3rd Sunday of Lent

Pastor Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Luke 13:1-9

UNLESS YOU REPENT YOU WILL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH

To The Church at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear hearers of the Word:

A bus transporting a college baseball team plunges off an overpass. A drunken father loses control with his children in the car. A tornado strikes a high school filled with students in a southern state. Gunfire in this city strikes a man in the head who was just driving by in his van. In each case there is sudden, violent, brutal death for individuals who were doing nothing to actively bring this tragedy on themselves.

Sometimes if you take a moment to dwell on the suffering, the injury, the death that is part of this world everyday, it is simply overwhelming. You soon have to turn your thoughts away in order to continue to function at your daily tasks. A traffic accident, a vicious crime, an airplane crash, an exchange of gunfire, a roadside bomb, someone slipping on the ice, a violent storm, a fire – tragic forms of death just keep coming, day after day, throughout the world and in this city.

Jesus spoke of violent death – worshippers massacred by Pilate. He spoke of sudden, brutal death – 18 crushed by a collapsing tower. “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.”

Dear Christians, such butchery and such calamity has occurred in every generation and in every society. From the death of Abel, to the time of Jesus, until the twenty first century, political violence, horrible disasters and brutal deaths are always at hand. Jesus spoke bluntly about such tragedies and rendered His judgment. His conclusion is both stunning and scandalizing to human hearts.

In the face of death and destruction Jesus does not want us to speculate that those who died were worse sinners or greater debtors than we are. While it is true that sinful acts at times lead to sudden death, this is not ours to judge. Consider those who committed idolatry and sexual immorality in the wilderness, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians (I Cor. 10:1-13) In one day 23,000 died. To say that they died because of their idolatry and sexual immorality is not speculation. God reveals that this is why He felled them in the desert.

But we are not God. We are not to judge others and God when suffering strikes today. The Pharisees believed that calamity was generally punishment for specific sins. They were quick to place blame on those who were afflicted and struck down. On the other hand, it is also common to blame God when the unthinkable happens. By nature we do not believe that death is the wages of sin or that we sinners deserve death. The prophet Ezekiel set forth such reasoning in the complaint of Israel, “the way of the Lord is not just, when it is their own way that is not just.”

To every form of speculation concerning death and destruction Jesus says, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Uncaring? Insensitive? No, just the truth! The Son of God doesn’t make statements to please modern sensibilities. He simple speaks because He loves us. “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

The word Jesus used for “repent” means continual repentance. Our Lutheran Confessions specify that this word means the entire conversion of man (FC SD V 7). The word Jesus used for “perish” is often used for end-time destruction. It means more than having one’s life end by disaster or tragedy. This happens in a sinful world, also to God’s people. Jesus’ full meaning here, however, is that unless you live in repentance and faith, you will perish eternally in sin that is not forgiven.

Then He spoke a strong warning against despising God’s grace. In the parable of the fig tree Jesus connected faith and fruit. His warning applied to Israel, the original tree in God’s vineyard. St. Paul made clear that His warning also applied to the Gentile Church in Corinth “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” His warning also applies to you and to me, to His church today.

Bloody political terrorism, sudden accidental death, violence and destruction, are signs that all of us are on our way to judgment. It is appointed for you once to die and then the judgment (Heb. 9:27). Reincarnation does not happen. The view that death is a good thing that returns you to nature is not true. It is appointed for me also to die once and then the judgment. In view of the violent, unpredictable, ever-present threats to end our earthly life, Jesus calls not for speculation, but for contrition and faith. Death and destruction are signs that all of us must keep on repenting and keep on receiving the kingdom that Jesus bestows.

In Baptism God planted you in His vineyard with expectation of a harvest (Rom. 6:1-50. He looks at you not for figs, but for repentance (Matt 3:7, 8). He is looking for a heart that humbly acknowledges its own sinfulness and receives in faith the forgiveness God pours out through His Son. The arrogant cannot stand in His presence (Introit). He takes no pleasure in evil (Introit). He will hold us responsible for the fruit of repentance. He will hold us responsible for speaking the truth in love to others.

He said it this way to the prophet Ezekiel. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Beloved, God’s expectations are just the opposite of those of our culture. Our culture speaks of “truthiness”, that is, whatever feels right to you. Elite voices in entertainment, education, and even external religion urge us to go along with the dishonoring of marriage, the idolizing of nature and science, the destruction of embryonic life, and the making light of sin. But that is deadly advice. As I live declares the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live…” But how can they turn if no one speaks the truth in love?

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God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and yet He did take pleasure in the death of His holy Son. “The Lord was pleased to crush Him…as a guilt offering” (Isaiah 53:10). Pilate’s mingling the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifice speaks this word to you: “unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” Pilate’s shedding of the blood of another Galilean on the altar of the cross speaks a different word to you. “His blood cleanses you from all sin”.

Remember the fig tree Christ spoke of? In truth, Christ became the barren fig tree for us for He became sin for us. For three years Christ bore the perfect fruit of preaching and healing and forgiving. But He did so also bearing the whole fruitless mess of our sin. Baptized by John in the Jordan River He was grafted into our tangled mess of rebellion and death – He joined Himself with us. When the Father looked for good fruit in Him on Calvary, there was none. Therefore He who hung upon that tree was cut down.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in this fallen world swords will continue to strike, towers will continue to fall, disasters and sickness and accidents will continue to come. They will come also to us. As we see them around us and as they visit us, Christ uses them to call us to repentance, not speculation.

You know as well as I do that one of the biggest objections to belief in the Holy Trinity is the violence, the disaster, the disease that continues to plague this world. If there is a loving God, how can this be? You know as well as I do that millions upon millions do not see death as the wages of sin and do not believe there will be a day of judgment. The evil in this world then becomes the litmus test by which human hearts deny God. You know as well as I do that when death stands before us, our hearts and minds will not naturally face that defeated enemy with perfect fear and love and trust in God.

But you also know as well as I do that God will not let us be tempted beyond our ability. That is His promise! With the temptation He will provide the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it. That way of escape is He who is the way the truth and the life. That way of escape rose from death on Easter morning and comes among us even now to warn us and to dig around us and to fertilize us and to nourish us with spiritual food and spiritual drink. The only fruit that will stand in the judgment is the sweet fruit that He brings to us from the tree of the cross

This Lenten season it is good for us to take moments to dwell upon the suffering, the violence, the death that is part of this world everyday. We are to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. But it is also essential for us to dwell upon the suffering and death and resurrection of the Lamb of God for our salvation. He is the way of escape, the only way, for us and for everyone we know. O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. AMEN.