Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
Today’s reading from Luke takes up a question that was as important in the days of Jesus as it is now: Why do bad things happen to good people? And today’s reading will lead us in places where we’d rather not go. Today, we will have to face some difficult questions about ourselves and who we are. Otherwise, we run the risk of dying apart from God. We run the risk of being cut down by God. We run the risk of hell fire if we don’t face up to who we are today.
Jesus and the disciples were still walking around Galilee. Jesus was healing people and speaking of the kingdom of God to people. Several people asked Him a question: A group of men from Galilee had been killed in the Temple of God by the Roman Governor Pilate and his soldiers. And so the question was posed to Jesus and His group of Galilean disciples: Do you think these men were terrible sinners, for them to be struck down in the very act of offering a sacrifice?
And we have this idea also, that some people are worse sinners than other people, and that some sins are worse than others and that with a just God bad things will happen to bad people and good things will happen to good people and if bad things happen to good people, then that’s either because the event wasn’t really bad, or the good people weren’t really good.
For example, when a child is diagnosed with cancer and suffers before dying, we are confused. We understand someone who has smoked for fifty years dying of lung cancer, and someone who has been a hard-core drunk for thirty years dying of cirrhosis of the liver, or liver cancer. We understand when a woman vainly tans herself for years and years and ends up with skin cancer. We understand when a race car driver ends up dying in a car crash, we fully understand when a serial murderer dies in a gun battle with police, but we don’t understand when a three year old child suffers and dies with cancer, and so we say “she must have been very, very good and God wanted her with Him”.
And the other way, we think that perhaps the people who died in Hurricane Katrina died because they were from New Orleans and “everyone knows” that people from New Orleans are sinners, or we think that the people of Japan who died in the tsunami died because they were all unbelievers, Buddhists and Shinto, and we think that the people who die in the Syrian War are dying because they are Moslems and haven’t given their life to Christ, and the people who die in drive-by shootings or gang shootings are dying because they must have been involved in something bad, no matter what people tell us about them, because we want to believe in a just God who always treats people fairly.
And our movies and television and our stories reinforce this. The bad guys die at the end in a shoot-out or are killed by their own bombs; the good guys barely escape. The boys-in-blue arrive just in the nick of time to rescue the good detectives; the corrupt politicians admit their crimes in front of a hidden television camera. If the hero dies, it is always a sacrificial death, saving the world or some innocents from danger. And if an accident happens, it is because someone evil has set a trap for someone, profited by cutting corners, hurried to make money, or otherwise sinned and that was why the accident happened.
But Jesus says to those who asked about the Galileans who were killed at the Temple making their sacrifices, “No, they were no worse than anyone else.” And He brings up the collapse of the tower in Siloam – the 18 people that the tower fell upon were no more guilty than anyone else. Accidents happen. Isn’t it interesting – towers are places of safety where people run to in time of danger – yet towers can fall upon people, because, you see, they aren’t the ultimate place of safety. Trusting God is the ultimate and final place of safety.
And when Jesus answers the question about the Galileans and when He brings up the Tower of Siloam that collapsed, Jesus makes an extra point:”But unless you repent, you too will all perish. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
You see, we are mistaken when we look at the guilt of people, the sinfulness of people as though we could put sinfulness or goodness on a scale of 1 to 10. We think that some people are better than others, and so some nasty people rate a 2 on the goodness scale, while many people rate a 5 or 6 on the goodness scale, and still others, the nicest people, rate an 8 or 9 on the goodness scale. And perhaps that is just fine, perhaps we are correct that some people are less sinful than others.
But what Jesus is saying to us is that our scale is off, our idea of goodness is off, our entire concept of some people being better than others is a sin in itself, a way to pat ourselves on the back and lift our own impression of ourselves.
In fact, you are either guilty or not guilty. You are either seen by God as a criminal or not, as a rebel or a loyal subject. God does not do like we do and treat shoplifting as a petty crime, robbery as a felony, and serial murder as a terrible crime. To God, every sin is a capital crime, because every sin harms God’s creation and the people in it. You are either a rebel to God or not; You are either sinful or righteous. If you want to put a scale on it, perhaps some people are 2’s, some 6’s, some 9’s on the goodness scale, but a passing grade is nine thousand, five hundred and forty three!
As Isaiah wrote in Chapter 64: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” The real meaning of this passage is that our good deeds are like rags that have been used as toilet paper.
You see, if you gossip, you may never go to jail, but you have harmed someone as much or more than if you punched them in the nose. If you tear someone down with your mouth or a roll of your eyes, you hurt someone just as much or more than if you beat their car with a sledgehammer. And there are many cases where Facebook bullying, picking on people, and generally embarrassing people has led them to suicide, and thus the bullies, the jokesters, and those who embarrass others are just as guilty in God’s eyes of murder as those who used a shotgun with their own hands. And you never know when your supposedly harmless flirting with someone will tear up their marriage just as quickly as if you spent the night with them.
