We have entered the season of the Christian calendar we call Lent, which is the 40 days (not including Sundays) before Easter. During Lent we begin the journey to the cross with Jesus.
In Luke 9:51 it tells us
NRS Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Setting his face to go to Jerusalem meant Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem, he was determined to go. In other words, from this point forward, Jesus began his final journey to Jerusalem and to a cross. Earlier in chapter nine Jesus already told his disciples he would “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day raised to life (9:22).” Jesus knew what his future included: suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection and yet he still resolutely set his face to Jerusalem knowing what would happen to him. Why? Because of his love for his Father in heaven and his love for us. He knew there was no other way for us to experience eternal life than through his own death.
Immediately after mentioning his own suffering and death Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (9:23).” As we take this journey with Jesus through Lent we are reminded that following Jesus isn’t easy, sometimes it requires sacrifice and self-denial. I realize these two words are not very popular in our present day and age, especially in the U.S. We want to talk about all the good things Jesus will do for us, and what we get out of following Jesus. The season of Lent reminds us that the call to follow Jesus is a difficult road. Are we willing to lay aside ourselves, our ambitions, our wants, and our desires in order to follow Jesus who laid aside his own desires for us, and a cross?
Our focus as we walk with Jesus through Lent will be on Jesus’ teachings on the way to the cross in Luke’s gospel. Some of these teachings will be difficult reminders for us of the call to follow Jesus.
1. We all need to repent of our sin because we will all be judged alike
In our first teaching of Jesus on the way to the cross, Jesus is confronted with the news of a terrible tragedy. Pilate, the governor of Judea, had killed some Galileans (people from Galilee) as they were sacrificing animals to the Lord in the Temple. We don’t know the circumstances around why this incident occurred or why Pilate would do such a terrible thing, although we do know from the Jewish historian Josephus that Pilate was not a stranger to killing Jews in the Temple. Pilate had done this before with Jews who were suspected of rebelling against the Romans Empire. It is possible that these Galileans were suspected of rebelling against the Romans, stirring up trouble. Whatever the case, Jesus used the news of this tragedy as a teaching moment for his followers.
We first need to understand there was a belief in Jesus’ day that good things happened to good or righteous people, while bad things always happened to bad people. It was like a punishment from God. Therefore if Pilate murdered some Galileans while they were sacrificing in the Temple, guess what the popular opinion was? They must have deserved it for some sinful rebellious act. Likewise if a tower fell on eighteen people and killed them, guess what? It must have been some form of punishment from God because of the sin in their life. Any untimely death was thought to be God’s punishment against sinners.
Jesus confronted their self-righteous thinking, Jesus said (verse 2):
"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”
Or verse 4: “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-- do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?”
In their minds they were probably thinking, ‘well yeah, why else would they have died tragically.’ But what was Jesus response to both circumstances? Jesus was emphatic in both cases. “I tell you, No! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
How easy it is to be self-righteous and point the finger at other people for “deserving” the punishment for their sin. “They deserved it those sinners.” What Jesus was doing was pointing the finger back at his followers, trying to get them to see their own sin. Someone once told me that when you point your finger at other people you have three fingers pointing back at yourself [demonstrate].
Of course we don’t do that today do we [say sarcastically]? We don’t point our fingers at others, even those who have gone through tragic circumstances and think, “they must have deserved it for something they have done.” Two years ago when the tsunami hit the countries along the Indian Ocean (Thailand, Malaysia, India) it was so easy to point out all the Muslims and Buddhists affected in the area and say, “this must be a punishment from God for rejecting Jesus.” When hurricane Katrina swept along the gulf coast wiping out parts of New Orleans, and southern Mississippi how many Christians were saying, “it was a punishment from God for all those casinos and shady establishments.” Hitting even a little closer to home, how many times have we seen a homeless person and instinctively think to ourselves ‘probably lazy, can’t hold a job.’ Or perhaps we hear of someone contracting HIV/AIDS and automatically jump to the conclusion that the person must have contracted it because of their sin, either through homosexuality or promiscuity. In other words they are getting what they deserve because of their sin, its God’s punishment for them.
These are the same kind of attitudes Jesus was confronting with his two examples. Jesus wanted to teach his followers not to judge others, but to point the finger back at ourselves and realize our own guilt, our own sin, and that God judges us all equally. Don’t make the mistake of believing that bad things always happen to bad people, and good things only happen to good people. There are many Biblical examples were bad things did happen to good people, and good things did happen to bad people. If we make that mistake we will be like Job’s friends, who tried to wrongly convince him that he must have sinned in order to deserve all the bad things that happened to him, loss of his family, possessions, and health, even though this was not the case. God was allowing Job to be tested.
