Passage Read: Luke 13-14
Meditation Verses: 13:1-5
Thought
Jesus' response to these tragedies suggests that the people all held the idea that when someone dies unnaturally or even cruelly, it must have been because they did evil. In fact, they must have done more evil than the average person, to have their life cut short. That would fit with the teaching of Scripture, because God promises a long and peaceful life to those who walk in His ways. But I wasn't raised with that kind of thinking. Nowadays it seems that all early death is seen as an unfair tragedy, even if someone was put to death for murder or worse! There is no sense of judgment in a person's death, but all death should be seen as judgment. Death exists because of sin and all men die because all men have sinned! Death isn't the real tragedy, sin is. And death is just the initial judgment that should drive all men to repent so as to not perish! Because death is really just the doorway into the judgment hall. It is the closing off of any further chance to repent. It seals the fate of a soul. Perishing is the real tragedy and judgment; it is the eternal condemnation of a soul that never repented and submitted himself in obedience to God. Death should be feared, because once it comes, there is no changing a soul's eternal destination. If death comes early to one who has not submitted themselves to the lordship of Christ, they are cursed indeed.
Application
Nowadays an early death is just about missing out on good experiences and opportunities. It's losing a dear friend or family member. But there's no sense of God's judgment and so no proper fear of death. No one is blessed in or by death, early or late, unless they belong to Christ. Anyone else, regardless of when they die or how long they live, if they die without Christ, their death is true judgment. I don't help people by minimizing the judgment of death, rather that guts Jesus' words in this context of meaning. The people who die in natural disasters or are cut down by murderers, does God cut their lives short because they were worse sinners than the rest of us who remain alive? No, they're all the same as the rest of us. Some surely, hopefully, had repented and made peace with God, the rest have begun their eternal torment. The death of another is a warning to us who remain, that our day is coming and we don't know when so we'd better be earnest and quick to repent. That's the message I need to hear whatever some tragedy strikes. I need to redouble my efforts to know and walk more perfectly with God, to make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many will try and be rejected. I don't want to find that I've tried, but not enough, that I have none of the fruit the Lord is seeking, and end up shut out in darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's also the message I need to communicate to others.