Third Sunday in Lent, Year C

Donna G. Joy

Luke 13:1-9

In this morning’s Gospel reading Jesus hears a group of people speculating on whether it was sinfulness that caused some unfortunate people to suffer. This is an age old question that we are all familiar with. Why did some die in the twin towers on 9/11 while others survived? Why do some perish in accidents while others survive? Why do some return from war while others return to be buried among others who have fallen? Always, when these questions surface, death is seen as the enemy and people have all sorts of speculations as to why this happened as it did. In this text people are speculating on whether it was sinfulness that caused this suffering. So he asks them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” And he says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” Then he adds an item of his own from the tabloids of the day, “Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

So, at first glance, Jesus’ message sounds kind of harsh. It sounds something like, “Yes they’re dead, and unless you repent you too will perish.” Of course, Jesus’ message, as is so often the case, is not what it first appears to be, and this becomes clear with what follows.

As I reflect on the point he is really attempting to make and the parable which follows, I am drawing heavily on the work of Robert Capon in his book The Parables of Grace. One of Capon’s primary themes is the unstoppable, radical grace of God. He says that the point Jesus is making is NOT that if they had repented of their sins their lives would have been spared. Because think of it, the way the Gospel works out (that is, Jesus’ death on the cross) even being sinless can’t and won’t guarantee that. Maybe what he was telling them to repent of was actually their rejection of death. Maybe they were supposed to stop pretending death was something God sent only to bad guys and realize it is through death that new life is found, whether that be physical death that leads to new life with the company of saints in heaven, or dying to sin that leads to new life here on earth with God’s own son. “You’re all going to die,” Jesus tells them in effect. “But since I’m going to die for you and with you, maybe you should stop trying to hold death at arm’s length.”

And it is this acceptance of death that Jesus continues to emphasize in the next parable, the story of the Barren Fig Tree. The episode of the fig tree appears in all three synoptic Gospels, but only in Luke is it told on the way to Jerusalem – Jerusalem where Jesus is to forgive the sins of humanity by dying on the cross.

The story itself (as told by Luke) involves a man who has a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and when he looks for fruit on it and discovers that (as had been the case for the past three years) it has produced no fruit he urges the gardener to cut it down. He claims that it is a waste of good soil. If this owner of the vineyard has been associated with the Mafia, he might have said, “This tree? It’s dead to me.” But the gardener becomes an advocate for the barren tree. He says, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

Now, according to Robert Capon, certain things need to be clear in order to unpack this story in a responsible way. First, the owner of the vineyard is primarily a grape grower, and he takes personal delight in the planting of the fig tree, and its bearing of fruit. Plainly then, since the fig tree represents the human side of God’s world, Jesus seems to be saying that God delights in humanity. God’s attitude toward the world is one of deep and abiding love, right from the start; grace is not something he drags in later on just to mend things when they get torn or messy. That fig tree did nothing in order to deserve to exist. God planted it, and longed for it to produce fruit and even hired a full time gardener to help this to happen. Robert Capon says that, “unnecessary, spontaneous delight is the very root of God’s relationship with the world.”

This owner of the vineyard seems to have a full time gardener, and in this story it is this gardener who serves as the Christ-figure. It is precisely because this gardener urges the owner to give that barren fig tree more time to become the fig tree he had created it to be that it continues to live by grace. Capon points out that a more accurate English translation for what the gardener urges the owner to do is, “Let it be”, “Give it time”. Two other derivatives are ‘to forgive’ and ‘pardon’. Forgive this tree for not producing as you had created it to produce. Grant it pardon. Let it be. Give it time. So it is just that word that makes this gardener one of the clearest Christ-figures in all the parables. Because on the cross, in the very teeth of death, Jesus himself grants pardon to those whose sinful ways put him there, as he says, “God forgive them for they know not what they do.” (forgive them – let them be – give them time)

Note also, the gardener’s last line: he says to the owner, “If it doesn’t bear fruit next year, then you can cut it down.” First of all, he is simply making the point that the owner could remove the tree if he so chooses but at the same time, in actual fact, he may not.

Even more important is the realization that the gardener (Jesus) – the only one who offers the reconciled creation to the owner (to God) – will never go back on the pardon, the forgiveness he has pronounced over the world.

God loves humanity – that is, each and every one of us – so much and delights in our potential so greatly, that God hired a gardener to help us live into our potential. Through Jesus’ death on the cross the world lives, as the fig tree lives, under the gift of forgiveness. The gardener in this morning’s parable urges the vineyard owner to let him dig around the roots of the barren tree, feed it with some manure to help it get healthy and begin to bear fruit. Jesus himself digs around the roots of our sinful state, and becomes the manure that feeds us and helps us to bear good fruit and, with the added gift of time, gives us opportunity to bear the fruits of that forgiveness.

Part of the beauty of this parable is the gift of time. Jesus (the gardener) advocates on our behalf as he says to God, “Let her alone; let her be for now. I’ll dig around her and feed the roots of her being with my death.” “Let him alone...…...” Time is sacred and Jesus, the ultimate gardener, gives us the gift of time to claim those things for which forgiveness is necessary; to die to our sins and with him rise to new life to bear the fruit of forgiveness.

One of God’s greatest gifts is the gift of time, time to learn from our past, to profit by our mistakes. Time to start over. The word for this in the language of our faith is ‘repentance’. It is a word that means turning around, a change of direction. The Greek word is metanoia, which is the root from which we get our word metamorphoses – to change form. Repentance is when a sinner changes form, turns around, returns to God, starts over, bears fresh new fruit. So whatever you have done before you got here this morning, whatever regrets you may have, whatever unresolved issues you may have with people with whom you share your life, whatever sinful acts you may be in the midst of . . . There is still time. God – through the advocate Jesus, the gardener, is giving you one of the greatest of gifts – that is, the gift of time.

I encourage each of us to use that gift; to embrace the time that God gives and to use it well. In self-examination, in honest confession, in joyful turning, I pray that each of us will move closer and closer toward the person God intends us to be, and produce the fruits of love and forgiveness that are fed by Jesus’ death.

When Jesus responded to those who seemed to be suggesting that those tragic deaths were the result of sinful behaviour, I think he was urging them to recognize that they were asking the wrong question; that their focus was misplaced. To focus on the question of whether those who died were worst sinners than those who were spared is to assume that death is the enemy, but Jesus seems to be saying here that his death shatters that assumption. As Christians we believe that physical death leads to new life in the company with the saints in light - often sad, sometimes very sad, for those remaining behind, but eternally hopeful for those who have moved on to that place.

As Christians, we believe that death to sin is also challenging. It is hard to give up those negative behaviour patterns that have become so much a part of our daily life but, with Jesus the gardener tilling our soil, the gift of grace can lead to surprising new beginnings, to the producing of new fruits of forgiveness and love. Indeed, we are reminded here that our energy is best spent in taking this time that we’ve been generously given to repent - to turn out lives around, away from sin and toward the way of Christ - to die to sin in order to rise to the new life found in Christ, and to bear the fruits of that new life by loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbour as ourselves.