Third Week in Lent - The Purpose of Problems

This is the Third Sunday in Lent

Lent is a season that is not typically celebrated in many Evangelical churches

However, it’s something that I’d like to start celebrating

Lent is a period of 40 days, not counting Sundays, before Easter. It starts on what we know as Ash Wednesday and goes until just before Easter

The 40 days of Lent coincide with the 40 days that Jesus fasted in the wilderness after His baptism

During Lenten season we are asked to focus on prayer, penance (asking forgiveness for our sins), repentance (turning away from our sins), almsgiving (giving to those in need), and self denial (fasting).

I’ve entitled my message today “The problem with prophets”

Our passage for today is found in Luke 13 starting at verse 1

Luke 13:1-9 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2  Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4  Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." 6  Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 8  "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

Our passage today is a very important one

It’s a topic that I have covered before, but one that needs to be addressed on a fairly regular basis

Some things I say today will probably sound familiar, and the reason is that I’ve most likely said it before

But this is a message that we all need to be reminded of, so please stay with me!

So, what is Jesus saying here?

Our passage is broken up into two distinct sections, let’s take a look at the first one

Luke 13:1-9 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2  Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4  Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

What is Jesus talking about here?

He mentions two events

The first is about some Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices

What does it mean that their blood was mixed with their sacrifices?

Basically it means that they had come to make a sacrifice at the temple, and while they were sacrificing Pilate had them killed

The second event mentioned is when a tower in the town of Siloam fell and killed 18 people

These were two events that were apparently very familiar to the people Jesus was speaking with

He didn’t have to give any more details, everyone already knew about what happened

It’s kind of similar to major events that happen today

If I mention things like 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing we are all aware of what took place

The events that Jesus mentioned were that familiar to the people

Unfortunately for us, we do not know anything more about them

History does not mention these events at all so we do not know the details

And honestly, the details of the events are not important at all to the message Jesus was trying to bring across

What was that message?

After mentioning both events Jesus stated

“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”

And then

“do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?”

Here’s what Jesus is getting at

Whenever a tragedy occurs it’s not long before some religious leader starts saying that the reason it happened was because of some sin

That God was judging them because of something terrible that they did

This was a common belief back in Jesus day, and it is still with us even today

We tend to get the idea that when life is going well, when good things are happening, that God is pleased with us and is blessing us

However, when things are not going well, when life takes a nose dive or when tragedies occur, we naturally think it is some kind of punishment from God

Ever notice that when tragedies occur we always want to know why?

Why did this happen – what did I do to deserve this – etc.

I am constantly being asked why God allows things to happen in a certain way

Could it be punishment for our bad behavior?

It’s possible, but in my opinion it’s highly unlikely

We see in the Old Testament several examples of God allowing things to happen as a way of bringing His people back to Him

But those events were rare

Even when we see several examples of them in Scripture we must remember that these events happened many, many years apart – sometimes several hundred years apart

And when we study these events we see that they were always a last resort

That God tried several times to get the attention of His people through other means – generally messages from prophets

The prophets would warn over and over that unless the people repented, that a calamity would take place

When the calamity happened there was no doubt in anyone’s mind why it happened

So even though tragedies could be God’s judgment, almost never do I think that they are

I think that the overwhelming majority of the events in the Old Testament that are seen as “punishment” are simply the end result of bad behavior

Many times the things we call the judgement of God are really the results of our own stupidity

Jesus was very clear with the two events in our passage today

These events did not happen because of sin

The people that died were no different than the rest of the people in their region

So, why did they die?

Because we live in a fallen world and sometimes bad things happen to good people

Or, as I like to say, we live in a messed up world filled with messed up people that do messed up things

Sometimes we are that messed up person, sometimes it’s someone else and we get caught in the crossfire

Many times when something tragic takes place I hear people say “everything happens for a reason” - implying that God had a reason for allowing whatever took place to happen

I disagree with that statement

I believe that some things happen for a reason, but I also believe that God does not micro manage the world

Many, if not most, of the things that happen are not things that God caused

I do, however, believe what Scripture says when it tells us that God can take whatever happened and use it for good - God didn’t cause it to happen, but God can use what happened to help others

So, how do I know if what I am experiencing is God’s judgment or if it’s just one of those “bad things that happen to good people” moments?

