Deep down within us all there’s the belief that people get what they deserve: bad things happen to bad people, and good things happen to good people. And while there may be some truth to this if we are talking about the natural consequences of certain behavior, it does not follow (nor can it be proven) that if you’re a good person, nothing bad will ever happen to you, and vice-versa if you’re a bad person. If you get the flu, it doesn’t mean that God is angry with you and is punishing you for something. On the other hand, if you’re healthy, it doesn’t mean that God loves you and is rewarding you for something. The fact is, bad things happen to good people all the time. Job is the perfect example. The Scripture tells us that Job was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. In the language of today’s Gospel text, he lived a life of repentance, confessing his sin, trusting in God’s forgiveness, and living a holy and godly life under God’s declaration that Job was righteous by faith in God’s promises. And yet, look what happened to him. He lost everything he owned. All his possessions were taken from him. All of his children were killed. And his body was stricken with boils from his head to his feet. The only thing left to Job was his nagging wife, whose only council to him was that he should curse God and die.
Did Job deserve the bad things he suffered? Well, yes and no. Yes, in that he was a sinner along the rest of us, who by our sin introduced suffering and death into the world in the first place. But no, in that Job didn’t do anything in particular to deserve what he got. It’s easier for us to try to make sense of suffering, however, if we assert that those who sin more suffer more. In the aftermath of the recent disaster in Haiti there were some who said that this happened, because the Haitians deserved it for making some kind of a pact with the devil and turning away from God. Even more recently we’ve heard about the earthquake that occurred in Chile. Again, some would conclude that that happened, because those people had done something to deserve it. In Jesus’ day, a tragedy had occurred in which Pilate had sent his troops into the temple area to murder a number of Galilean Jews as they were slaughtering the lambs for the Passover meal, thus mixing the blood of these people with the blood of their sacrifices. Knowing that some of His hearers believed that those who were so killed somehow deserved what they got, Jesus asked, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Then He went on to mention the death of the eighteen people who lost their lives in a freak accident, when the tower in Siloam fell on them and killed them. (It’s interesting that we call such freak accidents “acts of God,” as if God were behind such things. If He really were behind these tragedies, He certainly wouldn’t bring them on Christians, would He? God must be punishing those who suffer such things, because of some sin they committed). Again, though, Jesus’ question was, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
The question can be put to us today: Do we think that the people who were killed in Haiti and Chile were worse sinners than we are? They weren’t. We’re just as sinful as they all were. An earthquake could just as easily hit here and wipe out hundreds of people, both Christians and non-Christians alike. God forbid that it should happen, but it could. Physical suffering and death are now a part of this fallen world in which we live, ever since our parents Adam and Eve introduced sin into it so long ago. We may not perish in the same way that the Haitians or the Chileans have, but one way or another we will all someday die.
