3^rd Sunday in Lent

Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:1-9

¹ At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.² [Jesus] asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?³ No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. ⁴ Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.”

  ⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷ So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ ⁸ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

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No Money, No Bread? Not Exactly. 

“Hear, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1)”

Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

If Jesus had walked among us in our life span and we were writing a gospel about him using today’s readings, it could sound like this:

You heard it before, “They got what they deserve!” But now Jesus says to you, there are no worse sinners.

You heard it before, “Those ones are not worthy of the air they breathe! Cancel them out!” But now the Lord says to you, don’t quit on them. Instead, give them a little more nourishment, a little more T.L.C., and see what happens.

You heard it before, “No Money, No Bread! No hand-outs!” But now the Lord says to you, share your abundance with those without money. Be generous as the Lord has been generous to you. 

You’ve heard it before: “The punishment must fit the crime!” But now the Lord says to you, give the ones deemed unrighteous a chance to repent and change their hearts and minds. Allow them to return to the Lord, for he is always willing to extend love and mercy to them.

You heard it before: “Pull yourself up from the bootstraps!” But now the Lord says to you, don’t be too proud that you would fall. 

You heard it before: “God does not give you more than you can take.” But now the Lord says to you, the temptation to surrender to the world’s ways is strong to all who the Lord has claimed. But God will always offer enough nourishment and rest so we can live one more day and remain witnesses of his righteousness. 

The way of the Lord is not our way, and the thoughts of the Lord are not our thoughts. God sees things differently than we do.

It is tough, beloved. Believe me, I know. It would be so much easier if we had full access to God’s thoughts at any given time in our history on this earth so that we could validate our own ways and be sure that we are doing and standing for the right things. It is not the way of the Lord, though. Even after the incarnation and the voice from heaven announcing that Jesus is the one we must follow, there is a lot about God that remains hidden. 

For instance, Jesus and his parables, including the one we received today. Where is God in this story? Is God the harsh landowner who loses patience with the unfruitful tree and wants it to be cut down from this earth? If so, then is Jesus the gentle gardener who intercedes for the tree and wants to give it another chance? We would think so. But Jesus is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I personally put my eggs in God being the gardener because God, the mother hen, is always willing to protect and nourish us. 

On the other hand, Paul, the apostle of the crucified Lord, seems to think in our 1 Corinthians lesson today that all his ancestors who died in the wilderness got what they deserved, and he sincerely hopes that the faithful in Corinth will not fall to the same traps. The problem with that line of thinking is that it makes God the one who wants to have the unfruitful tree gone, and therefore, that makes Jesus someone who wants it gone. That is a problem. Jesus loves this, I know, for the Bible tells me so, and he says a few verses before that there are no worse sinners in the world. Was Paul wrong, or was he a mere mortal, facing very complex situations and therefore struggling to make sense of the good news he had just received and so passionately proclaimed and taught at great personal sacrifice?

By the way, why only one year? Isn’t Jesus’ love unconditional and unending? Is he telling us that even his patience has limits? He does not say. He also does not explain why evil and calamities feel so random and, at the same time, so target to some. 

Talking about complex, if not impossible, situations. Here we are, faithful disciples living in our world, facing one of those after another, hoping against hope that God will enlighten us with some immediate answers so we can finally know where to stand and where to go. Yet, they do not always come. God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. We seem to have a serious hard time since forever being in sync with our creator, provider, protector, and preserver. 

Maybe this is the meaning of the repentance that Jesus throws at us between persecutions and disasters in the gospel today, the repentance that means a change of hearts and minds. Maybe that is to acknowledge that we struggle with what God hopes for the collective of us and that we will always need further instruction and more of God’s presence to understand God’s ways a little better and to share into God’s thoughts a little more. 

In the meantime, we can hold on to the things our Lord tries to make simple for us:  be welcome to the waters, to the font of supreme mercy, always, freely, to be drowned in love, nourishment, and forgiveness, by the Lord that is always willing to give what we need to go on one more time. Thanks be to God. Amen.