Lent 3 March 20, 2022

Luke 13:1-9 ( NIV ) 1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or 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? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” 6Then he 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. 7So 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?’ 8“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Every so often – perhaps too often – we learn about or are reminded about how a group of people died tragically. We have two such current events of such deaths in the life of Jesus in our text. If Jesus were to cite modern day examples, what tragic multiple deaths might he give?

Attention has been drawn to those who have perished in the War in Ukraine.

The UN rights office (OHCHR) has said that at least 816 civilians were killed and 1,333 wounded in Ukraine through to March 17. Most of the casualties were from explosive weapons such as shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air raids, OHCHR said.

That aerial bombardment, officials say, has helped camouflage the Russian military's poor performance on the ground. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said this week that an estimated 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the war. Signs of Russia's challenges abound.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced the increase and said that the latest victims included a 33-year-old Mayfield woman who was pregnant with a child when she died in the hospital.

Or we may think of those who lost their lives in a hurricane or such other natural disaster.

The death toll from tornadoes that tore through Kentucky in December has reached 80 fatalities, officials said Monday.

Some of us may think of a particularly devastating car accident.

There seems to be a necessity to try to interpret a lesson from such deaths. The deaths caused by a lone gunmen have been used by gun control advocates to revisit their cause. I recently read The Pelican Briefwhich was written 20 years ago. Gun control was a hot topic back then as well. Others may use a tragedy of multiple deaths to promote safety. Religious zealots will even go so far as to cite weather related deaths as some sort of judgment of God on wicked people living in that region (Find Hurricane Katrina story which God used to punish those who are not straight.

When a U.S. Senator called me and asked me if Hurricane Katrina was judgment from God, I said yes, this is judgment from God, and it was. And you know a lot of the people there weren’t guilty, but it was on our nation and it was a very gracious judgment, filled with grace. Believe it or not, filled with grace from God but it was judgment. One of the things He was saying, He’s not gonna put up with this perversion anymore. Katrina hit New Orleans the day before they were supposed to have that Day of Decadence,

Such attempts to find a correlation between tragedy and God’s judgment is nothing new. Jesus asks the begging question if it were true in the current event cases that he referred to. (Quote). Why do people think this way?

Maybe they just got done reading or studying the book of Jeremiah. (Quote the often repeated theme of Jeremiah.) Jeremiah 44:1-6 ( NIV ) 1This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis£—and in Upper Egypt£: 2“This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins 3because of the evil they have done. They provoked me to anger by burning incense and by worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew. 4Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’ 5But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. 6Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.

Job 8:4 (NIV)

4 When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.

Job 22:5–11 (NIV)

5 Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless? 6 You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked. 7 You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, 8 though you were a powerful man, owning land— an honored man, living on it. 9 And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless. 10 That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you, 11 why it is so dark you cannot see, and why a flood of water covers you.

We cannot argue with the Bible that there were times when God did indeed bring famine, sword, and plague on his people and the nations around Israel because of their sins and refusal to repent. There are indeed times even today when God does discipline those he loves and can do it through disaster.

But we need to be careful of two things:

· Don’t assume that every disaster is a judgment from God. Many attempts to rationalize or spiritualize such events today are more an indications of a person’s perspective on life rather than actual cause and effect.

Don’t be so self righteous that when disaster comes on someone else, that we avoided it because we are so pure. Maybe God is just delaying our own discipline to give us more time to repent. This is the lesson that Jesus teaches when he says twice: I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (God delays because he wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth.)

This is the point of the parable of the fig tree. A vineyard was and still is a very valuable piece of property. The owners depend on the land being as productive as possible in order to be as successful as possible. A tree in the vineyard would rob area vines of needed moisture and nutrients just as those tree lines along fields limit the productivity of the crops within a certain distance. (That is why many of those tree lines have been removed.) Common sense would be to remove the offending tree from the vineyard unless the tree itself had something to offer.

Other examples: Cancerous tissue. Unproductive workers. Unneeded files and programs on our computer. The immoral among us. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 ( NIV ) 1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self–control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Sin in our own lives. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 ( NIV ) 3It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control his own body£ in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

In the parable we have the workers judging the tree by its fruit. Finding it lacking, they come up with a sensible plan. The owner doesn’t disagree but offers just a little more time.

God looks for fruit in our lives (cite passages)

Galatians 5:16-25 ( NIV ) 16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self–control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

What does he find? Are we meeting the requirements of church membership? Does he find us committed whole heartedly to the Lord? Or are we unproductive and limited because of sin in our lives?

Some would say it is time to cull the herd. Pull up the weeds from the wheatfield. Or that now is the time for a judgment of biblical proportions on the unproductive. But what does Jesus teach us?

First of all, repent so that you too are not disciplined. And those who do confess their sins are forgiven for the sake of Jesus who died for our sins. There is no condemnation for those in Jesus.

Use the extra time to help others return to the Lord or to return ourselves depending on where we are at right now.

Conclusion. I don’t know how you process the correlation between disaster and God’s hand in it. I do know that the tendency is to minimize how involved God can be. This seems to be an indication of a lack of realization that we are accountable to God. Jesus emphasizes that we are accountable and stresses that we are to act accordingly. Amen.