“At that time, some people were there who told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices to God. ” Luke 13: 1-9
Is God’s way of expressing dissatisfaction with people to have them executed, be struck down with terminal disease or met with a fatal accident? Grotesque as it might seem, that’s one of the inferences of the question put to Jesus in the opening verses of today’s gospel-reading. It seems as though Jesus had detected a note of hostility in his interrogators, who had drawn his attention to the murder of some of his fellow Galileans. Had he read them as saying: “With a bit of luck, Jesus, you might have been another victim of the bloodthirsty Pilate, and that would have done us all a favour!” However he read the motive behind their question, Jesus responded forcefully, asking them without hesitation if they thought the murdered Galileans were worse sinners than their fellow citizens. Even in the time of Jesus, there was a prevailing view that illness, disability and death were punishments for serious sin. Jesus proceeded to make the point that the God in whom he believed and placed his trust was compassionate rather than vindictive and called everyone to conversion and change of heart.
A contemporary parallel to the tragedy brought to Jesus’ notice by his interrogators might be for one of us to ask: “Were the 59 victims of the fire that ripped through a crowded and unlicensed nightclub in Macedonia last Sunday morning all worse sinners than those who survived the tragedy?”
This prompts all of us who engage with today’s gospel-reading to stop and ask ourselves what our picture of God might be. We might get a glimpse of it from calling to mind the comments we and others make on being apprised of tragedies and illnesses that have touched the lives of people we know and love. I’m sure we have all made or heard comments like: “Andrew or Elizabeth have been lifelong, daily Mass-goers. He/she didn’t deserve to be stricken with a brain tumour!” Comments such as this are very likely shaped by how we project onto God the way in which we would act if we were God. We might get another insight into what we expect of God if we were to stop and attend to some of the suggestions we make about how best to deal with some of the world leaders whose words and actions feature in our daily news bulletins. We have surely heard ourselves making ill-considered prognostications about how people like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Marie Le Pen might be put in their rightful place. And, for the most part, the recommended treatment would not be gentle!
The God of Jesus is surely not interested in applying forceful, controlling or power-based methods to control the lives, operations or political policies of world leaders or of anyone else, for that matter. God will not support the injustices they perpetrate or any violence they initiate but will neither descend on them to obliterate them. Our God is a God of patience, compassion, forgiveness and respect. We have to trust in a God who will teach us to be likewise.
Consequently, we may not be entirely comfortable with Paul’s words in today’s second reading from Corinthians where it would seem that he is ready to apply a bit of moral pressure to goad some of his community in Corinth to compliant behaviour. Paul points to a God who used threats to keep people in line and refers to methods used to keep reins on their ancestors. “I want you to be quite certain that our ancestors all had the cloud over them and all passed through the sea. In the cloud and in the sea, they were all baptised into Moses; all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ. In spite of this, God was not pleased with most of them, and their corpses were scattered over the desert…Never complain; some of them complained, and they were destroyed by the Angel of Death.” (1 Corinthians 10: 1-6, 10-12)
Fear rarely succeeds in promoting compliance, and the God of Jesus is not a God of whom to be afraid!
While God does not use fear as a weapon, we do know that God does disturb our comfort by challenging us with agenda that extend us and engage the use of our gifts and talents. God often does this by introducing leaders who attract our attention and inspire us to take creative, live-giving action. In today’s first reading, we hear how God caught Moses’ interest and, after waiting patiently for him to provide a little opening, eventually introduced some social justice agenda: “I have seen the miserable state of my people in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to be free of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings. I mean to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow.” (Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-15)
To follow authentically in the footsteps of Jesus, we have to get to know and develop a relationship with the God of Jesus. The face of Jesus’ God is both benevolent and challenging. It is turned towards the needy of our world and appeals to us to address the causes of their needs. We know that God’s face is not a face of violence but one of welcome and compassion. The face of violence belongs to our fellow humans who are bent on exploiting and manipulating our sisters and brothers in need. Whenever God calls us to action it is with sensitivity, patience and compassion. They’re the signs that the call is genuine.