C, Lent 3 - Luke 13:1-9, "Just Desserts"

Luke 13:1–9 (ESV) There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  And Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.  Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.  And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’  And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.  Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

At the present time fighting goes on in the Ukraine.  Recently, floods have killed and displaced families in Australia.  The last couple of years have been testing on a worldwide scale due to Covid-19.  Before that, extreme dry led to black skies, where day turned to night, as bushfires ravaged our country and smoke filled our lungs.  Not to mention, the daily occurrence of tragedies and violence that affect many communities, families, and individuals.  

When you hear of these things happening, reported on the news, or spread as gossip in social media, how do you react?

 It is easy to become an accuser.  To think or say, “They probably deserve it?”  And if it is someone close who has offended us, it’s even easier to let the self-righteousness rise within and think or proclaim, “they’re getting their just desserts!”

We have been conditioned as watchers and judgers.  To join the army of armchair accusers, or the thumb-texting throng of thugs.

There are many bad things going on in the world.  How are we to view them?   We are baptised into Jesus, yet still struggle with desires, feelings, and thoughts they’re getting their just desserts. We so often find ourselves choosing a “It’s what they deserve” mentality!

With this mental frame of mind, Christians often make three mistakes, asking ourselves…

“Are we to recoil from the world and build walls around ourselves, insulated with cottonwool, to protect ourselves from the “evils” of the world?”  If we do this, we might just have found ourselves constructing a comfortable coffin in which to die all alone!

“Should we seek to infiltrate the world order, or should I say, disorder, to bring in a world Christian order?  Then I can implement what God wants!”  The problem here is that what would get implemented would be my law of disordered affairs.  Not God’s order or peace!

“Should we try to find favour with the world, and make the church a “safe place”, acceptable and relevant to the world?  Then they won’t get what they deserve because together we will make for ourselves a better society in which to live!”   No!  We would become so safe; God would not be tolerated.  And without God being with us, how safe would we be?

These three all fail. The first, a neutral curved in on the self-mentality.  The second, a militant war-mentality.  And the third, a goodness-mentality.  The three are not reality but are the narrowness of the human mind seeking answers in the self.

The report comes to Jesus that the Romans had killed some Galileans sacrificing to God.  Like us, the people were looking at the Romans for being the guilty aggressors.  They should not have been anywhere near those sacrificing let alone killing them and letting their blood desecrate the sacrifice.  They would have expected Jesus’ condemnation of the Roman pagans for doing this. 

Then again it was Galilean Jews who were killed and not the Jews of Judea.  Everyone knows that the Galileans are not as good a Jews as the Judean Jews!   Perhaps this is why they were killed, and the Romans desecrated the sacrifice!

Jesus then leaves off the Romans and Galileans and speaks of an accidental disaster where a tower falls on eighteen Judeans. Well, maybe they were not as good a Jews as those whom the tower did not fall!

Such is our mentality, to think this way.  But Jesus says, “No”!

To get an understanding why Jesus tells his hearers, “No!”, let’s go back to what’s going on today, and change the story a bit, so we can simply see the error of our ways.

Fighting in the Ukraine, Ukrainians and Russians are dying, some are killed just living in their country.  Some are Russian men, whom if they do not follow orders, will end up in something like a gulag in the former Soviet Union, or worse, shot.  Are the Ukrainians and Russians getting what they deserve?   Now picture them and replace them with Jesus Christ!  Would he be getting what he deserved?

Those who have died from Covid-19.  Those who have been denigrated for not being vaccinated, or those vilified for being vaccinated.  Replace them with Jesus Christ.  Is he getting what he deserves?  Those drowned by floods, burnt to death by fire, or who have lost everything, what if they were Jesus Christ, would they still be getting their just desserts?  Or the parents who have lost a child, what if you replace the parents with Jesus Christ, or the child with Jesus Christ?  Is Jesus deserving of these deadly desserts?

We soon realise how crazy it is to play, tit for tat, suffering for sin.

When Jesus hears about the tragedy of Galileans slaughtered or the Judeans flattened, he does not attribute fault, nor accuses the perpetrators or victims.  Instead, he addresses those before him, and says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus addresses the mentality presented to him, and dives straight to the heart of the issue.  He does the same with us too, who are no different to those of his day, as he walked to Jerusalem to die. 

With a mentality of “getting one’s just desserts”, we will not just die, but eternally die!  This is the mindset like that of believing in good and bad karma.  But good and bad karma is just another name for knowledge of good and evil, where we become the judge of what is good and what is bad, without the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Jesus demonstrates that all of us would be condemned to death if we got what we deserved.  Like the fig tree we would have long been ripped out of the ground and thrown out. 

Jesus tells us, now is always the opportune time of repentance, when we judge otherwise, we accuse and condemn ourselves the moment we open our mouths in judgement.  We reveal we deserve death and are guilty, just as much as anyone who has died. 

Perhaps the death of others is a warning to you and me!

So, as we walk in remembrance towards the cross with Jesus, we picture him nailed to the cross, but as a Saviour nailed there in our place.  We picture ourselves rightfully on the cross for our sin and all the sin in the world today. 

And as we do, we realise it could be me, facing death right now!   We see in others the same sinner that’s in me.  We do not excuse; nor do we accuse!  But we intercede, we pray as if we were Jesus, who continues to do the very same thing for us. 

In fact, we are called to be little Jesus Christ’s picking up our crosses, dying to self, and resolutely marching towards our resurrection and eternal life having been made perfect with the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Heavenly Father, you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to take our place as the fruitless tree, and was crucified on a cursed tree, to give us life and make us fertile, through your death and resurrection.  Send you Holy Spirit upon us to lead us in your perfect mercy and compassion, so we can work as the body of Christ, sharing steadfast love with others, who need to receive the Gospel.  Amen.