You take a break, pull out your phone, and scroll social media. On any given day there’s a good chance you’ll be met with a disaster in your feed: war destruction, the aftermath of a hurricane, an accident bad enough to get national attention, silent security camera footage of some evil. And you feel a weight in your chest, because you want to care about the suffering on your screen. You really do want to care. But honestly, it’s just too much, and it all feels remote. What do we do with the heaviest tragedies on our screen? Today on Ask Pastor John: doomscrolling done right.
This very good question is from an anonymous listener to the podcast about a Bible text we will read together in a couple days. “Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. In Luke 13:1–5, Jesus responds to two tragic incidents where people are killed, apparently in very noteworthy events that spread around fast, like what we would think of today as trending, headline news. But then, oddly, he takes those stories and calls for repentance from all people. In this example, first, do you think God intends for us to see or read about tragedies of others as a normal part of life? And if he does, that seems to change how I view news on my phone. Second, the purpose for it: Why do you think Jesus connects the headline suffering others face with the need for repentance from those who are simply passive onlookers to that suffering?”
This text, Luke 13:1–5, had a powerful effect on me years ago as I was cleaning a room. It was so powerful. I remember the very thing I was doing with the vacuum cleaner, cleaning a room in my house, listening to a cassette sermon from R.C. Sproul titled “The Locus of Astonishment.” That was the name of the sermon, which I was very fascinated by because I didn’t know what in the world he meant. And it was a sermon on this text, Luke 13:1–5. And it shocked me. His sermon shocked me into a reality that ought to be plain to us as Bible people but so often isn’t.
Misplaced Astonishment
So, let me read the text (because I don’t think most people are going to have it in their head), and you look for the misplaced amazement in this text.
“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1). So, evidently, Pilate slaughtered some worshipers and took some of their blood and mingled it with the blood of the sheep that they were offering in sacrifice. And some people brought Jesus the news of this atrocity. Keep going.
“And [Jesus] answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?’” (Luke 13:2). So, what these friends of Jesus seemed to assume is that to die in this terrible way must mean you’ve done something exceptionally evil, and to that assumption, Jesus responds, verse 3: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
So, Jesus denies that there is a correlation between the degree that people suffer and how bad they are. He denies, “No, no, don’t do that. Don’t look at that.” In fact, he goes so far as to say, “You deserve the same thing.” Whoa, I didn’t ask you to say that when I was bringing you this news.
Death Delayed
And now he takes it even further and says this in verse 4: “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?” So, he moves from an atrocity caused by an evil man, Pilate, to an accident, or what insurance companies would call an act of God, a disaster of a falling tower with eighteen random people killed underneath the crashing tower — like a crane falling over in our day. And he asked the same question: “Were they worse than you because they died like that?” And here’s verse 5: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
“Jesus wants us to repent of our own sin when we see the suffering of others. That’s a good fruit.”
So, what’s the point of that story? The point is — well, there are two ways to say it. It’s in what Jesus denies and what he affirms. What he denies is that we can identify different degrees of badness in people from different degrees of suffering that they experience. He says, “No, that’s not true. Don’t do that.” And what he affirms is that you, the ones asking me this question — and I think that implies all of us — are just as liable to perishing as they are. Unless you repent, you’re going to likewise perish.
Now, think about that for a minute. The word likewise does not mean “with the same exact kind of death.” That would be contradictory, because he says to everybody that if you don’t repent, you will die the way Pilate killed people. And if you don’t repent, you’re going to die under a falling tower. Well, you can’t have it both ways. So, the likewise doesn’t mean precisely the same kind of death — have your throat slit by Pilate’s soldiers or die under a crashing tower. And the word perish can’t mean only physical death, because he says you won’t experience it if you repent. Well, everybody dies. If you repent, you’re going to die. So, “unless you repent, you’re going to perish” must mean something more than, or after, physical death — namely, perish in final judgment and hell.
Reminded to Repent
So, here’s the conclusion: Jesus is affirming that the atrocity that happened to the first group and the calamity that happened to the second group are not a sign of their exceptional evil, but a reminder that all of us are so evil that we deserve hell.
It’s a stunning thing for Jesus to do and to say. And what R.C. Sproul meant by the misplaced locus of amazement is that Jesus is saying your amazement that some people died a terrible death is misplaced. What you ought to be amazed at is that you weren’t among the number. You weren’t among those whom Pilate killed. That’s what should amaze you. You weren’t under the tower when it fell. That’s the amazing thing that you and I are still breathing and have some time to repent so that we won’t perish. That’s amazing because we deserve to be under the tower. We deserve to be with our throats slit just like those poor worshipers. This is a full-scale indictment of the human race — just breathtaking. It is a declaration that our sinfulness is so deep and so thorough and such an indignity to God that every human being deserves to perish.
So, the answer to the question, “Why did Jesus connect the headline suffering to the need for repentance in the onlookers?” is that it’s one of God’s purposes in the headline suffering. Don’t point your finger at the bad people who just died. Don’t point your finger. Rather, be reminded: That’s what you deserve. Every time you read a headline, every time you see a hurricane or a tornado or some terrible flood or disease, what you’re supposed to say is, “I deserve to die.” And you can escape it. You can escape God’s judgment by repenting, by turning to Jesus and saying, “I’m done with sin. I hate my sin. I need a Savior.”
I think this goes a long way to answering the other question. Does God intend for us to see or read about the tragedies of others? And I think the answer is yes, if — big if — if the effect of this awareness, this knowledge of suffering, doesn’t just depress us or paralyze us or fascinate us but makes us people who are more humble, more loving, more Christ-exalting.
Knowing Another’s Suffering
So, looking at the news day by day on your phone, looking at the news just because it’s interesting or shocking or titillating, is not good. That’s not a good motivation. “I just want a little eye candy to shake me up, stir up my adrenaline or something.” There are good reasons for knowing about the suffering of others. There are. I’ll give you six real quick.
1. Jesus wants us to repent of our own sin when we see the suffering of others. That’s a good fruit. That’s what he wanted to happen here. You deserve the same thing, so repent. That’s what suffering should do to you: make you penitent.
2. He wants us to see God’s sovereignty over suffering, turning it for his good purposes. Paul’s imprisonment advances the gospel (Philippians 1:12). He told them about it. He wants them to know about his imprisonment and how God is sovereign over it.
3. He wants us to prepare for our own suffering, which Jesus promises is coming. In Matthew 24:9, he says you’re going to suffer. Therefore, to hear about suffering in the Gospels and be told about what’s coming is useful for our faith.
4. He wants us to be made bold by the suffering of other Christians that we hear about. In 1 Thessalonians 1:6, he tells them about the suffering of the other Christians so that they would be emboldened to be real and stand firm.
5. He wants us to take heart that we are not alone when we suffer because Christians all over the world are suffering (1 Peter 5:9). That’s what he does. He tells them about all that suffering all over the world so that we will know we’re not alone in this.
6. And then finally, he wants us to be aware of the suffering where we can make a difference by ministering to others. Listen to Jesus’s parable:
Then the King [Jesus] will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” (Matthew 25:34–36)
You can’t do any of those if you don’t know they’re happening, if you don’t know about the suffering of Christians.
We are not God. (And I close with this; this is really emotionally a big deal.) We are not God, and we cannot handle emotionally all the suffering of the world. We just can’t. It would crush us. If we saw everything happening right now that’s painful in the world, it would absolutely devastate us emotionally. We can’t handle it. We’re not God. We should want to know the suffering that moves us to action and makes us better Christians.
