A Sermon for Lent 3 - March 23, 2025 - Luke 13:1-9

By Jan Savory

In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking to the crowd.  They were talking about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. There’s nothing elsewhere in scripture, or in contemporary literature, that references this incident. But it is quite consistent with Pilate’s character and actions to assume that Pilate had put these worshippers to death while they were engaged in their sacrifices.

Jesus seizes on this and another calamity – one an instance of state-sanctioned terror, one a random accident. Both saw people dead with little warning and for no clearly apparent reason. Jesus used this conversation as a teaching moment. Do you think that made these people worse sinners than any other Galileans? Or what about the 18 who were killed when the tower fell on them; were they worse than the others in Jerusalem?

No, says Jesus, these events had nothing to do with how they lived, whether they were sinners or righteous. But here Jesus puts in his zinger: If you all don’t change your ways, you'll die too. How we live has consequences.  

Jesus is addressing the questions that all of us have: why is there so much suffering in the world? Is suffering connected to our behavior? Does God cause suffering? Is it a form of punishment?

Jesus seems to be saying that accidents and suffering are random, not a result of the sufferer’s sinful behavior. He says much the same thing at other times. Remember the man born blind that Jesus healed? The disciples asked who   sinned, This man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus told them no one. He also told us, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the rain falls equally on the just and the unjust. This seems pretty clear to me.  Random evens happen equally to good and bad people, and are not punishment for sin.  It also ties in with what we see in the world around us.

But, if it is clear, why do we hear such different views from other Christians? We’ve all heard many less than helpful, or even downright awful, explanations of suffering: God is testing you; you didn't pray hard enough; God never gives you more than you can handle – Wait, hold it there! God didn’t give my daughter the cancer that recently killed her;  God didn’t bring illnesses on all the sick. God didn’t bomb Gaza or Syria this week. Surely, God wasn’t punishing all these people. The Bible says God is love.

God doesn’t give calamities in life. Bad things happen, sometimes for no apparent reason. Other times, they might be as a result of human action; maybe the people building that tower in Jerusalem cut corners and the tower fell. And some ordinary citizens of Jerusalem were just in the wrong place at the wrong time . After all, God gave us people free will.

But how can people who call themselves Christians read passages like we read today and still believe that God causes suffering, whether as punishment or as a teaching tool?

I’m not suggesting we should all interpret ever part of the Bible the same way, although we should be tolerant of the differences. I find that sometimes I see the same passage differently at different times. Different interpretations of the same Bible texts arise from various factors, including individual backgrounds, cultural contexts, and differing methodologies of interpretation, leading to a wide range of understandings.  This isn’t necessarily a problem and different interpretations can be valid and valuable in different circumstances. In fact, the 4 gospels give us varying interpretations of Jesus’ life.

There is one way people use the Bible, I don’t even want to say interpret here, and that is proof texting.  Proof-texting involves taking verses or passages out of context and using them as "proof" for a particular viewpoint, disregarding the broader context and the text's intended message. A common example is using Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future," to support the Prosperity Gospel, the idea that God guarantees personal success and prosperity to everyone, when the verse is actually about God's plans for the restoration of the exiled Israelites. 

Proof-texting can be used to manipulate the Bible to support personal opinions, biases, or agendas. It allows individuals to impose their own ideas onto Scripture rather than allowing Scripture to shape their beliefs and practices.  By selectively choosing verses that support a specific viewpoint (Cherry-Picking) while ignoring contradictory or qualifying passages, proof-texting can lead to a biased interpretation. It disregards the diversity and complexity of biblical teachings and may result in a one-sided or incomplete understanding of the message.

It’s often been said that the Bible can be used to “prove” anything, and we've seen incidents of this throughout history – Slavery, genocide, Holocaust, persecution of those who are different in faith or sexual orientation or colour all have been supported and all have been condemned using the Bible, Frequently by the use of proof texting.

