Jesus and COVID – 5

Fifth, and last, There is the fact of divine judgment. Jesus exposes the fact of God’s judgment of sinners. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:5, emphasis added).

We learn four things about God’s judgment here. First, God’s judgment is physical death. The verb “perish” is from apollumi which means in the middle voice, “be ruined,” “die,” (BAGD) or be destroyed. In this context, to perish is to be destroyed physically. The Galileans were killed by Pilate; they perished. The eighteen were killed by the tower of Siloam; they perished. Thus, Jesus gave a warning of the physical destruction of Israel. Jesus’ prophecy did happen in history. Over 1 million Jews perished in the first Jewish-Roman War in AD 66-70 which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem.

Second, God’s judgment is eternal punishment. In Luke 17, the same word apollumi means spiritual destruction—the eternal punishment of the soul after final judgment (Lk. 17:27, 29, 33).

Burning Mountain, the common name for Mount Wingen, is a hill near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia. . . It takes its name from a smouldering coal seam [rock strata] running underground through the sandstone. . . “Their [aborigines] explanation of the origin of the burning mountain was that one day, a tribesman was lighting a fire on the mountainside when he was carried off deep into the earth by The Evil One. Unable to escape, he used his fire stick to set the mountain alight, so that the smoke might warn others to keep away.” . . . The underground fire is estimated to be at a depth of around 30 m (100 ft). It is estimated that the fire has burned for approximately 6,000 years and is the oldest known coal fire. (Wikipedia)

Jesus teaches about eternal suffering in unquenchable fire (Matt. 18:8-9; 25:46; Mark 9:43-48; Lk. 3:17). Jesus tells about the rich man who was in agony in the fire of Hades (Lk. 16:24, 28). Thus, to perish in the final judgment is to suffer everlasting punishment. Since the Bible teaches suffering in hell and in the lake of fire, to perish is to suffer eternal punishment in hell and in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 13-15).

Yet the soul is not destroyed in hell and in the lake of fire. For Jesus says that they will suffer there eternally. The soul continues to suffer in eternal fire, but it is not destroyed. Thus, to perish is not to be annihilated or totally destroyed so that the soul is no more, as Seventh Day Adventists want us to believe.

Third, God’s judgment is for all sinners. All sinners will perish. All sinners face God’s judgment. We usually think that God will save good people and destroy bad people on judgment day. But Jesus says that we will all likewise perish, unless we repent. God will judge all sinners whether they are good or bad sinners unless they repent.

Fourth, God’s judgment is seen in three horizons. (John Nolland) The first horizon is judgment in human history. In this sense, the Jews did suffer God’s judgment in AD 70. The second horizon is judgment after death. Jesus teaches that the soul will go either to heaven or hell after death. Jesus does not teach an intermediate place or purgatory where you will suffer there temporarily while you wait for your loved ones to pay some money to get you out of there. No, the Bible teaches that when you die, you will either go to heaven or to hell. The third horizon is the final judgment of God, the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11-12). In the final judgment, every one of the living and the dead shall face God and give an account to Him. The good news is that if you believe in Christ today, you will not face God’s final judgment. The bad news is that if you do not trust Christ today, you will face the final judgment with no assurance of salvation.

Conclusion

Luke closes this section with Jesus’ parable of the barren fig tree.

⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. ⁷ And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. ⁹ Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

The owner of the fig tree was looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to his gardener, “I’ve been waiting for fruit for three years now but found no fruit. Cut it down. It’s using up the ground.” But the gardener said, “Sir, let’s not cut it this year. I will cultivate it and put manure on it. Then if it will bear fruit next year well and good. But if not, you can cut it down.”

In this parable, the fig tree symbolizes the nation of Israel. To the Jews, the gardener calls to mind the OT prophets who asked God for a delay in judgment against Israel. The lack of fruit symbolizes the lack of repentance of Israel. For in Luke, the fruit of repentance shows repentance (Lk. 3:8). Jesus is therefore stressing the urgency of repentance of Israel, but also, of all sinners before judgment day.

In the parable, Jesus implies a delay in judgment. The gardener asks for a period of one year before cutting it down. Thus, there is an implied delay in God’s judgment for now. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Pet. 3:9). So God delays the great day of the Lord to give us all time to repent. Thus, while there is still time, we need to repent our sins. We are now in the last quarter (as in basketball) of the present age. We are now at the end of the age of grace. Jesus is now calling on every one to “repent for the forgiveness of sins” in his name (Lk. 24:47).