Jesus taught that people who had tragic endings were not necessarily greater sinners than anyone else. In truth it’s an equal playing field before a perfect and holy God, sin is sin, and needs to be repented of, whether it is one sinful act or a hundred. And the scripture reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).”
We are all on equal ground before God because all of us have sinned. God does not have a measuring stick to compare those who are worse sinners than others. In God’s eyes even one sin, whether in thought, word, or deed separates us from Him apart from Jesus Christ. Or as Jesus reminded his followers that day, “unless you repent of your sin you too will perish.” In other words, Jesus was saying if you want to believe bad things happen to sinful people, guess what? You better look out because you might be next.
Fortunately, God is not out to get us for our sin. He wants to forgive us and renew a right spirit within us, but it requires us to confront our own sin, rather than pointing the finger at others. It is easy to look self-righteously at other people, or compare ourselves with others, and shake our heads thinking ‘boy do they need to turn from their sin,’ and then ignore our own. But Jesus reminds us that it’s not just the “bad” people or people who are worse than us who must repent, rather all must turn from their sin because all will be judged. God is not going to compare us to each other on judgment day, God is going to compare us to his perfect sinless Son Jesus Christ. And quite honestly all of us will fall short of that mark. If we don’t turn, Jesus later warns us that we will face the consequences, eternal separation from God.
Jesus said all of us must repent. Repenting is not just saying we are sorry for what we have done. The word literally means to change one’s mind or heart, we do an about face. We are convicted that what we have done is wrong and we literally turn away from sin and commit to quit doing it, not by our own strength but by the power of God. Then we ask for God’s forgiveness believing that by Jesus’ death and resurrection we are forgiven.
2. We need to demonstrate evidence of our repentance with fruitfulness
But forgiveness is not the end of the story. Some people think repentance is only what you do before you come to faith in Jesus, or we can ask for forgiveness, clear the slate, and head back out to do it again. However Jesus and John the Baptist before him both taught that repentance must bear fruit. In other words, talk is cheap, there must be evidence of our commitment to turn from sin. Jesus pointed this out in our passage this morning when he continued his teaching with an illustration about a fig tree. A man went to look at the fig tree in his garden again and again but there was no fruit on it. Three years went by, but still nothing. He ordered his gardener to cut it down because it was just taking up good space but the gardener asked to give it one more chance by fertilizing it and waiting another year.
Jesus was saying there must be fruit of repentance, evidence that God can see that we have turned from sinful behavior. Anyone can say the words, but did they mean it by trying to turn from their sin.
John the Baptizer was clear what the fruit of true repentance was:
Luke 3:7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ’We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."
10 "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. 11 John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" 13 "Don’t collect any more than you are required to," he told them. 14 Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely-- be content with your pay."
Notice that the evidence of fruit is something tangible: 1) sharing with others who do not have, 2) to the tax collectors, quit being greedy by overcharging people, 3) to the soldiers, don’t take advantage of people through extortion or false accusations. The fruit is our actions. This varies from person to person depending on what sin they are dealing with, John didn’t tell the crowd to quit overcharging, he told the tax collectors, because that was their sin, he didn’t tell the tax collectors to quit their false accusations because that. It is individual to the person, so we can’t hold people to our standard, but it will always result in the Golden Rule, do to others what you would have them do to you.
When we are truly convicted of our sin and desire to make a commitment to turn from it, God somehow meets us in that moment and gives us the power to make the change. God knows the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Fortunately, we are reminded in the parable of the fig tree of God’s mercy. God entrusts the farmer to put more fertilizer around the tree, and give the tree another chance. God is merciful and gives us many opportunities to repent and turn to him, but he also warns us that his mercy will not go on forever. Some day death will take us, or Christ will return and we will be out of time.
So we have to ask ourselves, are we pointing our fingers at others sin rather than pointing the finger back at ourselves? What sin in our own life do we need to repent of? An attitude, thoughts, a behavior, or action? As we begin the journey to the cross with Jesus it is good to start with clean hands and pure hearts (Ps. 24:4).
In your bulletin is a sticky note. I encourage you to take the sticky note and write on the note something in your life which you need to repent of before the Lord. Fold the sticky note up and I will invite you in a moment to symbolically give it to the Lord by placing it at the cross.
NIV 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
