Text: Luke 13:1-9

Why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow bad things to happen? These are questions that are very common in our world. Usually these questions come from people who have doubts about God’s Word or even doubts about the existence of God. Sinful human beings try to imagine that a truly loving God would never allow suffering in this World. They try to blame God for the evils of this world. They claim that if he was truly all-powerful then he would stop every terrible thing from happening. Ultimately, this kind of thinking fails to realize where evil really comes from and what God’s greater plan is for all people. God’s bigger picture really focuses on each of us individually. He allows a wide variety of things to happen in our lives because he is looking for something in particular in our hearts. Today we’ll answer the question, What does God look for?

Part 1: He looks for sorrow over sin

The people who came to Jesus had the same kind of questions that people have today. In one word the question is “Why?” Why did God allow certain people to be murdered? The people in the crowd had tried to answer the question in their own minds. They thought that God was punishing people because of specific sins. They had brought up one specific situation when talking to Jesus. There had been a group of people from Galilee who were worshiping God and offering sacrifices. For a reason which was not told to us in the Bible, Pontius Pilate had these Galileans killed. Then Pilate had their blood mixed with the blood of their sacrifices. The people who came to Jesus were looking for answers. Why did God allow this to happen?

Jesus knew what the people were thinking. He knew that the people thought that the Galileans who were murdered were worse sinners than everyone else. The people thought that they must have been murdered because God was punishing them for being terrible sinners. Jesus brought up another situation. He talked about what appeared to be an accidental death. He asked the crowd about the eighteen people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Were these people more sinful than others? In response to both situations, Jesus tells the crowd that these two groups of people did not die because they were greater sinners than anyone else. In fact, Jesus doesn’t give a specific reason for why these crowds died. These deaths however were certainly not punishments for specific sins.

Jesus gives a strong warning though. He says in verses 3 and 5, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Just because we are not being punished in this life for specific sins we commit, that does not mean that we can just go about sinning and think that it does not matter. Every single death in this world is a reminder of the fact that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When we hear reports of death in this world it is a reminder of the consequences of sin. God does not always reveal to us his exact purposes for calling people out of this life but he does tell us that our bodies will die because of sin. If we don’t have a heart of repentance, we will not only die physically, we will also die eternally. Jesus encourages us to be repentant over all of our sins.

Repentance has two parts. First of all we are to realize our many sins. God uses his Law to point out all the ways that we have sinned against him. The Holy Spirit uses the Law to remind us that we are terrible and can do nothing on our own to contribute to our own salvation. Once the law crushes our sinful nature, we need to be pointed in the direction of our Savior. If we only had the law, we would wonder how we could ever be saved. Thankfully, the second part of repentance is that we are turned towards Christ. Our Lord Jesus lived the perfect life in our place so that we can be saved. Faith in Christ trusts that he has forgiven us.  A truly repentant heart is one that trusts in Christ. Jesus gives us eternal life.

So how then can we answer the question “Why?” Why does God allow terrible tragedies in our lives? Why does God allow natural disasters which kill many people and ruin the lives of others? The sinful way to answer these questions would be to assume that God is not all-powerful or he is not all-loving. Some people fall into the sin of thinking that if God truly loved us, then he would never allow any bad things to happen. Others fall into the sin of thinking that if God were all-powerful, he would use that power to prevent disasters. The truth of God’s Word is that he doesn’t always reveal to us his purpose for sending tragic events into this world.

What he does tell us however is that all the suffering we endure is for our good and it is part of his gracious plan. It is narrow-minded to think that just because an event seems terrible to us, God must not be in control. Our almighty, all-knowing God is always working behind the scenes. God can use the death of a loved one or even an accident that causes us to be disabled for our good. Perhaps we needed a wake up call so that we would turn more fully to our God. Maybe we needed some event in our lives to call us to repentance so that we would not lose our faith in God. Many of the things that we suffer in this life are for our eternal good. When we get to heaven, God will show us how he was always taking care of us.

When God looks at our hearts, he wants to see a repentant faith. He wants us to be convinced that we are sinners so that our sorrow over sins leads us to Christ. Once we have faith in Christ, we will naturally produce fruits of faith.

Part 2: He looks for fruits of faith

Our motivation for serving our Lord comes from the cross of Christ. When we have questions about the suffering that we endure, it is important to remember that our Savior endured even more suffering on our behalf. God’s love for us moved him to send his Son into this world to be our perfect substitute. Our all-powerful God became a man so that he could endure far more suffering than we ever have to endure in order to save us. On the cross, Jesus endured a far greater suffering than even the loss we feel when one of our loved ones betrays us. Jesus was abandoned by his loving God. Jesus was forsaken by God. He was completely and utterly alone as he suffered the agony of the guilt of the entire world.

God allowed this suffering of Jesus on the cross not because he doesn’t love us or because he was unable to stop the suffering. This suffering had to take place so that we could be forgiven. God is so serious about our suffering and misery in this life that he took it upon himself. Jesus took our suffering so that we would never have to suffer like that. Christ’s resurrection a few days later gives us enduring hope. We now know that no matter what happens in this life, God loves us and he will take us to be with him in heaven. All the tragedies of this world are for our good. He has forgiven us. He has guaranteed us eternal life. He has a plan for us. We can be eternally grateful. We now produce fruits in keeping with our faith.

When God comes to us looking for fruits of faith, Jesus intercedes for us and urges him to be patient. The parable that Jesus told reminds us of this. The vineyard owner wanted to cut down the tree that wasn’t producing fruit. However, the keeper of the vineyard urged him to be patient and to give the tree one more year. This is a picture for all of us. God expects to see fruits of faith – good works – because of what Jesus has earned us. God would be perfectly justified in giving the order to have us cut down and thrown into eternal hellfire because of our sin. We would rightly deserve any punishment that we may receive. Suffering in this life as well as in hell would be merited for our sin.

And yet that is not how our loving God works. God is patient with us. Jesus pleads our case. He covers us in his righteous blood. He nurtures us with his Word and Sacraments. He sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts to strengthen us so that we can grow into strong Christians who produce many fruits of faith. What a blessing it is that God is patient with us. We are tempted so often to fall back into the sinful ways of the world. If God cut us off as soon as we slipped one time, we would never have any hope of being saved. Our loving God shows patience as he continues to work on us through the Word.

A person who does not produce fruits of faith does not have faith. Unbelievers cannot do anything that is considered good in God’s eyes. Without fruits of faith people are on the path to hell. When Jesus returns he will send them to an eternity of suffering for not believing in him. Now before we start worrying that we are not producing fruits of faith, it is important to remember that many of our good works are not all that visible. Anything that we do as a result of our faith is a work of faith. We don’t try to pat ourselves on the back for our good works because Christians naturally want to keep the focus on Jesus and everything that he did to save us.

There are many fruits of faith that we produce. One major fruit of faith is the desire to continue studying God’s Word through worship and Bible Study. Another fruit of faith is the desire to gather together so that we can encourage one another with the Word. And we want to carry this message to the rest of the world. We do this by sending out missionaries. There are many other fruits of faith that we could mention and I will just give a few more examples. Going to work every day without grumbling or complaining is a fruit of faith. Doing chores around the house is another fruit of faith. Even something as simple as spending time with others to get to know them can be a fruit of faith when it is done out of love and thankfulness for Christ.

Conclusion

God doesn’t answer every single question that we have. He doesn’t always tell us his exact reasons for allowing suffering in this world. He has reasons that are beyond our frail human understanding. He has the bigger picture in mind. He uses many things in our lives to remind us of our sin. Every single death that occurs reminds that sin has caused all people to die. God’s purpose is to work repentance in our hearts. His law makes us sorrowful over our sins and then his gospel points us to Christ and all that he has done to save us. God patiently works with us. He encourages us with his word as he tells us everything that is important for our salvation. Our faith will produce fruits of faith. God allowed the greatest suffering to be inflicted on Jesus so that we could be saved. When God looks at us, he looks for Christ to be dwelling in our hearts. God shows his love in the suffering of Christ.