Lent Three

Isaiah 55:1-13, Luke 13:1-9

Two powerful passages this week which might, at first reading, seem to be presenting God in both "good cop" and "bad cop" modes.

Isaiah is the good news. This passage anticipates return of Hebrew exiles in Babylon home as God has promised them. The promise is that they can find food and water, even if they have lost everything in exile.

BUT, and there is a rather sizable "but" here in verses 2 and 3, in order truly to be fed on return and find safety and security, you need to attend to God's call and God's way. Like David, the people are called to be witnesses and leaders; their job is to be living examples of God's love so that others will be drawn to that love. IF they seek God, IF they change their ways, then they shall find joy and security.

What got them in trouble in the first place and led to exile was a choice on the part not only of the leadership of the nation, but of many others as well, to leave behind the covenant with God and take credit themselves for their prosperity. They ignored worship and caring for the "widows and orphans" (symbols of those on the lowest rungs of society) and so were vulnerable to attack because they relied on their own strength and not God.

So while this beautiful passage is full of GOOD NEWS, it is also full of a call to live in such a way that the news continues to be good and God can do what God wants to do in their lives!

The Luke passage is a bit more complicated, but along the same theme. The text begins with two examples which the people around Jesus used to illustrate a common theological belief: if something bad happens to you, you must be bad! The first story (an incident in which Pilate had soldiers lay in wait for some wanted men [terrorists against Rome?] at the temple and killed them while they worshipped) shows human-caused disaster. The second shows a natural disaster which also killed people.

Jesus isn't buying that theology. There isn't always a reason why someone is the victim of bad things. Innocent people become victims all the time; did those who didn't escape from the World Trade Centers on 9/11 die because they were all the bad people while the survivors were all the good people? Jesus would say, "Ridiculous!"

Then we get the "but" in this passage. Even though innocent people die because human beings or nature cause tragedy, that doesn't mean that some suffering isn't caused by our own actions. If you are a lifelong smoker, the odds are pretty good you will suffer health consequences. If you drive drunk, the odds are good you will injure yourself or others you love. Sin CAN lead to death. So stop congratulating yourself that you weren't in the temple that day when the Galileans were killed or that you didn't happen to be walking under that tower when it fell down. You are no more righteous than those who died.

Pay attention to your own life and see that you are aligning yourself with God and life.

Then the fig tree reinforces the point. Note that the fig tree hasn't done anything evil, or even just bad. It hasn't produced wormy fruit. It's sin is that it has done NOTHING AT ALL. When fruit is required from it, it simply stands still. So Jesus further pushes his listeners to widen their understanding of sin. As an old prayer puts it,

Forgive us for what we have done and what we have left undone.

Yet the good news here is that second chances abound in God's economy, just as the Isaiah passage assured the exiled Hebrews. There is still time to bear fruit.