Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

In San Francisco there is a bakery called "Just Desserts," and it has a reputation for making some of the best pastries in the city. The name is not only catchy but carries more than one level of meaning. You could understand this name to mean that this bakery only sells desserts. You could understand it as an invitation: "Come on in. You've been good. You deserve a reward." Or you could be a little more critical and think to yourself, "Yeah, if I eat very many of those pastries, I'll get what I deserve - more fat, more cholesterol, and more health problems." Oh, yes, the laws of reward and punishment, of cause and effect, of actions and consequences - these are woven into the way in which we view the world. And so it has always been.

In ancient times, people also struggled to make sense of their world. They wanted a world of cause and effect which was just and predictable. They wanted a world where people got what they deserved - not a world of chaos, where things happened randomly and where one could suffer unjustly. So when a riot broke out in the Temple courtyard and Roman soldiers killed some Galileans who were there offering their sacrifices, they wanted to think that those Galileans somehow deserved what they got. They wanted to think that those Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans. And when an earthquake destroyed the Tower of Siloam and 18 people were killed, they wanted to think that those victims somehow deserved to die; that they were more sinful than all the other people living in Jerusalem.

Who doesn't want that kind of world? Who really wants to live in a world of chaos, where people are subject to random acts of violence and senseless suffering? We also like to think that, for the most part, people get what they deserve. At least, that's what we like to think when we are the ones being blessed and someone else is the one suffering. When that gets turned around, we have other questions, like: "Why me?" or "What did I do to deserve this?"

Jesus, however, says that this is not the kind of world in which we live. In the real world, the people who suffer the most are often not the worst sinners. In the real world, the people who are most blessed are often not the most deserving. The Galileans who died at the Temple were no worse sinners than anyone else. The people who were killed in the rubble of Siloam were no worse sinners than anyone else. In this world, things are not always fair, and everything does not always make senses.

Then Jesus goes on to say that unless we repent, we too will perish. This is an important point, because Jesus says this once and then repeats it. "Unless you repent, you too will all perish." What Jesus says is that there is a lesson to be learned from the sufferings we see around us. But this suffering and tragedy has to more to say about us than it does about those who experience it. Yes, there is a connection between sin and suffering, but that connection is not so direct or proportional as people usually think. The sin that causes suffering and tragedy in our world is a sin each one of us shares. So when we witness the suffering of others, we ought to think about our own sin rather than about theirs.

When we read about the 200 people who were killed in the bomb blast at the Madrid train station, we should not so much ask who is to blame, as we should ask, "What are sins of which we need to repent?" And when we read about the man who killed nine of his own children in California, we should not so much wonder how anyone could do such a terrible thing as we should think about what we have done to hurt others - even members of our own family. And when we hear about Martha Steward's conviction for obstruction of justice, we should not so much think that she is getting what she deserves as we should repent of the ways in which we have cheated and lied to cover up our mistakes.

Then Jesus follows up on this discussion by telling a parable about an unproductive fig tree. In this parable we hear echoes of John the Baptist, who warned those who came out to hear him that they had better flee from the coming wrath. "Produce the fruit of repentance," John preached, "or you will be cut down like a tree and thrown into fire." Like John, Jesus also defines repentance as bearing fruit. Repentance is not just admitting your sins and saying you're sorry. To repent means to change - to stop doing what is wrong and to start doing what is right.

Here is where Jesus is able to go farther than John the Baptist. Like the prophets before him, all John could do was to point out people's sins and call them to repentance. The problem is that real repentance, real change is not something that we can do ourselves. This is why this parable is so important. The parable of the fig tree is not about the tree - it's about the gardener. It's about a gardener who wants to give the tree a second chance. But more than that, it's about a gardener who is willing to care for the tree and coax from the barren tree some good fruit.

A pastor friend of mine moved to the Gulf Coast of Texas a number of years ago. He was an amateur horticulturalist, and so he was all excited because their new house had fruit trees growing in the back yard. After they moved in, however, the neighbor told them that the previous owners had never been gotten any fruit off of those trees. He suggested that they cut down those fruit trees, dig out the stumps, and plant grass and flowers there instead. My friend, who knew something about plants and trees, decided to give them another chance. But he didn't just wait and watch. Early in the spring, he carefully pruned the trees, cutting back on the branches that had grown wild. He worked the ground around each tree which had gotten rock hard from the hot Texas sun. He bought special fertilizer for his trees and made sure that each tree was well watered every week. That fall my friend invited his neighbor over to take a look at his fruit trees. Every one of them was bearing good fruit. Each year, my friend continued his careful tending of his fruit trees, and every year he harvested more and more fruit.

During this season of Lent we naturally focus on the suffering and death of Jesus, especially this year with all the attention that the movie, The Passion of the Christ, has been receiving. It is right that we should consider how Jesus took up a cross to pay for the sins of the world, and for ours. It is because of his cross, because of his sacrifice, that we can be honest enough to admit our sins. We don't have to cover them up, we don't have to blame someone else, we don't have to make excuses, because our debt is paid and our sins are forgiven. But that is only part of the story. This Jesus is not only the sacrificial Lamb of God, but he is also the patient Gardener. This Jesus not only forgives our sins, but gives us another chance at fruitfulness. With Jesus we really have a shot at producing good fruit, because he not only gives us more time, but in that time Jesus works with us, pruning us and cultivating us and nurturing us with his love and with the power of his Word so that we can become more and more fruitful.

Did you notice that this parable of the unfruitful fig is open-ended? We don't know what happened to that fig tree - whether it produced fruit or whether it was cut down and thrown into the fire. Our lives are unfinished stories as well. There will come a day of reckoning, a day of judgment. But until then we are still writing our individual stories. How they end will depend on whether we learn the lesson Jesus is trying to teach us in this passage. Will you see in the suffering and tragedy of our world God calling you to repent - to turn away from sin and turn back to the Lord? Will you give Jesus a chance to work with you, to prune away those things in your life that need to be cut out, to loosen the hard-packed soil of your sinful heart, and to nourish you with the spiritual food of his Word and Sacraments? If so, then God will make you a fruitful tree - a tree that will stand for all eternity. Amen.