Luke 13:1-9
March 11, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
In the East Coast where I grew up, the arrival of spring was a time for spring vacations. Following perhaps a harsh winter of snow and ice, spring vacations was a way to fool Mother Nature, escaping her last arctic blast to somewhere with balmy temperatures and white sandy beaches. Ironically, spring vacations usually take place during Holy Week, the time between Palm Sunday and Easter morning. We make plans to go away. One not only misses the last bite of winter, one also avoids hearing the kinds of Scripture that challenges us to repent and change our ways.
On this third Sunday in Lent, maybe the women who are on retreat this weekend are avoiding today’s passage but not you. In Luke, we see the tragedy of Galileans offering sacrifices at the temple dying in a massacre. We hear about 18 people who perished when a tower happened to fall on them. There was blaming all around—perhaps these victims were worse sinners? Why do innocent people suffer in a world that God promised to be good? Can we blame Pontius Pilate who was known to be excessively cruel toward his subjects in order to keep them in line?
Then, as now, when there is some great tragedy, people talk. People try to figure out what happened and what to make out of it. We wonder what those people did to deserve this. It’s like when the disciples encountered a blind man and asked Jesus, “Who sinned? Do you think his parents sinned or did he sin in order to be born in this condition?” No wonder we try to avoid the challenging questions we ask in the season of Lent. They have no obvious answers. We rather choose to avoid hearing them instead of trying to find answers for them!
No Blaming
Jesus doesn’t answer their questions either. Jesus does not engage in a discussion of this tragedy, does not attempt to affix blame, does not even criticize Pilate. Jesus is not drawn into a discussion with his disciples about who sinned, or who caused this tragedy. Rather, he throws the whole question back on their laps. And as his disciples today, Jesus throws this same question back on our laps too.
Jesus turns the issue away from the murdered Galileans and those who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell. Instead, Jesus says, “Unless you repent, you will perish as they did” (13:5). Wow! No further discussion here.
Then, he tells a parable about an unproductive fig tree, a story about repentance. God has graciously given to Israel and to us the time we need to turn and repent. We have been given sufficient time to produce the good fruit that’s expected of us. In other words, Jesus refuses to be drawn into our questions, our judgment about the unfairness and injustice of the world. Like the way we try to avoid the winter, Jesus is saying to us, you can’t and you shouldn’t avoid this question.
To those who wish to have idle discussions about other people’s pain, Jesus calls for repentance. Rather than speculating about the sin of tyrants like Pilate, we are to turn the question back upon ourselves. In the time that God has given us, what do we need to do to repent? It’s your choice!
Call to Repentance
Jesus’ words are as harsh as those of John the Baptist. John began by screaming out his sermons, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to try to flee from the wrath to come? You better repent, for a day of judgment is coming.”
Like John, Jesus is not preaching a sweet, sentimental message but rather, he is a fierce proclaimer of judgment. We want to talk about the abuse of power by evil people like Pilate but Jesus reminds us that we are also powerful people who, like Pilate, abuse and misuse the power that we have been given by God. Who are we, in our sin, to stand in judgment of Pilate?
On September 11, 2001, the United States was hit by a terrible tragedy. I know of a preacher who, in his sermon after that great tragedy, said something like, “As Christians, we are commanded, not only to see in the events of world history the hand of God, and to seek the comfort of God, but also to expect the possibility of the judgment of God.”
This preacher went on to speculate on the ways that this event was not only a horrible tragedy and a great injustice, but it was also judgment upon us as a people—judgment upon the United States foreign policy, judgment upon our insensitivities to the needs of others, judgment upon our national arrogance.
Are you surprised when I tell you that the preacher was removed from the pulpit of that church a short time after? There are times when we want to avoid hearing challenging Scriptures that remind us that we are in need of repentance.
On this Third Sunday in Lent we may want to have a pleasant detached discussion about the suffering of the world, preferably our own suffering. We want to have a pleasant theological discussions about spiritual matters and point the finger of judgment at some scoundrel like Pilate. But Jesus won’t let us.
Jesus wants to talk about our judgment. We come in here wanting to judge Jesus to see what he has done for us this week. We want to see if his message makes sense or is it practical? Is it an adequate answer to the deep questions that life puts before us? And so on.
And then he questions us, pronounces a verdict upon us. You must repent. Repentance means that you must let go of your own devices, and cling only to God.
Pilate thought he was judging Jesus. But before the end of the story, on the cross, Jesus is revealed to be the judge of Pilate. And this day he judges us. As Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem to suffer and die, will you turn, repent, change direction in your life and walk with him? It’s your choice? Are you willing to repent and follow Jesus as decisively as you would make plans to go on a spring vacation? The choice is yours?
Choosing Christ
Jesus said, “If anyone would follow after me, walk with me; let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow. For whoever will save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake, that person will be saved.”
Jesus doesn’t say specifically what we need to do to repent, to turn, and to change. Maybe he doesn’t say specifically because that’s a question between each of us and God. Perhaps the answer for each of us is different. Only you would know what you need to ask God for forgiveness.
