{"id":9829,"date":"2021-02-07T19:49:37","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=9829"},"modified":"2022-10-06T08:41:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T06:41:23","slug":"luke-131-9-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/luke-131-9-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 13:1-9"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Luke 13:1 At that very time there were some present who told him about
\nthe Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2
\nHe asked them, „Do you think that because these Galileans suffered
\nin this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I
\ntell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or
\nthose eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them–
\ndo you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living
\nin Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish
\njust as they did.“ 6 Then he told this parable: „A man had
\na fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on
\nit and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, ‚See here! For three
\nyears I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find
\nnone. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?‘ 8 He replied,
\n‚Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure
\non it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you
\ncan cut it down.'“<\/p>\n

Questions about Relationships <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is usually toward the end of the day when the phone call comes to
\nmy office. It has probably taken the person on the other end of the line
\nall day to work up the courage to ask their question. It isn’t always
\nthe same question, but many times it is a variation of the following: \u0093Why
\nis God punishing me?\u0094 Things are going poorly for this individual or
\nfamily at the moment and they have connected the dots and found the picture
\nunmistakable. God must have it in for them.<\/p>\n

For my part I try to be assuring to them. I don’t claim to know the
\nmind of God, but I assure them that God does not \u0093have it in for them.\u0094 I
\nam sure of this because of Jesus‘ death and resurrection. God is for
\nus, not against us. But at the same time, these bad things do happen,
\nand there does not seem to be rhyme or reason to it. We look to make
\nsense of our world, and we find out that senseless and random evils exist
\nand plague us from time to time. Our world is complex, and simple answers
\nwill not suffice.<\/p>\n

I don’t mention that their question is one aspect of the age old philosophical
\nconundrum, theodicy. They probably don’t know, nor do they care, that
\nthis word describes questions like, \u0093If God is all powerful, then how
\ncan God be good or just with all the evil that exists in the world.\u0094 Students
\nin college Philosophy 101 courses have been writing papers on this topic
\nfor decades, perhaps even centuries. The ancients of various cultures
\npuzzled over this question. Perhaps this is the first and most important
\nquestion asked after one answers positively the question about the existence
\nof God at all.<\/p>\n

Many religions around the world express the hope that wicked people
\nwill be punished and righteous people will be rewarded by the divine.
\nThe natural extension for some, however faulty the logic, is that when
\nsomeone suffers they must be wicked. Our experience tells us otherwise.
\nOften people, even those we consider good, suffer for no apparent reason.
\nLikewise, people whom we consider wicked often seem to go through life
\nrewarded for their wickedness. All of this leaves our world shaken and
\nour heads shaking.<\/p>\n

What is the relationship between our behavior, the good and bad things
\nthat happen to us, and God? How do all these things fit together? I don’t
\nknow that I begin to have the answers to these questions, at least not
\non the logical level. What strikes me as odd is that Jesus in our Gospel
\ntext for today seems not to help in the least.<\/p>\n

Muddy Waters <\/strong><\/p>\n

In our text for today, the question comes up not once, not twice, but
\nthree times; two of them contemporary examples for Jesus to use, and
\none a parable that he tells. As Jesus addresses this topic, the answer
\nto his own question muddies the waters considerably. At first it seems
\nthat he is telling us that there is no connection between Sin and the
\nevil. His emphatic \u0093No\u0094 to the question, however rhetorical, indicates
\njust that. But then he goes on to talk about the repentance of the people
\nwho are listening, lest they suffer the same fate. Jesus is saying, in
\neffect; \u0093If you don’t repent, you will suffer just like they did.\u0094 Perhaps
\nSin and suffering are not linked, but repentance and avoiding suffering
\nseem to be.<\/p>\n

Again, our experience tells us otherwise. If we take what Jesus is saying
\nliterally, then we know that it doesn’t always happen that way. Many
\npeople in Jesus‘ day repented and were baptized by John, and yet were
\nswept away in the Jewish rebellion against Rome that was going on at
\nthe time. Others in Jesus day seemed not at all concerned about their
\nbroken relationship with God, they seemed to keep right on going without
\nsuffering any ill, almost like the \u0093Energizer Bunny.\u0094 We are still puzzled,
\nand no closer to an answer. That is, until we take a closer look at Jesus‘
\nparable and its implications for the two earlier examples that he gives.<\/p>\n