To God, all people are guilty of some sin, some crime against God or other people, and need to repent. You see, it doesn’t matter to God whether or not you got caught, because God saw your sin, God saw your crime, God always sees your actions. If God enforced our highway speed limit with fines, how many people would be bankrupt?
No, as Jesus said, we are all guilty and need to repent, to turn around in our ways, to ask for forgiveness and to start on a new path. But too often we look at a situation and say, “They received from God what was coming to them. That shows God’s character, that God is just,” we say.
But you see, the real miracle, the real demonstration of God’s character, the real show of how much patience God has is that this destruction hasn’t already happened to all of us, for we all deserve to be killed with our sacrifices, to have towers fall upon each of us, to be burned and tortured forever in a lake of fire because of the damage we have done to other people.
And we shouldn’t believe we have plenty of time to turn around, to repent, to get right with God. For look at what Jesus says next.
After this discussion about the Galileans and the Tower of Siloam, Jesus immediately launches into a parable. He tells of a fig tree which was planted in a special, protected place in good soil. The tree was planted in a vineyard, a walled area which is cultivated and protected, with soil that was especially good. In ancient times the fig tree represented Israel, today it may represent a church that is planted in a wonderful location, easy to see and easy to reach, a church that is planted among people ready to hear about God. Or the fig tree may represent a person who grew up in the church, surrounded by good people who taught the Gospel in Sunday school classes, by people who protected the person as he or she grew up in the shelter of the church. The fig tree may refer to you.
Fig trees normally bear fruit the second year, and then a lot of fruit the third year. The owner of the tree talks to his gardener and says, “I’ve come by this tree every year for three years and there is no fruit. Zip, nada, none. So why should we even waste the soil on the tree? Cut it down!”
The fig tree has plenty of leaves, it may even have blossoms on it, but there are no fruits – none. As far as the owner is concerned, it is a worthless tree and should be cut down. It isn’t even worth a few square feet of soil.
And so it is with many churches and many people. God puts us in a wonderful place in the world, protects us, allows us time to grow and to develop. And we show lots of activity – we put out many, many leaves, and we do many, many things. We have bake sales and we have clubs, we give money to various Christian organizations, we read our Bibles and we sing in our choirs, we show up every Sunday and we even begin to have blossoms – we develop a good, interesting service, we have in-depth Sunday schools, we have food pantries, we have Vacation Bible Schools with lots of people attending, and we personally learn scripture, we begin to understand God, we feel like we’re becoming more holy, we have blossoms. And so we have leaves – which is activity – and blossoms – we look good to the world and to ourselves.
But where is the fruit?
The fruit is found when all that energy and activity generated by the leaves turns into many, many blossoms, and then when those blossoms turn into ripe figs, new fruit for the owner. And what is fruit in this context?
Fruit is when we actually help a person understand Christ well enough that he or she decides to tell everyone they’ve come to Jesus, when people step forward and are baptized, when mature Christians step forward and declare that they are ready to become pastors, or missionaries, or go into the world in another way to lead people to Christ, perhaps even founding new churches, and when our existing food pantries and youth groups and Pioneer clubs begin bringing people to Christ instead of to food and fun and activities.
In the parable, the owner was ready to cut down the unproductive fig tree. But the gardener said, “Give me another year to dig around it, to spread some manure and fertilizer around it, to invest some time in it and we’ll see if it produces fruit.”
Jesus was talking directly about Jerusalem when He told this parable. You’ll remember that Jesus had told the people that others would have their blood mingled with their sacrifices at the Temple unless they repented. Jesus told the people that others would be killed by falling towers unless they repented. And Jesus was talking about Jerusalem, which had never been as fruitful as God had willed over the centuries that it had been occupied by the Jewish nation.
In 70 AD, about 35 to 40 years after Jesus told this parable, after Jesus, the man Mary imagined to be the gardener outside His tomb a few weeks later, after Jesus the gardener fertilized Jerusalem with His own blood, God gave up on Jerusalem and had it cut down. The Roman legions under Titus destroyed the city and the Temple, killing thousands of Jews in the Temple courtyards and destroying the Temple so that the only remaining part of the Temple still standing is the Western Wall which you will sometimes see on television. The rest of the town was torn down, towers were pulled down, burying people inside, walls were toppled, killing people underneath, and a few decades later, the remaining Jews were ordered out of Jerusalem by the Romans, never to return until the 20th century. For centuries, Jerusalem lay without Jews. The fig tree that was Israel had been cut down.
You have witnessed churches that have failed to be fruitful. Churches that were filled with activity 30, 40, 50 years ago are being closed or being sold today. New, independent churches are being planted and are growing with fruit where the old, unfruitful churches were cut down.
In this charge, our churches have had plenty of leaves, some blossoms, even some fruit, but not nearly as much as our owner wants. Last year Quiet Dell had a total of 10 professions of faith or baptisms, and Monroe Chapel had 2 baptisms. We’re running about 10% - let’s see if we can increase our fruit to 20% this year.
How about you personally? Have you ever led an adult to the waters of baptism, have you ever led someone to follow Jesus Christ? Have you even led a child to this point? I see lots of leaves, I even see some blossoms, but where is your personal fruit?
