Every now and then we ask questions like Why do bad things happen to good people? Today I will not answer that question! Jesus doesn’t either. The Gospel reading gives two examples of this and the Psalm – well we’ll come to the Psalm.
Jesus is told about Something Horrible that had happened recently. Pilate had killed a bunch of Galileans who had come all the way down from Up North in order to worship in the Temple, to bring their annual sacrifice – perhaps this is Passover, or another festival.
Its only St Luke who tells us this, there’s nothing in the other gospels, nor in Josephus, so we have no extra details, but it is in keeping with the character of Pilate.
But the implied question that we struggle with is Did they deserve this? Did they pick a fight with some Roman Soldiers? Was this a judgement from God – were they very bad sinners?
And then we’re told of another incident – also in Jerusalem – the Tower of Siloam fell over. Its as likely that this was a watch tower set up towards the east side of Jerusalem, and probably used by soldiers to keep the peace. That’s not really the point, the point is that for mysterious reasons it collapsed and 18 people were killed. I like the detail of 18. Its as if St Luke when he was getting information to put in his gospel, the person remembered that sort of detail. 18. That’s really sad. They were real people.
This is the first problem that we forget when we ask Why? Why do bad things happen to good people? This isn’t an academic question, these are real people.
But in the Psalms Ps63 – Generally this is a lovely prayer, especially if you stop at verse 8, but we had the whole Psalm today, that awkward bit at the end about hoping that enemies get destroyed, eaten by the jackals.
But Psalm 63 asks the same question – Why do bad things happen – but it asks it from a different perspective – from a personal angle.
This is King David, in the desert – most likely the back story is what we read in 2nd Samuel 15 – where one of the sons of David – Absalom – very good looking, lovely long hair, is bored of waiting for his dad to die so that he can be king and instead starts up a revolt, drives the king, dad, out of Jerusalem and into the desert.
Why do bad things happen? There are lots of different answers to this and some help and others don’t.
In the Gospels the question is asked from an academic 3rd person perspective – why did this happen to them. But in the Psalms David is grappling with Why did this happen to me?
Jesus answers the crowd by saying “No, they didn’t deserve this”. There are Bad People who do Bad things in this world, they have power, they have swords, – Jesus answers them by saying ‘Keep Short Accounts’.
The people who died weren’t any worse, or any better, than you. They didn’t deserve this.
But Jesus doesn’t then offer the consolation of Revenge – so lets rise up and kill a few Romans, that will learn them!
Instead He offers what sounds like a warning – what he’s saying is Keep short accounts. Any of us could be hit by a bus on our way home today, keep short accounts.
What about the accident – Bad people do bad things – and accidents happen. There’s no suggestion that the collapse of the tower is anyone’s fault. No doubt the architect and the maintenance man were called in for questions but accidents happen.
So again Jesus repeats His advice – Keep short accounts. Accidents happen. Its sad, tragic, horrible. I’m sorry if this has ever happened in your circle of life.
Next Jesus calls us to Bear Fruit – make sure your life counts for something.
Keep short accounts – forgive people, stop holding that grudge, give it to God in prayer – None of that’s easy – But Jesus is calling us to a life that counts for something.
Meanwhile, David out in the desert – perhaps 1000bc. Here the question is different. Why is this happening to me.
It’s a different question to why did this happen to them.
Why is this happening to me? It would be possible to say to David – well your son has risen up against you so it seems fair to say that your parenting skills leave something to be desired. You’ve been a rubbish dad. Oddly offering that advice probably wouldn’t be as useful as it sounded in your head.
David brings it to God. He starts off by centring himself back on God. I seek you, I thirst for you – David knows that the place he wants to be is close to God. He does it by remembering vs2 That in the past he has had wonderful worship enounters – ‘I’ve seen your power and glory, I know that your love is better than life’ – ‘that living in your love is more real, more important, that just living, or living without God’s love’.
So David remembers better times, blessings.
His next step is that of worship, lifting up his hands, praising, glorifying God, but it’s a defiant creedal sort of worship that says ‘I know that God is my God, has been my God, and will be my God, I will praise God’ – it’s a defiant prayer in the face of the trouble David going through.
David is having trouble sleeping so whenever he wakes up in the night, he turns to God in prayer, basically he is counting his blessings – remembering that God has been his help, and so looking for signs of that help.
This leads to the conclusion that David, in the midst of having lost everything, his wives, children, throne, wealth, power, – David is still going to cling to God.
It might be that you’re going through a tough time. Sorry about that. But today you have come to worship. And that is the single best thing you could have done today.
The next best thing you can do is to be honest in prayer.
And that’s where the Psalm goes next. David prays for his enemies to be killed. You realise that what he’s saying is that he’s wishing his son would be killed.
This is quite an honest prayer.
So Pray Honest Prayers.
But allow Room for God to change you.
The Absalom Revolt -as its known – will lead to a battle – by the time of the eve of the battle – Dad David will be putting out an order to his soldiers: Please don’t kill Absalom my son.
The battle goes well for David, but alas Absalom – his hair gets caught in a tree and Joab – remind me to tell you about Joab another time – Joab kills Absalom, and so the Revolt is over, there is Peace in Jerusalem, everyone goes back to their homes.
So note that in Psalm 63 David prays the honest prayer that the leader of this revolt, his son, the one who is causing so much suffering to his Dad but also to many others, may this trouble maker die. That’s the prayer of the honest – but David will change his prayer to the hope that maybe Absalom might change.
So don’t worry about praying honest prayers – they are healthy and good for you to not bottle up but off load onto God – pray honest prayers but still leave room for God to work.
Pilate caused the massacre of good Jews going up to the Temple to worship. They didn’t deserve to die. That’s a horrible thing for Pilate to do. But note that this is the same Pilate who will try to wriggle out of being responsible for the death of Jesus. This Pilate who will listen to his wife and wash his hands of it all.
Pilate has changed. Whether he changed enough or not is not for me to judge.
So the Gospel reading ended with this reminder of the persistent mercy of God.
We are called to Keep Short Accounts, to forgive.
We are learning about the importance of praying Honest Prayers.
And leaving room for God’s grace – so the parable of the Fig Tree shows the gardener pleading for one more year for the tree to have a chance to be fruitful.
Here’s the promise that in God’s persistent mercy, the gardener will clear this tree of weeds, will give it some fertiliser, will give it one more chance. This is the God we worship, who gives us again and again One more chance.
So the closing point is the call to be fruitful,
to live a life that still counts for something,
that still gives, still blesses, encourages, forgives,
and we do that – as any tree bears fruit – by connecting to the goodness of God, the goodness of the soil, the water, the sun, – trees do their thing
by allowing God’s blessings to flow through them.
So Keep Short Accounts, Pray Honest Prayers,
leave room for God’s grace to change you, the situation, the people involved,
leave room for God’s persistent grace,
and Bear fruit – live a life that shows that you draw grace and strength from the love of God in your life.
Amen.
A sermon preached on Sunday 23rd March 2025. Lent 3. Psalm 63.1-11, Luke 13.1-9