I was reading Luke 13 last night, and Jesus was telling the people that the person he was healing was not sick because they were some special brand of super-sinner. Nope, he tells them, they're the same type of sinner as the rest of you. Or maybe: you're all super-sinners. You're just not all begging to be healed, which is too bad.
Then references some tower that fell over, killing 18 people. Those people didn't die because they were especially sinful, he tells them. They died because a tower fell on them. Towers are pretty heavy things. Even back then, one assumes a falling tower is likely to kill, just based upon the whole weight thing. And gravity. (No one ever blames gravity, but it's always at the scene. "Who's this guy?" "Oh, that's Gravity, Sergeant. He says it wasn't his fault.").
The people assumed, as people still think, that GOD was up there, waiting until those 18 extra-sinful people would all come to the tower at the same time and then BLAM!! Now everyone feels better, because the sinners are dead, and whoever's alive is obviously not a really bad person. But Jesus makes this seem stupid. I think it's supposed to be stupid, because this story gets book-ended by miracles. Miracles are when GOD reaches through time and space and whatnot, in order to help us. This is the opposite of the Final Destination brand of Theology, where He's the pilot of a Holy Predator Drone, waiting to wipe us off the map. Maybe Jesus was so frustrated because the people had their picture of GOD so backwards. And when our picture of Him gets so out of focus, it doesn't look like Him anymore, then who is it we're actually following?
Never end an essay with a question. People find it irritating.
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