"Signs
of the Times"
Luke
13:1-9
Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem. The disciples see victory at hand. Just before these verses, Jesus declares: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" Jesus is also anxious to finish his course. But the end he sees is not the end that the disciples had hoped for. The disciples, along with the crowds, still fail to recognize who he is, and what his mission is. Again and again they reject a suffering savior.
So Jesus tells them about the "signs of the times." We need, he says, to learn to read God's activity in history. We are more than cogs in the great machinery of history - we have an active and important part to play in bringing God’s will to completion. God calls us into partnership with him in its completion. But we need to see what God’s purposes are in history and how he is moving through it. If we miss seeing what he is doing, then the judgment will suddenly rush in upon us, and we may be caught unaware and crushed under it, like the man who misses the traffic signal and is crushed by an on-coming truck.
Jesus maintains here that history carries its own judgment. The disciples misunderstand him, bringing up an idea that was popular in their day - that history divides the godly from the ungodly, bringing judgment on the ungodly and rewarding the godly. They point to a recent example of some Galileans who were offering sacrifices in the temple when they were attacked and killed by Pilate's soldiers. They conclude that, as we would say, "they must have asked for it." They must have been doing something wrong.
That idea is still popular in our day. People believe that some are poor or suffer misfortune simply because they are lazy and immoral; this would, then lead us to the conclusion that others are rich because they are good. The events of the last year on Wall Street and with the big banks should disabuse us of that notion, but it’s a hard one to fight. Just a few years ago, it was assumed that, if you had AIDS, it must be because you live an immoral lifestyle. Now we know that many who live very moral lives get it as well. A woman gets raped and there is an assumption that "she asked for it." That’s called “blaming the victim.” Jesus answers his disciples, "Do you really think they were any worse than anyone else, simply because this happened to them?" They’ve heard the wrong message from what Jesus said. We – like the disciples - like to think that we have some control over the conditions of life that affect us, but that isn't the case. We are fortunate. Most of us were born white, into a country that afforded us many opportunities. We didn't have too many disabilities to overcome; we had talents given to us that we were able to take advantage of. What we have is more the result of good fortune than of hard work - even if we do work hard. There are folks in this world who work hard from before day break, until night fall, and still have nothing. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
But all that is really not the issue, Jesus says. The issue, he says, is the same as in Noah's time. What does the Old Testament say about that time? It was a time of eating and drinking, of giving and taking in marriage - in short, it was like any other time and any other day. Nothing very special was going on, as far as anyone noticed. But God's judgment was already waiting for them. God was looking for repentance, which means "to turn and go another way;" he was looking for righteousness, which, in the Bible, means, "right relationships" - but the people were so involved in their day to day lives, the whole thing about their relationship to God just wasn't on their agenda. It wasn't that they were especially bad; it was just that they trusted in themselves. They were too busy making their own life to trust in God, to have time for him. They weren't in tuned to the signs of the times, which pointed to their need for God. And they were swept away in judgment.
God is like the owner of a
fig tree, Jesus says, who goes to it looking for fruit. He's looked for fruit
from this tree for years, but it doesn't produce anything. The tree has been
doing everything else that a fig tree does – it’s been standing there, growing,
taking nourishment from the soil, converting it into
energy for its own use. The tree is as
happy as a clam. Except
it isn’t producing fruit. It
might even reason – “What for? It doesn’t
especially help me – it takes energy from my life, it’s an effort that doesn’t
do anything for me, and may even attract squirrels and other rodents that could
be a problem for me.” But the owner sees
it differently. It’s
purpose was to produce fruit, which it hasn’t.
So he finally gives the order to cut it down. Yet, even then, he stays
the order. He decides to baby it along a little more - one more season. But if
it doesn't produce then, his judgment will stand. That reminds me of my wife's
uncle, who lived in
What Jesus is trying to impress
upon his disciples, is that, in failing to discern who he was and what his
mission was all about, in being more concerned about what they want to do, and
about their own concerns, rather than God’s, the nation is setting itself up
for judgment. And it won't be "some day and far away," when they come
to the Great Judgment Hall. It will be immediate. It isn't that God is going to
intervene and burn everything down with fire and brimstone – as he did in
A lot of us are like the guy who looks at the ground to see if its damp, to forecast whether its going to rain. Our sight is too low and too narrow. We look at what we call the "real world," where the cross doesn't seem to pay great dividends, and we determine that Jesus' way doesn't work in the day-to-day of our life. The way of the world - the way the disciples wanted to go and the way the crowds wanted to go - a way rooted in all the things this world holds important - is ultimately a way of despair and hopelessness. The way of self-serving, self-protection, self-aggrandizement, taking care of ourselves first, last and always - is a dead end. We reduce the field of our vision to the ground level of things like financial security and success, and think those will bring us happiness - or at least keep the wolf from the door. Our goals in life center on things like getting through school, getting a job, getting married perhaps, getting a house, getting to retirement - and then what? A nice funeral?
We don't allow for the redemptive quality of a life lived for others. We don't allow for God’s surprising grace. We narrow the field of the possible to what we think we can do on our own, what we can expect from life, not realizing that, in him, with him, all things are possible. We limit the place we will give God in our life - our statement of faith, for many of us, is just a laundry list of things to which we give intellectual ascent, not a leap into our Father's arms; our eyes are so focused on the ground, we are so afraid of stumbling, that we never see the sunset.
This isn't a very happy lesson. It's a warning, that those who do not follow Jesus' way of self-giving - those who are not willing to follow him to the cross - not only miss out on more than they thought, they are leading a meaningless life that leads to destruction. At the end, when the judgment comes, it will only be a natural consequence of the flow of everything else in their life - a fitting end to the way they have lived their life. The Biblical word for that is "sin." The word comes from archery - it's when the archer misses the target he is shooting at. The word, Torah," generally translated, "the law," comes from a word that means "to shoot at something." Those who do not discern the signs; those who miss the target, will miss the point of their life. They will miss life itself. Not having time or the desire for God, God will not be in their life - forever.
There is good news in all of this, though. We have a Father who is the Good Vine dresser. He is the God of second chances. He does have wonderful plans for us. He is faithful - he will never leave us nor forsake us. He continues to call us back when we stray. He opens the doors of the possible to us, and gifts us beyond all we can think or ask. As we find ourselves captured in his grace, let us keep our eyes turned toward him. Let us discern carefully the signs of the times. Let us keep our focus toward the horizon of God's plans. Then we will be delivered from destruction, into hope, and into abundant life in him.