Luke 13:1-5

Do you see the implication in what these people brought to Christ right at the beginning? What was implied was, "Where was God when those innocent Galileans were put to the sword? Why does God allow people to suffer? Why does God allow injustices to occur? Where was God when all these people—perhaps all they were doing was standing around, watching the construction of the tower, and they were killed when it fell on them. How could God allow such a thing to happen?" You see, their bringing it up is a thinly veiled accusation against God's justice.

Maybe these eighteen innocent people were just walking down the street, minding their own business. They were not heckling the construction workers. They were not running away after robbing a bank. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

What would you expect Jesus to reply at such a time when a question like this is brought up? Would you think Jesus would say, "Well, I'm awfully sorry. These things seem to happen from time to time, but there is nothing you can do about it. It was just fate; it was an accident. Perhaps God just kind of nodded off for a while there, and I'll have to remind Him to be more careful. Maybe He was busy watching sparrows fall, or maybe He was busy counting hairs on some particularly bushy man's head, and He was so concentrating on it that He got distracted. I'll have to tell Him to get His priorities in order so that this does not happen again."

But He didn't. He said, "Unless you repent, you're going to perish too." A very interesting response. He is telling those people, "Look, you asked the wrong question. You should have said, 'Why didn't the tower fall on me?'"