Why do bad things happen to good people? It is a question all of us ask from time to time. Some of Jesus' listeners asked him this same question. They brought up a recent news story about some Galileans who had been cruelly offered as human sacrifices by Pilate. Were they greater sinners than others in Galilee that they should suffer so? A tower had fallen in Siloam and crushed eighteen bystanders. Was it because of their sin?

Jesus had already dealt with this question when confronted with a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples wanted to know was it his parents' sin or his own that was responsible for his condition? Please note, if you have not already done so, that Jesus consistently condemned the notion that human tragedy is punishment for sin. In the Sermon on the Mount he es…