Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Jan 28 2020 - Luke 13:1-21 – Did they deserve it?

A few years ago, the BBC news carried a strange item about a Japanese beak fish that had arrived on the shores of Oregon, carried in a small boat that had been swept out to sea in the tsunami. For two years the waterlogged boat had drifted across the Pacific carrying its strange passenger to the shores of the United States.

This story reminds us of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. Many thousands were killed or left homeless and nuclear reactors at Fukushima were crippled, leading to the release of troubling levels of radiation. What are we to make of such disasters? Should we seek to identify some particular trait in the Japanese – perhaps particularly those living in the most stricken areas – that provoked such a judgment? And what are we to say of famines or disease such as HIV that plagues so many parts of Africa? What have those who suffer untimely death done to deserve such a fate?

This was the question that was posed to Jesus when he was told of the Galileans who had been slaughtered by Pilate in the very act of offering sacrifices. This is the question he posed to his audience concerning the eighteen who died when a tower fell on them in Siloam; "Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?" (Luke 13:4). Jesus' answer is that they were not picked out by the hand of God because they were particularly worthy of judgment; they were just the same kind of people that you find anywhere else. More to the point, they were just the same kind of people as you or me.

Such disasters should move us firstly to compassion. Those affected are just like us. How would we wish others to respond if we or those we love were caught up in such things? We need to consider what we can do to help them and to bring them some measure of relief.

Secondly, we grieve that we live in a world where such things happen and where 'innocent' lives can be swept away in a moment. The world we live in is not as God planned that it should be, or created it to be; it is a world groaning with the longing to be transformed at Christ's coming (Romans 8:20-22). And we who have learned the heart of God for his broken world long for the day when all things shall be made new. We are pained by the sadness of a fractured world and cry out to God – sometimes with groans beyond words – for its mending.

And last, but by no means least, we want the confused inhabitants of this broken world to turn to God in hope. In response to the crowds who asked whether those struck down in an untimely manner were particularly deserving of such a fate Jesus replied, "I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish" (Luke 13:5). Such disasters remind us that sooner or later death will come to each of us; we are all mortal; we shall all face that great undoing. We, and every person in this dying world, need to know the living God, and to know in Christ crucified and risen from the dead the indestructible hope of a world made new.

This is the message of the gospel; there is hope beyond disaster for all who will trust in the crucified and risen Christ. He gives hope in the face of death and hope for a world made new.

Heavenly Father, keep me from quick and crass judgments concerning the misfortunes of others. Give me a heart of compassion for those who suffer pain and loss in this broken world. Give me the wisdom to see what I can do to bring hope and healing in place of hurt and despair.

Jan 28 2019 - Genesis 33:1-20 – Brothers reconciled

At last Jacob sees Esau in the distance, coming towards him with his 400 men. Jacob gathers his children with their mothers and walks on ahead of them all to meet his brother, bowing himself to the ground seven times. But Esau ran to meet him and embraced his brother and, "fell on his neck and kissed him, and wept." Jacob, who had tricked his father and wronged his brother, is returning home in fear; but the prodigal son is embraced by his elder brother who rejoices to see that the one who was lost is now found again.

Esau is amazed at all the riches that now belong to his brother. Jacob presses Esau to take a generous portion of the livestock – to share in the blessing that the Lord has given him; he says that seeing Esau again is "like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me" (33:10). Jacob had met God face to face and had not been destroyed; God had dealt graciously with him. Now also he had met his brother and had been shown grace and love in place of the judgment he deserved; it was an echo of his encounter with God.

Nevertheless, Jacob does not fully trust his brother. When Esau returns home, expecting Jacob to follow, Jacob heads off in another direction to make a home for himself at a safe distance from his brother.

The grace by which God has reconciled us to himself in Christ is grace that should be reflected in our own lives, reconciling us to one another and enabling us to live well together in the shared blessing of God. Yet divisions still exist between brothers and sometimes seem beyond resolution. But the day shall come when all division shall be swept away from among the people of God; a day when prodigals who have been embraced by the Father will truly embrace one another and none of the family will be left outside the feast.

Are there members of your own family who have fallen out with each other? Are there some with whom you have a difficult relationship or who you have not spoken with for many years? God has shown you his compassion and undeserved blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are there ways in which you could show forgiveness and compassion towards other members of your family and so be reconciled to one another? Could you host a feast for the prodigal in your family?

Psalm 133 expresses the blessings that might flow from such reconciliation:

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
    when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
    running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
    running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
    which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
    life for evermore.

Father God, I have seen your glory in the face of Jesus Christ. You have shown me amazing grace – you have run to embrace me and have kissed me in your love. Help me always to reflect that grace in my dealings with others so that, as far as it depends on me, I may seek to live at peace with everyone. May we enjoy the feast of your blessings in happy companionship.

Peter Misselbrook