A MESSAGE FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

(a link to a worship service including this message on the YouTube channel is found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbb987JfWYo&t=964s)

Prayer of the Day:

Eternal God, your kingdom has broken into our troubled world through the life, death, and resurrection of your Son.  Help us to hear your word and obey it, and bring your saving love to fruition in our lives, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Luke 13:1-9

13 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. ⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ ⁸He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

There is in the world of media something called the “softball”.  When the press conference is going on a “softball” is that question that is just not challenging in the midst of some crisis.  Some reporter asks, “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” or something like that.  It is a way of ingratiating oneself to the one being interviewed.

There are those who read this passage today, and have commented on it, that think that initially Jesus gets a bit of a “softball” here and, well, does something completely unexpected.  Now what I would like to note is that the backdrop of this passage is the teaching of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist, as part of his preaching, said “Bear fruits worthy of repentance”.  “Bear fruits worthy of repentance” is a theme in this passage.

Repentance is an action word.  We think of repentance sometimes as guilt, shame, the kind of morose reaction to the knowledge of what we have done.  Repentance is actually a two-action kind of word.  It is turning, changing one's perspective.  In this case changing our perspective and seeking the mind of Christ.  But then it is also moving in that direction.  So not only do we change our orientation toward Christ.  We start moving toward actions that are found in the heart and mind and love of Christ.  Turn and move.

At the beginning of this passage, we have those who have come to Jesus to point out an event.  It is an event that Luke talks about that we do not have other historical records about.  I am not saying that because I think Luke made it up.  It is not something that gets talked about and my fear is that it is something Pilate does, is something heinous that Pilate does, and the reason we do not hear about it is that Pilate did so many heinous things that it just gets lost in the shuffle somehow.

Remember, Pilate was the governor of Judea.  Judea was not a great place to be a Roman governor.  It was not the prime assignment.  If you were sent to be governor of Judea, chances are you did something awful or you were being sent out there to prove yourself.  And it seems that Pilate was part of the latter and he sought to prove himself by being heinous and brutal.  What is being talked about here is an event that would have been indeed heinous.

“There were some present who told him – that is, Jesus -- about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifice.”  Now, Pilate was governor of Judea, and this took place in Jerusalem.  We know that because of the “their sacrifices” comment.  The Temple in Jerusalem was where they would have offered those sacrifices and Pilate mixes their blood with the blood of their sacrifices.  He had killed these Galileans in the Temple truly, truly heinous.

Now, there was something else going on here, of course, and that was who they were -- they were Galileans.  Remember, Jesus grew up in Galilee, in Nazareth of Galilee, and so some have pointed out it was possible that Jesus knew these people.  These people may have been neighbors of his.  They were certainly from the same area that he was from and so it may have been that was why they said it to Jesus.  These people “who were present” go unidentified. 

So, some present told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  Jesus asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”  This was where the kind of softball movement occurred.  They presented this event to Jesus and Jesus initially responded as we would think Jesus would respond.  The speculation at the time, the belief at the time was that bad things happened to bad people and good things happened to good people.  There really was not a heaven or a hell that was fully developed.  It was a debate between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, whether there was a heaven or a hell.  But at this time there was no future place to be rewarded, no future place to be condemned, and so if bad things happened, as in the in the Book of Job, the immediate assumption was what did you do to deserve it. 

And here Jesus had an opportunity to say what he started to say and that was that sometimes bad things happen to good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people.  This was not an event of judgment.  These were not bad Galileans and, as I said, he seemed to start there.  “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”  And the assumed answer was “No”.  It was indeed the answer that Jesus will give.  They did not die because they somehow deserved it.  “No”, Jesus said. 

Okay, good answer, but Jesus continued.  “No, I tell you; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”  I am not sure this was what they were going for.  I do not know for sure what they were going for but I am pretty sure it was not to be told that they would perish in the same way. 

Now it is important to note English is a very imprecise language.  All these “you’s” are plural.  “No, I tell all of you; but unless all of you repent all of you will perish as they did.”  There was a part of this repentance Jesus was teaching that was corporate, that was communal.  It was not Jesus not pointing at one individual and saying, “You will perish if you do not do this.”  No, he was saying, “You all will perish if you all do not repent, if you all do not look to your own lives.  Jesus even added another event of those 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them, again an event that got lost in the sands of history.  It was an awful thing that happened during a time when a lot of awful things happened.

“Do you think that they were worse offenders than all others living in Jerusalem?”  Again, the assumed answer was “No, they did not get crushed because they were bad people.”  And Jesus started there.  But he continued, “No, I tell all of you; unless all of you repent all of you will perish just as they did”.

As I said, I am sure that was not what they were going for.  I am sure that was not why they brought this event to Jesus.  It may have been that he discerned that they were trying to make some correlation between their suffering and their being bad people, evil people.  Maybe they presented to him an opportunity for him to correct that understanding.  But I do not think they expected to end that story with a threat to their own lives.

So far anyway the lesson was to pay attention to one’s self.  Do not worry about the Galileans. Do not worry about those people crushed by the tower of Siloam.  What about you?  Let us not worry about assigning blame to others.  Let us take a good hard, and shall I say Lenten, look at ourselves. 

