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September 25, 2005
Pentecost 19
Luke 13:1-5
Pastor Robert Raasch

Why Natural Disasters?

1. A Consequence of Sin
2. A Call to Repentance

The amount of destruction was hard to fathom, wasn't it? Hundreds of people dead, thousands left searching for loved ones through flooded streets, hundreds of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, millions of lives effected, billions of dollars of damage-all in the wake of a storm named Katrina. And now on the heals of Katrina, comes Hurricane Rita. When you think about the horrific destruction wreaked by these two storms, isn't there a little voice in side of you asking, "why?" Why, if God is truly in control of all things-why would God allow these hurricanes to just slam into such a heavily populated areas? Why would God allow those levies to break and turn people's lives absolutely upside down? I mean, God could have had those hurricanes fizzle out before they made landfall. He could have prevented the loss of human life. But he didn't. God allowed these natural disasters to strike our beloved United States. The question is, "Why?" That's the question we'd like to consider on the basis of our text today. Today we take up the question:

Why Natural Disasters?

As we consider what God tells us in his Word, we see that natural disasters are:

1. A Consequence of Sin
2. A Call to Repentance

First, natural disasters are a consequence of sin. Isn't that the message that God conveyed to our first parents in the Garden of Eden? After Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, God said to them, "Because you…ate from the tree…cursed is the ground because of you….It will produce thorns and thistles for you…for dust you are and to dust you will return." With those words, God was saying that because of man's sin, life on earth would become very difficult. As a consequence of man's sin, there would be disease and decay, death and destruction. St. Paul makes the same point when he writes in Romans, chapter 8, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (v.22). For the creation has been subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it (v. 20)." In other words, ever since the crown of creation fell into sin, all of creation has been in turmoil as well. Earthquakes and tsunamis, famines and plagues, hurricanes and tornadoes are all evidence that we no longer live in a perfect world. We don't live in the Garden of Eden any more. All natural disasters are really consequences of the fact that we live in a sinful world.

In fact, the same thing could be said about a lot of hardships we face in life. Why are some babies born with an abnormal number of chromosomes? Why does one child contract a debilitating disease and another one doesn't? Why does there even have to be a word like cancer or diabetes or coronary heart disease? Why? Because we're not in Paradise yet. Sickness, pain and decay are all conditions under which we live on this side of the grave.

But now someone might say, "Okay, I can see how disease and disasters can be the result of sin in a general way. But how about specific sins? Does God ever bring disease or disaster into a person's life as a punishment for a specific rebellion against God? Well, yes he does. The Bible is filled with examples of God bringing physical punishment down on someone specifically because of his or her sin. We think of how God dealt with King Herod in Acts, chapter 12. In verse 23, we read, "Because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died." Specific punishment for a specific sin. Or we think of how God had the ground open up and swallow Korah and his followers for their open rebellion against God and his chosen servant, Moses. Or how about the fire and brimstone that God rained down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their blatant perversions. Or even the world-wide flood that God sent in Noah's day because, as Moses puts it, "God saw how great man's wickedness in the world had become" (Gen. 6:5). Obviously, sometimes God sends specific disasters into people's lives to punish them for their sins.

Now, because we have these examples of such punishments in the Bible, it is sometimes easy for us to begin to wonder, "Hmm. Could a hurricane like Katrina be a disaster that God is sending to punish someone for their sins? Could this be an act of retribution on God's part? Is what happened to New Orleans the modern day equivalent of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? I mean, anybody who has seen what goes on in New Orleans during Mardi Gras might be tempted to think that what happened to New Orleans in the hurricane, is a direct result of what goes on in New Orleans during that annual drunken orgy on Bourbon Street. Maybe God nailed them because of their open immorality.

But that kind of thinking, my friends, is dead wrong. And Jesus tells us as much right here in our text. Here Jesus makes it clear that natural disasters are not a reason to hypothesize about the sins of others. Rather, natural disasters are a reason to repent of our own sins. Yes, natural disasters are a consequence of sin. But more importantly, II. Natural disasters are a Call to Repentance.

