Viewpoint

IN the 1965 film The Sound of Music, Maria and Captain Georg von Trapp sing ‘Something Good’, which includes the lyrics: ‘Nothing comes from nothing,/ Nothing ever could,/ So somewhere in my youth or childhood/ I must have done something good.’ Maria assumes that her good fortune in meeting and falling in love with the captain must have been a reward for some good she had done in the past.

There is a belief among many people that we get what we deserve. This was common in Jesus’ time. On one occasion when he was teaching, some people in the crowd told him of how Pilate had slaughtered a group of Galileans in the Temple as they were preparing their sacrifices. Jesus knew what was on their minds and rebuked them: ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!’ (Luke 13:2 and 3).

He then spoke of the 18 men who died when a tower in Siloam fell on them. Commentators suggest that they were probably part of the labour force building an aqueduct financed from the Temple funds Pilate had confiscated. Some Jews in Jerusalem would have seen these horrific deaths as divine retribution on workmen who had benefited from what Pilate had done. But Jesus said they were no more guilty of God’s judgement than anyone else living in Jerusalem. In both cases he gave no explanation of why such things happen.

I’m sure that we have all had bad experiences that have made us feel as though we were being punished for doing something offensive to God. Although that is not the case – and even though we may well know this – we still tend to feel that way and think irrationally whenever there is no obvious explanation for what we are going through. Victims can often feel that they are to blame and that they must be bad, asking why else such a thing would have happened to them. Irrational guilt is a terrible thing.

Obviously, we can be a cause of bad things happening to us. We can have accidents through lack of care, ignoring rules and taking risks, with no one to blame but ourselves. Foolishness can result in calamity, as befell the man in Jesus’ story who built his house on sand (see Matthew 7:26 and 27). Some of the world’s worst disasters have been caused by humankind’s misjudgements, errors, foolishness or risk-taking.

As for the punishment that God promises for the sins of the parents, Exodus 20:5 makes it clear that it will be ‘to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me’. In other words, if succeeding generations follow their parents’ sinful example, they will share the same punishment as that of their parents. Most parents love their children and would do anything to protect them from any threat of harm. What God is endeavouring to do here is warn parents of the dire consequences of their sin, not just for themselves but also for their children, their children’s children and beyond.

Some parents have been known to say to their children, ‘Don’t do as I do, do as I say.’ But the fact is that children are more inclined to be influenced by what they see than what they hear. A parent might tell their child that they must not smoke or reprove them if they hear them swear, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise to them if the child is merely following their example. There is an ancient proverb: ‘Like father, like son.’ Ezekiel records the Lord quoting a similar proverb: ‘Like mother, like daughter’ (16:44).

When I was a prison chaplain, it wasn’t unusual for me to discover that a prisoner’s father was a criminal, as was his father before him. Each generation had followed in their father’s footsteps. One prisoner told me that his parents had only one rule when he was growing up: ‘We don’t care what you do as long as you don’t bring trouble home.’ It left me with a heavy heart.

May we parents never underestimate the influence and consequences of our example, for good or bad, on our offspring.

Do we get what we deserve?

The second in a series of articles in which Major Howard Webber considers the question: Am I being punished?

MAJOR WEBBER LIVES IN RETIREMENT IN BOURNEMOUTH

Next week

God alone on the throne