The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is the Gospel lesson appointed for the day. I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
On Tuesday, January 12 of this year a major earthquake struck Haiti—destroying large portions of the capital city and killing almost 100,000 people. Pat Robertson, televangelist, founder of the 700 Club, and former presidential candidate had a ready explanation for why this tragedy happened. He said that over 200 years ago Haitian slaves had made a pact with the devil to throw off French rule and that is why God was punishing Haiti now with an earthquake.
Now, besides the fact that Pat has an embarrassingly poor grasp of the historical record-- and besides the fact that it is an odd kind of God he believes in who punishes people hundreds of years after the actual perpetrators have perished—what he is doing with his explanation is the very thing that Jesus says in the Gospel lesson today we are not to do—trying to delve into the hidden counsels of God about why tragedy befalls some folks and not others.
This we are forbidden to do. Rather than trying to figure out what others have done that deserve God’s direct punishment in time, Jesus says that we are to view each tragedy that occurs in the world as an opportunity for us to repent of our own sins so that we do not perish under God’s wrath. Luke writes:
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
This last Christmas in Nag Hamadi, Egypt Muslim extremists gunned down seven Christians who had come to midnight mass. On August 1, 2007 the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minnesota collapsed during rush hour killing 13 people. From major catastrophes to one car rollover accidents—these kinds of tragedies happen all over the world every day and always have.
The news headlines of Jesus’ day that Luke mentions in our text were likewise the result of a madman on one hand-- and a construction accident on the other. On one occasion Herod’s soldiers came directly into the temple and murdered people as they worshiped so that their blood mixed with the blood of the sacrifices they were offering. On another occasion, a building project in Siloam collapsed killing eighteen workers. In both cases there were victims and there were survivors.
What the people wanted to know was what was the difference between those who died and those who lived? Was God reaching out and directly punishing those who died? Did they have some secret sin that made them worse than others and so earned God’s wrath? And conversely, were those who were spared, the good folk with whom God was pleased?
These are exactly the kind of questions that the Pat Robertson’s of that day were asking and answering and Jesus simply says: no! Then and now Jesus does not permit us to delve into the providential mysteries of how God runs the universe—he does not invite our speculation about the sins of others. Instead, he wants us to understand that we are not magically immune from tragedy and so we are to be spiritually prepared through repentance and faith—at any moment to stand before God.
We live in a broken world. There is moral evil in the form of madmen who kill innocent people-- and there is physical evil in the form of hurricanes and earthquakes that destroy cities and nations-- and there is personal evil in the form of the devil and his angels that try to destroy our spiritual lives. And all people on earth are affected to one degree or the other—all people in the end, unless the Lord comes first, will finally succumb to death.
It is an exercise in futility-- and sinful speculation—and God forbids us to assign moral guilt to people because they get cancer or die in car wrecks or suffer through natural disasters and others don’t. Instead, Jesus says that as we look around us at the world today, as we see the effects of evil in the world—we are to use every one of those scenes as an opportunity for personal repentance.
Each time we read some headline in the paper about some terrible tragedy—each time we hear of someone struck down by cancer—each time we hear on the evening news about some terrible car wreck—right then and there we need to repent of our sins and turn to Jesus in faith.
Rather than sinful speculation we can repent over our thanklessness for God’s mighty provision that preserves and protects our lives. Rather than sinful speculation we can repent over our lack of compassion for those who are undergoing the hardships of living in a broken world. Rather than sinful speculation we can repent of our judgmental attitude that wants to find secret sins in the lives of others that has caused them to be struck down.
Each time the brokenness of this world strikes down a fellow human being, we have an opportunity to turn from our sins and turn to Jesus for forgiveness—the One who has truly suffered the fullness of God’s wrath over our sins upon the cross—offering us in their place the assurance that in all things God is working for our good and that no evil thing can separate us from his love.
