The Upload
Posted on Feb 26, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
Listen to the news, watch just about any reality TV show, or just watch a weekly detective or mystery series and you will hear and see people using mean language toward each other, talking and acting vengeful and judgmental. We don’t often hear about mercy, forgiveness or hope. Whether it is our politics, our news, or our entertainment, vengeance, revenge and judgment is what we seem to hear about most. And to be honest, I don’t think much has changed in the past 2000 years. We humans like to focus on judgment and revenge toward others, but we often fail to focus on ourselves.
In our Gospel story this Sunday (Luke 13:1-9), Jesus’ disciples begin by telling him about “Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” In other words, there were Jewish people who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and while they were in the temple offering their sacrifices, Pilate had them killed. We don’t know why Pilate did this; we are only told that it happened. We also don’t know why the disciples decided to bring up this story, but we do know that just before this Jesus had been teaching about the notion that if one does not deal with their sins, that is, repent, then they will suffer the consequences (Luke 12:59). When I read this part of Luke, it kind of reminds me of those TV preachers who love to speak of God’s wrath and damnation toward sinners. It's scary stuff! When taken incorrectly or out of context, these stories can make our God out to be a judgmental, vengeful, uncaring God.
Jesus isn’t saying any such thing, however. In fact, when the disciples tell him the story of what Pilate did, their implication is: So Jesus, since those Galileans were killed like that, that was God’s wrath upon them for their sins, right? To which Jesus responds by saying, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did” (13:2-3).
We don’t know what those Galileans did or didn't do, but the fact is, they were killed in a horrible way, and Jesus' question is one of self-examination. Stop looking at the actions of others, he is saying, and start being concerned with your own life. Yes, we are to repent and turn back to God and God’s ways, but Jesus, in the parable of the fig tree, makes it clear that our God is a God of grace, a God of love, a God of mercy, and a God of forgiveness. When the owner of the vineyard wants to cut down the unproductive tree, the gardener, our God, says, No, let me care for it, let me give it what it needs, love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, then it will produce.
God sees something in us that we cannot see in ourselves. Our God knows that we don’t need judgment and vengeance to change us; no, what we need in our lives is mercy and grace. The parable also points out that we ought not assume that judgment will never come. It will come, but until it comes, God will do everything God can to help us turn back to God and God’s ways. “If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
This week, Jesus invites us to turn away from judging the faith and fate of others and, instead, we are invited to look at our own lives, our own faith, our own fate. We are encouraged to repent, to turn in new directions, and to seek opportunities to serve God in new and exciting ways.
Have a blessed week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave