day no. 14,891: which direction the likewise runs

Luke 13:1-5
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

What happened to the Galileans was truly terrible. Pilate had commanded their death and apparently it may have been while they were in the act of making sacrifices to Yahweh so that their blood ended up being spilled in the place where the blood of their sacrifices were in the process of being offered. This would be the equivalent of a SWAT team entering a church on a Sunday morning and executing a group of Christians who were in the middle of partaking of communion.

What happened to those eighteen in Siloam was also tragic. Apparently, a tower had tipped over and fell on all of them, crushing them beneath its weight and they perished in the disaster. This would have made local news headlines. What a tragedy!

Jesus here affirms the tragedy of both situations and punctuates His retelling by asking a very pointed question, "Did these particular horrible things happen to these people because they were particularly horrible?" He then answers His own question, "No." These things were not disproportionately tragic because the people involved were disproportionately wicked. In fact, Jesus says that what happened to these people is what ought to happen to any of us, if we do not repent. Anyone who does not repent deserves all the tragedy observed in these two anecdotes. 

We often misread the likewise. We look at the horrible things that happened to those Galileans and those over in Siloam and say, "These things ought not to have happened." So we level the playing field by saying, "No one ought to endure such tragedy." It was unfortunate what happened to them and LIKEWISE, it would be unfortunate if something like that happened to me or someone I loved. We apply the likewise in the wrong direction. Jesus applies the likewise in the opposite direction. His logic holds that if that tragedy happened to ordinary people, that same kind of tragedy is awaiting all people. We are right to long for a world where misfortune is no more, but we are wrong to assume it can be obtained my mere longing. It is only escaped by repentance.

So we are right to look on and say, "God, that is just awful." But it is a sign intended to steer us to repentance lest something equally God-awful should happen to us.

In other words, everyone deserves tragedy. It is our wages. What we should get at the end of the day is the terror of what we have observed in these stories. 

The point of the story is then abundantly clear. If you have ears to hear, repent while it is still called, "Today," lest you likewise become the object of tragedy.