Jesus said, “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences” (Lk. 21:11, emphasis added). I believe COVID-19 is one of the pestilences at the end of the age. COVID is now a plague, infecting people around the world. But the end is not yet. Jesus said, “These things must first take place, but the end will not be at once” (Lk. 21:9, emphasis added). While the end is not yet, I urge you to repent while there is still time. If you will not repent you will also perish. But if you will repent and believe in Christ, you will have eternal life.

Will you repent and trust Jesus now as your personal Savior? Put your faith in Jesus alone. Call on the Lord Jesus right now and ask Jesus to save you from your sins.

Jesus and COVID – 4

The Fundamental Requirement of Repentance

“No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:3, emphasis added). Jesus exposes our need to repent. Notice that Jesus repeats his warning for emphasis (v. 5). Jesus is emphasizing our need to repent before calamity strikes.

I’d like to point out four things about repentance here. First, each one of us must repent. “Unless you repent”—that means all of you; each one of you. Jesus is emphatic—every one of you must repent before God because every one of you has sinned against God.

Second, we must look at our own sin and our need of repentance. “Unless you repent.” (v. 3, emphasis added). They were focused on the sins of the Galileans. But Jesus told them to focus on their own sins. It’s so easy to focus on other people’s sins. But our focus should be on our own sin and our need of repentance.

Jesus is more concerned with our souls and our relationship with God. We are concerned with our jobs, our bank account, or social status. But Jesus is more concerned if you are right with God right now. You should be more concerned with your soul than with anything else.

Third, to repent is to change your mind about sin. “Unless you repent,” Jesus said. The verb “repent” (metanoeo) means “to change one’s mind.” (BAGD) The basic meaning of repentance is not to turn from sin but to change your mind about sin. Yet in metanoeo, the “negative impulse of turning away is dominant.” (BAGD). Thus, the change of mind about sin moves one to turn away from sin. The turning from sin then is the result of repentance. The turning from sin is the action that is in keeping with repentance (Acts 8:22; Rev. 2:21-22; 9:20; 16:11). The reversal of one’s sinful conduct is called the “fruit” of repentance.

For example, I used to speak bad words when I was young. Many people use cuss words as an expression. One day, I realized that it is a sin to speak bad words before God. So I repented; I changed my mind about speaking bad words. My repentance moved me to stop speaking bad words. The change of mind about speaking bad words is repentance. When I stopped speaking bad words—that is the fruit of repentance.

Fourth, we must repent because life is fragile. (Matt Skinner) “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 5, emphasis added). “It means that we all must die any time, so repentance must be a top priority.” (David Guzik) Life is delicate; life is breakable; life is unpredictable; and life is short. James writes, “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14, NKJV). As of last Monday, May 11, over 282,000 have died of COVID in the whole world; over 26,000 in the USA; and 700 in the Philippines. Since life is fragile, life is unpredictable, and life is short, the urgent priority in life, Jesus says, is to repent before God.

What is the condition of your heart today? Can you honestly say that you are right with God? Before you judge others, judge your heart first. You may be in as much risk of perishing as the others.

Therefore, we must all repent—you and me. You might think that only the worse sinners should repent but No, every sinner, every one of us must repent. You might think that repentance is only for unbelievers. No, if you are a believer but living in sin, you are like the prodigal son. Like the prodigal son, you must admit that you have sinned. You must change your mind and go back to your Father in heaven.

Jesus and COVID – 3

Jesus exposes our false sense of security in calamities. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Lk. 13:3; cf. v. 5). For Jesus, any sense of security without repentance is a false security.

We have this false confidence that so long as we do good to others and go to church, we’re okay. So long as we obey the rules, we might not face calamity. Yet the Galileans obeyed the religious rules. They were sacrificing in the Temple but they perished there. The eighteen were going about their lives but a tower fell on them. Who would think that a tower would fall on you while you’re walking?

I read about a young woman from Kazakhstan who died while hiking. She was celebrating the end of the corona lockdown. She was out hiking with a friend in a mountain park in Antalya, Turkey. She climbed over a fence and posed for a selfie on the edge of the cliff. Suddenly, she slipped on some grassy portion and fell to their death about 115 feet below.[1]

Who would imagine that she would die that day while hiking? For Jesus, death is a certainty for all sinners. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I think he’s right!

