Text: Luke 13:1-9
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
The Garden of Repentance
This year’s Lenten series centers on different gardens. Like tonight’s “garden,” some of the sermons don’t actually take place in a garden. But, when you think about it, everything got started in a garden, didn’t it? In the Garden of Eden, we see Adam and Eve bring sin into the world by disobeying God’s Word. As God pronounces curses because of sin, we see the beginning of pain, death, tragedy, and suffering. But, in that same garden, we also hear the first promise of a Savior, the one who would crush the devil’s head. Our salvation all centers on Christ, the one who fulfilled the promise made in the Garden of Eden.
Today, a day in which we consider the seriousness of our sins and the importance of daily repentance in our lives, we look at God’s objective in proclaiming Christ to us. If you’ll allow the “garden theme,” we might call it the Garden of Repentance.
Disaster and tragedy are at the forefront of our text from Luke 13. That’s something we know about, isn’t it? I remember vividly the second plane flying into the World Trade Center as I got ready for class my freshman year of college. Going back another 5 years, I remember the Oakfield tornado, an F5 that was only a few miles away from my house, and it leveled that little town. Not too long ago, Mayfield, KY, was leveled by a tornado. It seems like wildfires are always popping up and destroying parts of the West. Every Monday, the news tells us that it was another violent weekend. I’m not sure what exactly the global COVID death-count is, but I think it’s pretty close to 6 million. Accidents bring tragedy, too. The week before I was ordained, but we had already moved to our new house, there was a boating accident on a local lake that resulted in a death, and one of my soon-to-be members was involved.
These things happen, and we, naturally, want to know, “Why?!” Is it God’s judgment on all those people for being sinners? After all, it is true that in a general sense we all suffer because of sin. But we can’t read the mind of God to know why certain people suffer particularly harsh things. That’s a mystery hidden in God’s unsearchable will.
And, if we haven’t suffered a tragedy like these, does that mean you and I are innocent, or at least less sinful? Not at all. We’re no less sinful than people who suffer tragedy. Rather, God makes it clear in the Bible that he wants all of us to take these tragic events to heart. He wants such events to strike fear in us so that we examine our own hearts and lives for sin and then repent. He desires to change our thinking on things so that we turn to him for rescue.
Part of the problem that stands in the way of us having a relationship with God is that we tend to think we are fine and okay just the way we are. But, that is not the case. God describes us on our own as being totally evil and incapable of good down to the bottom of our hearts. But we don’t perceive that or feel it in ourselves. We usually feel quite justified in what we do. Rather than instilling fear in our hearts, the idea of God might even bring on the warm, fuzzy feelings of a big buddy or friend. We don’t usually feel his anger. We don’t tend to move under a sense of foreboding that God’s judgment is upon us. Martin Luther rightly said our sinfulness is something that has to be believed rather than felt.
So God may allow, even send, bad things to wake us up to what the situation really is. If sinfulness in general can bring on such horrible things from him such as car or boat accidents, disease, tornadoes, fires, and attacks here on earth, it is downright scary to imagine what kinds of punishments our sins would bring on us for eternity in hell.
That’s the point Jesus is making here in Luke chapter 13. We are to use earthly disasters not to say, “Ah, good, those people are getting what they deserve!” but, rather, to say, “Lord, have mercy on me!” Luke records these tragic events for us:
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
The people listening to Jesus may well have thought, “What if I’d been at the temple that day when Pilate went nuts and slaughtered those people? What if I’d been standing by the tower of Siloam that day?” Or, “What if I’d been working in the World Trade Center that day? What if I’d been in Oakfield that afternoon? What if I was caught in the middle of a shootout? What if COVID took my life? What if I had been in that boat?” Obviously, if we had been, we wouldn’t be alive anymore. Then, the question becomes, “If that were to happen to me, and I would leave this earthly life, am I right with God?”
But right on the heels of those tragedies, Jesus offers a little parable. I suppose this is where the garden theme comes in. We read: “Then [Jesus] told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, “For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’” Who does the fig tree represent? Take a look in a mirror and you’ll see. And what is the gardener ready to do? Cut us down!
But, there’s more to this parable. Jesus is about to tell us something altogether different about our God. He’s going to use this parable about a fig tree to illustrate God’s loving patience with us. We might call it the Garden of Repentance.
The parable continues: “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” Be patient. Give it one more year. Now, certainly, if the tree doesn’t change, it’ll be cut down. But this man is in no hurry. He puts it off, almost like he wants to avoid doing the tree any harm. In fact, he gives it more TLC than ever before. Fertilizer and everything! He does everything possible to get that tree to live. He wants to give the tree every chance possible.
So, when tragedy strikes, I might be tempted to think, “How could a loving God do that to those people!” or wonder, “What if that had been me?” But, really, our answer should be, “Wow, look how patient God has been with me! He hasn’t cut me down yet! I’m not any better than those poor people who suffered in that tragedy. I am sorry for their pain, and I’ll do what I can to help them work through it. But, at the same time, I’m still here. God has given me another day in this world. Another day in which I can be grateful that God has given me:
another day to repent,
another day to find where sin still exists in my life and get rid of it,
another day to seek and be assured of his forgiveness,
another day to serve him with my life as I am covered with his forgiveness,
another day to tell others the good news of how God has rescued me from horrible things like sin, tragedies, death, and hell so that they might believe it too.
That’s why Jesus came, and that’s what Lent is about. Jesus took on himself the punishment that we had coming from God. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, God aimed all of his divine, holy anger at Jesus. By Jesus’ death on a cross, God’s justice on the human race was served. God declares you and me and all people forgiven in Christ.
All who rely on Jesus Christ as their Savior now have God as their friend. Through faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven; tragedies, even personal tragedies, for us who believe, are not punishments but are changed into God’s loving governance and providence for our good; even death itself, for us who rely on Jesus, becomes nothing more than a joyful sleep from which we will awake one day and rise up from our graves to live with Jesus forever in paradise. As we rely on Jesus, we find comfort in knowing that God shows nothing but love toward us. Come what may, God will use it for our eternal good. He’s even waiting to bring the world to an end because he wants all people to have a chance to believe in Jesus as their Savior.
So, how can I turn to Christ, and how can I know I have God’s forgiveness? Thankfully, it’s not at all about what I do or where I go. Instead, God himself comes to me and meets me through his Word, through Baptism, and through the Lord’s Supper. That’s where he gives us his forgiveness and where his Spirit changes our perspective on everything. No longer do we live under threats or fear or terror, but, rather, under the joyful shelter of God’s love. His Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper—that’s the fertilizer which the gardener in the parable uses year after year. That’s the food by which the Holy Spirit keeps our reliance on Jesus alive and our relationship with God alive. You can know it and confess it yourself: “I have been baptized. I have read it in his holy Word. I have heard it from the mouth of my pastor. I have received Christ’s own body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. I am forgiven. I am loved by God. I don’t need to fear anything that might happen to me on this earth.” So, we keep coming back for more, don’t we? More of that spiritual food. More of that good news of forgiveness through Christ. What does God do? He keeps feeding it to us through his Word and sacraments so that we stay green and living and fruitful in our relationship with him.
Yes, it was in a garden, by a tree, that sin first entered the world. But, it was on a tree that Jesus died and paid for the sins of the whole world. By giving us faith in Christ, God makes each of us a living tree that thrives in the Garden of Repentance. Amen.