Here in our text, Jesus calls attention to two different disasters that would have been the equivalent of front page headlines in the Jerusalem Press-Gazette. The first was a terrible act of violence. Apparently the Roman governor had murdered a group of Galileans in cold blood. And what's worse, he did it while they were worshipping in the Jewish temple. That's what the gospel writer means when he says that Pilate "mixed their blood with their sacrifices". This was a terrible act of violence. Today we might think of something like a group of people being killed by a terrorist bomb, or someone run over by a drunk driver-when the people of Jesus day saw this grave injustice, what were they thinking? They were thinking the same thing that we might be tempted to think, namely, "Why did this happen to these people? Did these people do something wrong? Was God punishing them for some terrible sin they committed? Jesus' answer: "I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

From that act of cruel violence, Jesus moves on to an event that appears to be simply a terrible accident. A tower collapsed and 18 people lost their lives. Again, there might have been people who were assuming that those 18 people must have done something wrong. God must have sent this disaster into their lives to punish them for their sins. But what does Jesus say? "Those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

Jesus' point is this: When disaster strikes in someone's life, there is always the temptation to think, they're getting what they deserve. They must have done something wrong. But instead of focusing on what they might have done, Jesus says we'd better look at what we have done. Is there any one of us who doesn't deserve far worse from a just and holy God? Remember the principle that God laid down in our Old Testament reading. He said, "The soul who sins is the one who will die." That's the standard. That's what we deserve from God. Seeing people suffer in the wake of Hurricane Katrina should not remind us of their sin. It should remind us of ours! By our secret lust, our hurtful words, our arrogant actions, we deserve something much worse than a flooded attic. We deserve an eternity in hell.

What Jesus is teaching us here is that every natural disaster is a personal call to repentance, yes for the people who are suffering through the disaster, but also for you and me who are merely aware of the disaster. Natural disasters are a chance for us to acknowledge that we have sinned against God and indeed deserve nothing but his punishment. They are a chance for us to beg for God's mercy-and a chance for us to find that mercy solely in God's grace, offered to us in the person of God's son Jesus. Because Jesus lived a perfect life in your place, because he paid the penalty for each of your sins, you can be sure that you will not suffer forever in hell. It's the cross of Christ that gives you the assurance of God's love for you. Even when you are going through the hurricanes in life, even when disease and disaster strike close to home, still your heart can be at peace, because you know that your sins are forgiven, your life is in your Savior's hands and heaven is your real home.

It reminds me of the lady who chose to ride out the hurricane in her own home. The whole time that the wind was howling and the rain and debris was smashing against her house, she tightly held in her hand a little wooden cross. Why? Was it because she believed that the cross would miraculously save her from the storm? No, she held onto the cross because she knew that through Christ's cross, she had already been saved. Her Savior had already rescued her from something much worse than a hurricane. And for that woman, that's all that really mattered. By God's grace, that woman knew that whether she lived or whether she died, she belonged to the Lord.

My friends, the confidence that that woman had in the cross of Christ is something that you can have as well. Cling to the cross. For in Christ's sacrifice for you, you have the assurance that nothing will separate you from God's love-not life or death, not angels or demons, not hell or high water. Your life is in good hands, namely, the hands that were pierced for you.

So why does God allow disasters to strike? First, to remind us that we're not in heaven yet. We still need a Savior from sin and its consequences. Secondly, to call us to repentance, that is, to lead us to see that we deserve far worse punishment for our sins, and to lead us to look to God for mercy-mercy which he has granted us in Christ.

There's maybe one more reason that God allows disasters into our world. And that's to give us the opportunity to share God's mercy with others. As we give of our financial treasures for those in need, as we support the workers who are bringing aid and assistance, as we send in fellow Christians to offer a message of hope and comfort, we are sharing God's mercy in Christ.

Every disaster in our world, every trial in a person's life, every heartache that people endure gives you and me another chance to point people to a God who doesn't change, a God whose love can not be shaken, a God whose control over all things cannot be broken, a God whose mercy endures forever.

God grant that even the disasters in life lead us to love and trust that God who has rescued us from something far worse than anything that this life could bring, a God who has given his all, so that we could be his own, for Jesus' sake. Amen.