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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Mississippi officials now say a total of eighteen tornados touched down in that state last weekend, including two tornados that crisscrossed the same point 41‑minutes apart, and together the eighteen tornadoes damaged more than one‑thousand structures, injured dozens of people, and killed a total of seven. We may know better than to think that those people affected by those tornadoes, or any other so‑called “natural” disasters, were or are worse sinners than those not so affected. If we so know better, we know better at least in part because of today’s Gospel Reading, in which the Lord Jesus uses a deadly act of violence by the governor, a collapse of a building that killed 18 people, and a parable of an unfruitful fig tree all in order to call people then and us today to repent. The different outcomes for those who do not repent and those who do repent are a common theme today, a theme introduced by the Introit (Psalm 5:4-8; antiphon: Psalm 1:6) and continued arguably through the Closing Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 762). Perhaps the Old Testament Reading (Ezekiel 33:7‑20) and especially the Gospel Reading make most clear the theme for this sermon, “The Lord’s pleasure is that we repent and live”.
In the closely connected verses just before today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord Jesus had asked His hearers why they did not know how to interpret the present time (Luke 12:54-56), and He had spoken about settling with an accuser before it was too late (Luke 12:57-58). Then, as we heard the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke uniquely report in today’s Gospel Reading, there were some present at that very time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, and Jesus mentioned those from Jerusalem on whom the tower of Siloam fell, and He told the parable essentially about a limited time to repent. The sudden perishing of the unrepentant and the eventual cutting down of the unfruitful fig tree are effectively equated. The common point is that one does not know when one’s opportunity to be converted will come to an end (confer Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration V:7-8).
Twice the Lord Jesus is translated as saying, “unless you all repent, you will all likewise perish”. The “likewise” should not necessarily make us think that, unless we repent, then we will die as victims of some modern‑day‑equivalent police shooting in a church (confer Ahlman, CPR 32:2, p.20) or a building’s structural collapse, whether from bad design, faulty construction, or a terroristic act. Rather, as the Galileans and Jerusalemites mentioned in the Gospel Reading were apparently impenitent and so perished eternally, unless we are converted, then we will all likewise perish eternally. Even we who think of ourselves as already converted must beware of our own sinful pride and impenitence! We may not compare ourselves to disaster victims, but we still can think wrongly that we are better than other sinners. We should examine ourselves! We all think thoughts, say words, and do deeds that we should not, and we all fail to think thoughts, say words, and do deeds that we should. By nature, we are all equally sinful and so equally deserving of both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. As John the Baptizer had said, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Luke 3:9), and hell is at least described with fires that do not go out (for example, Mark 9:48), as if they never run out of an impenitent person’s flesh to burn. But, “The Lord’s pleasure is that we repent and live”! Through preachers such as Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Jesus, His disciples, and their successors down to pastors today, the Lord Himself first converts us and then enables our continued turning from our sin in sorrow and trusting Him to forgive us for Jesus’s sake.
When Jesus says that, if you do not repent, then you will all likewise perish, the implication is that, if you do repent, then you all will not likewise perish. Just as in the parable: if the tree bears fruit, then well and good! By God’s love, mercy, and grace, we go from deserving to perish to not perishing; we do not perish because the God-man Jesus Christ perishes in our place (confer Luke 13:33; confer Luther, Fourteen Consolations, AE 42:133-134). The shedding of Jesus’s blood on the cross in our place is our sacrifice that both satisfies God’s righteous wrath over our sin and redeems us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Like the vinedresser in the parable, Jesus intercedes for us (confer 1 John 2:1), and, as we prayed in the Collect of the Day, always having mercy is God’s glory. When we repent, then God forgives us. For Jesus’s sake, God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin—our previous impenitence, sinful pride, or whatever our sin might be. God forgives us through His Means of Grace, His Word and His Sacraments.
In the parable, the vinedresser offered both to dig around the unfruitful fig tree, loosening the soil around its roots, and to put on some manure. Although Jesus does not say what happened, if the tree that had not produced fruit for three years did produce fruit the next year, then it arguably was because of the vinedresser’s work through his means. Likewise, God works through His Word read and preached to groups such as this group in order to show us both our sin and our Savior. God works through His word with water in Holy Baptism to bring us into His Kingdom of the Church. God works through His Word with a pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution to forgive our sins as validly and certainly, even in heaven, as if He dealt with us directly Himself. And, God works through His Word with bread and wine in the Holy Supper to make it also the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us and so to give us life and salvation. In all of these ways, God changes us, making us who were bad trees into good trees, good trees that produce good fruit and so can be known as good trees (Matthew 7:15-19; 12:33; Luke 6:43).
After God converts us, our confession of sins and profession of faith are the fruit of our lips (confer Hebrews 13:15). With the Holy Spirit at work in us, we at least want to and try to produce the fruit, or do the good works, of keeping the Commandments according to our callings in life (confer Luke 3:10-14). As in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 10:1-13), we take heed lest we fall, and we are comforted that God enables us to endure the temptations that He in His wisdom permits us to face. Our Lord’s warnings to us in today’s Gospel Reading should frighten us, at least at first, but we who repent do not need to remain frightened, as we find peace and joy in God’s forgiveness of sins. Maintaining that joy in the midst of afflictions can be difficult, to be sure! No matter what we experience, however, we do not ask “Why me?” Rather, in true humility, we confess that our many sins deserve far greater and more severe punishment than what we are experiencing (Kretzmann, ad loc Luke 13:1-5, p.339). As we live each day in His forgiveness of sins, we are thankful to God for His mercy and grace that spare us both greater suffering now and especially the greatest suffering for eternity.
The State of Mississippi, including areas affected by last week’s storms, had damaging wind, possibly more tornadoes, and hail forecast for today. We know that through such disasters that affect only some, God calls all to repentance (confer Pieper, I:453; Stephenson, CLD XIII:66-67). We are grateful to God when we are spared such disasters. We know that “The Lord’s pleasure is that we repent and live”, and by His love, mercy, and grace, we do repent and live!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +