Luke 13:1-9
The Third Sunday in Lent
Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, March 23, 2025
“Bear Fruit of Repentance”
It was not my proudest moment. In fact, I was fairly embarrassed throughout the week. I had a day of skiing that I very much enjoyed, but because I was in a rush and did not take care of adequate sun protection, I ended up with a sunburn on my face. Not only that, because I was wearing a knit hat, I had a line running directly across my forehead to make it even more apparent that there was red on the bottom and lighter, healthier skin above. My kids said I looked like the robber from the movie “Home Alone” whose head was hit by a hot iron, leaving a red mark the shape of the appliance on his face. Every time I looked in the mirror, I realized that I was walking around advertising to people how foolish I had been. There are far worse things that could have happened; I am not trying to complain about what happened to me. I am not trying to get back at my children for making fun of me or trying to gain sympathy from anyone. I mention this incident, though, because sometimes life works like that. A bad thing—in my case some tender red skin and a bit of embarrassment—comes about because of something that I do or don’t do. If I had just taken the little extra time and effort to put some sunscreen on my face once or twice during the day, I could have avoided all of that.
Some things are like that, but not everything. Our car broke down on a Wednesday evening after a worship service. As far as I can tell, that didn’t happen because one of us wasn’t paying attention in church. It wasn’t because we didn’t pray that day for a safe ride home. We hadn’t been abusing the vehicle, so that wasn’t it either. Sometimes the bad things happen even when you don’t see a reason or a cause.
That’s the reality that Jesus was teaching and speaking about in our verses from Luke 13. He had people in the crowd listening to him who brought up an apparently recent tragedy. The tragedy was the unusual death of several Galileans. These men were making sacrifices in the temple when Pontius Pilate had them killed. Their blood and the blood of their sacrifices were spilled together there in the temple. It was a high-profile, unusual situation. It was in the place of worship for the entire people group. It felt like it might have special significance. That seems to be the reason that people brought it up to Jesus. They were looking for the cause of this terrible effect.
Jesus himself brought up another tragedy. There was a tower that collapsed in Jerusalem. When it fell, it killed eighteen people. Another sudden and shocking turn of events. There may have been others very nearby who were just fine. They were just outside of the tower’s fall, but these eighteen were not so fortunate. It sounded like the same sort of situation as the temple issue. It was curious and made people wonder about what caused it.
Jesus briefly but clearly in both cases explained that there was a very different lesson to be learned. It wasn’t a matter of cause and effect. People should not look at those incidents and try to figure out the specific sin that caused them. That was natural for people in that society. I have heard people suggest that maybe our society isn’t so much like that, but I find that we can be. I find that when someone sees a tragedy, there is a bit of relief that it wasn’t us. There’s maybe some thankfulness, especially if it was a close call. And there can be a little bit of a notion that I didn’t have something bad happen to me because I am a pretty good person. We start to sort of think of our whole life as rewards and punishments for what we have done or not done.
Jesus says tragedy is not about cause and effect. It should be about warning. We should see what happens and repent. Those things should be reminders for us that we are sinners who live in a sinful world. Jesus says “repent or perish.” He’s really pointing out that all of us have done things that deserve punishment. If our lives operated strictly on reward and punishment, cause and effect, then we would have a lot of tragedy coming our way. We actually deserve to perish. We deserve worse than what we see
and hear around us. If things were strictly fair in a cause and effect way, we would perish soon. We would perish now.
A call to repentance, though, carries with it a recognition that we don’t get what we deserve. Things don’t work that way in God’s economy of the universe. Because of his love and mercy, we get far better than what we deserve. We have a Savior who took on what we deserved so we don’t have to. So we don’t really learn anything from the outward appearance of our lives or anyone else’s. We can’t judge based on the way things look who are worse sinners than others and whether some of us are just not that bad at all. We all should be reminded that we need someone to help and save and rescue us from our real wrongdoings, and that we have it only in Jesus.
In fact, when we experience peace and security, what we are seeing is God’s patience. God doesn’t immediately strike people down in their sin, but allows a time of grace for them to come to repentance and faith. And where God works faith in the heart of a person, good works follow.
As Jesus continued to teach the crowd, he used a parable to drive home this point. He talked about a fig tree. It was a fig tree, though, that was not bearing any fruit. In fact, when the story picks up, the owner had already waited three years checking each year for figs on the tree, and they still had not appeared. It was perfectly rational for that owner to decide that it was time to give up on the tree. Why waste resources on it? Why water a tree that wouldn’t give figs? Why let it take up space that could be used differently? This tree was useless. It didn’t do the thing that gave fig trees value. Three years was already a lot of patience.
And there was even more. The owner told the gardener his plan. “Go ahead and cut this tree down. It’s worthless.”
The gardener had another plan. The owner would give it one more year. The gardener would offer special care: digging and fertilizing. “Then we will see. You can always cut it down next year.”
What do you suppose happened next? It’s interesting that Jesus stops the story when he does. He doesn’t tell us about the gardener’s work for the year. He doesn’t tell us whether or how much fruit is found on the tree. He leaves us to wonder. He leaves us to consider how many different possibilities there are. And he leaves us to wonder how we fit into the story.
A fig tree without fruit would be a person, a sinner, who does not repent. God’s incredible patience is on display in the owner coming back year after year to look for fruit. We can picture in the pleading of the gardener the intercession of Jesus to the Father on behalf of those for whom he lived and died and rose. And there are limits to the incredible patience, but it is real. The outward circumstances of our lives are so often far better than anyone deserves because of God’s incredible patience.
I would not preach to a congregation of Christians gathered on a Sunday morning that they are fruitless fig trees, but we can hear in this parable the same warning found in our Second Reading: “So let anyone who thinks he stands be careful that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). Do not mistake outward success as a sign of God’s pleasure. Do not mistake tragedy as a sign of God’s displeasure. Recognize that God is patient and desires repentance. And bear the fruit of repentance. Honestly confess your sin to him. Look to Jesus as your only Savior. See your eternity as far more valuable than your earthly life. Rejoice in God’s loving care and concern for you.
Maybe my little embarrassing anecdote can serve as a reminder. If you need sunscreen, don’t forget it. Certainly, there are bigger tragedies that you see and hear. Learn from them and from every trial and difficulty: God calls you to repentance. He showers you with his love and displays incredible patience. Bear the fruit that he is looking for: repentance in faith. God grant it.
The Text: Luke 13:1–9 (EHV)
13 At that time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2He answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? 3I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse sinners than all the people living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all perish too.”
6He told them this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it, but he did not find any. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘Look, for three years now I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I have found none. Cut it down. Why even let it use up the soil?’ 8But the gardener replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. 9If it produces fruit next year, fine. But if not, then cut it down.’ ”