Our gospel this morning begins with the phrase, “At that very time…” And whenever one of our lessons begins with a phrase like that I like look back to see what very time is being referred to.
In this case, “that very time” is described in Luke 12, when a large crowd gathers around Jesus and he begins teaching them. He tells them the parable of the rich fool, and encourages the flock not to be anxious.
Then right before our lesson this morning Jesus says to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’ and so it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
And then he goes on to say, “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”
And so it’s at this very time, then, right after he had asked the crowds, “Why do you not know how to interpret the present time? And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”
It was at that very time that some of the folks in the crowd ask Jesus to interpret the times for them. They tell him how Pilate had mingled the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices.
He responds by asking them to interpret the times and to judge for themselves what is right. “Do you think these Galileans suffered like this because they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”
And then he brings up another example of eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. “Do you think that they were worse sinners than everyone else living in Jerusalem?” he asks
Of course not, he says. “I tell you; unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
So what are we to take from all of this? What’s the lesson for us?
First off, let’s look at why the crowd was asking this question in the first place.
One of the beliefs that was common at that time, and it’s still common today, is the idea that God causes bad things to happen to people as punishment for their sins. So if something bad happens to you, it must be because you sinned and God is punishing you.
And we can see examples of this kind of thinking throughout the bible. For instance, in John’s gospel there’s the story man who’d been blind since birth. And the people thought it was because one or both of his parents had been sinners.
Or, if we go back to the Old Testament book of Job, when all the terrible things happen to Job, his friends came and told him he needed to repent so that God would remove all these punishments from him.
But of course, in the book of Job we’re told quite clearly that these things didn’t happen to Job as a punishment for sin. In fact, we hear God say that Job is the most righteous man on earth.
And in John’s gospel, Jesus makes it clear that the man’s blindness wasn’t caused by his parents’ sin or even his own sin.
And in today’s lesson, Jesus says quite plainly that the tower of Siloam didn’t fall on the 18 worst sinners in Jerusalem. That’s not how God operates, Jesus tells us.
And yet, throughout the bible the crowd keeps thinking that God does operate that way. And the question is why?
I mean, in both the Old and the New Testaments God had made it clear that that’s not how he operates. And yet the crowds continued to believe that if something bad happens to you it is because God’s punishing you for your sin.
So why did they keep believing it?
Well, again, coming back to that phrase, “At that very time.” If we look back to see what else was happening at that very time, we see that right at the beginning of chapter 12 when Jesus starts teaching the crowds his first lesson for them is, “Beware of the teachings of the Pharisees because it is hypocrisy.”
It was the Pharisees who kept promoting this false teaching that bad things happen to bad people. And the reason they were promoting it was because it helped them to retain their power, and maintain the illusion of righteous superiority that they had over the people.
They would point to those afflicted by illness or tragedy like the man born blind or the 18 who died in the tower of Siloam, and say that they were bad people who were being punished by God.
And, of course, what the Pharisees were also implying was that while these were the bad people the Pharisees and anyone who followed them were good people; the ones favored by God.
Of course, in today’s lesson, we hear Jesus’ response to this hypocrisy. “No,” he says, “you’re no better than the people you point to and say are bad. In fact, unless you repent, you’ll perish just like they did.”
And the fact of the matter is, this kind of hypocritical teaching is still alive and well today; from religious leaders to our politicians, we have plenty of folks eager to tell us who’s bad and who’s good, who’s right and who’s wrong, and whose side God is on. And the reason they continue to teach this is because we continue to listen.
We like the feeling of being in the right, and knowing that others are wrong; that we’re good and they’re bad. It feed our pride and ego, and gives us a sense of superiority.
And so Jesus warns us this morning, “Beware of such hypocrisy,” he says. “No one is good, but God alone.” (Mark 10:18) "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) And we're in as much need of repentance as the worst among us.
So let us resist the temptation to such hypocrisy, and let us instead turn to Christ. For only he can save us from the perils of this world and the sin which clings so close.
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