“1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 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? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ ”
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I went to Costco the other day for groceries. I was wearing this very mask. They have a number of practices in place to ensure the safety of their customers. They only allow five customers in the refrigerated produce section at a time. You are separated from their cashiers by plexiglass. I’m not saying anything against their practices. Costco has always struck me as a very professional and well-organized company. Honestly, I like that store so much I’d probably go even if they required me to wear a hazmat suit. What I’m doing is drawing attention to the fact that Costco, like so many other companies, has made real changes in response to the coronavirus.
We have all changed almost everything for a virus with a mortality rate in the US that different studies peg at .6% and 1.3%. We hope that our efforts have lowered it and will lower it. There is wisdom in doing what we can to protect other people and ourselves, and we need to remember that these percentages of .6% and 1.3% represent human souls, but please imagine for a moment that the mortality rate were much higher. Imagine that the coronavirus had 100% mortality rate. Imagine that if you were infected, you would certainly die. What sort of precautions would Costco be taking then? What sort of precautions would your workplace be taking? What sort of precautions would your high school be taking? I dare say that our culture would be taking many more precautions in the face of that virus.
Now consider the precautions that our culture takes in the face of the final judgment. For the wisdom we show in warning people of a threat with a mortality rate of .6% or 1.3% and the wisdom we show in trying to lower it, what wisdom do we show in warning people of a threat that is 100% percent certain? As a culture we show almost no wisdom in this regard. There is almost no length to which we won’t go to safeguard ourselves and others against the coronavirus, but the final judgment is curiously absent from our consciousness.
I imagine that the fact that I’m even bringing the final judgment up in the same breath as the coronavirus is offensive to some people. They would say it’s a scare tactic. Jesus wouldn’t agree. He took two tragedies of his day and used them as warnings saying, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
You probably have some precautions in place to safeguard yourself and loved ones against the coronavirus. You might have some precautions in place to safeguard yourself and loved ones against the economic impact of our nation’s response to the coronavirus. There’s wisdom in doing so. What precautions do you have in place to safeguard yourself against the coming judgment? It’s a strange man who is more afraid of a virus with a mortality rate under 2% for the general population than he is of the wrath of God. It’s a strange man who is more certain about a coming recession than he is about the coming judgment. That’s at least how Jesus would see the situation. Take the coming judgment seriously. Take precautions. That’s the claim of this sermon: Take the coming judgment seriously. Take precautions.
We will consider this in two points. First: the warning of two tragedies. Second: the warning of the fruitless fig. We see the warning of two tragedies in verses 1-5. We see the warning of the fruitless fig in verses 6-11.
First: the warning of two tragedies. The only reason I brought up the coronavirus at the beginning of this sermon is because Jesus brought up two matters of his own day as warnings. Luke 13 begins with these warnings, and that’s notable because chapter 12 ended with a number of calls to take precautions. Read chapter 12 later. Jesus urged the people to be ready for judgment. In parable after parable and teaching after teaching he drove home the necessity to prepare.
Different people prepared and are preparing for the coronavirus in different ways, different people prepared and are preparing for the economic impact in different ways, but people are preparing. Jesus would be amazed that people aren’t preparing for the final judgment. It’s never wise to amaze God with your foolishness.
After Jesus urged the people to be ready, someone in the crowd asked him about a recent atrocity. It’s not surprising that someone brought it up because the perpetrator of the atrocity certainly deserved to be judged; verse 1, “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.”
We don’t know exactly what happened. Perhaps Pilate had some Galileans killed as they were offering sacrifices and this language of mixing blood is poetic. Perhaps Pilate ordered his soldiers to literally mix the blood of these executed Galileans with their sacrifices as an insult to the Jews and their temple. Pilate was no stranger to committing atrocities. Whatever the exact nature of this killing, this issue clearly a powder keg waiting blow.
The people wanted to hear where Jesus stood on it. The people wanted to hear what Jesus thought of the issues of the day. People today would love to hear what Jesus thinks about #blacklivesmatter. People today would love to hear what Jesus thinks about the coronavirus and the economic impact of our nation’s response.
This matter of the executed Galileans was made even more complex by ethnic divisions within Israel. Galileans were not generally respected in Jewish culture. There were doubtlessly people who thought Pilate’s actions were barbaric who also thought that these Galileans were probably quite sinful which is why God allowed this to happen. It’s possible to judge one party in the news while distaining the other.
