Sin and Suffering

June 18

(Luke 13:1-5 NIV) ““Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. {2} Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? {3} I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. {4} Or 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? {5} I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.””

(Ecclesiastes 9:11 NIV) “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

When bad stuff happens and we suffer, does that mean God is punishing us? Scripture teaches that sin always results in suffering, but that our suffering is not always the result of our sin. Sin splatters! It splatters on us, but it also splatters on those we love -- those who are wrapped up with us in this bundle we call life. There is no such thing as “victimless sin”. When we run around in the dark, somebody always gets hurt. What we sow, someone will reap. Sin can trickle down through generations in our family. This doesn’t mean others are to blame for our suffering -- just that those who suffer are not always the ones who did the sinning. Suffering comes even to the righteous. Missionaries are murdered. Innocent babies are killed. Good people are assaulted. Drunk drivers destroy lives. We will indeed reap what we sow, but we also reap what others have sown. There is no fairness in sin and suffering. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day