That is a very good question

There are a couple of things we can do to help us find out

First, some self-examination

How does my life line up with what God wants it to be?

Let me be clear on that –

None of us is perfect - all of us fall short of God’s standards

I’m not referring to the sin that everyone struggles with

I’m talking about the sin we don’t struggle with

The sin that we’ve cozied up to

The stuff that we know is wrong, but we don’t care and continue to do it anyway

If I have some glaring issues like that in my life, then yes I could possibly be experiencing what I am experiencing because God wants to get my attention

God’s motive is always to restore a right relationship with Him

Even though God may not cause the events - as I said before most of the time they are simply the result of our poor choices - God can certainly use them to grab our attention

Something else to consider on this – the tragedy we are experiencing could very well have been our own doing

We bring an awful lot of stuff on ourselves

Let’s take the tower of Siloam as an example

We really don’t know anything about the situation or why it happened

But what if everyone knew that the tower was structurally unsound

That it was weak and could collapse at any moment

Yet these 18 people decided to go up in it anyway, or maybe held a party at the foot of the tower

Whose fault is it that they died?

It’s their own fault

All too often we blame God for things that we bring on ourselves

Jesus said that these people that died were no different than those around them

He then went on to say “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

He then goes on to give an interesting analogy

6  Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 8  "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

It typically takes a fig tree 3 years from the time it was planted before it begins to bear fruit

In this parable we see that a man had planted a fig tree, and when he came back three years later he didn’t see any figs

The tree should have had some, but there were none

The man told the caretaker of the vineyard to cut it down

He stated “Why should it use up the soil?”

In other words, why should an unproductive tree take up some of the limited space in my vineyard and use up the nutrients in the soil?

Cut this tree down and make room for one that is productive

Makes sense doesn’t it?

This was not a shade tree, this was a tree that was to be used as a source of food or income

There was a distinct purpose for this tree, and it wasn’t living up to that purpose so the man

The caretaker said “give it one more year”

Let me work with it, break up the soil, throw some fertilizer on it - let’s not be too hasty in giving up

If nothing changes, then we can get rid of it

What does Jesus mean by this parable?

Here’s how I understand it

We are the fig tree

Jesus says that you can tell a genuine believer from a false believer by the “fruit” or byproduct of their life

In this parable there is no fruit at all

In other words, you can’t tell whether it’s a good tree or not because there is no fruit at all

No good fruit, no bad fruit, no immature fruit, nothing at all

I know people that are like this

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that I was talking with someone about a mutual acquaintance and I was asked “are they a Christian?”

I responded “I have no idea!”

I hadn’t seen anything in that person’s life that would indicate that they weren’t, but I also had not seen anything that indicated that they were

There was literally no fruit at all

In the parable the land owner had a big issue with that fact, and I honestly thing God does too

We need to do something for God - there should be some kind of fruit in our life that indicates we are believers

The primary focus of God is building His Kingdom, which He does through His people

To accomplish this God very much wants us to have a fantastic relationship with Him

In the parable God is wanting the same thing

He wants to give one more chance

He wants to loosen up the soil around the roots of our lives and pour on some fertilizer to see if we will bear fruit

Digging up soil can be uncomfortable

And what was used as fertilizer in Jesus’ day?

Manure, poop, ca-ca, whatever you want to call it

So God, in His desire to see fruit in our lives, may allow us to get uncomfortable and may allow a little poo in our lives

Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of poo, but if that’s what it takes for me to get things right with God, then I am fine with it

God may not cause all the bad stuff happening in my life, but He certainly can use it as fertilizer to help me grow and bear fruit