1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 3rd Sunday in Lent is taken from Luke 13:1-9, it’s entitled, “We Need Repentance Now,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. We live in a culture that has mastered the art of being outraged. As soon as news breaks, social media is flooded with people playing a game of, “I am more outraged at this injustice than you are.” Who can forget a few weeks ago when Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from the TV Show, “The View” for two weeks after claiming that the Holocaust wasn't about race but “about man's inhumanity to man.” While it is helpful and necessary to take action against injustice in the world, we often run the danger of using these injustices as opportunities to fool ourselves. The attitude seems to be “Look at the wickedness of those people over there!” The text for today from Luke chapter 13 attacks this self-righteous attitude and makes clear that, we are the ones who need repentance, and we need it now!
3. Our Introit today says, “The way of the wicked will perish.” While we may be tempted to decry the wickedness of the world around us, the Gospel from Luke 13 for this Third Sunday in Lent makes it clear that apart from Jesus we are squarely in the camp of the wicked (Lk 13:5). The Apostle Paul warns us in the Epistle, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). In the Old Testament Reading, Ezekiel also warns that although we have been declared righteous, if we become arrogant in our righteousness and do injustice, we will die in injustice (Ezek. 33:13).
4. God’s people are warned to hear his Word of Law and Gospel continually so that we do “not turn back to folly” (Ps 85:8). We are called to fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Gradual), for God is a God whose glory it is to have mercy and to be gracious to all who have gone astray (Collect), including us. While we may be tempted to view others as more evil or more deserving of God’s judgment than we ourselves, such an attitude is dangerous, for it breeds a prideful rejection of repentance. Today’s Readings call us to recognize the urgency of our own need for forgiveness and to rejoice in the mercy of the God who loves to save.
5. The need for repentance is ours (Luke 13:1–5). After hearing Jesus’ words on reconciliation and the need for forgiveness in Luke 12:57–59, the crowds report to him about some who had suffered at the hands of Pilate. Their report suggests that the ones who had suffered somehow deserved it because they were more wicked than the crowds themselves. Jesus will not let that assumption stand. Pilate’s victims were not more wicked than those bringing the report—or than the innocent victims who suffered when a tower in Siloam fell.
6. How many times have you found yourself happily cruising down the road when suddenly you spot a police car cleverly hiding, just waiting to nab an unsuspecting speedster? What do you do when you finally spot the cop? You tap your brakes. Anytime you witness a chain reaction of brake lights flickering into action on the highway, it’s a good bet there’s a trooper up ahead. If you were going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, you probably tap those brakes pretty hard. But even if you aren’t speeding, the response when you see a police car clocking traffic is to tap the brakes and slow down.
7. If we know how to react in the presence of a police car, how much more should we know how to react when death rears its ugly head! Here in Luke 13 Jesus teaches us how we ought to react to the presence of tragedy and death in this fallen world. Rather than cruising past those suffering the pain of loss, such pain should cause us to “slow down” and realize our own sinfulness and our desperate need for salvation (Lk 13:1–5). When we realize these things, we shouldn’t delay repentance, any more than we should continue past the highway patrol at 90 miles an hour and hope the officer doesn’t notice. We may not abuse God’s grace, try his patience. Rather, we call out to our God in confession today, that we might receive His forgiveness right now (13:8–9). Don’t put off to tomorrow the forgiveness you need today!
8. As I said, the presence of tragedy or death of any kind is a stark reminder of the reality of sin. We can’t say with certainty that any specific tragedy is the result of a specific identifiable sin, but we can say that tragedy in general is a consequence of sin in general (Rom 8:18–25).
9. When we see tragedy in our world, we often want to distance ourselves from it. The people in our text avoided reality by placing blame on the victims—fostering a “that’ll never happen to me” mentality that is all too common in our sinful minds. We want to blame someone’s cancer on his or her smoking, drinking, or eating the wrong kinds of food. We’re convinced that if we keep healthy lifestyles, such sickness won’t attack us.
10. But, tragedy and death should instead remind us of our own sinfulness and need for salvation. How many of us have been moved to contemplate our own mortality by witnessing the death of a loved one? The somber mood at a funeral is usually only partly over the death of the one in the casket. We ask when will my day come? That’s not because of some particular sin, but because we’re all sinful. We all need to repent, because we’re all going die, and one who dies without repentance and forgiveness will perish eternally.
11. The time for repentance is now. Jesus illustrates the seriousness of the situation with a parable. In Luke 13:6–9 Jesus said, “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.’” The ax of judgment was raised and poised to strike down each of us until Jesus interceded. The ax of judgment has been delayed, but not forever. It could swing down anytime. Our need is urgent! The time for repentance is now! Thanks be to Christ that he interceded to reconcile us to God!
12. The new life we have been given by Jesus is as trees that produce the fruit of faith. The vinedresser did what it took to restore us to life. His labor was giving his life! Through that effort of the vinedresser, we now produce the fruit of faith. St. Paul says in Gal. 5:22–23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
13. Because we have the gift of reconciliation, we look forward to the new and perfect creation. Jesus promises that the Last Day will not be a day of judgment for the faithful (Jn 5:24). As we wait for that day, we continue to live a life of repentance (2 Pet 3:9–14), steadfastly studying and clinging to our Lord’s Word, treating each day as if it could be our last to receive the gift of forgiveness.
14. We live in a world well versed in the art of rationalizing away sin as if it were not sin. We, too, might be tempted to think of sin and judgment as applying only to other people, making excuses for our own sin, while looking for God to punish others for theirs. Rather than living in this willful ignorance, our Lord has called us to use the experience of tragedy in this world as a reminder of the fate that awaits us all: death. Thanks be to God, for he has delivered his Son to death in our place, that we might not die eternally. May our Lord keep us faithful in repentance until the day he returns to bring us to our heavenly home. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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