If you’re happy with the way you read the Bible I don’t want to change that. But if, like me, you have often been confused or frustrated by apparent inconsistencies in what the Bible seems to say,  or how people interpret it, I’d like to talk for a few minutes about how I read the Bible.

When reading a Bible passage, we need to understand who said it and in what context; we should recognize the type of literature in that book (narrative, poetry, wisdom literature, epistle, prophecy, etc.) The Bible is a progressive revelation; later passages may shed light on earlier ones. We’ll see an example of this later.

This helps us interpret Scripture In a way that Is consistent with the broader biblical narrative and the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Also, it is helpful to consider the insights of biblical scholars, commentaries, and theological resources. This way we will ensure a well-rounded and informed interpretation.

Let’s use this way of reading the Bible to try to understand the second part of our gospel reading.  This will be an abbreviated version of how I approached this parable when preparing for today’s service.

It was parable about a fig tree which didn’t bear any fruit. The owner of the Orchard wanted to cut it down, but the gardener begged for more time to work with the tree and only then if it was still barren should the owner cut it down.

We know the context in which Jesus said this. He was teaching that God does not cause calamities. As to the type of literature we’re reading here, it is a parable, a story that often shocks us, makes us think and teaches us something. With a parable the first thing we have to do is figure out who the characters represent. Apart from the fig tree itself the two characters are the owner of the orchard and the gardener.

It is very tempting to identify the owner of the vineyard with God, the gardener with Jesus and the fig tree with sinful humans who do not bear the fruit of the spirit. That would say that God is harsh and ready to punish the sinful human and Jesus is the generous gardener who will give us one more chance. Does that tie in with Jesus’s teaching in general? I can see a couple of ways where it does not. Firstly, Jesus teaches us that that God is a loving father.  He tells stories like the prodigal son, where the father is eager to welcome his wayward son home. And secondly, Jesus teaches that he and the father are one, and that “he who has seen me has seen the father”. How can their natures be so different?

But, there are passages in the Old Testament that tie in with the idea of a strict and punishing Deity.  Read the story of the flood or the books of Joshua and Judges. Without going into a lot of detail. as we read through the Old Testament and as we study the history of the Iron Age and later, we see people’s views change. In the Old Testament we go from a God who punishes the whole world, except for Noah and family, with a devastating flood; to a God who preaches that rather than kill a person for an injury , a response should be commensurate with the injury; an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And from there to the God who tells Micah "What does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" And then we move on to Jesus who taught that God is love. This progressive revelation helps us to see how we can reconcile the words of Jesus with the story of God many centuries earlier.

So how can we read this parable? I went online and consulted quite a few biblical experts. And this is what I came up with.

Given Luke’s consistent picture of God’s reaction to sin, then perhaps the landowner is representative of our own sense of how the world should work. That is, from very early on, we want things to be “fair” and we define “fair” as receiving rewards for doing good and punishment for doing evil. So perhaps the gardener is God, the one who consistently raises a contrary voice to suggest that the ultimate answer to sin isn’t punishment – not even in the name of justice – but rather mercy, reconciliation, and new life.

Rather than imagine, that is, that God has to punish wrongdoing – and that we’re just lucky Jesus was around – what if instead we recognize that God’s answer to sin isn’t punishment but instead is love. So, what can we say in the face of suffering and loss? That God is with us. That God understands what our suffering is like. That God, the Gardener, has promised to redeem all things, including even our suffering. That suffering and injustice do not have the last word in our lives and world. And that God will keep waiting for us and keep urging us to turn away from our self-destructive habits to be drawn again into the embrace of a loving God.

Let us pray:

Loving God,

Hold us in your loving embrace. Teach us about your love and care for us. May we be like the fig tree that bears fruit. Guide us to seek your kingdom first and to trust in your promises, even when things seem difficult. We ask for your grace and mercy, and for the strength to follow your path. Amen.