Luke 13:1-9 — Sermon by Drew Ibach

may I speak to you in the name of God

who is father son and holy spirit amen

am when when I was a senior in college I

made a

mistake a big one

one day as a confident young man I

thought to myself I was riding my bike

and I thought to myself do I really need

to have my hands on the

handlebars surely I as a coordinated

21-year-old can manage riding a bicycle

with no

hands well I was

wrong I fell off my bike and broke my

right arm and my left

wrist I I had to have surgery to prepare

my arm and I wore a brace on my left

wrist for

months and as I was recovering I started

to notice an interesting pattern in some

of the conversations that I was having

people at my small Christian liberal

arts college started to ask why did this

happen to

me I had friends who would jokingly say

to me man you must have had some serious

sin in your life

because certainly there must be some

spiritual meaning behind The Suffering I

was encount encountering certainly

breaking not one but two arms cannot be

the result of the hubris of an overly

confident young

man there must have been spiritual

forces at play I even had someone in all

seriousness tell me you know I typically

don't believe in this sort of thing but

I think the devil may be attacking

you you know things aren't going your

way when your life makes somebody

reconsider the nature of spiritual

warfare but I must admit I started to

ask these questions

myself was God trying to teach me a

lesson was this the result of some sin

in my life or the spiritual forces of

Darkness at play did the devil somehow

stick his finger in the spoke of my

bicycle

wheel the desire to ask these types of

questions is not uncommon we see it all

the time we see books that ask why bad

things happen to good people and why

good things happen to bad people we

can't help but associate a direct

one-o-one correlation between sin and

suffering between righteousness and

blessings

and this often leads to a game of

comparison feeling the sneaking

suspicion that someone who is more

misfortunate must be more

sinful because if they weren't sinful

then of course they wouldn't be so

misfortunate when encountering someone

who's experiencing poverty I've often

heard it said that their poverty is a

result of their sin

implied in that statement of course is

the assumption that I am not as poor as

that person because I am not as

sinful when looking at countries that do

not have the vast amount of material

resources that we do here we are told it

is because we are Godly and

righteous implying that if other places

were less sinful and more righteous like

us

they too would have a vast amount of

material

resources in a world of political

division every election season we hear

the party that won claim that they are

the party of

righteousness therefore the party that

lost must be the party of

sinfulness and while this posture of

trying to cor to find a correlation

between trials and sin and comparing our

elves to others is not uncommon it is

also not

new it's in job as his friends tried to

tell him that he must have sinned

otherwise he would not be suffering so

severely it's in John chapter 9 as

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus's disciples asked him if it was