Whoever asked the question wanted to categorize Jesus. He wanted to see whether Jesus agreed or disagreed with his own assessment of the situation. He wanted to see if Jesus was on his side. We all have a tendency to do that. I have a tendency to do that. You have a tendency to do that. Jesus was curious whether or not the man who asked him that question and the whole crowd was on God’s side. That’s verse 2, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”’
There was something far worse than being executed at the hands of the Romans. There is something far worse than being infected with the coronavirus. There is something far worse than accidentally infecting someone else with the coronavirus. There is something worse than the economic impact of this pandemic. Are these tragedies to be taken lightly? “I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Take the coronavirus as a warning. Take the economic impact as a warning. Take the death of those Galileans as a warning. The people of His nation should do so. You should do so. “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Now I hope that no one listening thinks that Jesus was cavalier with the memory of those Galileans. After all, he himself was a Galilean. You can read the gospels to see that Jesus was and is far more compassionate and tender than any of us. The issue is not whether Jesus’ rhetoric offends you. The question is whether Jesus is right. Do you think that the people in that crowd would have perished unless they repented? Do you think that they should have taken that tragedy as a warning rather than merely using it as a political football?
The question of doctrine never comes down to whether or not you like it. It comes down to whether or not it is true. Is it true that everyone who doesn’t repent will perish? If you don’t think that’s true, you will be offended by Jesus’ use of this atrocity. You will also be offended by much of what he said. If that’s you, consider that you might be more interested in conforming Jesus to your image than you are in conforming yourself to the image of Christ.
Jesus clearly used this tragedy to warn against the final judgment. He did so because he actually believed there was a final judgment. If God believes something, it’s a safe bet that it’s going to happen.
Jesus used another tragedy to warn against the final judgment. He raised the issue of the tower of Siloam. This tower was in Jerusalem. Jesus was speaking about it in Jerusalem. Look at 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? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Now imagine Jesus in New York City shortly after 9/11 saying, “think of those 2,606 who died when the twin towers fell—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in America? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will perish.”
If you remember 9/11, you remember that there was almost no talk of the final judgment in that way. The only judgment that mattered was America’s judgment on what had been done. I’m not denying discussions or decisions on national security. Those must be made. I’m just pointing out that it’s rather strange that we didn’t hear a lot of this verse. We didn’t hear a lot about it for the same reason that we don’t hear much about it in light of this pandemic.
It’s strange. If you talk about the final judgment, people will respond by telling you that they’ve heard it all before. They will say that they’re tired of hearing about it. That’s nonsense. No one is talking about the final judgment in our culture. The people who are sick of hearing it most likely haven’t heard about it in any extensive way for years if ever. Imagine everyone in our nation was hearing about the final judgment in the same way we’ve heard about the coronavirus for the past two months, and you’ll see that we never hear about it.
As a nation, we could stand to hear a good deal more about the coming judgment. As a church in this nation we could stand to hear a good deal more about the coming judgment. As a sinner, I could stand to hear a good deal more about the coming judgment.
Jesus brought up this tower and the coming judgment as a consideration of God’s justice. This is what lies behind the question, “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?”
Ever since the Garden of Eden, we humans have a compulsion to judge. If the eighteen who died in that tower collapse were wicked, that would be a fitting judgment. If the eighteen who died in that tower collapse were wicked, then you could know how to avoid that same fate. That’s the implied logic that Jesus is dealing with. If you can judge the victim as guilty, you suddenly give yourself some emotional space. If the victim was a bad person, order is restored, and life makes sense. In other words, your judgment makes sense. We see this same faulty line of reasoning at work whenever there is an attempt to smear the victim of a shooting in this country. Jesus cut through all that nonsense and said, “no! the judgment to make is that unless you repent, you too will perish.”
To bring it to today, “do you think Ahmaud Arberry was somehow more guilty than everyone else in Georgia? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will perish.” That says nothing about the state of the soul of Ahmaud Arberry; it is a warning to your soul just as Jesus’ words said nothing about the state of the souls of those Galileans who Pilate killed or those Jews who died when the tower collapsed. It was a warning to his listeners. Jesus turned an issue of the day into an issue of eternity.
That is necessary because tragedies have and will occur. We live in a world under the curse of sin. In some ways, we Americans have been sheltered from much of this. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself, if you’ve ever worried that a soldier would beat you so badly during worship that your blood would mix with the communion wine? Most of us are not legitimately concerned about where tomorrow’s food will come from the way Jesus’ listeners were. Most of us are not legitimately concerned about what will happen if the clothes we are wearing would rip beyond repair the way that Jesus’ listeners were. That’s what Jesus was after when he said not to worry about fear of clothing. We certainly do have our own sorrows, but our lives are quite easy compared with our fellow Christians around the world and across time. Imagine how we would be responding in this pandemic if we were dealing with untreatable leprosy rather than the coronavirus. Imagine how we would be responding in this pandemic if we were dealing with the bubonic plague rather than the coronavirus. Those would be far worse than what we are currently experiencing, but they would not be the worst. Uncurable leprosy is not the most tragic possibility. Bubonic plague is not the most tragic possibility. “Tragedy is hard and life is short,” writes Darrel Bock. “But life is more tragic if one does not turn to God.”
