Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no.'
Jesus is directly breaking the connection between suffering and sin. People assumed the murdered Galileans must have done something to deserve death. Jesus says no. Suffering doesn't mean you did wrong. Bad things happen to innocent people. Full stop. I grew up with theology that said suffering is always punishment or growth opportunity. But Jesus seems to allow for the possibility that sometimes terrible things are just terrible. They're not God's will. They're not producing spiritual fruit. They're unjust. And God grieves them. That's been important for me in therapy around childhood trauma—I don't have to extract spiritual meaning. I don't have to prove it was necessary. It was wrong. And God grieves it with me.
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