And then Jesus told this parable.  Now I am going to repeat my warning about parables.  I always say this when we talk about parables, two things really.  A parable was just a story. Let us not assign feelings and emotions and try to understand the flow of the story.  It was a parable.  It was something to teach one item of truth.  Parables were not wide sweeping.  Parables tended to teach a single truth.

Also, in parables we have a tendency to scramble to populate the parable, that is, to go to central casting and say “Okay, who's who.  Who's God?  Who's Jesus?  Who's us?  Who's them?  Particularly we like to find out “who’s them”. But this was one of those parables where that does not help.  Partly because it is kind of confusing.  I’ll show you what I mean.  Let us hear the parable.

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  So, he said to the gardener, “See here!  For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and still find none.  Cut it down!  Why should it be wasting the soil?  The gardener replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year until I dig around it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

Okay now, what is the inclination?  Who's the owner?  God?  Who' is the gardener?  Seems like Jesus.  Who is the fig tree?  Us?  And who is the manure?  See, a couple of things fall apart here.  If the owner is God and the gardener is Jesus, we have already introduced a bit of a problem and that is making God and Jesus distinct.  Jesus was God.  Do not forget, Jesus was God incarnate.  And so, Jesus and God are not in opposition which is kind of what is going on here.  The owner says “Cut it down.”  The gardener says “Whoa now, no.” 

We do not necessarily want to picture that conversation going on in the Godhead, with the Holy Spirit in the middle, saying, “Okay, okay.  Cool off, both you.  Go to your own corners.”

Making us the fig tree?  Well okay, that might work. 

But it was one of those parables that sometimes, well, we could cast ourselves in all of these characters at one time or another in our lives. 

But it was a parable.  Based on what just happened right before and the lesson of what just happened was: “Do not worry about all of them.  Worry about all of you.  Pay attention to your own business.”  So how did this parable help?

Well, this man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.  Now what was a fig tree doing in a vineyard?  He came to it looking for fruit.  The vineyard was planted obviously in a place that was quite fertile.  So, it probably would have been good place for other things to grow. 

The house I grew up was in a neighborhood that established on an old orchard and so most everything grew pretty well.  Now my father, who you would not think growing up in the south side of Chicago where greenery was hard to find would have a green thumb, but holy moly he could grow stuff.  He once planted some Chinese black oak plants the nursery assured him would grow one foot a year.  First year…three feet!  He just had the touch.  Of course, being on an old orchard helped.

The owner had a fig tree in the vineyard and for three years he came looking for fruit.  Now I remember my father would plant orange trees and cherry trees.  It was California so you had to have citrus.  And he put those trees in and the first year they did okay.  I remember my father saying, “Well, you know, year one was a little dodgy.  I checked with the nursery.  They said not expect much in the first year.  Okay, second year – yikes! -- they were doing great.

Well, a second year of the fig tree, nothing.  Third year of the fig tree, nothing.  So now the owner had said, “Okay, cut it down!  It is wasting the soil.  We could put something here that that would actually produce.”  That was a lot of patience.  This was not a judgmental owner.  This was not an impatient owner.  This was an owner who thought that in three years, something should happen. 

And the gardener interceded, even though the owner had been quite patient.  “Wait.  Let me work on it.”  We do not know what the gardener had been doing before.  Now the gardener doubled down.  “Wait.  Let me dig around it.  Let me put some manure in there.  Let me really work it and if next year there is no fruit, have at it.  Cut it down.  But give me this one more chance.”  So, in the fourth year, if there was no fruit, there would be no doubt, there would be no surprise.  Everything had been done that could be done.  It was just not going to bear fruit.

So, in some way I suppose we could imagine ourselves to be the fig tree if the lesson is: Do not worry about them.  Worry about you.  The warning is worry about being the fig tree, worry about bearing fruits worthy of repentance.  And if you are not, get to it.  Now obviously this is all taught after the fact, that is, after Easter.  We are under this umbrella of grace and so the lesson is not “You will get to it or you are out of here.”  No, that was not why Jesus came, it was not why the crucifixion occurred, not why the resurrection occurred.  All of that was because God desired the salvation of everyone.  There is an encouragement here as members of the family of God, as siblings in Christ, to bear fruits worthy of repentance, to not only turn and orient ourselves toward Christ and Christ's heart but to walk and act in that direction.

That is the encouragement this lesson carried when it came to the early church.  I think would have been received as that bear fruits worthy of repentance from John's teaching still applied.

In fact, it implies to an even greater extent because remember, all those plural pronouns in the first part?  This is a communal invitation.  Not only attend to y'all's own stuff but attend to it together.  You are the body of Christ.  It is our task to bear fruits worthy of repentance because not only is that not a passage of judgment.  It is not a passage of isolation.  It is not a passage that says each and every one of you is responsible for your own stuff by yourself.  Just as all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all of us are under the umbrella of God's grace, all of us are members of the body of Christ, and so all of us are called corporately, communally

to bear fruits worthy of repentance.

It is a wonderful Lenten teaching.  Turn and move.

Be safe.  Be well.  God bless you all.

Pastor Greg