INTRODUCTION

A pastor friend of mine sent out an email with a link to an article in Christianity Today by Don Gushee.  The article had the subject line hmmmmm.  Don is a Baptist who asks some pretty tough questions.  He asks in the article why it is that there is such a huge disconnect between the way we talk about being saved and how Jesus continually speaks of it.  We say, “To be saved you must believe that Jesus died for you and is your savior.  You have to receive this as God’s free gift.”  Jesus absolutely never uses this language. 

Jesus continually speaks about salvation as something that requires repentance.  Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Jesus speaks about the importance of loving your enemies.  Jesus speaks about the importance of giving to the poor and visiting those who are in prison.  In Matthew 25, that is the criterion for being a sheep or a goat.  Jesus speaks about loving God and neighbor with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  And central to all this is the message of repentance of sin, and turning from our wayward paths toward the Kingdom of God.

Here, Jesus says two times, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  I remember being at a PromiseKeeper’s event several years ago.  There was a very powerful salvation alter call, and a guy nearby went down to get Jesus in his heart.  Then on the way back to his seat he stopped off and picked up some nachos.  So he sat down in his seat munching on nachos having been transformed by the grace of God?  I couldn’t help but wonder if he saw them as about the same thing.  Get saved from an eternity of sin and pick up some nachos on the way back to your seat.  Both yummy and ever so tasty!  You cannot refuse either offer!  Jesus says two times in our passage, “Unless you repent you will all likewise perish!”

MINGLED BLOOD

Jesus here is presented with something tragic that happened to some Galileans who had been worshipping in the temple in Jerusalem.  Galileans were known for being political insurrectionists and Pilate was known for being ruthless in putting down political insurrection – Jesus being a case in point from his perspective (not ours!).  So these Galileans are down, perhaps offering their Passover sacrifice in the temple, and Pilate sends some troops into the very temple itself and they cut down these Galileans.  This would have been particularly shocking if it were Passover because the family gathered together for this sacrifice.  The blood of the martyrs was mixed with the blood of the Passover lamb.  Parenthetically, this is completely unknown in our historical source for the period – Josephus.  This little historical tidbit, which we have no reason to distrust, comes only from Luke’s gospel – our only witness to the event.

Now, in the prevailing opinion of the day, this would have been a clear proof that these men were the most wicked in Jerusalem.  Tragedy was always a sign of divine displeasure.  Now, the shocking thing here is that this is exactly what the book of Deuteronomy says.  The last several chapters of Deuteronomy are blessings and curses; you are blessed if you worship God rightly and cursed if you don’t.  Curses are proof of your spiritual disease.  This is also exactly what Job’s counselors believed.

Jesus turns this on his head.  He knows he has the authority to disagree with the Old Testament!  He actually emphatically disagrees.  It could be translated, “Were these men the most wicked?  Indeed not!”  Now this may have been comforting to the listeners, because they didn’t want to think of those who fought for the deliverance of Israel as evil.  But notice that in this case, the issue involved a human agent – namely Pilate.  Pilate gave an order that led to suffering.  He could have turned his back on the situation and spared those children having to see their fathers killed before them.

A CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT

But Jesus provides another example.  This time the issue is a construction accident in Jerusalem.  We know that at this time, Pilate was extending an aqueduct into Jerusalem, and Siloam was the very famous pool or artesian well in Jerusalem.  Again, we have no other historical source, but a construction accident killing 18 is easily believable and there would have been towers associated with this aqueduct.  There was in interesting case in which Pilate plundered the temple treasury to build an aqueduct in Jerusalem.  It would be very interesting to know if this was the same building project.  But in any case, a tower collapsed while being constructed and killed 18 men.

This case is quite different from the first in rather obvious ways.  In the first instance, the tragedy was the result of human agency, human choice, free-will.  But in this case, it was mere happenstance.  No one pushed this tower over as far as we know.  It was a simple construction accident.  Maybe someone was responsible for negligence, but that is a different matter.  It is still a construction accident.  Why is this point important?  Because in both cases, Jesus emphatically claims that those who suffered were not the most wicked in Jerusalem. 

Jesus seems to be going out of his way to break any causal connection between human suffering and divine wrath.  Whether the suffering is caused by other persons (Pilate) or by simple natural laws (gravity), Jesus believes that, as he said elsewhere, “It rains on the just and on the unjust.”  Again, this is remarkable because it goes against the religious attitude of the day and against the very book of Deuteronomy itself.  As I said previously, Deuteronomy repeatedly, almost tediously, makes a direct link between godliness and the good life, between suffering and wrath.  Jesus reveals his exalted understanding of his own interpretive authority by disagreeing with Moses!  We indeed have a new Moses here and new revelation here.  Job and Ecclesiastes in the OT push the question this direction, but Jesus takes bold new emphatic steps forward.  You cannot always judge whether God’s pleasure or disfavor is upon you by whether your life is going beautifully.  Life is much more complicated than that.  We have Jesus’ own word on it.

