Isaiah 55: 1-9 / Psalm 63: 1-8 / I Corinthians 10: 1–13 / Luke 13: 1-9
This
is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in
McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 23, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker.
“MEASURING UP”
(Homily text: Luke 13: 1–9)
Let’s ask ourselves, each of us, a
question: “Compared to God’s holiness, how do I measure up?”
Imagine that we have before us a yard
stick, held upright. At the bottom is the zero marker, and at the top, the
thirty-six inch marker. Imagine that the thirty-six inch marker is the mark of
God’s holiness.
Now, how would we, each of us, measure
up against God’s holiness?
That’s a good introduction to today’s
Gospel reading, from Luke’s account, chapter thirteen.
Luke relates to us that our Lord put a
question to those who’d gathered around him, comparing the fates of two
different groups of people who’d suffered awful deaths, to the self-estimations
of His hearers as to their own righteousness and holiness before God.
Hold that thought for a moment, and
let’s look at some aspects of this passage.
For one thing, this is material that
Luke, alone among the Gospel writers, tells us about.
The other thing to notice is that we
know absolutely nothing about the two incidents that are described in this
morning’s reading. We do know that Pontius Pilate was the Roman Governor of
Judea for ten years, from 26 to 36 AD,. We also know that he could be a
ruthless person, so the incident that Jesus describes of the fate of the
Galileans who’d (presumably) been killed by Pilate, and whose blood had been
mingled with some pagan ritual, were victims of Pilate’s violent ways. The
Lord’s report on the fate of these Galileans fits quite well with what we know
about Pontius Pilate. The other incident seems to be some sort of a
construction accident, involving the collapse of a tower.
One thing I think that the Lord is
making clear in His citation of these two incidents is to say that, in the case
of the first group, their deaths were deliberate (perhaps Pilate’s response to
some sort of a rebellion?), while the second group of deaths seems to be
accidental.
However, Jesus is making a point, and
that point seems to be that, despite the nature of the deaths of these two
groups of people, it wasn’t their sinful condition, necessarily, that was the
root cause of their fate.
At this point, it’d be a good idea to
return to the commonly-held ideas that influenced people during the time of our
Lord’s earthly ministry.
Recall with me that people seemed to
believe that if a person lived a good and righteous life, and lived by the
precepts of the Law of Moses, then God would honor that person with good health
and also, with the blessings of life (often material blessings). Conversely, as
we’ve noted on other occasions, the reverse attitudes were also common; If a
person was sickly or poor, then their condition must surely be due to some
grievous sin against God.
According to the prevailing “wisdom” of
the day, the higher one found themselves compared to God, the more likely it
was that their place on the ladder was due to their own efforts.
The image of our yard stick now comes
in handy.
People during the time of our Lord’s
visitation hoisted themselves up the ladder by their own efforts. Also true was
that they assessed their own standing by their own standards of measurement,
not God’s. And, in addition, they looked down this imaginary yard stick at
those who (they thought) were below them, or who were even at the bottom. We
can even imagine that people who thought they’d made their way up the ladder
believed that those at the bottom were beyond God’s ability to lift up.
Jesus knocks the props out from under
such self-assessed, self-righteous persons.
“Do you think,” He says, “that those
who perished were worse sinners than all the others?
Then, the point is made: “No, unless
you repent, you will likewise perish.”
Our Lord’s message is as pointed today
as it was 2,000 years ago.
Individual repentance is the beginning
point of any journey with God. An honest self-assessment opens the door to
God’s lifting us up, and to clothing us with the righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Welcome to Lent, dear friends! Time to
self-assess. Time to be honest with ourselves and with God, admitting that –
absent God’s intervention were are likely to be puffed up and full of ideas
about how “good” we are. But, when compared to the full measure of God’s
holiness, we see how badly we need God’s help.
Thankfully, that same holy and
righteous God waits for us to come clean, to admit our true spiritual
condition, to seek the Holy Spirit’s help to see ourselves as God sees us, and
to realize that God’s love awaits our confession.
AMEN.
