Why a Tower, Why a Tree, Why Me?

March 24, 2019, Lent 3C

GOSPEL LESSON: Luke 13:1–9 [Unless you repent, you will perish]
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, 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?’ ”‘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.’”

Every three years Luke 13:1-9 is the Gospel reading for this Sunday in Lent. It talks about an accident when a tower in Jerusalem fell, and the slaughter of innocent pilgrims.

It seems that whenever we see the news, there is some sort of tragedy in the world. Sometimes it is a natural disaster like an earthquake or tsunami or epidemic and other times it is a human disaster like crime, war, gun violence, the murder of Christians or a terrorist attack. Whenever it happens, people ask "Why?" The newscaster tries to explain. We get lectures on geology and the weather and politics and psychology and medicine to explain the phenomenon.

But when people ask "Why?" often they are asking not about the physical causes, but rather it is a much deeper question. “Why me? Why my friend? Why this young child? Why those innocent people?” There is also the famous question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This cannot be answered by newscasters or scientists or doctors. Preachers should not try to answer it either. This can only be answered by God. And Jesus says it is the wrong question to ask, there is a better question to ask.

In today's Gospel lesson, some people told Jesus about some sad news. Pilate had killed some pilgrims from Galilee on their way to the temple to worship. The question seems to have been, "Why did God allow this to happen to these good people on their way to the temple? They weren't bad sinners to die that way, were they?" And Jesus says that they were no worse sinners than any other Galileans. In other words, they were not being punished by God for their sins.

There was also an accident where a tower fell in Jerusalem and killed 18 people. Jesus says that they were not killed because of some particular bad sin. They were average sinners. Jesus seems to turn the question around: Not why were THEY killed, but why weren't YOU killed. You are just as bad a sinner, so it could have been you just as well. And Jesus called for them to repent, or else something similar might happen to them.

In other words: when the towers fall, (When Twin Towers, steeple towers, the important things in your life that you rely on fall. When friendships, family relationships, finances and health fail.) when the towers in your life fall: it is not a time for research, revenge, rage, or retaliation; but a time of reflection and repentance.

Repentance is like the fruit of a tree. Repentance is not just feeling sorry. Repentance is not just wringing your hands in prayer and feeling bad for your sins. Repentance is not just wanting to escape the consequences of your sins. It surely starts there, but repentance grasps onto the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Repentance accepts Jesus into your life. And when Jesus is in your life, you are a Christian. That means that your life becomes the life of Christ. Christ is working in you and through you. You become Christ to the world. And when Christ is revealed to someone through you: that is like the fruit of a tree. It is proof that Christ is in you.

Whenever I read this Gospel passage, I remember my father. He had a nice garden with vegetables and a few fruit trees. He planted an apricot tree. It had fruit only once. After about 3 years of no fruit he decided to cut the tree down. I am sure that he tried everything he could: pruning, fertilizer, insecticide, compost, etc. But finally he cut it down to make way for a different sort of tree that would bear fruit: an (Italian) plum tree. This tree had good fruit for many years.

In the parable, God says that a tree that does not bear fruit is just wasting the resources of the vineyard, taking up space and depleting the soil. He is talking about people of course. The parable is probably speaking about the country of Israel who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. But these are words of judgment for us also.

However, Jesus is the good gardener. "Wait another year. Give it another chance. I'll give it nourishment." And Jesus spoke the good news. For about three years in his public ministry he spoke about the love of God. He gave nourishment to it with his life-blood. Traditional fertilizer is manure or compost. Both are the products of things that are considered worthless. They are made of things that are thrown away. Dead leaves and branches and rotten fruit and kitchen scraps are thrown into the compost box. There they decay and are transformed into compost that can give wonderful nourishment to flowers and plants. This is like Jesus. People discarded Jesus like trash. They thought his message of love was like dead leaves. They crucified and killed him. His dead body was placed in the grave. Christ died on the cross. But decay and death could not decompose his body. God Almighty transformed that dead body into a living body. In the resurrection, the forces of death and decay gave way to life and healing. Therefore, our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ, gives life and healing and nourishment to us. We are alive with the fruit of repentance, that is to say, we are alive with the life-style of faith.

We started by talking about disasters. The Gospel points to one earth-shaking event. This is when Jesus died on the cross. Why Jesus? Was Jesus a sinner to deserve such a tragedy? Yes and no. No, because Jesus never committed a single sin. But yes, because he took upon himself the sin of the world. He became the worst sinner in the world. If Jesus had not died on the cross, then each of us should have died on the cross or should have died some other way. That is why Jesus came to tell us to repent, and to give us the power to repent and believe, that is to say, to live the life of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. He nourishes us with the Word, with prayer, and with his body and blood in the Holy Communion.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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