REPENTANCE PARABLE

Jesus follows both of these emphatic denials with the same statement.  “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  In other words, you don’t know that repentance is necessary if something goes wrong.  We cannot make the connection between tragedy (either that caused by persons or by accident) and the right-standing we have with God.  It’s not as if I can say, “If I fall down the stairs and break a leg, then God is angry and I must go and make amends through repentance.”  No, repentance is appropriate for all humans who fall short especially in light of the judgment that is impending for all if we do not.  Here Jesus may have in mind the impending judgment of Rome if Israel continues its collision course with Rome.  But more likely this is a reference to the last day of judgment.  Unless you repent, you will all come under divine judgment on that final day of reckoning. 

Then Jesus tells a parable to illustrate his point.  You need to remember to interpret the parable in the light of what Jesus has just been saying.  This helps to unlock its meaning.  According to the parable, a man planted a fig tree and expected it to yield fruit.  After three years it failed to produce any yield.  So he told the attendant to cut it down.  The attendant says, “Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.  If it bears fruit next year, fine!  If not, then cut it down.”  Jesus doesn’t really finish the story.  He lets it sit in mid air.  There is no conclusion.  We are left wondering if the fig tree produces fruit or not.  If you are like me, you had uncompleted stories.  Well, Jesus isn’t out to suit us, he’s out to force us to ask ourselves some hard questions, questions particularly appropriate for Lent.

But the implications of the parable are fairly clear.  It may be a reference to all Israel needing to repent and enter this new kingdom Jesus is proclaiming.  They’ve got a few more years to turn and produce the fruit of repentance, and if they do not, they will be destroyed by Rome.  Yet it is more likely the parable applies more generally than this.  The issue is the production of fruit and this applies to all of us.  Jesus refers to elsewhere to the fruit of repentance; that is, a lifestyle that exhibits the results of repentance and radical discipleship to Jesus Christ.

WHAT MEANETH REPENTANCE?

So what does the word ‘repentance’ mean?  How does Jesus use it in the broader message of his coming kingdom?  Remember that Jesus first sermon was very short: ‘Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Repentance was central to his preaching ministry and it is important that we try to know exactly how this fits together.  Repentance in the gospels refers to the radical ‘turning away’ from anything which hinders one’s wholehearted trust in God.  As such, the notion of turning to God in love and obedience is most often included.

Sometimes you can learn best what someone means by what they do.  In this case, the relevant action of Jesus is his association with persons who were otherwise known as ‘sinners’: tax-collectors and the like.  His association with the social outcasts was very troubling to the religious authorities and may well be a parable of sorts of this kingdom.  In light of the manifest contempt for such individuals in that society, it is striking to find Jesus frequently in their company.  There was nothing inherent in this group that caused them to be singled out for Jesus’ attention other than their obvious spiritual need.

By reaching out to the social outcasts, Jesus reminds us that, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  He thus dramatized the free grace of God which confronts every person, not just the notorious sinner.  Jesus confronts our bankrupt society and challenges our preconceptions.  The difference with the sinners, those who are sinners in society’s eyes, is that they know they are sinners.  They feel their sin.  They are willing to repent and enter the kingdom.  They don’t argue with the message of repentance.  Those who recoil in contempt demonstrate by their actions that they do not see how needy they truly are.

Jesus demand for repentance is often directed to one’s love of wealth and possessions.  In luke 6:24, Jesus pronounces judgment on those who have received their comfort; those whose sole desire is to enjoy the comforts that wealth brings.  Such is also the point of the condemnation against the rich man who languishes in Hades (Luke 16:25).  He had received his ‘good things’ thinking that by them he could live. 

Even the righteous wealthy are condemned when, in spite of their relatively righteous lives, they treasure their wealth, and depend upon their wealth, above God.  Jesus calls us all to repent of seeking to establish our identity in anything other than our trust in and relationship to God.  Repentance is thus a letting go of our rights, a turning away from our former ways of existence, a humbling of ourselves before a God who demands our all and can be trusted with everything.

BLESSED ARE THE . . .

Blessed are the poor in spirit.  You are blessed when you don’t have two spiritual cents to rub together.  You are blessed when you are utterly at your whit’s end.  You are blessed when you are completely traumatized by the world and its harshness.  You are blessed when you repent of your selfish pride, your self-weening self-glorification.  I tell you, there is freedom here.  There is freedom in humility.  There is freedom in self-abandonment. 

I have often noticed that when I’m anxious, nervous, or depressed, I need to repent.  I mean this with all my heart.  When I’m depressed, I can always find a flaw in my thinking that is leading me to pride.  I can always find some area in my life which needs to be abandoned.  Repentance is the avenue to peace, security, self-awareness, and in the end, joy.  Repentance and joy are the opposite sides of the same coin.  Pride and self-centeredness will eat you alive.  The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are the meek.  Blessed are you when men speak ill of you.  Your reward is great in heaven and your joy great on earth.

This is the great irony of Jesus’ statement that a person must loose their life to find it.  Have you lost your life?  Are you ready to loose it?  Are you ready to abandon your idols, turn from your pride, embrace your weakness, rejoice in your lowliness, and find new life here at the cross.  We live only when we’ve let the cross put us to death.  Resurrected life is the only life worth living.  Is this your life today?  Jesus is calling you to repent so you might live in the joy of the kingdom.