Repent or Perish

[Luke 13:1-9]

Jesus’ ministry is now in full swing. The disciples are with him and he’s busy teaching them, announcing good news to the poor, and performing miracles of healing. Needless to say, he’s really busy.

Perhaps he’s so busy that some people think he’s unaware of the latest bad news to come from Jerusalem.

Luke 13:1 CSB

At that time, some people came and reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

This is the worse kind of news imaginable. Apparently, Pilate had killed some Jews, some of their countrymen, while they were trying to offer sacrifices at the temple!

Pilate was a brutal person, which is perhaps one of the reasons he was charged with keeping order in Jerusalem and using any means necessary to accomplish his goal.

But this has gone too far! Enough is enough, right?

So these people come to Jesus naturally wondering if he knows what’s going on. They want to know why is this happening? Does God care? What should they do about it?

Now, apparently, at least a few of them were thinking that the Galileans were just getting what they deserved.

See, Galileans were looked down upon by other Jews. They were viewed as uneducated troublemakers. They were known to stir up trouble with the Romans so the “well-behaved” Jews didn’t like them much.

And remember, Jesus was a Galilean. Galilee was where he started his ministry and performed his first miracles so he had a connection with these people.

So, if we read between the lines it seems to me that these Jews were coming to Jesus with the bad news in order to explain to him what happens to “his kind of people.”

Bad things happen to bad people, was a pretty common view back then, and it’s still a popular belief today although it usually shows itself in reverse. It’s common for us to believe, there aren’t any bad things happening in my life so God must approve of everything I’m doing. Well, not necessarily.

Luke 13:2 (CSB)

And he responded to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things?

Well, apparently some of them did. Some of them were using the tragedy as an opportunity make themselves look better and to make Jesus look bad.

We need to be careful about calling national tragedies God’s judgment. Maybe, maybe not. Do other nations suffer more than we do because they sin more? Not necessarily.

So we can see a little bit of the self-righteousness attitude in the people who came to Jesus to report what had happened. And Jesus jumped on it immediately with the truth.

Do you think you’re better than they are because you’re still alive? Or said theologically, do you think your righteousness is going to save you?

How does Jesus answer?

Luke 13:3 CSB

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.

Repent or perish. It’s that simple. No matter who was to blame, killing these Jews as they worshiped was a horrible tragedy and yet Jesus doesn’t even attempt to explain why. He doesn’t try to make them feel better with an explanation of why there is evil in the world. Jesus skips right over that part and says repent or perish.

Picture this: Jesus is here in the flesh and we come to him telling that Christians are being persecuted and killed. Pregnant women and children are being bombed in Ukraine. Covid is still killing thousands around the world!

Jesus do you know what’s going on? How would he respond? It think he’d say something like he did in verse 4:

Luke 13:4 CSB

Or those eighteen that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed—do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?

Luke 13:5 CSB

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.”

Eighteen people killed when a tower fell on them is a tragedy. Somebody needs to pay! Who was in charge of making sure things like this don’t happen? We need to make sure that something like this never happens again!

These are the kind of responses we would expect Jesus to say but he doesn’t. Instead, unless you repent, you will all perish as well.

See, Jesus knows what’s going on and he does care. But it’s just that he has a different perspective than we do and his priorities are not the same as ours.

What would we be tempted to do? We’d be tempted to investigate further and gather evidence in order to have Pilate charged with crimes against humanity. We might even be tempted to start accumulating weapons in order to lead an insurrection against the government.

But Jesus’ response isn’t like that at all. In fact, I can’t think of one time when Jesus encouraged his followers to rebel against the Roman government which was far worse than our government is.

Instead, Jesus encourages his followers to look at the planks in their own eyes.

Luke 6:41 CSB

“Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

When Jesus says, “repent or perish” I think this is what he’s getting at. Stop trying to figure out who the biggest sinner is over there in that group that you don’t like. You have plenty of sin in your own life that you need to be worrying about.

Remember, it’s not that God doesn’t care when bad things happen. God is good. He is patient. There are over 2000 references in the Bible that encourage us to help the poor and to seek justice for those who treated wrongly. So Jesus cares and he wants us to care, too, about suffering. But it’s eternal suffering that he cares about most.

So he calls people to repent so that they don’t perish, eternally. You see the real tragedy isn’t that people die. Everyone dies. It’s that people die pointing out the sins of others while neglecting to deal with their own. Repent or perish.

So what is repentance?

Unfortunately, in English we don’t have a very good word for what the Greek means. Our English word repentance brings up negative thoughts of penance, pain, sorrow, and regret. But that’s only part of the meaning.

In the original Greek the word is metanoia and it has a much more positive connotation. Meta means "after" or "change," and so the Greek literally means "a change of mind" and carries with it the positive notion of transformation into something new—of acquiring a new mindset or heart.

“You see, the word "repentance" forces us to look back and beat ourselves up for what we’ve done, but “metanoia” invites us to look at the future and the promises God has for us. When we understand this, we realize that Jesus' words are not words of condemnation, but words of invitation into a new life.”

So repentance is a change of mind. It means thinking correctly about the world. It means seeing things the way Jesus sees them. And that’s what we’re doing today. We are attempting to see things from Jesus’ point of view.

So Jesus isn’t impressed with our ability to know the truth about world events. Understanding eschatology or who’s really behind the latest tragedy isn’t one of the fruits of the spirit.

The beams that are in our eyes are a lack of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The new life that Jesus offers us is a new change of heart and yet our hearts are so slow to change.

Everyday I hear and see things in myself and others that are not very Christian. What fruit of the spirit are we displaying when we post or say that funny joke about people not like us? The fruit of “sarcasm”? The fruit of “I’m not as stupid as you are”? What would Jesus say? I think we know.

Jesus didn’t come to earth to give us great insight into the sin others so we can make fun of them. He came to tell us how transformation occurs and to make that transformation, in us, possible.

And once we experience this transformation our entire view of the world changes. We go from seeing all the tragedies in the world not as proof there is no God, but as evidence of just how much we need Jesus.

So we need to repent in the Greek sense of the word. We need a heart change and a new way of thinking about the world around us.

Yes, there are horrible things occuring around us everyday and Christians should be leading in showing compassion and care for those who suffer. But let’s not get a big head and start thinking we’re better than everyone else. Because, unless we repent, we too will perish.

Conclusion

Now, as we conclude let’s look at verses six through nine add a necessary but hopeful aspect to these first 5 verses. But I’ll warn you, they don’t seem very hopeful at first.

Luke 13:6 CSB

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none.

Luke 13:7 CSB

He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

Luke 13:8–9 CSB

“But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

The words “cut it down!” are what linger in our heads and they sound pretty grim. But notice that the owner waited three years before giving up. That’s a lot of watering and care. It’s a long time to wait for a tree to bear fruit. See God is patient with us.

And when after three years there was no fruit the vineyard worker convinced the owner to wait another year.

The fruit the owner is looking for are the fruits of the spirit but when he doesn’t find them he doesn’t immediately cut down the tree. Instead, he is patient and gives us even more time to repent.

He gives us another chance. He continues to water us and fertilizes us until we bear the kind of fruit he’s looking for.

Yes, there is a final judgment, but today's message is about grace and the opportunity we have to turn our lives around with the power of God's Spirit. The opportunity is now; it may not be there tomorrow.

So repent of your lack of fruit and allow God to transform your way of thinking and living to his. Maybe you’ve repented in the past but it’s been a long time since you’ve confessed your sins and felt the transforming glow of forgiveness and renewed hope.

Remember, whatever it is you've done, or whatever's happened to you, it has all been paid for in the Cross.

Pray silently, then pray.