The Jewish people of Jesus’ day had a similar view of the world to what we now call “Karma”. If you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. Recorded in Luke 13, some came to Jesus telling him that Pilate killed some Galileans and mixed their blood with sacrifices. Jesus addressed their assumption that these men were worse people than others, because they perished in this manner. Jesus told them that unless these men repented they too would perish, indicating that the men who perished were no worse than those standing before Jesus. Jesus went on to ask whether they thought that the 18 men who had died due to the collapse of the tower at Siloam were worse individuals as the rest of the men dwelling in Jerusalem. He again repeated his warning that unless they repent, they would perish as well.
It seems to be human nature for us to compare our behavior with others. We look around and find those who behave worse than us and tell ourselves that we are not so bad, that actually we are pretty good. In this way, we justify our own shortcomings. However, Jesus will not have any of that. Like to these men, Jesus calls us to repent from comparing ourselves to one another. We are to recognize that we do not measure up to what God wants for us. Jesus warned these men not to condemn them, but to motivate them to look to heaven for their examples, not to earth. We are to look to Jesus to see how we are to live, not to look to one another. In Matthew 11, Jesus encouraged his followers to take his yoke upon them. What did he mean by that? We are to live our lives in relationship with Jesus, not without him which leads us to becoming weary and worn down. The way for us to find freedom is to repent from thinking that we are alright and look to Jesus for the help he offers to become like him.
David Freitag 