But there is an even greater death than that which either the Galileans, or the Haitians, or the Chileans, or the Jews during WWII for that matter experienced. It is the death of hell. And while telling a lie might not give you cancer, it will get you this death. That might sound strange and even unjust to people who believe that small infractions against God’s commandments shouldn’t earn such a grave punishment. And yet, before God, no act of disobedience against Him is small. All sin, no matter how small it appears, comes from a heart that is completely turned against God and hates Him. Jesus says that out of the heart flow things like evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander (among other things). He’s talking about our hearts, yours and mine. And so, we must continually pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” There are no little sins or little sinners. The Scriptures tell us that there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who seeks after God, no one who does good, and all men are liars. We want to believe that we don’t sin as much as all that. But our sin cannot be fractionalized. We can’t claim to have kept some of God’s commandments while breaking others. We can’t say that we’ve done a better job of obeying God’s Law than some people have, and therefore don’t deserve to perish as they do. James writes that if you’ve broken just one of God’s commandments you’ve broken them all. And Paul writes that the wages of sin is death. And so, Jesus says to us, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Now, there’s both Law and Gospel in these words. The Law words are His words about perishing. We not only deserve to perish like the Haitians and Chileans did, but we also deserve to perish eternally under God’s wrath in hell. But God doesn’t want His final word to us to be one of Law. He doesn’t want us to perish, and so He tells us to repent. There is a way out of this perishing predicament, but it’s on Jesus’ terms, and it’s through repentance. This is the fruit He speaks of in His parable here about the fig tree. The story is about a man who had a fig tree that wasn’t producing. He told the vinedresser that for three years (about the length of Jesus’ ministry) he had come looking for fruit but found none. So he told the vinedresser to cut it down. But the vinedresser answered, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” Jesus uses this parable to illustrate His words, “Repent or perish.” God is looking for the fruit of repentance in our lives. If He doesn’t find it, we will perish. It will be for us as John the Baptist once preached, saying, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
So, the message of today’s Gospel text is a very simple one: repent or perish. Our salvation depends on it. So maybe we’d better talk about what repentance is, because I’m sure that if you were to do a survey of Christians and asked them to tell you what repentance is, they’d probably give you a blank stare. Most Christians know it’s something they’re supposed to do. But just what are they supposed to do? Well, repentance, very simply, consists of three parts. First, it is to confess yourself a sinner worthy of God’s judgment and wrath. Second, it is to confess that you have a Savior, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead for you, for whose sake God forgives you all your sins. And third, it is to live out your Baptism, dying to sin, living as the new creature God has made you to be in Jesus Christ. So, in the parable that Jesus speaks here, the fruit that God, the owner of the tree, is looking for in our lives is the fruit of repentance, that is, that we confess our sins, that we trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that we live holy and godly lives as God’s children by the power of His Holy Spirit.
But we notice in this parable that the fig tree has a problem. Something’s wrong with it; it’s not producing as it should, and no amount of telling the tree that it should be producing is going to get it to produce. The Vinedresser must do something to the tree, in order for the tree to bear fruit. The Vinedresser is our Lord Jesus Christ, who pleads to the Father on our behalf not to cut us down and throw us into the fire, but to give Him the chance to dig around our roots with His Word and Sacraments, the fertilizer that causes us to bear the fruit that God is looking for. It’s only when the tree receives the nutrients that the Vinedresser gives it, that it can then produce the fruit God wants it to produce. We cannot repent by our own reason or strength. It’s impossible, unless we are first on the receiving end of the manure of Christ’s gifts. Only then, by the power of God’s Spirit, can we confess ourselves to be sinners, trust in God’s mercy for Christ’s sake, and live out our Baptism, living as the children God has created us to be in Christ.
Do this, says Jesus, and you will not perish. Repent and live! And if by God’s grace you do repent, don’t boast in yourself and what a good job you did at repenting. Instead, give the glory to Christ, the Vinedresser, because it’s He who has worked this repentance in you. You are not your own Vinedresser; Jesus is. Then, take comfort in knowing that because He has worked these things in you, you will not get the axe. You will not be cut down and thrown into the fire, but you will be spared. Jesus became the fruitless tree in your place on the tree of the cross, where He bore your sins instead. In a great exchange, He takes away your barrenness and gives you the fruit of His righteousness through the manure of His Word and Sacraments.
The Lord’s fig trees can’t boast in the fruit they produce; they can only produce good fruit as the Vinedresser has His way with them. In Him alone do they boast. And so, let us not arrogantly compare ourselves with others, then, maintaining that we are somehow less sinners than they, but let us repent. The Vinedresser is working on you today. Confess yourself to be the chief of sinners (as the Apostle Paul does) and trust in your Savior, Jesus Christ, who became the Chief of sinners for you on the cross, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him. Then continue to eat and drink of the fertilizer of God’s Word and the Lord’s body and blood at His Table, that you might live out your Baptism as the child of God that you are now in Jesus. And cling to His promise that you will not perish, even if bad things happen to you in this life. For Christ’s sake you will not receive what you do deserve - the fire of hell, but what you don’t deserve: eternal life with the one true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.