For many of us today what ultimately motivates what we do in life is in our pursuit of wealth and possessions. Although we have so much of the world’s resources, we seem to have an insatiable diet to want to have more. If there was one thing that we as a group are in need for repentance, it is that we have wealth and possessions and we want even more.
This reminds me of this story. Once upon a time there was an elderly man whose wife died and who lived all alone.
He had worked for years as a tailor, but a series of misfortunes had left him virtually penniless. Now, in his old age, he was no longer able to work because his hands trembled too much to hold the needle and his eyesight had become too poor to be able to sew and cut straight.
The man had three sons who were all grown and married. They were always busy and only had time to stop by and eat dinner with their father once a week. Yet as the father became more and more feeble, the sons stopped by less and less often.
He knew they were staying away because they were afraid that he would become a burden on their lives. So the elderly man came up with an idea.
The next morning he went to see a carpenter and asked him to make a large chest for him. Then he went to the locksmith and asked for an old lock. Finally he went to see a glassblower and asked for all the old broken pieces of glass that he had. The old man then took the chest home, filled it with the pieces of broken glass, locked it up tight, and put it underneath his kitchen table.
The next time his sons came to eat with him, their feet bumped into it. “What’s in the chest?” the sons asked. He replied, “Oh, nothing. Just some things I’ve been saving.”
When his sons touched the chest with their feet, they could tell how heavy it was, and they could hear a rattling sound inside. They began to think to themselves, “Maybe it’s gold that he has been saving.” After talking it over among themselves, the sons decided that they needed to guard the treasure that was inside that chest.
From then on, they decided to take turns staying with their father to protect what they imagined to be their future inheritance. At last the father became sick and died.
When the funeral was over, they returned to their father’s house and hunted for the key to the chest. When they found it and opened the box, to their dismay they found only broken glass inside. “What a rotten trick!” the oldest son yelled. But the middle son observed, “What else could he have done? If it wasn’t for this chest, we would have neglected him until the end of his days.” The youngest son sobbed, “I’m so ashamed of myself. We forced our own father to stoop to deceit; because we would not observe the very commandment he taught us when we were young.”
When they dumped the broken glass out, they stood speechless as they saw an inscription at the bottom of the box that said, “Honor thy father and mother.”
As people who literally are on the top of the world with our economy, military, cultural influence, and personal wealth, are we willing to choose to repent and turn away from our insatiable desire to possess more and own more to follow Jesus? Are we willing to honor and believe in God our Father in heaven as the most important thing in life?
There is religious indifference in our world today. We have so many choices to choose from; whether it’s shopping in the supermarket with countless brands of cereal to lots of belief systems, lots of different spiritualities and ways of life. But the way of Jesus Christ is unpopular as ever, unwelcome as ever. Are you here today because you are ready to choose Jesus?
Yesterday we had a Men’s Fellowship event at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. On the way to the museum on Market Street, Wes Chan and I noticed across the street was the Cathedral and Basilica of St. Joseph. Wes told me that in all the years that he lived in San Jose, he has never had the time to visit this church. After visiting the museum and on our way to lunch, I noticed the cathedral again. I wanted to see the inside of this Catholic church since we can see that the doors were opened. So, all 15 of us crossed the wide city street and quietly entered this beautiful sanctuary with a vaulted gold gilded dome ceiling and painted pictures of Jesus Christ. There were a couple of people there for prayers. And we can sense the holy in our midst!
As we were leaving the church, I said to Wes that in the old days, people would come to the cathedral as the center of life but today we visit the tech museum as our destination attraction and on our way to lunch, we find a little time to visit a church!
Is your life filled with destination places that may be more interesting, more fun, more worthwhile, more like a spring vacation than coming to church? Are you finding just a little spare time to come to church this morning? Or are you here today because you are really ready to choose Jesus? The choice is yours.
Good News
The good news begins with the acceptance of the bad news that we are sinners in need of repentance. The sad truth is that there is no way we can save ourselves. We fool ourselves with a bookstore full of self-help aisles of books. We delude ourselves when we think we can find our life’s purpose on internet sites. There are no institutions or drugs or magical fixes that can help us. We won’t find the simple answer on a one-hour TV special. We won’t have life-long happiness by winning the mega-million dollar lottery. And we won’t experience the good news when we are trying to avoid the challenging questions about life by going on a spring vacation. We have to say to ourselves, we need God.
And so we are reminded that Jesus not only did some tough things, and suffered some tough things, but he also said some tough things. And today he says them to us.
Let us confess our sin—all those things that keep us from wholeheartedly following the way of Christ—and then let us ask him to help us to turn, to repent, and to follow. It’s your choice!
Let us pray.
Gracious God, forgive us for our sins and lead us to cling to you as our only God whom we worship and desire to be the center of our being. Show us a better way when we can give up worldly loyalties of wealth, prestige, power, and arrogance to recognize how we have sinned against you and our sisters and brothers. Lead us not to be distracted or to avoid the challenging questions in life which is to face the matter of our sin and our need for repentance. Change our ways, dear God so that we may decide to follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to whom we pray. Amen.