Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People

The Rev. Doug Hodges

March 11, 2007

Fredericksburg Congregational UCC

I was driving along I-70 in Maryland, with my first wife, Helen.  We had just come from a visit with a neurologist in Frederick, Maryland.  Helen was a good woman.  A faithful and loyal Christian. A nurse and a teacher. A loving wife and mother.

“This disease,” I asked.  The disease the doctor said you had.  This disease the doctor called, ‘ALS.’  How bad is it?”

“It’s bad,” she said.  “You lose the use of all your muscles.”

“What causes it?” I asked.  “Is it something we eat?  Someplace we have visited?  Someplace you have worked?  Something you have done or something I have done?”

“No one knows,” she answered.

“Is there a cure?”

“No,” she answered.

I hesitated.  Then I asked.  “Is it fatal?”

“Some people live a year or so,” she answered.  “Some people live ten years.”

She lived another 18 months.  During that time she lost her independence and her strength.  First it was the ability to climb steps that she lost.  Then walking itself.  And eating. And breathing. And her dignity.  Instead of helping others, she was now the one being helped.  One of her former patients even became one of her caretakers. 

And nothing would reverse the rampage of this disease.  She died one January morning in 2003.  And I, minister of the gospel, was left to ask: Why?  Why did this good woman suffer?  Why did such a bad thing happen to such a good woman?    

Some people say God has a plan for each of our lives and everything that happens is part of God’s plan.  As Helen’s illness progressed, we discussed what that plan might be—if such a plan existed.  Maybe God was planning her suffering so that I would become a stronger minister.  Maybe God was planning Helen’s suffering so that I would get some insurance money.  Maybe God was planning for me to marry a younger woman.  

But Helen’s reaction to all this plan stuff was “bovine manure.”  Or something to that effect.

Indeed, as she said many times before she died, “Life isn’t fair.  When I get to heaven, God and I are going to have a woman to woman talk.  I’ll get a few things straight with Her.”

 I don’t know the results of that conversation with God.  But I do know Helen was right.  Life isn’t fair.  Sometimes bad things happen to good people? 

I’ve shared some of Helen’s story with you because it is a story I know so well.  But I also suspect that many of you have your own stories I do not know.  Stories about the death or suffering of someone close to you—maybe stories about your own suffering: stories that have caused you to ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  

As I think about our Gospel lesson for this third Sunday of Lent, I believe this question about suffering was on the mind of many of the people talking to Jesus.

  Our Lord Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem.  He was going to Jerusalem to die.  And the conversation was about needless human suffering.

  Not about his own suffering.  No one could understand that yet.  The conversation was about events the people could understand. 

Or in the case of our Gospel lesson—those Galileans.

“Take those Galileans for example.  Jesus.  Pilate’s soliders killed them while they were a church.  Wasn’t that horrible, Jesus? 

We know absolutely nothing about the event discussed—except for this passing reference in Luke.  It was one of those events that made the newspaper headlines, but not the history books. 

It was like the questions on our minds today.  Why were those children killed in the tornado in Alabama?  Why did those children perish in that fire in New York City?

But here the question was about a group of Galileans were massacured in a place of worship by Pilates solidiers.  Perhaps Pilate suspected their meeting was only a cover to stage a revolt against Rome.  After all, the people of Galileee had a reputation for being trouble makers.  Perhaps Pilate had concrete evidence that a plot was underfoot.  Or perhaps the massacure was simply a random act ofviolence. 

I don’t know the motives o those who brought Jesus this news, but I suspect it was a set up.  You see sometimes people get the notion that if something bad happens to someone, it was because that person was being punished for a particular act.  “Bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people.” 

Perhaps the opponents of Jesus expected him to say:  “Well those Galileans got what they deserved.  They shouldn’t have been ploting against Pilate.  If Jesus had condemned the Galilieans as revolutionaries, then the opponents could have accused Jesus of being a Roman lackey.  On the other hand, if he had used the occasion to condemn Pilate, they they could have accused him of violating the Patriot Act.  After all, is it not treason to criticize our leader?  In either case, for Jesus, it seemed like a no-win situation.

So what did Jesus do?  He made the Roman loyalists mad because he didn’t condemn the Galileans as traitors.  He made the Jewish nationalists made because he didn’t condemn Pilate.  And he makes me mad because he didn’t answer my question:  Why do bad things happen to good people.  Instead he focused the conversation on another matter:  The matter of one’s relationship with God.   