Dying in your sin is worse than untreatable leprosy. Dying in your sin is worse than the bubonic plague. Dying in your sin is worse than the coronavirus. Do you sense the reality of that or does that just sound like something religious people say? Jesus didn’t tell the crowd, “unless you repent, you too will all perish,” because he was a religious man making religious statements. He said that because he is God and that’s true, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
If you find that rather rude, consider the man who said it. Consider Jesus. He wasn’t and isn’t against humanity. He is for us, which is why he said this. Think of this way: imagine that there is a city in which the coronavirus is spreading like wildfire and proving just as destructive. A man steps up and encourages basic precautions. He talks about basic handwashing and social distancing. The people of the city ridicule him. One night as he is handing out tracks explaining how the virus is spread, he is savagely beaten. After recovering, he goes back out with his tracks because he doesn’t want anyone else to get sick. Regardless of what you think about medical precautions, I can’t imagine that you would consider his warnings rude. You would consider them loving. Do the same for Jesus. He warned and is warning right now because he doesn’t want you to perish. “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn!”
Have you turned? Have you—to use a theological word that means “to turn”—repented? We see this repentance filled out in our second point: the warning of the fruitless fig.
Jesus has spoken directly. Now he tells a parable. He did both and we should respect both. Some people seem to think that Jesus only told stories to make his point. They need to remember verses 3 and 5, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Some people seem to think that there is no point dressing up the truth. They need to remember Jesus’ parables.
Jesus told a parable about a fig tree. Fig trees are far more common in that region than in ours. Jesus would use more parables about corn, beans, and hogs if he were teaching in Northwest Iowa. That’s probably a word to those of us who speak his word in Northwest Iowa.
The fig tree was often used as a symbol for Israel and so it is very possible that this was a warning to the Jews. Many of Jesus’ parables were directed to them. In this parable, Jesus asked them why God should let them live. Verse 6, ‘A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”’
If God were a gardener, then Israel certainly received plenty of fertilizer over the years. They had the covenants. They had the temple. They had the Scriptures. They could point to all of these and say, “this is why God will never judge us. It’s clear that He tends to us.” In this parable, Jesus flips all of that on its head and asks, “if you’ve had all those benefits, why aren’t you bearing any fruit?” That’s the first half of this parable and that’s the question that Jesus asked the Jews time and time again, “why aren’t you bearing any fruit?”
The connection between those tragedies and this fruitless fig is obvious: bearing fruit is a sign of repentance. This is why John the Baptizer said, “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” This is why Jesus said, “you will know them by their fruit.” If your life isn’t changed by your repentance, it wasn’t and isn’t real repentance. If that’s you, listen to verse 7, “I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?” You are that fig tree.
This is a particular warning for you if you grew up in the church. There are far too many similarities between the gospel’s description of the religious Jews of Jesus’ day and a cursory examination of those of us who grew up in the church today. We seem to think that we don’t need to fear the coming judgment because we grew up going to church. We’ve received plenty of spiritual fertilizer over the years. That’s no reason that God won’t judge you. He’s asking, “if you’ve had all those benefits, why aren’t you bearing any fruit? For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”
Perhaps you’ve only avoided hell to this point because of the patience of God. You see that patience in the next two verses, “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘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.’”
The point here is not that God needs His arm bent to be patient. The point is that He is patient. He is willing to go above and beyond to see you come to grace. That’s the point of this digging around and fertilizing. As John Calvin explains, “It is well known that trees are sometimes preserved, not because their owners find them to be useful and productive, but because the careful and industrious husbandman makes every possible trial and experiment before he determines to remove them out of the field or vineyard.”
Perhaps you have been, to this point, a fruitless fig tree. Perhaps you are bearing no fruit and in this very moment, in the preaching of His word, God is digging around in your heart. He is fertilizing even as this seed is planted and if you bear fruit, fine! If not, you will be cut down. If that seems extreme, ask yourself if it’s what Jesus said. As we saw with those two tragedies, unless you repent, you too will perish.
Jesus gave no resolution to this story of the vine. We don’t know what happened. All we know are the two possibilities, “If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” This was intentional because you fill in the story for yourself. You will be inspected by God. If you have no fruit, you will be cut down.
Take that seriously. Take that more seriously than our culture takes the coronavirus. Take precautions. Repent. “Unless you repent, you too will perish.” Repent of your sin. Turn your life around. If you are walking away from God, come to God. Come to Jesus. Bear fruit. “If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.” Stop living your life. Live Jesus’ life in your situation. He became like you so that you could become like him.
Those are the precautions for the final judgment. Those matter much more than whether or not you wear a mask. Dying in your sin is far worse than contracting the coronavirus. Our culture doesn’t seem to get that. Jesus does. I hope that you do too. Amen.