C, Lent 3 - Luke 13:1-9 "Repentance & the Sinner"
1. Be a Sinner!
Churches are places where the ugliness of sin is seen and at the same time there's a beauty to be seen as well! From the church in Corinth, right through history, and even here today is no different. Beauty seems to be fleeting because congregations struggle with sin. However, church's hold a hidden splendour as well. This is the presence of God’s grace in the midst of sinners. In fact this beautiful grace would not be fully revealed if the ugliness of sin wasn't known.
Martin Luther writing to his friend and fellow theologian Phillip Melanchthon says, ‘Beware of aspiring to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sinner, or to be one.’ And again, ‘God does not save people who are fictitious sinners. Be a sinner and sin boldly but believe and rejoice even more boldly… As long as we are here in this world we have to sin.’
So be a sinner, know your sin is the reason God’s grace has come and now resides in and amongst you in the person of the risen Lord Jesus.
2. What is this Repentance?
The gospel reading tells us we must repent. Jesus says, ‘unless you repent you too will perish!’ So now it seems we have a problem? In one breath I tell you, ‘be a sinner’, now Jesus says, ‘Repent!’
Repentance is a change in direction, where one stops doing what they are doing, about faces, and then finds themselves on the correct course of action.
So why do we need to repent? Why has Jesus commanded us to do this? After all if we do not repent Jesus says we too will perish!
Repentance is not something we choose to do. Do you think a person has the energy, know-how, or will to stop, turn and walk into the light of God when we are content keeping our sin hidden in the dark?
It’s like the bloke who fell through the slats of his piggery into the waste pit. You can imagine the state he was in. He kept to himself for days even though straight after the accident he washed the muck off his body. However, washing was of little use because the pig smell had permeated every pore of his skin—a modern day Pepe-Le-Pew.
You can understand why he kept clear of everyone. How much less does a person hidden in the darkness of sin want to come out into the light of God’s holiness and repent?
The reality of repentance is it's not our self-saving work, we can’t choose to repent by ourselves. But unfortunately a logical, rational understanding of repentance combined with our sinfulness usually brings us to a false conclusion that if first we repent only then God will accept us!
3. The Reality of Repentance.
To get a grip on the reality of repentance one only needs to have a close look at the context into which Jesus speaks. What is going on between Jesus and those around him?
There's a report brought before Jesus; one of Pilate’s murderous actions against the Galileans. A great calamity has fallen upon these people. News has come to Jerusalem from the province of Galilee that some have been killed. Right at the time when they were before God offering up sacrifices!
Jesus responds not as we might expect. There's no questioning over the details of the horrific tragedy, nor was there a statement made over the actions of Pilate.
Rather Jesus asks those who heard the report with him, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?’ In this question Jesus cuts right to the issues at hand. He addresses the problem in his presence rather than the crisis in
In Jesus' presence stood sinners who saw sin, not in themselves, but, in others. Jesus knew logic was telling them, ‘the Galileans must have done something really bad to deserve death, if they weren’t ‘sinners’ it wouldn’t have happened to them.’ Jesus responds to the unspoken thoughts of those who brought the news, not the actual news?
Jesus continues to shed light on their lack of understanding by switching locations to Jerusalem, the home of the temple, the place where God resided. A city where one would assume no guilt existed because the correct rituals were performed daily; where sins were worked off with appropriate living.
But hang on—stop press—18 killed in a tower collapse. Surely it couldn’t have happened to Jerusalemites, they must have been ‘sinners’ from somewhere else!
Again Jesus addresses not the tragic events but rather the flawed assumptions and thinking of those to whom he speaks. Jesus says to those around him, ‘Unless you repent you too will all perish!’
4. The Reality is: Jesus is Present.
So what is your reality into which Jesus speaks? He calls for the repentance of those with him, those who are the close to him; those whose logic would tell them they don’t need to repent because they already have access to the Lord. He calls you, to repent.
Jesus calls all to stop thinking we are without sin, to stop believing the other person is worse, or we are better. He calls us to stop, abandon our current thoughts and beliefs, and return to a reality grounded in God. He called you to return to God who loves you and has already chosen you.
The reality of repentance is; God did not call humanity to repent so then Jesus might come. No! In fact he comes amongst those he calls to repent. He was sent to be with sinners, dying for them, so all might repent because of him.
So what is the reality into which Jesus speaks here today? It's the same flawed logic, the same tragic thinking that everyone else should repent, I am right and everyone else is wrong, my sin is not really that bad, I am better than the next person, and they need to clean up their act.
God has chosen you before you were created in you mothers’ wombs, he chose you, a sinner, before you actually sinned.
We don’t know why tragedy, terror, and horror, falls on some and not others. That's for God alone to know. But we know why tragedy, terror, and horror fell on God’s own Son. We know our sinful nature warrants each and every one of us be flogged with whips till we become so disfigured not to be recognised, that each of us be condemned to death, that each of us be nailed to a cross and receive the curse of everyone who passes by.
The reality is this: an innocent man was put to death enabling you to be carried from darkness into the glorious presence of God.
Jesus calls you to repentance right now. He continually calls you to repentance even after you have been forgiven, even after you have received eternal life. Do you know this is what's happening in this and every divine Sunday service? We enter God’s service by our baptism (where we hear and receive forgiveness and cleansing), then we're called to repent at confession and are forgiven in the absolution, and even after the absolution still the call to repent remains in his Word.
In this service God is with us, Jesus is present. Jesus doesn’t ask you to repent first so that he might dwell with you; rather he is already here and is now asking you to repent so you might remain with him not just today but into eternity.
5. Be a Repentant Sinner!
So Jesus died for sinners! You are a sinner! Therefore, he died for you!
Repentance is the faith driven act which enables us to stop, admitting we are lost, letting Jesus pick us up, and bearing us back to the Father. Grace always precedes repentance in the lives of sinners.
Repentance is for sinners, because ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us’. (Rom 5:8)
Jesus knows you have a sinful nature, and he also know you have sins from which to repent. He's got your nail marks to prove it! But the truly amazing thing about grace is: Even though you and I still sin the gardener still keeps returning to prune you and fertilize you.
So be a sinner. No! Be a repentant sinner, and sin boldly. But even more boldly believe him, trust him, and repent before him. And praise him boldly too, for he is in your presence making you shine before the Father as if we were not a sinner at all. Amen.
