Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad People or the Patient Gardener.

Sermon Text: Luke 13:1-9

            Just a sec, got to do something.     (TURN OFF MIC!)

            REPENT OR DIE!!! BEAR FRUIT OR DIIIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!

           Wouldn’t it be great if all my sermons were just me yelling things at you?

Sarah calls that my scary voice. The nieces also think its scary, so of course I use it as much as possible with them.

            But, this tends to represent what we think about this text. It’s huge, dire, horrific warning, notice that we’re all horrible, horrible individuals that are going to die in horrible, horrible ways if we don’t repent! Repent! Or die!

            What is Jesus actually meaning though? Is it as simple as watch out or God’s gonna get you? For one thing the word repent now has different meaning behind it than Jesus would have meant. We see repent and we think repentance or confession and forgiveness. To us repenting is simply, we need to go and list all the ways we’ve done wrong in the world, state how we’re such terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad people. But, it had a different meaning in Jesus’ time to Jesus the word repent is an action word, he’s more concerned with the reaction to knowing that we’ve done stuff, not just knowledge that we’ve done stuff. Stating that we’ve done wrong doesn’t matter if we don’t change our ways. A better translation of what Jesus says here as “unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” is “unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.” It’s not about the stating you’ve done wrong, it’s all about how we live our lives and how we think of other people in our hearts.

            Jesus then uses a parable to help describe what he’s talking about. And the part that Jesus compares with the idea of repentance or changing your lives and hearts, is bearing fruit.

            What does it mean for a tree to bear fruit? This is what we talked to the kids about. Well, fruit is for whom? Others! It’s for birds to eat, animals to eat, us to eat, and its to bring about more fruit trees. Bearing fruit doesn’t directly feed yourself, but it feeds others, and it brings forth the next generation.

Jesus by using this parable here directly compares repenting and changing ourselves with bearing fruit. To repent and change means we are to bear fruit. That means doing things that feed others, not just physically but, also spiritually, mentally, wholly. Part of Jesus concern with the people asking about the calamities involved in the first part of the text is they’ve decided that because those people died, they must have been horrible. After they died, others started saying, what bad people they must have been. And Jesus stops that, were they worse sinners? No. change your lives people. Don’t rip people, down but lift them up. Don’t tear out trees, but work to bear fruit.

Because there’s more to this parable than the owner threatening to tear the tree out.

For one, in this parable it says the tree hasn’t born fruit for 3 years, well the life-cycle a fig tree is that, well, it doesn’t bear fruit for the first 3-5 years, it takes that long to develop to the point being able to bear fruit. So, right off, this tree hasn’t had the time to get to bearing fruit as it hopefully will. The first lesson then is patience. In the immediate gratification society we’re in, well, we’re not good at the patience. If someone doesn’t do things for us, or do things for others right away, we are like the owner, we want to just throw them away. They serve us no purpose, they give us no value, so get rid of them. We need to learn patience. Beside learning to live for others, bearing fruit and lifting up, we need to be patient. It may take a while for people to know how to change. And then the last part.

The gardener doesn’t just say, hey! Wait a bit! Give them time. The gardener says, let me work. I’ll dig around the base of the tree, and I’ll spread manure around it to nourish it. There are two different things we get from this, and I want to talk actually about the second meaning first. (I know that doesn’t make sense, but well, it also does.) We are to be patient, and bear fruit for others, so that they may bear fruit. We need to reach out and do the hard work at times. We need to get into the dirt and manure that other people are in, so they can bear fruit.

And the first meaning. Christ is the gardener. He wants us to change, he wants us to bear fruit, be patient, and lift others us, but he also does the work to allow us to do so. Jesus on the cross, digs around our base, and spreads the manure that nourishes us. Jesus there, gets into the muck of our lives. This is first because it’s the core of everything. Without Christ working to change us as well as being patient with us, it’s just a text about the fear of death, a text that constrains us to fear. Repent or die! But, with Christ foremost, central, doing the work first for us, showing us how to bear fruit for others, it’s a text that frees us. It’s a text that reminds us that we have a God who loves us and the whole world that God sent the only Son into the very dirt and muck of life. And through that allows us to bear fruit.

This parable is not about a vengeful owner, but a caring gardener who patiently nourishes and works the tree so that it can bear fruit.

This text is about our God who gives us moments like Lent so we can pause and ask ourselves, what are the things in our lives that leave us barren, the things that hold us back from bearing fruit for others? Are they things inside ourselves we can work to change? Or are they things outside ourselves that we felt gave us life, but in reality suck it away? Or even more so than everything else, the things in this life we think are fruit. That we think we receive nourishment from. Maybe it’s doing too much at work, so you never see family. Maybe you spend too much on something, that means you can’t do stuff with friends or children.

Lent is a time for us to see how we can be better about bearing fruit, and at times that means seeing the things that hold us back, and removing those things, so good things may flourish.

This text is about our God who gives us moments like Easter so we can see we have already been given life. The good news in all of this, People of God, is that in the concern of repent or die, you have already been given life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God has already gone into the muck and dirt, already dug around us, spread the manure that nourishes. The fear of death has already been removed through our being washed in the waters of baptism. What God seeks of you now is to live your life in a way that allows you to flourish and bear fruit for others, and allowing others to bear fruit for you.

Let us pray,

God of giving, you give us good fruit through Christ. Help us to both share that fruit with others in our lives, and also help us to accept the fruit that others seek to give us. We thank you for saving us through Christ’s death upon the cross, help us to live lives showing that to the world. Amen.