We need to heed the opportunities for personal repentance that tragedy provides because there is coming a day for each of us when those opportunities will come to an end. Luke writes that Jesus told them this parable that powerfully brought that message home:
“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Noah preached for 120 years, calling the people of the world to repentance before the flood came. Jeremiah preached for 40 years, calling Judah to turn form her evil ways before her destruction by the Babylonians. And Jesus preached constantly for 3 years, calling upon the people of Israel to forsake their sins and believe in him, entreating them: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I have longed to gather you to myself as a hen gathers her chicks—but you were not willing. And so they were destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.
An ancient church father, St. Basil, once said that God’s patience and longsuffering with sinners is “peculiar to the clemency of God towards men that he does not bring in punishment silently and secretly but by his threatenings first proclaims them to be at hand, thus inviting sinners to repentance.” We see that very thing in the Bible when St. John the Baptist was preaching and calling sinners to repentance and he said that the axe is already at the root of the tree to cut down those who are unfruitful—already at the root—but not yet cut down.
The point is that God is patient with us—waiting for us to repent and believe in Jesus and bear fruits in keeping with that repentance and faith. That is why he has redeemed us and that is what he desires from us—a life of genuine, heartfelt Christianity that shows itself in how we live our lives.
Throughout South Texas, now that we have a bit of dry weather, farmers are busy in their fields planting their crops: they are doing this for a purpose: to gather the harvest in the fall. They are not doing because of the aesthetic appeal of straight rows of green plants—they are doing it for what the plant produces. Home gardeners do not plant roses or blackberries for the foliage or thorns—they do it for the fruit. Two thousand years later we have no trouble understanding Jesus’ illustration about the fig tree.
Throughout the Bible, the believer is portrayed as tree or plant—either fruitful in good works or barren-and that is the image that Jesus is using here in this parable. The question for us to ask ourselves in all seriousness this: when God examines my life of faith---does he find the fruits of that faith? Am I diligent in doing good works? Am I bearing fruits of the Spirit such joy, peace, and patience? Am I walking by the Spirit, guided by God’s Word?
We certainly should be for God has created us and redeemed us and sanctified us for that very purpose! Most of us were born to Christian families and grew up in Christian homes. We were baptized and heard about Christ at a young age. We have been in worship throughout our lives, hearing the Good News of the Gospel and being fed with Christ’s true body and blood. What more could God have done for us than he has already done?
And yet when we look at our lives (and more importantly when God looks at our lives!) does he find a fruitful faith consistent with the care and concern that he has lavished upon us? Too often the answer is “no” and we need to hear that warning-- “cut it down”-- that God speaks to us in all seriousness.
But the Good News for us today is that Christ intercedes for us. Jesus is that vinedresser who sees more in us than we could have ever imagined or hoped for from our Christians life because he sees his own work on our behalf.
He is the Mediator who stands between us and judgment with his own holy life and bloody death as that which takes away God’s wrath. He is the One at work in our life, shaping us into a fruitful Christian filled with good works. He is the One who provides the spiritual sustenance to us in Word and Sacrament just like a gardener fertilizes his plants so that we can be the faithful, fruitful Christians God wants us to be.
We have a tendency to look at our lives and see only what we lack (and it is important to know the truth of where we stand) but we also need to be assured that we can be better Christians in the future than we have in the past through Christ’s ongoing work in our lives.
In the parable, the vinedresser goes to work in his garden with purpose and hope—not in futility and despair. He knows better than the plants what they can become when they receive his care. And so the Lord is at work in our lives—speaking his words of law that rebuke and correct and his words of Gospel that comfort and encourage and build up. He is the One who is graciously and providentially ordering our lives so that all things work for our eternal good.
The Good News of us today is that Jesus has given us “this year”—this day of salvation—this period of time in our life-- to hear and heed his call to repentance and faith-- and fruitfulness in that faith. But we also need to know that this opportunity of grace is not unlimited so that it is not squandered or the necessary repentance postponed.
There is a real end to it either at our death or when the Lord comes again. We do not know either of those times and so we accept this opportunity for what it is—a day to heed Christ’s call for repentance. Amen.
And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment