Monday, March 24, 2025

“Turn toward Jesus” Luke 13.1–9 Lent 3C, March ‘25

 

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 for this 3rd Sunday in Lent is taken from Luke 13:1-9, it’s entitled, “Turn toward Jesus,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                        For over sixty years, their father had been a pastor—faithful, well respected by his fellow pastors—actively serving congregations until just a few years ago, up into his eighties. Two of his five children were now pastors, plus two of his many grandchildren. But now his pastor was the one he needed. He was dying. All the family was there—the three sons, two daughters, and their spouses, all those grandchildren, and even lots of the great-grandchildren. The room was full, and everyone knew this would soon be it. Then, quietly, their dad asked everyone to step outside . . . except, His pastor. Out in the hallway, one of his daughters asked, “What’s Dad doing?” “Private confession,” one of his sons answered. “Confession? He’s been a pastor all his life. What’s he got to confess?” The four pastors in the family, almost in unison, nodded knowingly. Within the hour, their dad was alive with Jesus.

3.                        It’s not just those we’d consider “great” sinners who need to repent. Nor is it just the faithful pastor who’s never had an affair, never stolen congregational funds, hardly let a foul word slip out of his mouth. “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). But it may well be the very faithful Christian, even the dear dying pastor, who best understands that he is a sinner and most appreciates the comfort of Christ’s forgiveness. In our text today, Jesus would have us all appreciate that more deeply, that we turn toward Jesus, for in Him there is life.

4.                        Jesus calls not just the “greatest” sinners, but all of us to repent. Some people in Jesus’ following have been “reading the newspapers” (remember that old technology), and they ask him for his commentary on one of the hot stories of the day (Luke 13:1). Several folks from Jesus’ own part of the country, Galileans, have been murdered by Roman governor Pontius Pilate. We don’t have further details about this incident from history, but the social tension between Jews and Romans made revolutionary activity possible at any time. Galileans were especially likely to revolt since they were surrounded geographically by Gentiles.  What is clear is that they were killed while in worship—like a church shooting today.

5.                        Essentially, the crowd wanted Jesus’ opinion: “Why do bad things happen to good Galileans?”  Jesus turns the tables (Luke 13:2–3). He dismisses—doesn’t even address—the idea that this was a bad thing happening to good Galileans. He goes to the next option: Well, then, these Galileans must have been especially bad sinners. No! All Galileans—and you—are bad, in need of repentance.

6.                        Jesus even adds another example of when 18 people died with the Tower of Siloam fell and killed them (Luke 13: 4–5). There is no historical record of this incident either, the tower of Siloam in Jerusalem falling on eighteen people. It must have been another recent news story. But again, no, these eighteen people were not especially wicked. They were just like you in need of repentance!

7.                        Jesus refuses to lean into a theology of glory by attributing human tragedy to individual sin, as the Jews often did (Jn 9:1–3). Instead, Jesus affirms that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and are thus in need of repentance. Every human tragedy is a call from God to repent. The world is irreparably dirty due to sin. Our good deeds, in any attempt to clean up our own sin, are as “filthy rags” (Is 64:6). Our rags are soiled beyond any human ability to make them clean again.

8.                        Jesus always levels the playing field. He is basically saying, “It’s just a matter of time before you all suffer the same fate. Death will come for us all. No one gets out alive. Your only hope is repenting in faith. Your only hope is turning away from your sin and turning to me.” On May 21, 2021, six-year-old Aiden Leos’s mother was driving him to kindergarten on the 55 Freeway in Southern California. After she became angry at being cut off by another car—and made her anger visible—a passenger in the other car fired a 9mm Glock pistol into her car. Aiden was killed. No one would suggest Aiden Leos was a worse sinner than countless others on the freeway that morning.

9.                        As deeply as his mother might regret her own actions, no one would suggest she any more earned such a tragic loss. And there is no way to “get into the mind of God” to make sense of why this happened. But God is not to blame. Rebellious mankind is to blame for all manner of random loss of life, both through accidents and from willful wickedness. Every story of tragedy is a call to repentance and a moment in time to cry out to God for salvation as found in his Son, Jesus Christ.

10.                    To all those who do repent, Jesus promises life. That’s the subtle inference of the parable Jesus now tells his hearers (Luke 13:6–9). For years—even millennia—Israel had been God’s chosen people. He’s been expecting fruit of righteousness in keeping with repentance and faith. But instead, Israel had responded to his goodness with sin—just as we sin against God daily. The time, it seems, has come to cut them down, to give us what we all deserve.

11.                    But the vinedresser, Christ Jesus, steps forward and pleads patience. Let me do everything I yet can for them, and if they repent, bear fruit, well, that’s what we’ve always wanted. “If they refuse to repent, then we shall cut them down.” The primary point of the parable is to display God’s patience in not wanting any person to perish, but to repent and find life in his Son. The Christian life is to be daily repentance. Sin’s consequences affect all people, so now is the time to repent and to live lives which bear fruit. Turn in faith toward Jesus, for in him there is life.

12.                    Jesus says elsewhere, in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. . . . Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [the Father] takes away, . . . and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” But “whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. . . . As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. . . . Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you” (Jn 15:5a, 2, 6, 5b, 4–5a, 3).

13.                    Jesus’ call to bear fruit is always an invitation to cling to him. Jesus understands all the tragedies and death of our sinful world in ways we never can. He knows that we can’t bear fruit apart from him. That’s precisely why Jesus hung on the cross, that we might bear fruit and live, not be cut down and thrown into the fire.

14.                    Notice Jesus says we are already clean right now. That’s because we each are connected to him through baptismal waters. We are enabled to bear much fruit. Jesus teaches that repentance unto life bears fruit. In turning to Jesus for new life, we are called to lead lives that produce the fruit that’s really made by the power of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22–23).

15.                    This is the kind of life you live. Your fruit really is the work of Jesus. God doesn’t need our good works. We’re connected to Jesus, the vine, to bear fruit for our neighbor, that the world may know the Father sent his Son. By the new life we have in Jesus, we can even help to be a comfort to those who have suffered the tragedies that result from sin.

16.                    The moving film The Guys came out just a year after 9/11, the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York City. In it, Sigourney Weaver is asked by a New York fire captain to help write eulogies for the eight men his unit lost in the attack. One of the heroes, Patrick, was a guy everybody looked up to, wanted to follow. He had just casually chosen to work that morning shift, rather than the evening. He died when Tower One of the World Trade Center fell on him. His eulogy noted how others at the firehouse described him: “work, church, and home.” We who have life in Jesus, who are no greater sinners, no lesser sinners than anyone else, will suffer death as surely, tragedy as often, as everyone else. But we can use our lives in Jesus to witness God’s love to others in their tragedies.

17.                    The tragedy of our text is that Jesus’ hearers were trying to position themselves as “better than” those who lost their lives in random ways. We are called to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. But, even the good fruit we bear is not enough to make us righteous before God. The faithful pastor on his deathbed, the seemingly innocent child, the grieving mother, the brave hero all need to repent. We are all sinners deserving only to be cut down. Jesus is the tree that was cut down by his Father on a Roman cross, unjustly condemned by Pilate. Jesus is the tree that the Father victoriously raised three days later to invite us, as Gentiles, to be grafted into that Holy Tree. Our repentance is only possible because of our redemption accomplished by the crucified and risen Jesus. Turn in faith toward Jesus, for in him there is life. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

“The Good News of a Savior Who Gives Us a New Beginning” Gen. 6 LentMid.3 March ‘25

 


1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word for our third Lenten Midweek Service on Good News from the Beginning, is taken from Genesis 6, and is entitled, “The Good News of a Savior Who Gives Us a New Beginning,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Have you ever felt as if things had hit rock bottom and you needed a fresh start? If you haven’t, then be thankful—because it can happen to anyone. It could be because of the circumstances around you. It could be because of what’s been going on within you. But when you find yourself in such a situation it can be easy to wonder whether a fresh start is really possible. In our third midweek text from Genesis, in the days of Noah, such a time had come—not just for him but also for mankind. Things had hit rock bottom.

3.                Believers—“the sons of God”—had not made the faith a priority in their marriages and families but had simply married whichever “daughters of men” appealed to them. Beauty on the surface was prized more than the inner beauty of a godly woman’s heart. And as faith was put to the side in families and homes, it went to the wayside for nearly all humanity. We know that a living faith shows itself in works—and the lack of faith at that time showed itself in callousness, living for sinful pleasure and selfish desires, and violence.

4.                Just how bad had things gotten? We learn in Genesis that it came to the point where it grieved God that he had created man. If ever a new beginning was needed, it was then. But if you were to look around at the world at that time, it would have been natural to wonder whether a new beginning was even possible—or if things had already gone too far. In our reading from Genesis, the situation is looking very dire when we hear God say that he will blot out man from the land.

