A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, March 3, 2013.
“WHAT TIME IS IT? A TIME FOR REPENTANCE”(Homily text: Luke 13: 1 – 9)
Last week,
we looked at the matter of schedule, taking as our text the latter part of
chapter thirteen of Luke’s gospel account, noting that Jesus seems to make
clear that He is in charge of His own schedule.
We noted last week that He said, “I drive out demons and perform cures
today, and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work.”
This
morning, however, we back up to the beginning of chapter thirteen. And here we see that the issue of schedule is
once again in view.
Jesus points to the wisdom of knowing what time it is. And specifically, His admonition is that we should know when it is time to answer to God for the welfare and condition of our souls….it is time to prepare for judgment!
But before
we draw some conclusions from Jesus’ teaching, let’s look a bit more closely at
this morning’s text. In order to set the
stage, we need to back up into the last part of the previous chapter, for the
last part of chapter twelve is directly connected to our reading for today.
In chapter
twelve, verses 54 - 59, Jesus says to the crowd that had gathered around Him,
“When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to
rain.’” He then adds another
illustration, saying that, “When you see the south wind blowing, you say,
“There will be scorching heat.’” Then He
adds that, when someone drags you into court, you would be wise to settle with
your accuser on the way to your appearance before the judge, before it is too
late.
Now, as we
turn the page to chapter thirteen, we see that the conversation becomes more
personal….Some in the crowd come forward and ask Jesus about some Galileans
who’d suffered a horrible death at Pilate’s hands. (It is worth noting here that no other
ancient source tells us anything about this incident, though the history of
Pilate’s ruthlessness would make this event a consistent part of his dealings
with the Jewish people.)[1]
The obvious
motivation for the mention of this atrocity is the common idea that, if these
Galileans had suffered such a fate, it must surely be due to some horrible sin
in their lives. The idea back in Jesus’
day was that, if you lived a good life, followed the commandments, stayed away
from sinners and other outcasts, and offered the appointed sacrifices, you
would be spared such distress.
Confirmation of this mindset can be found in Jesus’ encounter with the
Jews when He healed a man who had been born blind. The Jews ask, “Who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9: 2)
But Jesus
asks if those who’d asked the question thought that these Galileans were any
worse sinners than all other Galileans because this had happened to them. He then drives home the point, which is that
“Unless you repent, you too will all
perish.” (Italics mine, of course.)
But Jesus
doesn’t stop there…..Now, He mentions what might have been a construction
accident, or perhaps some unexpected calamity, by mentioning the collapse of a
tower that was part of the southeastern wall of the city of Jerusalem. (As in the slaughter of the Galileans
mentioned above, no other historical source mentions the collapse of the tower
at Siloam.)
Here, we
have an unexpected event, one that no one could have predicted, most
likely. And yet, Jesus draws the same
conclusion from it: Those eighteen who
were killed were no worse sinners than others living in Jerusalem who also die. Then He adds the admonition we heard a minute
ago, “No, I tell you, but unless you
repent, you will all perish as they did.” (Italics mine, again.)
To
underscore His point, Jesus tells a parable about an unproductive fig
tree. The fig tree has produced no fruit
for three seasons, so the landowner decides it’s time to cut it down. But the gardener intercedes, asking for just
one more chance to save the tree.
Earlier on,
we noted that Jesus had driven the need home by directing squarely at His
listeners… “Unless you repent…”
(Again, italics mine). Now Jesus makes
sure that His listeners understand that He is focusing His comments squarely at
them, and at the entire Jewish nation, as well…the context for understanding
that the intended target of His remarks is the nation comes from the context of
the use of the image of a fig tree as a symbol of the nation. We see the use of this imagery in the Old
Testament. We also see the use of the
vineyard as a symbol for the nation, as well.
Specifically, the passage that comes to mind in this context is Isaiah
5: 1 – 7. There, Isaiah says that
specifically that Israel is the unfruitful vineyard, whose owner had come to,
looking for fruit, but who found none.
Isaiah comes to the conclusion that God will do away with His vineyard,
because it is unfruitful.
As the
title of this homily suggests, we began our consideration of the text before us
this morning by asking the question, “What time is it?” The obvious answer, rising out of Jesus’
teaching, is: “It is time for
repentance.”
The people
who originally heard His demand, and those of us who hear it today, share a
basic spiritual condition in common: We
both may be tempted to think that “We’re OK, we don’t have a need to repent for
anything, or to change anything in our lives.”
We noted
earlier in this homily that the people of Jesus’ day thought that, if some
horrible thing happened to someone, it was because that person had done
something that was really sinful and bad.
(Recall the question that the Jews asked about the man born blind, cited
earlier.)
We also
noted that the common mindset of Jesus’ day was that, if a person followed the
commandments, did the appointed sacrifices, and scrupulously followed the
requirements of the Law of Moses in one’s daily life, then there was no need to
feel that anything else was required.
But notice
that the short list I’ve just provided has to do with one’s outward and visible actions. The people of Jesus’ day could point to their
attendance at synagogue and the temple, their offerings of the required
sacrifices, the fact that they stayed away from “bad people” (i.e. tax
collectors, prostitutes and other sinners), the fact that they didn’t walk too
far on the Sabbath day, or pick grain on the Sabbath day, or heal anyone on the
Sabbath day, as proof that they were OK in God’s book. These are all outward,
easily seen, actions.
It’s easy
to come to the conclusion that such a mindset can cultivate a certain spiritual smugness. Indeed, that’s the image we have of many in
Jesus’ day…they were proud of their status as children of Abraham, proud of
their identity as God’s chosen people, and assured of their relationship to God
because of their adherence to the requirements of the Law.
But Jesus’
focus is on the inward disposition of the heart.
And it is
in this way that we are, quite rightly, the targets of Jesus’ admonitions.
For though
many of the ritualistic requirements of the Law have been set aside, we, too,
can adopt a certain spiritual smugness,
just as many in Jesus’ day seemed to do.
We might be
tempted to create our own “short list” of reasons for our own spiritual
superiority. We might be tempted to
think that we are OK in God’s sight because of the things we do. (Feel free to fill in your own list
here.) But oftentimes our motivation for
thinking that we’re doing pretty well is easily based on our own outward and
visible actions. (Again, feel free to
refer to that list you’ve just compiled.)
However,
Jesus’ point is aimed squarely at us….He says, “Unless you repent….”
AMEN.
[1] The first century historian Josephus tells
us much about Pilate’s character and behavior.
Pilate ruled Judea and much of the Holy Land from 26 – 36 AD, when he
was removed from office by the Roman authorities. For more information, see Josephus’ works The Jewish War and the Antiquities of the Jews.
