"CHANGE"?

Scripture: Luke 13:1-9

Over the years, I have always enjoyed a good “How many … does it take to change a light bulb” jokes. Here are a few:

How many aerospace engineers does it take to change a light bulb?
None – it’s not rocket science, you know!
How many football players does it take ….?
Two – one to try to screw it in, and the other to recover the fumble!
How many fishermen does it take …?
Four, one to change the light bulb and three to brag about how big the old one was and about the one that they would have changed, if "It hadn’t got away"
How many atheists does it take …?
None – they like the darkness!
How many evolutionists does it take …?
Only one, but it takes him 8 million years to do it!
How many psychiatrists does it take …?
Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change!

And of course, my all-time favorite – How many United Methodists does it take …?
CHANGE?

Change has never been a concept that is on the top of anyone’s list, except to insist that others are deeply in need of change! In Jesus’ time, Israel, too, was stuck in the traditions of a thousand years, and the changes that Jesus was calling for were not part of the life they had always known. Just as today, the people were content in the way they had always done it, and change was simply unnecessary.

Read Luke 13:1-5

For Israel, as well as other nations of that day, illness, disabilities, injuries and other physical and emotional issues were generally thought to be caused by a sinful life style. In the first instance that Luke relates, it had been rumored that Pilate had slaughtered a number of Galileans in the temple, allowing their blood to be mixed with the sacrifices they had brought. There is no historical or scriptural affirmation that this had actually happened, but Pilate was a brutal governor, and there is little doubt that he was predisposed to atrocities such as this.

The question that Jesus is posing, though, is not whether Pilate was capable of killing these men, but rather why would these men be chosen to die? Was it a purely political statement that the Roman governor was making? Or was it because these men were sinners, and God decided to hand them over to the Roman authorities for punishment? Either of these reasons could be a rational answer for the Jews, but was either of them true?

Jesus says that they aren’t, and he uses the situation to create a “teaching moment”. The original question, based in traditional thought, was centered on physical death, which, incidentally, everyone experiences! But Jesus turns it around to mean “spiritual death”, which, he is saying, NOT everyone will be subjected to.

And the key to avoiding the spiritual kind, he says, is repentance. But it’s interesting to note that repentance is also the turning away from sin! The point that he is making is this: the difference between living a worldly life and a life that is centered in him, has nothing to do with our physical death, regardless of the circumstances, but it has everything to do with our receiving eternal life! Jesus’ entire ministry is about our preparing for the coming Judgment that no one will be able to avoid, regardless of how good a life we live.

The question “If I live a sinful life, will I die?” is just as ludicrous as the one that asks “If I live a good life, will I be saved?” Neither is the question that we should be asking, because neither of them has anything directly to do with eternity. The question that humanity should be asking is “Am I living my life in Christ?”

And so, the second situation is raised – that of the deaths that supposedly occurred with the collapse of an unknown tower at the Pool of Siloam. This event also has no historical or Biblical confirmation, but it takes on a different context than the first event did. The first set of deaths were portrayed as an intentional and possibly politically motivated assassination, while the one associated with Siloam appears to have been an unintentional and unanticipated happening. But Jesus’ point is the same – the lives that these people had lived have no bearing whatsoever on the deaths that they experienced. The judgment has not yet come, but it is certainly on the way, and it will be based on the faith that the people had, not on the lives they had once lived.

And Jesus tells a parable to emphasize his point.

Read Luke 13:6-9

There are some passages in the Old Testament that compare our lives to trees. Psalm 1 says that the person who find worth in the Laws of God is like a tree planted beside a stream of water – that we are refreshed and nourished by following the Lord’s will. In Jeremiah 17:5-8, we read that the person who trusts in the Lord is, again, like a tree planted near water – we need the water to live. So let’s consider Jesus’ story in this light.

The gist of the parable is still about the coming Judgment. The world says that the judgment is about what we do now – that the tree should be condemned because it is unfruitful – and we are condemned because we are sinful.
The owner of the tree - God, or more specifically the Law of God - proclaims that the tree - humanity - is worthless, so let’s get rid of this nuisance. He had been waiting for three years for the tree to become productive for him, (which interestingly is the length of Jesus’ ministry), and it has produced nothing of worth. Cut it down! But the gardener, the one who cares for the vineyard – Jesus - asks for even more time – one year more.

He is asking that the Holy Spirit be given time to speak to human lives, to work with them, to beacon them, to “fertilize” their lives, to call them to a life in Christ. And if, at the end of “one year”, which represents the short amount of time that we have on this earth, as well as the short time that exists before the Judgment arrives, then death – then destruction – then condemnation - can occur.

This passage has nothing to do with death, and condemnation, and judgment in the here and now. It is about the call that Jesus is making for us to stop thinking in human ways and to begin thinking in his way. Strict and absolute adherence to the Law of God, and our expectation that this is sufficient to bring joy to our Lord, is so far off base that it completely misses the point of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus is telling us that we have to change our entire approach to showing our commitment to him, and to begin living a spiritual faith, one that is not based solely on our human understanding and abilities.

This parable is about change, regardless of whether we like change or not. Living a “good” life never has and never will bring pleasure to Almighty God – the only joy that we can bring to him is by trusting in Jesus and responding to his call on our lives. We can no longer trust in our own “good works” – it is time to begin trusting in the “good works” that Jesus has already made for each and every person on earth.

Change? If we are living a dead end life, and want to know true life, then change, complete change, is the only way. The old way leads to darkness, without any hope of light, but the new way of Jesus leads to an eternal light that never will need changing. Praise the Lord – coming to the new way of Jesus is what Lent is all about!