5.                Then, we hear one three-letter word that changes everything: “but.” God said he would blot out man from the land. “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). Like the rest of mankind, Noah was a sinner. But Noah had faith in the Lord—and the Lord counted his faith as righteousness. By grace alone through faith alone, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Because of God’s grace, everything changed—for Noah and for mankind. A fresh start for man might have seemed impossible. But with our gracious God, all things are possible. God told Noah that because of man’s violence, man would be destroyed by a flood. But God promised Noah that he and his family—his wife, his three sons, and his sons’ wives—would be delivered through the flood in an ark that Noah was to build. God gave Noah instructions for building the ark and told him to fill it with two of each sort of animal and with every kind of food. In faith, Noah followed God’s Word.

6.                As Noah waited, he also spoke God’s Word to the people around him. He was “a herald of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5). But they didn’t listen. After 120 years of preaching, building, and waiting, the time came. At God’s command, Noah went into the ark with his family and the animals. The Lord shut him in—and soon the storm began. It rained forty days and forty nights. Water covered the earth, and every creature on land was blotted out in God’s judgment. Only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. After 150 days, the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat. And after another 220 days, the ground had dried to the point where Noah, his family, and the animals were able to leave the ark and embark upon a new beginning for mankind. It seems new beginnings are possible after all.

7.                On a worldwide basis, things never again sank as low as they had in the days before the flood. But the underlying problem of sin remained. It was seen in Noah himself and in his family. Before long, it would be seen in man’s refusal to spread across the earth as the Lord had said to do—as the people chose instead to band together and try to demonstrate their own greatness by building a tower to the heavens at Babel. God had granted deliverance from the violence of the preflood era and had given mankind a fresh start. But people still found themselves confronted by sin from without and from within. Another deliverance was needed.

8.                In the fullness of time, that needed deliverance was provided—as the same God who had saved Noah and his family from a sin-dominated world now took action to save mankind from sin itself. And the way he would accomplish this new deliverance would bear a striking resemblance to the earlier deliverance. Just as the problem of evil had needed to be confronted at the time of the flood, so the evil of our sin could not simply be overlooked but needed to be confronted and dealt with once and for all. And just as God had earlier provided the way of rescue through the ark, so he would also provide the way of rescue for us.

9.                To deliver us from sin and give us a fresh start in God’s grace, our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself into death, as on the cross he experienced in our place the flood of God’s righteous judgment for our sins. He bore your sins and mine—the sins of all people of all time—and he let the just judgment for those sins pour over him. For each of our thoughtless words, the waves crashed down on him. For all our unholy thoughts, the torrents of judgment beat against him. For all our loveless deeds, the waters rose higher and higher—until that flood of judgment took his life.

10.             And as Jesus took our place in that flood, he also provided an ark of salvation for us. By the power of the Gospel, through his means of grace, he brings us into the “ark” of the Holy Christian Church, where by God’s grace we are sheltered in Christ Jesus and his righteousness. In this ark, we are saved from judgment and given a new beginning—with our sins taken away, and with new peace, new light, and hope that does not disappoint. In Christ Jesus, God has saved you from sin and given you new and everlasting life.

11.             As we heard earlier from Peter’s first epistle, in the ark, eight persons were brought safely through water, and “baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 3:21). When God gave mankind a new beginning by saving Noah and his family in an ark through the waters of the flood, he was pointing ahead to the greater new beginning he would give us as he saves us in Christ Jesus through the waters of Holy Baptism. Through the washing away of your sins, God has given you a clean conscience. In the power of Christ’s resurrection, he has raised you up to new life. Through the power of his Word, he keeps you in this new life—so that your life in him is always new.

12.             And that new life will never end. On the day when Christ comes again in glory to judge the living and dead, he will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Christ. Those who have rejected him and the life he offers will be taken away in judgment, like the people at the time of flood. And, as in the days of Noah, those who have trusted in the Lord will remain to begin another new day together with the Lord—joining him and all believers in Christ to live together in God’s renewed creation. There all things will be new—and there will never again be a need for a new beginning.

13.             After the flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky and said the rainbow would serve as a reminder of his promise that a worldwide flood would never be repeated. From now on, look to the cross of Christ. Look to his empty tomb. Look to your baptism into Christ. Look to the words of eternal life God has given you in Holy Scripture—and see in them God’s promise to you that your sins have been dealt with once and for all and that new and everlasting life is yours, never to be taken away. All glory, honor, and praise be to Christ Jesus our Savior, who makes all things new. Amen. Now the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.