“Do you think those Galileans, who suffer this way were worst sinners than all the other Galileans?”  Jesus asked.

The crowd is silent.  The questions aren’t the answer they wanted.

So Jesus gives his own answer.  “Those Galileans were not any worst sinners than any other Galileans.”  Jesus says.  Then he adds the kicker:  “But you—unless you repent.  Unless you get your relationship right with God—you will perish.” 

The audience of long ago says nothing.  And I have nothing to say to Jesus at this point.  So Jesus brings up his own example of suffering.

Eighteen people who were killed when a water tower collapsed near Jerusalem.  This is not an atrocity caused by Pilate.  This is an accident.  Perhaps due to faulty construction.  But more likely due to what the insurance companies call “an act of God” – an earthquake or a windstorm that topples a tower. 

“Were those victims any worst sinners, than any other citizen of Jerusalem?”  Jesus asks.  .

Now Jesus has widened the discussion.  Now Jesus is talking not only about acts caused by human evil.  But Jesus is also talking about acts that may have been caused by nature—caused by God.  Acts like a tornado, a hurricane, or an unexplained disease. 

And what conclusion does Jesus draw from this second tragedy.  “Unless you repent, unless you get your relationship right with God, you will also perish.” 

The explanation Jesus gives to these tragedies of long ago did not satisfy the questions on the minds of those people of long ago.  And as I was preparing this sermon, I realized that the answers of Jesus did not satisfy my own question.  So I decided I would try to come up with a couple of answers on my own.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Let me try two answers.

My first answer is that bad things happen to good people because bad people cause bad things to happen to good people.  That answer makes sense—some of the time.  Drunk drivers cause many good people to lose their lives.  Adolph Hitler caused many good people to lose their lives.  And the list goes on.  

Then we realize the answer raises another question. Why doesn’t God stop bad people from hurting good people. Surely God had the power to stop Hitler.  Surely God had the power to stop Pilate from murdering those Galileans who were offering sacrifice.  Surely God had the power to stop Pilate from executing the One Galilean who would offer his own life for the sins of all.  Why doesn’t God intervene in human evil?  I don’t know.  Perhaps God simply chooses not to intervene in human evil, because to intervene would take away our right to choose good or evil.

Why do bad things happen to good people?  Perhaps it is all the fault of bad people.  Bad people cause bad things to happen to good people.

But that doesn’t explain every thing bad that happens to every good people.  So let me try a second explanation.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Perhaps it is all a matter of luck. 

If Pilate swings a sword, the closest person to the sword is going to get cut up.  It doesn’t matter if you are good or bad.  It matters where you are standing.  If a tower falls, those who stand underneath the tower are going to perish.  It doesn’t matter if you are good or bad.  After all, life is a gamble.  A few people win the lottery and a lot don’t.  Every once in a while some one gets struck by lightening.  But a lot of people don’t.  Some people get ALS or cancer.  But a lot of people don’t.  I read once that an asteroid fell from the sky and killed a cow.  But as far as I know, one has never fallen from space and killed a human being.  But it could.  It is all a matter of where you are standing.  So why do bad things happen to good people?  Maybe it is just a matter of luck. 

Unfortunately, such philosophy has nothing to do with what Jesus says in the gospel.  Life is not a matter of learning to live with the luck of the draw.  Rather, the way Jesus sees it, life is a matter of learning to live with God.

So when you or I or those people of long ago ask Jesus about the fairness of life—Jesus turns the question around.  The questions is not why did this happen, but rather what can you do? 

And the answer Jesus gives is “Repent.”  Change your life.  Get your life right with God.  Trust God—in joy or in pain—to be your God.  Love God without linking your love to the cards life deals you?  Pick up a cross and follow me.  “Now, does that answer your question,” our Lord asks as he smiles at us? 

In Augustine’s “City of God, Augustine talks about the great suffering that occurred when the barbarians sacked Rome.  He noted that when the barbarians raped and pillaged, Christians suffered just as much as non-Christians.  Faith in Christ did not make them immune to pain and tragedy.  He went on, “Christians differ from Pagans, not in the ills which befall them, but in what they do with the ills that befall them.”

Why do bad things happen to good people?”  I don’t know.  This I do know.  Life isn’t fair.  And this I affirm:  In ways that I do not fully understand, in ways that are beyond human understanding God is both fair and merciful and loving and in control.  Christianity does not give us a way around tragedy.  It gives us a way through tragedy.  That is called faith.