Part 1: How To Handle Bad News

“There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.”

Luke 13:1

Bad News Travels Fast

A hurricane floods the east coast. A housefire claims two young children. A volcano obliterates a town in Hawaii. A missing man’s body is dredged from the river. Drought starves the cattle industry in the midwest.

This and dozens of others clutter your mind. You are confronted with them by a coworker. “Did you hear about what happened…?” or in your morning newspaper, the radio on your commute to work, the omniversant televisions (gas pumps, restaurants, waiting rooms), or the never-sleeping social feed. No matter how badly you want to ‘get away from it all’, you can’t escape it.

An Old Issue Made Worse

Before you blame technology (which I already have), remember that news– bad news– has always been fleet of foot. The winged sneakers of Greek mythology are worn by the harbingers of death and tragedy. Even the Lord Jesus was confronted with sudden, unprecedented, shocking news.

The option to communicate faster and farther only inflames the subject. There has always been, and will always be a disaster occuring in the world, whether it is a natural or unnatural one. There is always a war, a heartbreak, a sick child, an untimely death or a storm, an earthquake, a landslide, an accident. These are consequences of a sin-cursed world. Just because you can hear of it, doesn’t mean you always should. What is called “news” is not always your responsibility.

Take a map, and draw a circle 10 miles in diameter around where you live. How much ‘news’ happens in that circle? Not enough to keep even one media platform interesting probably in a whole week. Take a look at that boring circle again. That ten mile circle contains more life, more community, more people than you can handle in your lifetime. Sure, you may drive out of that circle, or reach beyond those borders with a phone or letter, but what good is it to know who rents a white house in Washington D.C. if you don’t know your fellow-citizens two blocks away? What is called “news” is mostly irrelevent because of proximity.

You must settle first of all, that not all bad news is yours to handle. Sure, it evokes an emotion, but should it?

Care vs. Stare

Why don’t you know the clerk at the local store by his first name? When did his father die? How? Why don’t you care about the health of the elderly man who you pass on your way to work on their front porch? Why do you care more about ‘Hulk Hogan’ dying than whose funeral is being held at your local mortuary? I’ll tell you why- you’d rather KNOW and not have to CARE, than to CARE regardless of what you KNOW.

As much as we ‘hate’ bad news… we love it. That’s what keeps us coming back for more. Bad news that has no bearing on us. Not our skin, not our kin, not our bank account. It’s tragedy by proxy. We would not wish it on our worst enemy, but we love to watch it. Bad news that happens to nobodies carries no empathetical, only entertainment value.

Knowing brings Weight

Neil Postman argued in one of his books, Amusing Ourselves To Death, in chapter five, “The Peek-a-Boo World,” that by bringing in national knowledge to ourself, we have entered a conversation that we never should have had. We have prostituted our emotions to factors that we never could control in the first place, and that were metered out to us by Providence as we could bear them. Now, the newsmen, as the lawyers of Christ’s day, “… lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.” (Luke 11:46) This oppression chews away our mental health, and will continue to do so because we have the option to know so much. “Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.” (Ecc. 7:7) The ‘gift’ of expedited knowledge is one we could live without. Hastily accepting the technologies of communication have cause us to forfeit our right NOT to know.

Adam just had to know what he couldn’t know via the Tree of Knowledge. Then he learned everything. Every damnable thing. Now our curse is that we cannot escape what is not worth knowing. Satan’s gift destroyed our heart. Paul said, “yet I would have you… simple concerning evil.” (Rom. 16:19)

Postman’s argument suggested that the national conversations we have in America should never take place. For instance the question, “WHAT do you think about the governor of California?” implies you should know Gavin Newsom (2025) AND that you must have an opinion of his life, character, policies, and history. The counter-question should rather be addressed, “WHY does what I think about California effect my life in Ohio or anyone’s life in California?” When put that way, most news is a tough sell for the thinking man. A properly occupied Christian man in the U.S.A. should find no draw or appeal to those kind of conversations. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:” (Phil. 3:20)

Added to that, we’ve lost our manners. If two people are physically talking to each other, for a third party to approach, intercept, and interject their presence or comments into the situation would be unwelcome. While a person has no right to do such a thing, technology has forced us not just to know, but to contribute to conversations from around the globe. Our ‘likes,’ ‘reactions,’ or ‘comments’ are just as gaudily rude as a third wheel at a romantic dinner date.

