How should Christians think about the calamitous earthquake that shook Haiti yesterday, bringing more death and destruction to that poverty-ravaged nation? For one, we mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15). We ask the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3) to supply the mercy and comfort to grieving Haitians that he alone is able to provide. Two, the church must open up in amazing generosity to help relieve the horrific human suffering we are witnessing on our television screens. Such generosity is the “religion that is pure and undefiled before God” (James 1:27). Third, and most important of all, we must heed the words of Jesus Christ our Lord recorded in Luke 13:1-5, where he warns us that calamities like this earthquake are not to be occasions for us to sit in judgment on those who suffer, but rather we are to understand from them that unless we repent, we likewise shall perish (Luke 13:3, 5). In other words, Christ wants us as his followers to seize the opportunity provided by the earthquake to examine our hearts for sin and remember that apart from God’s grace in Jesus Christ, we would be subject to God’s eternal judgment.
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