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Ask Pastor John
Doomscrolling Done Right
00:15:12
How does God intend for us to deal with tragedy in the news? Pastor John offers six reasons why suffering should drive us to repentance and action.
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Transcript3 lines
- [00:04]
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You take a break, you pull out your phone, scroll social media, and 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 want to care, but honestly, it's just too much and it all feels so remote. So what do we do with the heaviest tragedies on our screens today on Ask Pastor John? Doom scrolling done right. This very good question is from an anonymous listener to the podcast about a Bible text that we are going to read together in just a couple of days on Saturday. Pastor John, thank you for this podcast. In Luke 13, verses 1 to 5, Jesus responds to two tragic incidents where people are killed, apparent in very noteworthy events that spread around fast, like what we 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. Secondly, the purpose for it. Why do you think Jesus connects the headline suffering others face with the need for repent? Repentance from those who are simply passive onlookers to that suffering.
- [01:41]
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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 entitled the Misplaced Locus of Amazement. That was the name of the sermon oh wow. Which I was very fascinated by because I didn't know what 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. So let me read the text because I don't think most people aren't going to have it in their head. And you look for the misplaced amazement in this text. There were some present at that time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 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? So what these friends of Jesus seem to assume is that to die in this terrible way must mean you've done something exceptionally evil. And to that assumption, Jesus responds, 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. It's like, whoa, I didn't ask you to say that when I was bringing you this news. And now he takes it even further and says this. This is verse four. And those 18 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 insurance companies would call it act of God, a disaster of a falling tower with 18 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 five. No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So what's the point of that story? The point is. Well, there's 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 pilot 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 after physical death, namely perish in final judgment and hell. 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 that'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 judgment, 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. 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. 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. First, 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. Second, he wants us to see God's sovereignty over suffering, turning it for his good purposes. Philippians 1:12. Paul's imprisonment advances the gospel. He told them about it. He wants them to know about his imprisonment and how God is sovereign over it. Third, he wants us to prepare for our own suffering, which Jesus promises is coming in Matthew 24:9. 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. Fourth, he wants us to be made bold by the suffering of other Christians that we hear about. He tells them about the suffering of the other Christians so that they would be emboldened to be real and stand firm. Fifth, he wants us to take heart that we are not alone when we suffer, because Christians all over the world are suffering. First 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. And then finally, number six, he wants us to be aware of the suffering where we can make a difference by ministering to others. Listen to Jesus parable. King Jesus will say to those on his right, come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. 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. 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.
- [13:45]
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Every time you see footage of a hurricane or tornado or terrible flood or disease, what you're supposed to say is, I deserve to die. And 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. Yeah, that is doom scrolling done right. When we see the headline about hurricane, flood, an accident, a war disaster, it's a personal wake up call to turn from our sin and to turn towards the only one who actually can defeat all the evil of this world. Thank you, Pastor John. And of course, none of this gets in the way of tangible donations to relief efforts. Obviously that's part of this too. We want to respond to things that we see with very tangible means of service as well. On this topic of screens, when it comes to the worst of our compulsive phone habits, we have covered a lot of ground on the podcast. You can see my summary digest in the Ask Pastor John book on pages 277 to 290 on smartphones, social media, and selfie sticks. There's a lot there. A lot has been covered. And when it comes to human limits and God's limitless grace, next time God promises to repay us in eternal so does that mean God owes us? That's next. I'm Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Monday.