because of the sin of his parents or of

his own sin that a man had been born

blind

and it's in our gospel passage for this

morning as Jesus discusses two

Unfortunate

Events now these events are unique to

Luke meaning they aren't in the other

gospels and they're found nowhere else

in any ancient literature so it's a

little difficult to narrow down exactly

what

happened but the first had to do with

pilate and some

galileans and while we aren't all the

details we know that pilate could be

cruel and for whatever reason perhaps

there was some Rebellion or maybe it was

just a random act of Cruelty whatever

the case pilate mixed the Bloods of

galileans with the blood of their

sacrifice which would have been

extremely scandalous and offensive as it

was an obvious violation of their

religious

practices and Jesus brings up the second

event the tower in Salam falling on and

killing 18

people again we don't know the details

of how this happened maybe the tower was

poorly constructed or maybe there was

some natural disaster that caused it to

fall whatever the case 18 people died

unexpectedly and Luke doesn't tell us

exactly what the crowds were thinking

but based on Jesus's response it seems

as though they fell into that mindset

the mindset of correlating sin and

tragedy and of comparing your

circumstance with the circumstance of

others because Jesus's response to both

events is the same in regards to pilate

in the galileans he says in verse 2 and

3 do you think that these galileans were

worse Sinners than other

galileans because they suffered in this

way no I tell you but unless you repent

you will all likewise

perish And in regards to the tower in

salom he says in verse 5 four and five

do you think that they were worse

offenders than all others who lived in

Jerusalem no I tell you but unless you

repent you will all likewise perish

and then Jesus changes the subject and

tells a seemingly unrelated Parable a

man had a fig tree in his Vineyard that

was not bearing fruit and after 3 years

he desires to cut it down but the vine

dresser advocates for the tree and says

that he will care for it and fertilize

it he ask for one more year and if the

tree doesn't bear fruit then the tree

can be cut

down and there are four things that I

want to point our attention to from our

gospel passage from this morning

first notice that whether the disaster

was caused by

human as in the case of pilot or was the

result of a freak accident like the

tower Jesus is not concerned with trying

to decipher why these things

happened he does not try to find a

correlation between sin and tragedy

rather he challenges his audience by

asking them if they think that it is

because that they were worse Sinners

that these people

suffered Jesus turns these events back

on his audience when he asks do you

think that people who experience these

tragedies are more

sinful and then of course he answers his

own question no I say do you repent or

you will likewise perish

Jesus does not allow us to presume that

we know why God allows certain things to

happen neither does he allow us to

compare ourselves to others and assume

that we are morally Superior to those

who

suffer instead he turns our assumptions

in cons comparisons back towards us

reminding us that we are sinful people

just like everyone

else Jesus gives a reminder that because

things may be going well for you and

just because someone else is less

fortunate than you it is not an

indication that you are less

sinful now let me be

clear this does not mean that we do not

acknowledge the spiritual realities that

we are all facing after all James tells

us that all good and perfect things come

from above and Paul in Ephesians tells

us that we do not wrestle against flesh

and blood but against principalities and

powers and the rulers of Darkness of

this age against spiritual hosts of

wickedness but perhaps the best way to

accept the good gifts of God and to

combat the rulers of

Darkness perhaps the best way to follow

Jesus Christ is not to decipher the

spiritual reason behind why things

happened but to be a people who

continually repent and turn towards

God which leads to the second thing we

must consider we must be people who

repent no matter what is going on around

us and repentance is not just a feeling

of regret about one's own wickedness but

a turning away from sin and turning to

God which perhaps is particularly

appropriate for us as we are in the

middle of the season of

Lent the season of penitence

almsgiving and

repentance have you ever stopped to

think

that lent comes every year no matter

what lent doesn't wait for the opportune

moment it doesn't wait for Sinners to be

punished and for righteous to be

blessed it doesn't wait for things to go

well or poorly for you or for your

neighbor it doesn't wait for those who

you disagree with to experience

suffering or success Lent comes every

year whether your preferred political

party is in power or not lent

comes whether people that you think are

sinners are finding success or failure

lent

comes if you find that you are in a

season of Plenty or in a season of

wanting lent comes and is always an

opportunity to repent to turn from your

sin

towards

God because ultimately repentance is the

way of

life although it does not feel like

it it may not feel like the way of life

as you begin lent by leaning forward and

receiving ashes and being reminded that

you are dust and to dust you shall

return and yet

lent always leads to

Easter turning away from your sin and

towards the grace of God is actually

what leads towards life with God but if

we do not go through

lent if we do not die to ourselves and

turn towards God if we do not repent no

matter what is going on in the world

around us Jesus warns that we will

perish

the third thing worth

noting is that immediately after telling

the crowds that they must repent or

perish Jesus tells a parable of a Vine

dresser who is patient and

kind Jesus is able to hold the need for

repentance in the patience of God

together he does not Elevate one one

above the other he knows that God is

both

just and merciful both wrathful towards

sin yet compassionate God desires

repentance yet is

patient and we must learn to emulate

Jesus we must learn to be people who

show patience yet desire repentance

because that is how God looks at us

the fourth and final thing I want to

point our attention to is that the vine

dresser is not only patient but

nourishing he does not only give the

tree time but he cares for it and gives

it

fertilizer God and his great loving

towards us does not leave us on our own

he is the

actor he does not leave us defend for

ourselves but he nourishes us and gives

us the ability to bear

fruit he has given us his word where we

learn what it means to pick up our cross

and to follow Christ in the way of life

he nourishes us through his holy

church where we become part of the body

of

Christ and where we partake in the gifts

of his sacraments

where our sinful bodies are made clean

by his body and our souls washed through

his most precious blood where we may

ever more dwell in him and he in

us and he has given us the gift of His

Holy Spirit who convicts and guides us

showing us how to be people who repent

and bear

fruit so as you go forth into the world

in the Name of Christ treat every

opportunity as an opportunity to

repent be people who repent and

recognize that you are a sinner who must

turn towards a good patient and

nourishing

God repent and turn towards God no

matter what is going on around you

repent and bear fruit

do not think yourself better than those

who are

struggling but bear fruit by giving to

and caring for the poor the sick the

orphan the Widow and the

refugee in a world full of division and

hatred do not think yourself less sinful

than your enemies but repent and bear

fruit by learning to love

them repent now and bear fruit knowing

that God is patient knowing that he who

has started a good work in you will

carry it on to completion in the day of

Christ Jesus amen