Title: Is Misery Caused by Sin?
In our situation today, injustice, unforgivable and terrible deaths are happening too often. How should we accept these things: the murders of the Jijon faction, the unjust deaths killed by them, and the deaths of young women who were unjustly killed by the Ons. How should we Christians interpret such a death? When we ask these questions, we must go into the biblical situation, the situation of Jesus, and find out how the Lord interpreted the unfair death at that time.
Against the violence of the Roman Empire, Jesus warned that violent resistance would eventually lead to a vicious cycle of violence against the forces that tried to respond with violence at the time, and he taught that only love can overcome this vicious cycle in the era of institutional violence or resistance violence. Foreseeing the coming destruction of Jerusalem in the future, He emphasized the understanding of . It was in this context that two tragic deaths occurred in Jerusalem.
One is the case in which Pilate killed the Galileans who were offering sacrifices in the temple. The other is the case in which the Tower of Siloam collapsed and 18 Jews who had been working on the aqueduct were crushed to death. These two incidents are both unfortunate and unfortunate deaths, and the people who delivered the news asked Jesus how to interpret the matter of death. In Jesus' response, we can find a guide to correctly interpret the tragedy of death in our situation today.
Before we learn from Jesus' interpretation, we must pay attention to the interpretation of death held by the ruling powers of that time. They emphasized that the cause of misery was sin. By emphasizing that sin is the cause of misery, so-called sinners were psychologically oppressed. Recognition like this was a kind of ruling ideology. This was a terrible tyranny of perception. It was also symbolic violence based on ternary logic.
The sinner suffers misery. Galileans are sinners.
Therefore the Galilean deserves to be devastated.
This emphasis on causality and retribution always acted as a shackle to “sinners” who were judged to not properly keep the law. The Lord was well aware of such tyranny. It is in this context that we learn some key lessons from Jesus' teaching.
First, Jesus firmly rejected the religious ideology of “sin -> death”. Tragedy comes to humans without discrimination. Just as tares and rice grow together, as rain falls on all people, happy and sad events come to all without discrimination, and tragedy does not only come to “sinners. We must not distort such a stark fact.
Second, the Lord emphasized that the only way to overcome the violent system and violent forces that force innocent people to die is not the use of violence, but the power of love that fundamentally breaks the vicious cycle of violence. He taught me the truth that those who use the sword will perish by the sword. Therefore, the death penalty cannot stop the crime of murder. Neither the violent resistance against the violent system nor the institutional violence against the murder are fundamental measures. Individuals, nations, or peoples who inflict pain and misery on others will eventually face a terrible judgment. In other words, he emphasized God's judgment on the perpetrators. He predicted that the forces that use violence through pride, self-righteousness, and greed would ultimately perish, but the forces that countered this with violence and reinforced the vicious cycle of violence would also face tragedy. The Lord foresaw the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
"It's not because the So-san couple who died sadly have more sins than everyone else's. If you don't introspect and self-innovate, all of you will suffer such a tragedy. Let's reflect deeply on the meaning of these words while living in this age of violence.