2025-03-23 Lent 3

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Building on last Sunday’s repentance-themed T-Shirt foundation, today we move on to repentance-themed forestry! Ye old fig tree and yonder burning bush teach us to take off our sandals and get out the fertilizer! The readings are truly ripe with Lenten Repentance. And what exactly does this mean? Repentance is a two stage process. Stage 1) We have contrition, that is sorrow for our sins. God’s word of law hits us like a wrecking ball and shows us that we have sinned against God and each other in thought, word and deed. The working of the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to this truth and we confess our sins in humility before the Lord. Stage 2) change. By the grace of God, we change our minds, words and actions, turning away from our sins and embracing God’s commandments that we may walk in His ways and strive for His will in all things. Seems easy enough. But it is a continual process that lasts as long God gives us life on this earth.

So what does this have to do with trees?? We’ll start with the burning bush. It’s a very odd Old Testament story. I remember reading this as a kid in my picture Bible and thinking ‘what the heck is up with this?!’ It kind of reminds me of that episode of Corner Gas where the police are hiding behind the surveillance bush! Do you remember that?! The lone shrub on the Saskatchewan prairie and the fuzz have their car parked behind it for stealth! So there’s this bush and it is on fire but it’s not being consumed. It’s not being burned up like any other normal dried out desert scrub brush would be. God chooses to call Moses in this rather miraculous manner.

From here, God tells Moses that He has “surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:7-8). We know the story well and what happens next. But this whole exchange is really an allegory for our human condition. It’s a miniature microcosm of the plight of all mankind. People are afflicted by the taskmasters of sin, death and the devil. Adam and Eve brought forth death in the Garden of Eden and now the “The sting of death is sin” (1Cor 15:56) as St. Paul tells. And the ol’ devil has a hay day with all of this, running amok and trying to destroy God’s originally good creation.

And so, just as God promised deliverance and redemption to Moses for the Israelites, He likewise promises us the same in Jesus our Saviour, Redeemer and Lord. Instead of Pharaoh being drowned in the Red Sea, it will be the Devil having his head crushed once and for all by the feet of Jesus on the cross. It is this grand victory - that looks like defeat - that brings us our redemption. And as we are released from the captivity and slavery of our sins, we want to change. We want to embrace repentance that makes us delight in God’s will and walk in God’s ways. This is where we embody the love and compassion of our merciful Saviour, being rich in love for our neighbours and full of forgiveness.

So that’s the bush. Now, what about that fig tree?! St. Luke sets the stage for us quite well. In the verses leading up to this barren-figgy parable, we’ve got these tragedies and horrific examples of human suffering. And as I’ve mentioned before, whenever we experience suffering and hardship, we immediately think “God is punishing me” for this sin or this is God’s judgement for that transgression. This was the prevalent mindset of the Jews in our Lord’s ministry. If you remember the miracle of Jesus healing the man born blind you recall this mindset. The Disciples ask “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (JN 9:2). What did you do to deserve this?? But Jesus clears this up.

There were these Galileans. And the Galileans were kind of famous for their hot-headed impulsiveness. And Pontius Pilate, like any of the Roman government officials, was especially brutal. You can imagine this being a winning combination much like a grenade in a bucket of oatmeal. These Galileans were probably Zealots, and they were at the temple offering sacrifices. Most likely, they were stirring the pot and encouraging their fellow Jews to rise up against the Roman overlords. In retaliation, Pilate had them put to death so that the sacrificial blood and their zealous blood was “mixed” together. A grizzly outcome to be sure! And certainly, everyone who beheld this horrific scene believed it was God’s judgment upon them for something they did wrong. “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (LK 13:2-3).

Same thing for the dudes who died in the tower of Siloam accident. Are they really any worse than anybody else?! Nope. People are people. We are all poor, miserable sinners cut from the exact same cloth the world over. God’s righteous judgement against any of us is just for any of our sins and iniquities. This is God’s word of law being spoken to a people who thought they were pretty self-righteous. Those people suffered, they must be terrible! We, on the other hand, are doing great, we must be awesome! God’s favour must rest upon us because we are so nice and have all these nice blessings and do everything right. We have wealth and health and prosperity! WRONG! “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (LK 13:5). The answer is always repentance. Embrace humility. Lower yourself in respect to the Lord and in respect for other people. St. Paul writes: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3).

And this is the lesson of the fig tree. It’s leaves are green. It’s trunk is beefy. It’s roots must be doing quite well finding water and nutrients in the soil. But, it ain’t got no fruit! How can you run an orchard with no apples?! How can you go to market without any pears to sell? What use is a fruit tree without fruit?! The vineyard owner comes looking for fruit. 1 year. 2 years. 3 years. No figs. No figgy-puddin’ for Christmas. No fig newtons at coffee time! Cut it down, it’s just taking up space. We will replace it with something that will produce.

What is Jesus getting at? Well, the parable of the fig tree is spoken as a word of law against Israel. Self-righteousness that doesn’t produce the fruit of repentance and humility is good for nothing. The axe is at the root of that tree. But there is this gardener, this vinedresser who says, just be patient, fine Sir. I’ll put on fertilizer. I’ll aerate the soil. I’ll baby it to the best of my ability. Give it one more year. And if there is no fruit next year, fire wood it is. This is God’s mercy. This is His grace. This is His long suffering and compassionate heart. He gives His people time to repent. This is the precise reason He doesn’t just wipe out all of humanity right now. No, He will graciously give it time.

And now is that time. The world around us is getting worse and worse every day. But God’s mercy is staying His hand of judgement. He’s giving the world a little longer, just a little more time to repent and receive the Messiah by faith. But the message is the same. It’s always repent and do it soon before it’s too late. For when the Messiah comes again, it won’t be in mercy. The burning bush that isn’t consumed will be swapped for a raging inferno of wrath that will engulf an entire forest of barren fig trees in the blink of an eye!

We don’t want to be part of that. So learn from the burning bush and the fig tree now! The good news of Christ our Lord assures us of His forgiveness, life and salvation growing from the tree of the cross for all who will receive it, “that you may know that you have eternal life” (1JN5:13). This knowledge is what produces the fruit of repentance within us. Be fruitful in Christ now and forevermore. Amen!