St. Luke 13:1-9
Dearly beloved,
The road and path of Jesus Christ is not the way people think it is.
People, even those within the church, mistakenly think that Christianity is
a glory road. People paint Christianity wrongly. The wrong way of looking
at the church is addressed by Jesus in the gospel appointed for today.
Jesus was teaching. Thousands of people began crowding around Him to
listen. There was the usual assortment of people. There were Pharisees and
Scribes, Jewish people from all walks of life and, scattered in the crowd
were gentiles.
Jesus' sermon was really narrowing in on the days that were ahead.
Jesus was thinking of His arrest and crucifixion, which was laid out for Him
in the near future. The content of His sermon was centered around how His
very name would cause division. It was focused on interpreting the signs in
these last days. Jesus was urging the hearers to be ready and repentant.
Be ready and vigilant in the faith seems to be a large part of Christ's
sermon in Luke 12 and 13. The gospel that we heard proclaimed this morning
is the conclusion to this sermon.
Some from the crowd referenced a situation among the Galileans.
Some were slain by Pilate. The thought flowing in this statement was
the thought by some that the Galileans who were killed had done something
wrong to deserve it. This is how people think today, even in Christian
circles. If someone is suffering some ill fate, people falsely conclude
that it is because of something bad that they have done. Or that their fate
is the result of their living a life of sin.
Jesus is trying to rectify and correct the incorrect thoughts of the
people. This false belief is called the "theology of glory." The thought
behind the theology of glory is that if I am living right and believing
right, then everything will be good. My family will be good, my kids will
be great, my employment situation will improve and you will see just how
wonderful things can be if you look at my life. This is works
righteousness. The theology of glory then goes to the other side and
falsely says that if you are living and confessing wrong, then your family
will suffer, your job will suffer, your health will decline, your kids will
be punished by God, etc.
This puts sin and grace on man's shoulders and takes it away from God,
or, at best, God waits on you to make the first move and then He responds.
Jesus corrects this among the hearers. "No, I tell you; but unless you
repent , you will all likewise perish." Jesus says that we must all live a
life of repentance and if we don't then the end result will be judgment in
stead of salvation. St. Paul, in his epistles, puts forth the opposite of
the theology of glory. We call it the theology of the cross.
The theology of the cross is the real way that things are. It is
patterned by Jesus. Jesus who is God who should be exalted is instead
humbled by taking on flesh. He hides His glory. Then proceeding on from
the incarnation we see how His earthly ministry goes. He preaches, heals,
raises the dead and people try to throw Him over a cliff. This is God we
are talking about.
They listen to Jesus teach in the Synagogue and they close their ears.
Then, the pinnacle event that defines the theology of the cross, is the
cross itself. God, who should be exalted, is instead beaten, mocked, and
crucified. Here is the ultimate and definitive irony to the whole
situation. This is the pattern for the church and her saints. If we put
this whole discussion into today's context in the church, we see several
interesting misunderstandings. First, people think that if the church has
money and lots of happy shiny people, then the right things are happening at
the church.
This is the theology of glory and it is incorrect. The opposite is also
then concluded. If the church has money problems, people are unhappy, and
attendance is down, then people think it is because the wrong things are
happening. This is also incorrect and is the theology of glory. Sadly,
this is how the world operates today. People take worldly philosophies and
judge the church by those standards. What a mistake this is. If we were to
employ worldly standards in evaluating Jesus, we would say that He failed
because people didn't take Him too well. We would conclude the same with
St. Paul. Paul tells Timothy at the end of his ministry that all the church
in Asia Minor rejected him.
Paul spent most of his ministry there. According to worldly standards,
Paul would be a failure. It's a good thing we employ a different standard
to the church–we let the pattern of Jesus dictate the life of the church.
All of this is what Jesus is talking about in the gospel. Then Jesus moves
on to what the church is supposed to look like, and He uses the barren fig
tree. The fruit that the vinedresser is looking for is repentance and
faith–the correct faith and the correct repentance. In other words, you
have to know what is what.
What do you use your tongue for? Do you understand Jesus and the pattern
that He is looking for? You can walk around all day long and show people
what a great Christian you are, but if you are tearing down others and
gossiping in the church, then you are in danger of judgment. You don't bear
the right fruit. The tongue is to be used for one thing only–to confess
your sins and to praise and confess the Holy Trinity. Proverbs 18:21 says
it simply: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who
love it will eat its fruits."
What this passage says and what Jesus says are not two different
things. Bearing fruit in the church is to follow the pattern of Jesus. The
church is to be like her bridegroom, Jesus. Jesus was humble, meek,
desiring righteousness and purity, merciful, a peacemaker, etc. This colors
our Christian existence. In suffering, the character is made known. In
hardship, the church shows its true character. In other words, bearing
fruit of repentance is being quiet, contemplative, merciful, humble,
peaceable, willing to learn and be led by Christ. This is the faith that is
of the church.
So, you may find hardships in the church and in your life, and you may
not be doing anything wrong. Jesus is patterning you after Himself. So,
when you face the difficulties and hardships in your life, you are to look
to Jesus and not yourself. You are to look upon the crucifix and see that
God was hung upon the cross in spite of His hidden glory, and you are to see
that the greatest irony of all is that His victory is in His death on that
cross. Winning is hidden in the illusion of losing. This is the way of the
church. This is the way of Christ, and the bearing of fruit upon you, the
fig tree, is letting the pattern of Jesus' ministry give definition to your
life, so that you confess your sins and admit what you are.
This is the bearing of fruit that saves souls. It is this sincere
knowledge of our own fallenness that leads us to understand the deep things
of God. It is this which clarifies matters for us so that we can be honest
with ourselves and others about who we are. When we can open up without
fear and let people see the real us and truly rest in the grace of Christ,
then we can lead a quiet, peaceable, contemplative life in the church. All
this really is is letting the gospel rule in the church; letting the gospel
rule in your life.
God hid His glory and let the world despise Him. God Who is holy took
your place and was rejected by everything that He created. Jesus let the
curse stand upon His head and He, in turn, pronounces holy absolution upon
you. Jesus stains Himself with the guilt of your sins, and gives you His
holiness. Jesus says "it is finished," which means the church lives in the
eternal gospel, the forgiveness of sins, along with the quiet and peace of
God's mercy. Amen.
--
Rev. Chad Kendall
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lowell, Indiana
www.trinitylowell.org
