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Repentance: The Sweetest Fruit
3.20.22
[Luke 13:1-9] River of Life (3rd Sunday in Lent)
What do you think about what’s going on?
I had never met the man on the phone who asked me that question.
But that wasn’t why I was at a loss over what to say.
I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t know what he was referring to.
Do you ever get questions like that?
In this case, he was vague because he was including everything.
COVID.
Ukraine.
Inflation.
A handful of other things, too.
He wanted to know if I thought this was a sign of the end times.
With so many things going on in this world right now, so many people wants answers.
They want explanations.
They want you to connect the dots.
Maybe I get a little bit more of that coming my way because I get the privilege of serving as a full-time pastor, but I suspect you hear it more than a little bit, too.
What do you think about what’s going on?
That’s why I’m really grateful for God’s Word to us in Luke.
Luke 12 begins with Jesus speaking with (Lk.
12:1) a crowd of thousands.
He warns them about hypocrisy and hell, greed and worry.
Jesus tells them to be watchful and faithful—serving the Lord their God in all they think, say, and do.
He tells them the days ahead will not be peaceful, but filled with strife and trouble.
He encourages them to spend more energy on their spiritual future than the weather.
Some in that crowd begin to discuss the things that were going on.
Some Galileans had gone to Jerusalem to worship and they had been killed by Pontius Pilate’s men.
Evidently the whole thing was so brutal and barbaric that (Lk.
13:1) their blood had been mixed with the blood of some sacrificial animals in the Temple.
Of course, this issue was politically charged.
Pontius Pilate was everything that was wrong with Rome in the minds of many Israelites.
The Galileans weren’t highly respected—and many were political zealots who rebelled against Roman tyranny.
But the question that was troubling most folks was the nature of their death.
They had been in the Temple, offering sacrifices to the Lord when Pilate had them struck down.
Why did this happen?
In our day, we are far more likely to think of these Galileans as innocent victims and consider Pilate’s actions to be an atrocity.
Today, we might wonder: Where was God?
Why didn’t he step in & stop this?
But Jesus’ answer to the crowd leads us down a different path, doesn’t it?
He asks: (Lk.
13:2) Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?
For this crowd, there was no question of Where was God?
It happened in the Temple!
Of course God was there!
If they did wonder: Why didn’t he stop this? their answer was because these people deserved to suffer in this way.
Two thousand years later, that opinion might seem offensive.
Vile.
Heartless, even.
I won’t argue with you if you feel that way.
But might I ask you a question?
Today, people live longer than back then.
Today, we are far less likely to be the victims of violent crimes or suffer anything like this.
These are good things.
Peace and safety and human flourishing are all blessings from above.
Why is it, when we have so many more gifts from above, today, that we are more likely to wonder if God is active in our world?
As Jesus answers this question, he strips away all the political baggage of Rome and Pilate and the Temple and the Galileans.
He asks them about a disaster in Jerusalem—when a tower in Siloam fell and eighteen people died.
(Lk.
13:4) Do you think that these people were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
Jesus asks these two questions because, in the minds of his hearers, the answer was yes.
Some put themselves in a bad spot and got what they deserved.
Others maybe didn’t seem like they were so bad, but they must have secretly been more wicked than the rest.
Jesus’ answer was different.
(Lk.
13:3,5) I tell you: no!
That part doesn’t confuse us.
It’s the next sentence that does.
And it’s the next sentence that is most important to God and for us.
Twice Jesus says: (Lk.
13:3,5) But unless you repent, you, too, will all perish.
What good would repentance do if Roman soldiers are hunting you down?
What kind of protection does repentance offer when a tower is crashing down on you?
But this isn’t Jesus’ point.
He isn’t saying, these people weren’t repentant and that’s why they died tragically.
Jesus is saying that atrocities and disasters should call you to repentance.
They only happen because this world has been malfunctioning since Adam and Eve fell into temptation in the Garden of Eden.
They were never part of God’s original design.
Bad and sad things happen in this world because of sin.
Yes, disobedience can bring about disaster, but not every tragedy can be traced back to some specific transgression.
Yet, every death—whether by falling sword, tower, or falling asleep and not waking up—is the byproduct of sin.
(Rm.
6:23) The wages of sin is death.
Jesus wants us to recognize that we will all die.
Some of us tragically young.
Others will live longer than we ever thought we would.
But we will all die, because we are all sinful.
At the same time Jesus calls us to repentance lest we perish.
Lest all the blessings that we have received in and through this life be squandered on us.
He wants us to realize that (Rm.
2:4) God’s kindness is also intended to lead us to repentance.
God tells us that catastrophes & his kindness have the same goal: repentance.
This is the whole reason for our lives.
That we recognize how often we go astray.
That we realize that our hearts are not pure.
That we come to grips with the fact that God (Ps.
103:10) does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
Imagine if God did that just for the sin of deceit.
Imagine if, like Pinocchio, your nose grew every time you told a lie.
Would anyone have ever hired you?
Would anyone help you?
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