In today's gospel lesson, there is this large crowd around listening to Jesus and people are asking him questions, picking his brain because he is such a great teacher and seems to know about what God does and feels. So they ask about some people who were offering sacrifices, good people who were killed by Herod, executed by the state. They want to know if these people had secretly done something bad, something to offend God because their understanding was that bad things happen to bad people that any type of premature death, accident illness, public shame or trouble came from a person's sinfulness, it was punishment because they were not good or faithful enough.
And they tell him another story too, about these other people they were building a tower and it fell on them. Surely God did that, to punish them for something? Jesus? that is how God works right Jesus? Bad things happen to bad people, we might not know how but somehow they deserved, somewhere along the way they stepped out of line right?
And Jesus says NO. Unequivocally He says no and then he cautions them about such thinking. He says if you keep thinking like that the same thing could happen to you. The same thing could happen to you?!
Now we know from the bible the Jesus never called down any kind of wrath on people, even the ones who killed him so I think that there is more to this threat than telling people that if they don't walk to line the same thing will happen to them, in fact that doesn't even make sense because the first thing he says, his immediate answer is no, God doesn't punish people in ways like that. God created people for good. God looked out upon creation, people and all and said that it was very good. So why does he say repent, or the same thing could happen to you.
All that we can conclude then is that when he says the same thing will happen to you, He isn't talking about a tower falling but rather dying an empty death filled with fear and surrounded by doubt and shame, with people calling you sinner and an evildoer who got what was coming to you. Parents, children or spouses left behind feeling shame and fear for your and their eternal soul. And even before that, before death going through life feeling like each turn of bad luck was a sign that you weren't good enough. That you just weren't made of the right stuff. That you weren't created for good and that you'll never be able to do anything.
Jesus says turn around stop thinking right now. Stop thinking about life and about death like that. And start by stopping your thinking about God like that. He gets a little bit troubled here, like he is exasperated or maybe even hurt and so tells them a story, a parable about what God is really like.
The story goes like this:
There is this fig tree in a vineyard. Little fig tree, planted lovingly by The Gardener, tended by him, known and loved by him, he had watched its potential and probably had a good sense of what it was going to be capable of. He had watched it and nurtured it, it but it wans't doing very well, it put out leaves, sometimes it looked like it was going to bud. Like it was just about ready to start bearing fruit, contributing to the rest of the garden. But it didn't.
So a man came along, the guy who owned the vineyard, he didn't plant the vineyard and he didn't take care of the vineyard, he probably only had a lot to do with the vineyard when he wanted to and when he felt like it. But he thought it was his right to control what happened in it and in a way he was right. So he comes along and he says that useless tree is taking up so much space and energy in my vineyard and it isn't even giving anything back to me, it isn't even producing fruit, it is a useless tree at best and a wicked tree at worst. You see fig trees take an inordinate amount of water and nutrients, they can pull these things from the surrounding plants, in the case grape vines. They are harder to grow than other things but on the other hand because of that figs were more precious. Either way though this potentially good tree that was unproductive was actually a bit harmful to those around it. So the man ordered the gardener to pull it out and save the nutrients in the soil for something else.
But the gardener steps in and says no. I planted it, I have cared for it so far, I love it and I know what it can do. Let me keep being the one who tends it, but now you can even help, provide manure for it, some fertilizer, give it time and space, those things that it needs most. Leave the pruning and the culling to me.
The gardener, the one who put the tree there, the one who had to most right to get frustrated with the tree being useless and unproductive because he was responsible for all of those vines around it too. He steps in for it, He puts himself on the line for it, he could have lost his job over it and his honor, disobeying the master's orders, but he does so in order to save this one tree. To give one unproductive tree another chance and to help it succeed.
That is mercy and that is how God works, not only with the good perfect people who seem to be nothing but good for the people around them but for the broken ones too, the ones who seem useless at best and wicked at worst. And even for the middle of the ground ones, those people who try to be good in general, who are great sometimes for some people but who just don't quite achieve their optimum potential. Who mess up and fall short and lack what is needed a lot of the time.
Even for the unproductive parts in each of us and in our nations, homes and lives. God steps in. The parts that seem like we'll never quite be able to fix and get right. He steps in for those parts of the world. He stepped in, in the form of Jesus, against the plans and desires of those who thought that they owned the vineyard, who wanted and still want to make the choices about who gets to stay in the vineyard and who goes. And mercifully he called repent, believe that God is a God of mercy who will give his very life so that you might remain in the vineyard, cared for sheltered and bearing fruit. Repent because God is merciful and is calling to you, ready for you to bear good fruit. Amen
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