Since death is the only certainty in life, then the only true security against death is Jesus Christ who rose from the dead. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

More, we have this false confidence also in our abilities to save ourselves. Through advances in medicine and technology, we have put our faith in these solutions rather than in God alone. The problem is that we put our faith in ourselves first before God. When we put our faith in ourselves, we make an idol out of ourselves. That is idolatry, which God hates.

But calamities crush our false confidence in ourselves. Calamities reveal our limitations. Calamities make us turn to God. This COVID crisis is the right time to turn to God.

I’m glad to share the good news that my former employer, Pfizer, started human trials for a vaccine last May 4. If tests are successful, a vaccine may be available by September 2020. Before I became a pastor, I was a manager there for 7 years. I worked with highly competent, excellent managers there. Big pharmaceutical companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make anti-COVID drugs faster than before.

Yes, we must do research to produce a vaccine or anti-viral. Yes, we must use medicine to heal our diseases. But our faith is not in the vaccines or in the medicines. Our faith is in the God who gives us the wisdom to produce it. Our faith is in the God who heals us. God is the beginning of everything. Since God the Creator is the beginning of everything, we creatures should begin with God and not with men for God is the source of all life, all hope, and all solutions to the problems of our very existence.

Let me ask you—What is the basis of your sense of security right now? Is it your abilities, your job, your bank account, or your properties, or your religion? Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matt. 7:26). If your security is in yourself or in your religion, then you are building your house on the sand.

I urge you to build your life on the rock—Jesus Christ. Jesus is our only hope, and our only security in calamity. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:5).

Have you repented your sin and put your faith in Jesus alone? I urge you to turn from your sin and trust Jesus as your Savior. In a simple prayer, ask Jesus to come into your life and save you now.

[1] “Hiker celebrating end of coronavirus lockdown falls to her death while posing for photo,” Fox News. Cited May 4, 2020. Online: https://www.foxnews.com/world/hiker-celebrating-end-of-coronavirus-lockdown-falls-to-her-death-while-posing-for-photo.

Jesus and COVID – 2

The False Hopes in Calamities

Jesus exposes false hopes in calamities. They thought that since they did not suffer like the Galileans, they did not deserve such punishment. Thus, one false hope in calamity is that good people do not deserve to suffer the worst calamity.

Jesus refutes this false hope in his second example. “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” (Lk. 13:4-5). Eighteen people died when the tower of Siloam fell on them. The tower of Siloam was probably part of the wall of Jerusalem. This tower was near the pool of Siloam. (Robert Stein) Perhaps those eighteen folks were just standing or walking under the tower one day and then suddenly, the tower just fell on them. Maybe the walls of the tower had become loose over the years. Or maybe there was construction going on nearby; I can only surmise. But eighteen people died that day in that tragedy.

Jesus said the eighteen were no more worse offenders than the others. In the Greek, the word “offenders” is opheiletes, which means, “debtor,” or “one who is obligated.” (Gingrich) A debtor is one who owes something or is obligated to do something. To the Jews, to sin against the Law of God is to owe a debt to God. We sinners are debtors then since we owe God a debt for our disobedience of God’s laws.

Jesus was asking, “Do you think that the eighteen who were killed owed God more for their sin than all the others in Jerusalem?” In other words, “Do you think that they sinned more and thus, they owed God more than the others since they suffered that way?” No, Jesus said. Their death is not a sign that they are the worst sinners. Rather, their death is a sign that disaster can fall on good sinners.

Thus, Jesus’ words destroy the false hope that God will not judge you if you are a better sinner than the others. For Jesus, God’s judgment will come upon even the less sinful person. For Jesus, we are all equally guilty before God whether we sin more or less because we are all sinners. In times of calamities, our only true hope is Jesus Christ who has paid the penalty of our sin by his death on the cross.

The kingdom of God is not a game of reward and punishment. (Fred Craddock) The kingdom is not a matter of rewarding the good Christians and punishing the bad Christians so that only the latter will suffer. The kingdom of God is not a game of “Super Mario Brothers.” I remember playing the video game, Super Mario Brothers. The Mario brothers Mario and Luigi would run and jump over pipes. The player gains points by kicking enemy creatures. But the player loses his lives if Mario touches the enemy, falls into a bottomless pit, gets crushed, or runs out of time. No, the kingdom of God is not a state of reward and punishment wherein we are blessed with health and wealth for being good Christians and we are cursed for being bad.

Rather, the kingdom of God is about grace. In the kingdom, the bad people can receive more grace if they repent. That’s grace. In the kingdom, the worst sinners can receive the most forgiveness. In the kingdom, the biggest debtors can receive the most generous cancellation of their debts if they repent.

