This last weekend Nancy and I had the privilege of visiting the saints at Riverwood Presbyterian in Tuscaloosa. We were shown wonderful hospitality there, and were greatly encouraged by the trip. During one part of the visit we toured the area demolished by the tornado this last spring (and the picture below represents a miniscule fraction of what we saw). The next day I preached for them on the sovereignty of God and the goodness of Christ. The sermon outline is after the picture.
INTRODUCTION:
As Christians seeking to be faithful to the revelation that God has given us in Scripture, we know that God decrees all things. We know that He is the God over all things. As Christians seeking to be faithful to how God has revealed Himself in Christ, we know that our faith cannot be simply reduced to a raw determinism. All things are governed, certainly, but they are governed by our heavenly Father.
THE TEXT:
“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5).
“Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:3-11)
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
In the Luke passage, Jesus is referring to a well-known disaster of His day, the collapse of the tower at Siloam, which killed 18. That disaster had caused people to think that the victims must have been “above average” sinners in particular, and Jesus corrects this false impression. But Jesus does not treat as interchangeable (as many today do) a “false interpretation” with “no interpretation possible.” He admonishes them for taking away the wrong meaning, not for taking away any meaning at all. A book difficult to read ought not to be confused with a book impossible to read.
In John, Jesus says that the man was born blind so that God’s works could be made manifest. While Jesus was here, He could do the works of God (v. 5). He was the light of the world as long as He was with us (v. 5). But a night was coming when no one could work—daylight came to the blind man as a sign that the darkness of night was coming to Jerusalem. This is the same message as we find in the Luke passage. Jesus anointed his eyes with spittle and dirt, and sent Him to the pool of Siloam. That this was symbolic is made obvious by John, who tells us that Siloam means sent. The blind man did what he was told and so his sight was restored.
Both passages involve the place Siloam. This was a principle source of water for the city of Jerusalem, and a tower in that same place had collapsed. Both passages involve people misinterpreting the meaning of the misfortune of others. In one place, they thought the 18 were worse sinners than anybody. In the other, they asked who had sinned, this man or his parents, that he had been born blind. In both places, the word Siloam means the same thing—sent. But the message communicated by this varies—death or life, seeing or blindness.
A TOWER AND SOME WATER:
As we consider these things, beware of reading the decrees of God glibly. Do not rush to assign meanings. Do not jump to carnal conclusions. As Jesus said elsewhere—“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). At the same time, don’t fall into a “who’s to say” relativism. Tornados can be read, but only in the light of the Word. Just as Jesus said there was a night coming in which no work could be done, so also there is a kind of night in which nothing can be read—and especially the work of God in natural disaster. Beware of the obvious meanings.
THE REALITY OF NATURAL EVIL:
Now we know from Scripture that God is God over all things. If disaster befalls a city, has not the Lord done it (Amos 3:6)? We know that God freely and unalterably ordains whatsoever comes to pass, and yet in such a manner as to not displace the freedom and responsibility of us as His image bearers. Further, we know what those decrees are, in the event (Jas. 4:15). Once something has happened, we know that it happened in the good pleasure of God. But even though we know what has occurred, we only know a tiny fraction of what has occurred. Consequently, what we don’t know yet is why. For help with that, we must be steeped in the scriptural take on the world, which will enable us to offer our understanding with a humble confidence and a confident humility. For the rest, we are willing in patience to postpone a fuller understanding. As the gospel song has it, “Farther along, we’ll know all about it, farther along, we’ll understand why.”
THE REALITY OF A GOD WHO BLEEDS:
We can have this confidence because we have been made sons and daughters of the Father. We are not fatalists; we are not Stoics. We are not resigning ourselves to some inescapable fate of having gotten ourselves caught in the machinery.
As we are reeling under the weight of natural disasters, or personal disasters, or a world groaning for the redemption of all things, we have to remember that a scriptural view of the world places the cross of Jesus Christ at the very crux of that world. He said that when He was lifted up, He would draw all men to Himself. Our comfort is not in some Panglossian metaphysical argument. Our comfort is that the author of this great disaster story wrote Himself into the very center of that disaster, that He might carry the weight of it Himself. Surely this suggests a deeper meaning than the simplistic one offered by Job’s comforters?
THE WORD MEANS SENT:
If we rest in God’s sovereignty alone, we will become fatalistic determinists. If we rest in the Christ’s sufferings alone, detached from the Father’s good pleasure and purpose in all things, then all we have done is make a Jesus who is caught in the machinery also.
The blind man was sent to Siloam. He was sent there by the One who had been sent into the world by His Father. Sent denotes purpose. Suffering has a point. And if you have been sent to see the rubble of the tower, then you have been sent to testify as to its meaning. If you have been sent to the pool to wash, you have been sent to testify to your gift of sight. And in both cases, you are testifying to the reality of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior of mankind.