was no rhyme or reason as to why these people suffered death.  They didn’t die because of any unresolved sin.  They hadn’t done anything wrong to earn this punishment versus their neighbors.  These people’s death certainly was not fair.  In Jesus’ mind, tragedy does not equal divine punishment.  Jesus says events like the Tower of Siloam instead have a different meaning.  The tragedy itself had nothing to do with anything the victims had done wrong. 

Some years ago, NPR’s Terry Gross was interviewing musician Rosanne Cash[2].  Cash had to take time off from her career for several years because she needed brain surgery.  Gross asks Cash if she ever wondered “Why me?”

Cash’s response is enlightening.  Cash said her attitude through the whole ordeal was “Why not me?”  She had health insurance, no job that she was in danger of losing along with a wonderful caregiver[3]. 
The reality of life is that no one gets a pass on hardship[4].  No one ever lives a life without dread over what might potentially happen next.  The fact of everyone’s existence is that it is always going to be a mixture of highs and lows, joy and tears.  The nature of sin is such that no one ever gets off.  We share this common experience.     

Jesus finds the Tower of Siloam’s meaning as serving as a reminder that no one gets to choose the time of their demise.  Repentance and Death serve as a reminder of one’s shortcomings and dire circumstances within the present age.  These signs are why we ultimately look towards the source of all grace and mercy. 
In seminary, and I’ve told this story before, one of my professors Walter Sundberg was reflecting on the ultimate question of God and Suffering in “Why did God allow my neighbor to get hit by a bus?”  Everyone in this room has probably had a similar incident by which they wonder Why God didn’t act?  Dr. Sundberg said only “We must admit that we do not know the answer to this bus question, all that we can say for sure that we know about God we ultimately know from a cross.”

How might God be acting in any circumstance is always going to be beyond our ability to comprehend.  Last week, I was asked the following question about the Bible.  “Why does God kill so many people within its pages?”  You look at the Old Testament from the Exodus to the Conquest of Canaan to the collapse of Israel’s Kingdom; God seems directly responsible for all sorts of heinous killing.  For many critics of Christianity will always raise this issue. 

I can make a few points in response to such a difficult question.

1. God’s aims are always about saving people from death and bringing about new life.  Perhaps the most violent book in the Bible is the Book of Joshua.  Joshua tells the tales of the Israelites going to land of Canaan so that they may ultimately claim the land.  All sorts of people get killed within the pages of Joshua including seemingly innocent Women and Children.  What we need to remember is how Joshua begins.  Joshua begins by telling the tale of the salvation of a Canaanite prostitute named Rahab[5].  Joshua reminds us that death is not arbitrary, it is rather about returning to people to a land lost before being corrupted by sin.  God uses death in the words of Robert Farrar Capon “not just for bad guys, but to save even those who have lived their lives carefully”[6]. 
2. Once Israel seized their land.  All their wars were defensive wars.  What is interesting about these wars is that they had every disadvantage possible from lacking leadership, to lacking to troops and lacking weaponry, and yet the people of Israel kept coming out ahead again and again.  What we remember above all else is “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.”-Isaiah 55:8-9.  Our ultimate problem as human beings is in comprehending the nature of God.  We remember that our judgments about how the world works and should work are ultimately not God’s judgments.  We often view how God should work through our own sense of fairness.  I think back to the story of Job and how Job had every reason to believe that God was unfair in his life after losing his children, his health, and his possessions.  When Job finally stands before God[7], God doesn’t give Job a reason perhaps because God’s reasoning was far above Job’s.  The question isn’t whether God is fair.  We can plainly acknowledge and see that God is unfair.  God pours out his mercy and grace upon those who least deserve it.  The great Christian hope is found precisely in God’s unfair ways.  So perhaps as Christian people, it's best not to look backward but always forward.  We finally draw hope that God will one day transform us through his grace. 

Tim Zingale tells the following story[8].  One night after a Lenten service, a member of a congregation fell the steps and broke her hip.  This woman did not recover from surgery and died a few days later.  This woman’s pastor stood by her casket at the visitation.  Person after person came forward to her widow trying to make sense of the incident “God had a plan” “It must have been God’s Will.”  There is a silver lining”.  The Pastor knew that people were merely babbling trying to make sense of this no different then the Disciples trying to make sense of Pilate’s massacre. 

So the Pastor begins the funeral sermon the next day by saying “My God does not push old ladies down church steps.”  God is not the one who brings brokenness, death, and destruction unto this world.  For God cannot be both the author of both death and resurrection at the very same time[9].  The following story illustrates what Dr. Sundberg meant when he said that we always point people towards the cross.

The final story told by Phillip McLarty. [10]  In 1994, Rick, Suzie, and nine-year-old daughter Kelly Harper were trimming the Christmas tree in their Texas home when Suzie had difficulty breathing.  Suzie was asthmatic, but this attack seemed out of the normal.  The inhaler did no good.  Rick begins to drive Suzie to the Emergency room.  On the way there, Suzie stopped breathing.  Rick gave her mouth to mouth, but it didn’t work.  By the time, she reached the Hospital, it was already too late. 

Pastor McLarty spent weeks trying to make sense of the incident[11].  Suzie’s mother sits down to meet with McLarty to plan the funeral.  Suzie’s mom proceeded to give McLarty one of the most powerful sermons that he ever heard when she said “There’s nothing more we can do; Suzie’s in God’s hands. God lent her to us for forty-three years, and now, he’s taken her home. Life goes on. We can’t look back.  God will be with us in the future just as he has been in the past.”

Suzie’s story is why we always look towards the cross.  We always look towards this reminder that God does not desire human suffering. God desires the day when human suffering comes to an end.  Our God is not a God of judgment but rather a God of mercy and grace.  No matter what ups and downs that we encounter in this life, our God is continually working towards the day of our resurrection.  Amen


[1] Skinner, Matthew. “Luke 13:1-9 Commentary”. Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. Saint Paul, MN. 28.Feb.2016. Web. Feb.23.2016. 
[2] Bernhard, Toni J.D. “The Better Way to Face Setbacks and Sorrows: Inspiration from an Unlikely Source.”Physcology Today. 17.Oct.2013. Web. Feb.23.2016. 
[3] Bernhard, Toni J.D. “The Better Way to Face Setbacks and Sorrows: Inspiration from an Unlikely Source.”
[4] Bernhard, Toni J.D. “The Better Way to Face Setbacks and Sorrows: Inspiration from an Unlikely Source.”
[5] Joshua 6:17-25. 
[6] Capon, Robert F. Kingdom, Grace, and Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus. Eerdman’s Publishing. Grand Rapids, MI. 2002. Pg.248.
[7] Job 38. 
[8] Zingale, Tim. “Why God”. Sermon Central. 2007.Mar. Web. Feb.23.2016. 
[9] Zingale, Tim. “Why God”.
[10] McLarty, Phillip. “When Bad Things Happen”. Lectionary.org. 2004. Web. Feb.23.2016.
[11] McLarty, Phillip. “When Bad Things Happen”.