The Gardener and the Tree <\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus parable of the gardener is one of those peculiar to Luke’s gospel.
\nThe theme is common and as old as the prophets. The garden, vineyard,
\nor in this case, fig tree, is not producing fruit. It is not serving
\nthe purpose for which it was planted. The care given to it seems wasted.
\nThe owner, understandably miffed about this, intends to put the soil
\nto better use. The gardener intervenes and pleads for one more season
\nto nurture the plant to growth before it will either produce or be cut
\ndown.<\/p>\n

At first the meaning of this text for us seems plain. The time is short.
\nBear fruit now (be productive as God’s chosen people) or endure the wrath
\nof the owner of the garden and be cut down and cut off. How many of us
\nhave heard (and pastors preached) just such a message. But that is to
\nmisunderstand the nature of trees altogether. Trees that do not bear
\nfruit cannot simply start to produce on their own. It takes the proper
\nsoil, fertilizer, water and sunshine for this to happen. It is indeed
\nGod’s doing, not the tree’s action. The gardener knows this and not only
\npleads for time, but pledges a plan to do just the things needed for
\nthe tree to bear fruit. The gardener knows not only grace and patience
\nbut also nurture and care. The tree will ultimately bear fruit.<\/p>\n

But if, as I suspect, Jesus is referring to himself as the gardener,
\nthen this is not the end of the story of the gardener and the tree. We
\ncannot hear this story of Jesus in isolation. It has everything to do
\nwith the destination that Jesus intends in Jerusalem, his death on another
\ntree. Taken in the context of Jesus own death, the story of the Galileans
\nkilled by Pilate becomes more meaningful and more poignant. Jesus does
\nnot need to repent, yet he suffers the same fate of cruel death at the
\norder of the same person. When he talks of perishing as they did, he
\nis talking about something that the reader of the Gospel must realize
\nJesus is himself going to do.<\/p>\n

For this gardener takes on the fate of all humanity, our suffering and
\nour death, head on. He not only tends to the tree, but dies on a tree.
\nHe suggests that being cut off from God is a terrible fate, and then
\nhe endures that fate with us and for us. By joining us in our suffering,
\nJesus does not answer the questions about why we suffer. Instead he lives
\nit. He shows us that it does not have the last word. Beyond our hope
\nand comprehension is something greater still, of which by his death we
\ncan only catch a glimpse. For this purpose he tends the unproductive
\ntree and dies with it, with us.<\/p>\n

For the Love of the Tree <\/strong><\/p>\n

We are usually so worried about the pains and suffering we endure that
\nwe are blind to the fact that God has joined our life, our death, and
\ncreated a new path into our future. God has done so because love overrules,
\nnot death, but the power of death upon humanity. Our suffering is strong
\nand enduring, but God’s love is stronger still. We cannot avoid the pains
\nand evils of this world, but we do not have either to join them or be
\nresigned to them. Instead we can follow Jesus.<\/p>\n

Jesus did not need to repent because he remained, at all times, oriented
\ntoward the one he called \u0093Abba.\u0094 The repentance that he calls forth in
\nthis story may well be an encouragement for us to do the same: to turn
\naway from the pains and evils that consume us, to turn away from the
\nthings that we use to distract ourselves from the reality of evil in
\nour hearts as well as our world, and to turn our faces toward the God
\nwhose love is the only hope we have of changing the ending, if not the
\ncourse of our story.<\/p>\n

For it is in turning to our gardener for help and hope that we might
\nindeed become productive, just as a plant will turn toward the light
\nthat is in part fuel for its fruit. And we hope in this gardener because
\nhe has joined his fate with our fate, so that his destination might be
\nours as well. Thus oriented on our Lenten journey, we are now ready to
\nface the tree of the cross, the place of fate, so that we too might arrive
\nat the empty tomb and the end of suffering’s power.<\/p>\n

This news means more to the people who call me late in the afternoon,
\nwith such burning questions of existence and suffering: that Jesus carries
\nhis cross for us and before us, that God’s response to our suffering
\nis not indifference but to join us in it. We may never understand it,
\nbut we know now that unexplained suffering and pain are not our journey’s
\ndestination. So we cling to our beloved gardener, as if our very lives
\ndepended on him. Because, I suppose, in every sense they do.<\/p>\n

Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman
\nPeace Lutheran Church
\nAustin, Texas
\n<\/strong>luke_bouman@sbcglobal.net <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 13:1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, „Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,727,108,110,863,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-9829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-archiv","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-13-chapter-13-lukas","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14011,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829\/revisions\/14011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=9829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}