October 26, 2024

Luke 13:1-9

In this reading, Jesus is challenging people’s assumptions about sin and consequences.  The people tell him about two events at which people lost their lives. In the first, Pilate apparently ordered some Galileans killed while they were offering Jewish sacrifices; in the second, eighteen people were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them.  In those days, people tended to think that if someone suffered adversity, it must have been the result of their sinfulness that had displeased God.  Even today in modern times, some people ascribe tragic events to God’s punishment.  But in this reading, Jesus clearly dispels such notions.  He clearly states that those who suffered calamity were not greater sinners than those who lived around them.

Jesus then shifts the emphasis to everyone’s need for repentance from their sins.  It is not the case that those who have suffered more had more sin, but it is true that we all have sin, therefore we all need to turn our minds to God and keep our attention on God. Remaining in sin shows allegiance to phenomena that rise and fall, arise and pass away.  Therefore it is the path to perishing, since all things pass away.  However, repenting and shifting our priority to attention to God is reorienting towards the eternal.  Even though we will die, we will not perish.

Jesus then offers them a parable of a person who planted a fig tree in a garden, but after three years it still had not borne fruit.  The person is thinking about cutting it down, but the gardener wisely advises him to wait one more year, during which time the gardener will cultivate the ground and fertilize it to see if that helps, since it may bear fruit in the future.  “If not, you can cut it down,” he says.

This parable is about God’s patience in seeking us out and his mercy in giving us more time to repent and turn towards the eternal.  God continues to try to reach us, to give us every chance to bear fruit.  But at some point, we are out of time.  In this reading we learn that we should not wait and keep postponing spiritual matters, because we don’t know what will befall us or when. That is clear. Amen.