Luke 13:1-9

"In other words - what Jesus is meaning to say:
   In this life, undeserved bad things will happen to good people; and,
   in the life to come, deserved bad things will happen to bad people
   who don't repent now."

Year C, Season of Lent
Third Sunday in Lent

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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This text comes at the end of a long section of teachings and parables that began way back in Luke 12:1, "Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered by the thousands, so that they began to trample on one another, he began to speak ..."

Unfortunately for us poor preachers, the authors of the Lectionary have once again given us a passage with two distinct and unrelated messages. (Don't be misled by the "Then" that begins Luke 3:6 - it is a simple marker of time, not of logical connection. The parable in Luke 3:6-9 is not meant to clarify or be a further teaching about Luke 3:1-5.) So we are faced with the daunting task of preparing two mini-sermons or of mostly ignoring the one-half of the reading that one-half of the congregation were wanting us to say more about! Good luck with that dilemma everyone.

Verse 1 and 4. These incidents are not reported outside of Luke according to my annotated Bible's footnotes. However, Pilate's slaughtering of others is recorded elsewhere - and ought to give us a foreshadowing of the blood that will be mingled with his sacrifice of a certain other Galilean, Jesus. And the collapse of a tower would not be unheard of.

These two incidents capture 2 of the 3 main causes of human pain and suffering: the deliberate actions of other people, and undeserved accidents. (The third cause is sickness and disease.)

Luke doesn't tell us why some of those present told Jesus about what Pilate had done to the Galileans. Perhaps it had just happened and this was the first time the news had reached those in the crowd? Perhaps - knowing that Jesus and his closest followers were Galileans - there was concern about family and friends? Perhaps there was wondering about how Jesus, as a Galilean, would respond to Pilate's actions?

What we do know is that in both cases Jesus responds to the unasked question, "Why me?" Why has this undeserved pain and death happened?

In both cases, Jesus would shock his audience by saying, "It did not happen to them because they deserved it. They did not die because they were worse sinners than those who lived."

This teaching of Jesus would shock his audience because the wide-spread, taken for granted, deeply held, bed-rock belief was that EVERYTHING happened for a reason. God is just, and if bad things happen to someone, it has to be because - in some way - they deserve it. Or - in some way - something good will come from it and it only seems like a bad thing to us.

But Jesus rejects this line of belief. Those who died were not more deserving of dying than those who lived - they were not worse sinners. And. What happened is a bad thing because it will happen to you also if you don't repent.

In other words - if I may be so bold as to re-phrase what Jesus is meaning to say -

In this life, undeserved bad things will happen to good people; and,
in the life to come, deserved bad things will happen to bad people who don't repent now.

Jesus is silent on the question of why God - who is worthy of our trust and worship - allows undeserved bad things to happen to good people in this life. But boldly stepping into this void, I offer my own thoughts on God And Evil: The Power Of Love.

Verses 6 to 9. The last verses are actually more of a conclusion to this long section of teachings than a response to the immediately previous verses alone.

In effect, Jesus is saying:

I've just dumped a lot of manure on you, and I'm giving you a year before I come back to see if you are bearing good fruit or not.

So pay attention to what I've just taught you. Absorb it. Take it in.

And let me activate in you what you are already designed for.

You don't have to become completely different - become a whole new tree. Just bear the fruit that you already have been created for; already have the capacity for.

(And though he doesn't explicitly say it here ...) And together, be a rich and varied field of life with many different kinds of fruits.

And perhaps it's just me ... but be prepared for some joker to say on the way out after church, "Pastor. Your sermon was a real load of manure today." And pray that they really mean it as Jesus has meant it.

David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca

* Link to Amazon.com Bibliography for Bruce Malina, et. al., Social Science Commentary on ... The Synoptic Gospels; The Gospel of John; The Book of Acts; The Letters of Paul; The Book of Revelation; and others.

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Comments

[Brian]

Very thoughtful. Thanks for sharing your insights.