First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Luke 13:1-9

[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

The Bible Lesson: Luke 13:1-9
1At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

General Comments
1. This passage culminates a section that begins at Luke 12:1. The foregoing verses in this section contain a series "warnings and admonitions."

2. The lesson is divisible into two sections: vv.1-5 and vv.6-9. The theme of both sections is the need to repent or be reconciled with God and neighbor while it's still possible to do so today. That's because life is fragile, apt to end without warning.

3. In this passage, Jesus deals with bad theology which apparently had currency among His listeners. Then, as now, there were people who thought that when bad things happened to people, it must mean that there was something bad about the victims.

This is basically what Job's "friends" tried to tell him back in Old Testament times. But both God and Job disabuse them of such ideas.

To this day, people adhere to what's called retribution theology for several reasons:

• Having an explanation of why bad things befall people makes them feel that this life makes more sense than it often does;
• For some, retribution theology feeds their feelings of moral superiority. "That happened to those people because they're evil; it won't happen to me."

In the late-80s, when the scourge of AIDS began to take off, I heard people, some well-meaning and some nasty, say that the disease must be God's judgment on homosexuals. They did this to distance themselves from the disease and to find some reason for the rise of an affliction of which they'd never heard.

Jesus rejects such approaches here and instead calls us to focus on the more significant issue.

4. And what is that issue? As I mentioned earlier, life is fragile and we all need to repent. We need to be in a relationship of repentance with God in order to be ready for life and death. (By a relationship of repentance I mean, the posture of repudiating sin and of trusting in Jesus Christ.)

5. The people here addressed are the same ones with whom Jesus has been speaking since Luke 12:1. There and in 12:12 and 12:54, we're told of the crowd.

This term, crowd, is almost a technical term for Luke. They form the outer ring of Jesus' audience. From Jesus, concentric rings form various audiences, with those who are closer to Him comprising those who believe in Him more. The circles include: the three, Peter, John, and James; the twelve apostles; the disciples; and the crowd.

The crowd is characterized by an interest in Jesus, but a fickleness in their loyalty to Him. They're basically chasing after Jesus out of two motives: getting what they want and curiosity. John's gospel portrays the crowd in a similar light. They have no real interest in surrendering to Christ.

For Luke, who also wrote the New Testament book of Acts, the mission of the Church is to move out, even to the far reaches of these crowds, and invite them into closer and more intimate relationship with Christ.

I hope to present verse-by-verse comments tomorrow.