Luke 13:1-9
March 20, 2022
A 13-year-old was driving a truck
with an adult in the passenger seat. One of the truck’s tires was a spare. It failed,
and when it did, it pulled into the oncoming lane of the interstate, and went
headlong into a transit van carrying members of a New Mexico University golf
team. The 13-year-old driver and the man in the truck with him were both
killed. Six of the student golfers were killed, along with their coach. In
total nine people were killed in a horrific, tragic accident.
Who sinned?
Was
it the adult in the truck letting a 13-year-old drive, when he was too young to
be driving? Was it the person who put the spare tire on the truck? Was it the
manufacturer of the tire?
Who
sinned?
In
Lviv, Ukraine, 109 strollers have been placed around the main square of the
city, as a first monument to the at least 109 children who have been killed
since the invasion by Russia happened.
Who
sinned?
Putin?
The Russian soldiers who have done the killing? The higher ups in the army who
are giving orders to fire on civilians. The parents of the children for not
getting them out of the country to safety when the threats of invasion were
first being discussed? The very worldly mindset that makes leaders believe that
power because of money, politics, whatever, gives someone impunity to do
whatever?
Who
sinned?
These
are two examples of very recent, very tragic moments of loss, of death, of
destruction. And they leave me feeling sick and hopeless and despairing at the
state of our world. And just reflecting on these two examples – two examples
out of many from which I could have chosen – makes me wonder if the people who
asked Jesus their question about Pilate’s killing of the Galileans had those
folks feeling the same way that I do. And that’s why they asked. Because when
tragedy strikes, when something so appalling and terrible happens, we want to
know why. We want to know who to blame. We want to make sense out of the
senseless. So, even though I may not ask outright, “Who sinned?” There is a
part of me that would like that question answered. Who sinned?
And
if it was about sin, was it the will of God that these sins should be answered
in this way? Because if it was sin, and this was God’s punishment for sin, then
maybe they – and we – can understand why Pilate did such a horrific thing, and
why the tower in Siloam fell as it did. Because again this all must come down
to punishment for sin.
And
the trouble with this passage is that Jesus seems to both refute their question
about who sinned, and affirm it at the same time when he responds,
“No,
I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
So,
Jesus, does that mean that they sinned, and God punished them or not?
And
he doesn’t seem to really help his case when he goes on to tell a parable about
a fig tree.
A
man who owned a vineyard had a fig tree planted there. But the fig tree was
barren. It produced no fruit. So, he told the gardener to cut it down. Why
should this barren tree be taking up good soil that could be used for another
tree that would produce fruit? Chop it down and let’s move on. But the gardener
had a different plan. He asked the owner to give him one more year. Just one
more year, and he would put manure around it, and nurture it, and if after a
year the fig tree still did not produce fruit, then the owner could cut it down
and be done with it.
David
Lose wrote in a weekly preaching article several years ago that when it comes
to this passage there should be a warning label. Approach with caution. And I
admit than when I read through the passages for this week, my first thought was
“Maybe
I should just preach from Isaiah.”
But
warning label aside, here we are. In the verses before these Jesus has been
speaking to the people around him about their inability to read the signs of
the kingdom. They can look at the sky and figure out the weather that is coming
but they don’t know how to interpret the signs of the times. In the previous
verses, Jesus is already on the topic of judgment when he is told about the
tragedy of the Galileans. Jesus’ response is to also mention the tragedy of the
tower of Siloam that fell and killed eighteen people. And as I said earlier, it
would seem that his response to these two tragedies lends itself to thinking
that this was God’s punishment and judgment for sin.
Repent
or perish as they did. But is Jesus talking about a personal
morality or is he really trying to get them to understand sin as a state of
being? Because the word repent isn’t just about confessing a litany of
transgressions. It means to turn around, to reorient our lives to God and God’s
purposes. To repent is to step into the wholeness of God, the fullness of God.
So, was Jesus saying that folks better watch their step, or they’ll suffer the
same fate? Or was Jesus saying that sin and its suffering is not something that
God wants or wills, but it is a state of being that we are all intentionally or
unintentionally complicit in? This state of sin is the opposite to and the antithesis
of the kingdom of God.
Then
what about this parable? I think that traditionally this has been interpreted
allegorically. God is the owner of the vineyard, who is ready to cut down the
barren fig tree without a second thought. And Jesus is the gardener, who
bargains for one more year. And we sinful humans are the fig tree. Jesus stands
between us and God’s wrath.
While
I guess this is a workable interpretation, I can’t seem to go with that. I
wonder if, like the owner, we are both the fig tree and the owner. I wonder if
we are ready to give up on each other when we’ve sinned and fallen away and
messed up. And I wonder if God is the gardener, who is working through our
barrenness, working through our fruitlessness, giving us another year, and then
I suspect, another year after that. I wonder if the gardener is asking us to
give each other one more year.
As
one commentator put it, when we think about second chances – and this passage
is connected with God’s second chance – we tend to think about the person
getting the second chance and then doing the work of getting his or her act
together. Right, that’s what second chances are. But if God is the gardener,
what does that say about our second chance? The gardener doesn’t ask for
another year to see if the tree bears fruit, and then walks away from the tree.
The gardener asks for a second chance, so that he can work with the tree,
nourish it, give it everything it needs to grow, to flourish, to be fruitful.
Because if the tree is fruitful, it won’t be fruitful just for the sake of the
tree, but for the sake of the garden, the vineyard. It will add to the life of all
that is around it. It will become part of the wholeness of the vineyard.
So,
if God is the gardener, what does this say about the second chance we are
given? I don’t think we are expected to do it on our own. I don’t think this is
a parable about pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, and getting our act
together, and making a second chance work. I think Jesus is telling a parable
that speaks to the barrenness that we all experience in our lives. Barrenness,
maybe literally, often figuratively. Have you ever felt barren? Have you ever
felt that no matter what you did, you weren’t being fruitful, at home, at work,
in your life of faith? Could you pull yourself out of this without help?
I
think God in Jesus is the gardener. I think God is working through the barren
places in our lives, working through the fruitlessness that we feel. And it is
our repentance, our turning around and back to God, stepping into the wholeness
and the fullness of life that God offers, that allows us to recognize this and
become fruitful. And I also think that we are called to be the gardeners for
one another. It’s not just about saying,
“Okay,
here’s your second chance. Get your act together.”
It’s
about saying, “Okay, here’s your second chance. How will we help you to grow, to
flourish, to become whole?”
So,
maybe this story is not just about God’s mercy to us, miserable sinners that we
are. Maybe, it is also a call to be merciful to one another because
God is merciful to us. Maybe it is a reminder to be gracious to one another because
God is gracious to us. And maybe when we can do that, we can more fully embrace
the abundance, the wholeness, the fullness of live and love that God wants for
us all so that we will be able to truly and completely live.
Let
all of God’s children say, “Amen.”
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