The kingdom of God is about grace for the undeserving sinner. Who is the undeserving sinner and the unworthy sinner? The undeserving sinner is the baddest of the bad who deserves to suffer the most. He  does not deserve God’s favor! Yet he can receive God’s favor if he repents. That’s grace. That’s the kingdom. Thus, the kingdom is about God’s favor for the sinner, the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed, who are helpless, hopeless, and powerless in society—the scum of the earth–yet the objects of the favor of heaven.

Jesus and COVID

This COVID crisis has been called a calamity. Merriam Webster defines the word calamity as “a disastrous event marked by great loss and lasting distress and suffering.” The synonyms of calamity are catastrophe, disaster, and tragedy. Indeed, the COVID crisis is a tragedy marked by great loss of life. As of last week, over 247,000 people have died worldwide. Over 600 people have died in the Philippines. (John Hopkins University and Medicine)

In Luke 13, Jesus tackles two tragedies. We see Jesus’ view about calamitous events; and it is all about us! Jesus’ response exposes five things about us in relation to calamities.

The False Beliefs in Calamities

Jesus exposes false beliefs in calamities. One false belief in calamities is that God punishes only the more sinful. “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices” (Lk. 13:1). The Galileans were sacrificing in the Temple in Jerusalem. Then Pilate came with his soldiers and killed them all. Many Galileans died that day. Pilate mixed their blood with the sacrifices. The people who told Jesus about it thought that the Galileans deserved it. (Barnes) They were bad people anyway. But Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way” (v. 2). Jesus answers his own question with an emphatic, “No” (v. 3). For Jesus, those who suffer tragedy are not necessarily more sinful.

It was a common belief at the time and it still is a common belief now. Many today believe that if something bad happens to you, you must have done something wrong. I remember when I was in Dumaguete City years ago. I was sitting in an office one day with a terrible headache. My head was just aching so hard that day. My Muslim friend held my wrist like a doctor and said, “Naka tamak ka dewende (you stepped on a dwarf.).” We laughed!

Back in Nov. 5, 1991, there was a flash flood in Ormoc City. Over 5,000 people died that day in Ormoc City alone. Most of those who died lived in Barangay Isla Verde which was located along a big river in Ormoc City. The flash flood was caused by unstable soil and a lack of trees. When Typhoon Thelma came, the land was unable to absorb the rains. Debris from the mountain came crashing down with the flood.

I had to travel from Tacloban to Cebu that Friday for a company meeting there. On Friday evening, we passed by Ormoc. There was a brownout. When I stepped off the bus, there was sand on the terminal grounds. There was no food because all the eateries were closed. I thought food was on the boat but all the food was sold out. I didn’t eat anything that night; I was so hungry. I can still remember seeing several dead bodies being laid on the pier in Ormoc.

Then I heard people saying that Ormoc must have been more sinful than Tacloban; that more people were sinning in Ormoc. But there were many night clubs in Tacloban and none in Ormoc. There were many massage parlors in Tacloban and none in Ormoc. There was more sexual immorality in Tacloban than in Ormoc. How can Ormoc be more sinful than Tacloban?

I hope that people will not blame those who got infected by the corona virus as having done something wrong!

The false belief that God’s punishment is only for the worst sinners has a reverse side to it—that God’s blessing is only for the more faithful. It follows then that faithful Christians are blessed with health and wealth while faithless folks are left in sickness and poverty. If that is true, then most Pastors I know are unfaithful to God since they suffer in poverty while some corrupt government officials are faithful to God since they are rich and healthy.

Yet how can poverty be a sign of a lack of God’s blessing when God’s favor is upon the poor? Jesus himself said that God’s favor is for the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed. Jesus said, “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’” (Lk. 4:18-19, emphasis added). How can God’s favor be for the poor and the imprisoned when their poverty and imprisonment are a sign of a lack of God’s blessing? Jesus’ words already refute the false belief that one’s poverty is a sign of greater sinfulness and a lack of God’s blessing.

Luke also shows that the rich man went straight to Hades and suffered there while Lazarus the poor sick man went straight to paradise (Lk. 16:24, 28). This story of Jesus disproves the false belief that Lazarus, because he was suffering, was a worst sinner than the rich man.

So Jesus answers them with an emphatic, “No.” The Galileans were no more worse sinners than the others just because they suffered worse than the others. Terrible tragedies are not signs of greater sins on the part of the victims.