Tim Keller, who pastors a mega-church in New York City, points out that the real issue for many people is who or what they love most in the world. If you love money, you will have money. If you love kids, you will have kids. If you love art, you will have art. If you love ceramic butterflies, you will have ceramic butterflies. If you love neatness, you will have neatness, and if you love dogs, you will have dogs. But if you love God, you will have God and if you love your neighbor, you will have neighbors. What do you love?
When David was in the desert, he wrote this in our Psalm:
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
Do you thirst for God? Like a man lost in the desert searching for water, only water, ignoring gold and silver and everything else, looking only for life-giving water, do you seek God for yourself and others?
Or are you devoted to everything else in your life, sharing your love of everything else with your love for God, spending your time worrying about your career, your home, your politics, your entertainment?
It is time to face this question and look at ourselves in the mirror. Do you thirst for God – or are you devoted to everything else in your life?
If you are still struggling with loving God, then leading people to Christ is a tough decision, for you really don’t know what you love. And so you need to consider whether or not you love God. Really.
The key to bearing fruit for God, the key to personally leading people to Christ is when you step back and realize that God really loves all these people around you and has asked each of us to lead these people to Christ. If you are devoted to God, then leading these people to understand God is easy, because you will do whatever God asks.
But when you realize that all these people around you in your life whom you love – and many whom you wish you could love if it wasn’t for their issues – when you realize that all these people would be so very much helped – and you would be so very much helped – if you could explain to them how much God and Christ loves them, if you could help them see that they are much stronger and better than they think they are, and if you could bring them to commit their lives also to Christ, it is then that leading people to Christ becomes easy because you will have made the decision to follow Christ no matter what.
Of course, this assumes that you have truly committed your life to following Christ first. It assumes that you love Christ more than anything else in your world. And honestly, most people in most churches love other things more than Christ and want to keep Him “in balance” in their lives. But being able to do this is a myth.
Jesus doesn’t ask you to balance Him in your lives. He asks for your entire life. Jesus doesn’t want you to trade off your kid’s soccer games with your work for Him – He wants you to spend the time at the soccer game talking about Him. Jesus doesn’t want you to make a decision between working for your employer and working for Him – He expects you to be the shining light at your office, the most pleasant, most wonderful representative of Christ you can be, and to lead people at your office to Him. Jesus doesn’t expect you to allow your children to decide what religion they will follow – Jesus expects that you will teach them very clearly about Him and His love for them.
But leading people to Christ and having fruit for Christ also assumes you love other people. Not everyone does. Christians are commanded to love all people. And that is SOOOO difficult! Perhaps you might consider if this is why you don’t have fruit – because you really don’t like more than a handful of people, because you actually can’t stand most people, because you only care about your family and if the truth were to be told, you barely tolerate some of them. Is this why you don’t have fruit? You’re going to Heaven and the devil take the rest?
If so, admit it to God and ask for forgiveness, ask Jesus for help loving other people, begin to pray for the people you don’t like as well as the people you love and see what happens in your life.
And so why should we love Christ?
Because without Jesus to dig around us and fertilize us, we would have been cut down a long time ago to make room for someone else who is more fruitful than us. Without Jesus to garden us, to tend to us, to love us as the gardener loved the fig tree, yes, even to dump manure on us, the owner would have simply lost patience with us and let us fall, cut down to be burnt to a crisp in the spiritual fire pit. Without Jesus who died instead of us, we would be dead, gone, and never able to rise up again, separated from the love of God forever.
But with Jesus and the tremendous love He has shown you and me, we have hope, we often have joy, we are here today with friends in this world who care for us – many of whom are sitting near us today. And Jesus made this all possible for us.
During Lent, on Wednesday evenings at 7 pm at Monroe Chapel I’m going over in detail how to lead someone to Jesus. I’ll also be leading a group in this right here in Quiet Dell on Sunday evenings at 6 pm.
Do bad things happen to good people? Jesus’ answer was chilling – all people are guilty, and we should be thankful that God is patient and hasn’t destroyed us all already for our sins, our crimes.
Consider: How long ago did the owner come to your particular fig tree and threaten to cut you down? Was it earlier today? Or was it a year ago? Do you have plenty of time to bear fruit? Or is your time almost up?
This past week, there was an episode you may have heard about in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a town about twice the size of Clarksburg west of Detroit. A man suddenly began driving around town, shooting random people. Over a half-dozen people died. Consider: Were they all worse sinners than average? The question that was asked about the Galileans killed by Pilate still remains today. Apparently, the shooter did not know any of the victims and wasn’t trying to make any political point. The shooter was just random. Random people were shot – and died.
How much longer do you have, do I have? We don’t know. How much longer until our owner cuts us down? We don’t know.
Or shall we produce fruit, knowing that no matter how long we have we are doing God’s will? Shall we have the wonderful joy of leading another person into eternal joy? Shall we have the joy of knowing that we have done at least one thing in our life which makes an eternal difference?
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