Third Sunday in Lent, C
March 3, 2012
Luke 3:1-9
The message of the Gospel reading today is clear: Repent or
perish. The Lenten season is a time of self-reflection. When we take a honest
look at ourselves, we may realize how sinful we are. “For all have sinned, and
are fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, Wesley New Testament).
Excursus: The limit of the patience of God
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| 'God's love is limitless, but his patience has limits.' |
I often say that there is one attribute of God that has a
limit. God’s love is unlimited, so is his power, his strength, his mercy, and
his judgment. But if God has a limitation, that is his patience. Make no
mistake about it: his patience is very “long-suffering”:
The Lord is not slow concerning his
promise (tho’ some men count it slowness) but is long-suffering toward us, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2
Peter 3:9)
The Bible shows us ample examples that though God’s love is
“long-suffering”, it does have limits. In the story of Noah, God saw how wicked
humankind has become:
And the LORD saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that
He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the LORD
said: ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both
man, and beast, and creeping thing, and fowl of the air; for it repenteth Me
that I have made them.’ (Genesis 6:5-7, Jewish Publication Society, 1917)
--so he had to destroy the earth with a flood. Again, in the
story of Sodom and Gomorrah , the sin of the two cities was as
such that it has literally reached heaven:
And the LORD said: ‘Verily, the cry
of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and, verily, their sin is
exceeding grievous. I will go down now, and see whether they have done
altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I
will know.’ (Genesis 18:20-21)
But God is also a God of second chances. In the story of
Jonah, the sin of Nineveh has similarly reached
up till heaven: ‘Arise, go to Nineveh ,
that great city, and proclaim against it; for their wickedness is come up
before Me’ (Jonah 1:2). And yet after the reluctant preaching of Jonah the
Prophet, the king repented, the animals “repented”, the people repented, and
even God “repented of the evil, which He said He would do unto them; and He did
it not” (see Jonah 3).
I. Tragedies: A
punishment from God?
The Gospel reading opens when some people reported to Jesus
that the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate had some Galileans murdered and
“mingled” their blood “with their sacrifices” (v. 1). Apparently these were
Zealots from Galilee who went up to Jerusalem
to offer sacrifices during a festival. While they were offering their
sacrifices, Pilate ordered Roman soldiers to slay them (see note on Luke XIII:1
in Notes Upon the New Testament).
Another tragedy, which Jesus mentioned, was when eighteen people were killed
when a tower in Siloam fell on them. There appears to be no sign of sabotage
here, it must be a “freak accident”. But nevertheless, these tragedies were
seen as punishments from God.
In John 9, a man’s congenital blindness was seen as a
punishment from God: “And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who sinned,
this man, or his parents that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). But Jesus
answered them, saying that the man was born blind, not because the man has
sinned, nor his parents, “but that the works of God might be made manifest
thro’ him” (v. 3).
II. Repent or perish
In the same way, Jesus said that tragic deaths (or disease,
or circumstances), is not necessarily a sign of God’s judgment: “Suppose ye that these…were sinners above
all…because they suffered such things?” (Luke 13:2; cf. 5) That is not the
point. The point is: “I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall likewise
perish” (v. 3, 5).
The word “perish” here does not mean to die a tragic death.
It is the word αποολλυμι apoollumi, the same word used in the
famous verse, John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, may not perish (αποληται apolētai), but have eternal life.
So, the destruction of the unrepentant is not a tragic
death, but eternal punishment from God!
III. The God of
second chances
God is a God of second chances. His patience is
long-suffering that we may have time to repent. While God’s patience may be
limited, his mercy is limitless, as the Bible repeatedly says,
“The LORD, the LORD, God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy
unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin;
and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
unto the fourth generation.’ (Exodus 34:6-7)
Jesus illustrated the patience of God in the parable of the
fig tree. The fig tree has been long a symbol of the kingdom of Israel Israel has failed to produce the
fruits of repentance. While God’s judgment (the “man” who owns the tree and the
vineyard) saw it fit to cut down the tree, God’s mercy (the keeper of the
vineyard) asked for a stay in the judgment.
Conclusion
As we continue in our journey towards Holy Week, let us
continue with our Lenten discipline. Let us continue to reflect upon ourselves:
What are the things we need to repent of? May we see this time as a time of
God’s favor: "For he saith, I have heard thee in
an acceptable time, and in a day of salvation I have succored thee. Behold, now
is the acceptable time, now is the time of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2).
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