Yet we have been trained to live for that validation that says, “I am well informed, AND I have a part in that national conversation.” Bah, Hum-bug. The right mindset is, “Let us lay aside every weight.” (Hebrews 12:1)

Digressions into the technology trap are inevitable. As improper as the gossips were in Jesus’ day to bring the ‘bad news,’ electronic media is worse. Thankfully, Jesus’ response to them is as good today as it was in 33AD.

How To Handle The Headlines

1. First, Jesus did not treat personal troubles the same as the headlines. Relevant bad news was always acted upon by the Lord Jesus. Jairus’ servant was sick. When Jesus heard, He went. The ruler’s daughter lay dying. Jesus went. When He heard Lazarus was sick, He moved, though not as fast as His disciples hoped. The travels of Jesus to needy people during His earthly ministry is the testimony of the Deity of Jesus Christ. “For the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.” (John 5:36b)
   • Tragedy that happens to you personally ought to be taken instantly to God. Job bore a mountainous burden of bad news. He was in a bad way. Job’s friends tried to get him to talk, to their own chagrin. Job’s only reaction for over a week was a cry to God. “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)
   • We must go to God first with our problems. God will always act, though it may not be at our speed. Friends who will pray for us should be the second to know. Epaphroditus nearly died, but his main concern was that the nobody be worried. “For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.” (Phil. 2:26) He accepted prayers, but he did not solicit them. Paul, however, welcomed any prayers he could get. He oft requested in various ways: “Brethren, pray for us.” (1 Thess. 5:25)
   • Epaphroditus lived up to the expectation of what Paul wrote in Galatians. A believer is to “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” But the plain truth is that no matter how many people know of your situation, you will retire tonight with the heartbreak of the day. You will sleep in pain. Only you will wish the day had been different. You alone will wipe the tears as they come. “For every man shall bear his own burden.” (Gal. 6:2, 5) Christ came to carry His cross alone. His example showed more than law; He did it out of love. Your trials can be faced. Face them with joy for Christ’s sake. Face them with contentment for the same reason.
2. Secondly, sensationalism ought to be always rejected. The negative statements of the talebearer in the Old Testament (Prov. 11:13, 18:8) are certainly the feelings of the Son of God. In addition to the headlines we have in Luke 13, consider also Christ’s downplay of the woman taken in adultery, “in the very act.” He reacted “as though he heard them not.” (John 8:4, 6) Or the trawling of the disciples to get ‘the scoop’ on the blind man’s past. “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents…?” Jesus killed their voyeurism with His terse reply. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents:” and then turned the subject back to Himself, “but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9:2,3) Again, the supernatural stirring of the pool of Bethesda was hardly more than a marginal note overwritten with Jesus’ straightforward inquiry to the impotent man, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (John 5:6)
   • On every occasion, where the news is so bad that it is the talk of the town, the Lord quelled the sensational chatter. He calmly shifted the focus back to Himself, and to His work. (His life is the only news-worthy story to hit the presses in 2,000 years.) He ignored anthing that did not have to do with Him.
   • Paul continued the anti-climactic ministry of the Lord in true Christ-like fashion. His approach to the dramatic scene of the Areopagus of Athens was with nonplussed plainness. Luke prefaced, “(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)” and Paul opened, “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” (Acts 17:21,22) Then he turned their attention to Jesus.
3. Which brings us to the definite answer of Jesus Christ concerning these two appalling situations in Luke 13. Christ turned them both back on the tellers. It was not His responsibility to act on bad news. But it was an opportunity to relate every event in life to a man’s personal accountability to God.

“And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, becaus they suffered such things?”

Then He compared that to another headline, this one not a result of human depravity or cruelty, but an accident. An unavoidable violation of human safety. Could God be liable?

“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?”

Of them both, the Lord had but one insistent challenge. The only right reaction to bad news.

“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Luke 13:2-5

Bad news IS personal, but not for the reasons you have believed. Life is short. Death is sure. Sin is the curse. Christ is the cure. You are one awful ‘headline’ away from standing before the Maker of the Universe. Are you ready?

We will examine several more pertinent cases in Luke’s Gospel in the immediate context. They will provide you the Biblical muscle to prepare for news that you cannot prevent.

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