March 7, 2010
Short & Sweet - Luke 13:1-9
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadIn my experience as a pastor, I have observed two basic theories on life and on God. The first theory starts with the idea that God is sovereign, which warms our Presbyterian hearts. Therefore, this theory says, God is responsible for everything. That typically translates into, “it’s all God’s fault.” If you have had a bad day, it’s God who gave it to you. If the children have been particularly fussy, it’s on God. If you have been particularly fussy, it’s on God. If your favorite sports team loses, blame God. I specifically remember one night years ago when Clemson’s baseball team lost to UNC in the ACC tournament, and I remember wondering why in the world God did that. If you get cancer, it’s God’s fault. If your loved one gets killed in an accident, it’s God. If there’s a bad drought in the land, it’s God’s fault. “God won’t put more on us than we can handle,” we say. That assumes, you see, that God put it on us in the first place. Everything that happens, happens because God specifically makes it happen.
Here’s another thing to keep in mind. Since God is sovereign, and God is also good, if something bad happens to you, it must be retribution for something you did. Otherwise, nothing bad would ever have happened. If you’ve had a rotten day, then you must have done something bad. If a child was born blind, as was the case in John 9, then that child’s parents, or maybe even the child himself, must have done something wrong. Otherwise, since God is sovereign and since God is good, the child would never have been stricken with such an awful malady to begin with. Do ya’ll see how this theory works? God makes everything happen, and since God is good, if something bad happens, then God has specifically made it happen for something bad that you have done.
Now we can all see obvious problems with that theory. Jesus destroys that theory here in Luke 13, and also, by the way, in John 9 where the child is born blind. The story in Luke 13 goes that Pontius Pilate slaughtered a group of Jewish Galileans while they were sacrificing to God, so that their own blood was intermingled with that of what they were sacrificing. So were they worse sinners than other Galileans? Jesus said no, absolutely not. In fact, I think you can imply that that was the result of Pilate’s blood thirsty rule. It was not God’s idea. God did not punish them because they were worse sinners than anyone else. In fact, God did not punish them at all. God did not do it. Also, Jesus asked, do you remember when those eighteen people died when that tower of Siloam fell on them? Well they weren’t worse sinners either. That was not God’s doing either. A tower falling, maybe in a storm or an earthquake or just an engineering mistake, is not really an “act of God,” even though that’s what the insurance company calls it. Those things happen, and they can happen to us. We live in a fallen, busted, and badly broken world, and therefore people randomly suffer. It’s not God’s fault. I know the theological problems that arise in those situations, because we do believe God to be good and sovereign, and we do say that God can prevent those things, but that God specifically willed Hurricane Katrina, for example, or the earthquakes in Haiti and Chili, or the Holocaust to happen is not something that we believe. In short, God does not have his finger on a trigger waiting to smite all of us. That is a bad theory.
The other theory goes something like this. God doesn’t really care about what happens down here. That may be an overstatement, but that’s essentially it. You can act however you want to act, you can live however you want to live, you can do whatever you want to do, because God doesn’t care. In fact, it may be safe to say that according to this theory God doesn’t even exist. It really doesn’t matter what we do, because, either way, God is out of the picture. And even if God is remotely in the picture, we have a very long time before we have to worry about it. I have forever, and it doesn’t really matter. Also, if how I live happens to hurt others, then that doesn’t really matter either. Why should I care anything at all about others, even those close to me like my wife and children? God doesn’t care about them, and God doesn’t care about me. If others do care about me, that’s their problem and not mine, right? If there is no absolute truth, if there is no God, or if God does not care, then I am really hard pressed, in my opinion, to give you a reason why I should. Or, if God does care, but won’t care for a long time, then I’m not going to worry about it right now.
Jesus debunks that theory, too. God does care very deeply. Jesus compares us to a fruit tree that is taking up valuable earth. I grew up working with fruit trees, and I can tell you that farmers put very much into those trees. Now if those trees are not producing, why should the farmer keep doing that? Would it not make more sense to cut those trees down and put other trees in their place? The reason those trees exist is to bear fruit. So if you’re putting all this money into them, and not only are they not producing fruit, but they are taking up space where other trees could produce fruit, why should the farmer keep the tree? God put us on this earth to bear fruit, to praise God, to spread the Gospel. If we are not doing that, then why should God put up with us? We cannot assume that God will put up with us forever. We have been given a little more time. It’s called today, because as the first theory proved, tomorrow is not guaranteed.
So if God is not constantly pressing buttons labeled “smite,” and if God is not some flippant Ozzy Ozborne on a permanent vacation, then what is God like? Jesus already told us about the fruit tree, but maybe this will be helpful. When I was in the fifth grade, I played the trombone in the band at school, along with another boy named Michael. We were both horrible. We never practiced and we never liked it. Consequently, the trombone section was the worst section in the entire band. Two days before our Christmas concert one year, we were practicing a song that every else knew very well except the two trombones, me and Michael. Everyone else had practiced and knew their parts and was ready to play. Michael and I were messing up the whole thing. With all eyes fixed on us, our teacher (Mrs. Davis was her name) went ballistic, and she gave us an ultimatum. We had one more day to learn our parts. If Michael and I did not learn our parts, the band would not play this particular piece in the concert. She was willing to help, but that was the ultimatum. Needless to say, we learned our parts. And, I might add, I have been playing and enjoying music in some form or fashion ever since that day.
Maybe God is a little like Mrs. Davis was then. We can choose whether to practice or not. We are free to accept God’s call and live accordingly, or we are free to blow God off. Much of the time, we blow God off, which explains the majority of the world’s suffering, by the way. We still haven’t explained things like hurricanes and earthquakes and the like (what theologians call natural evil), but that’s for another day. We have free choice, and we often make the wrong choice.
Therefore God is fed up with us. Specifically because God cares, God is fed up. God has tried and tried and tried to help us and has given us everything that he possibly can. God has racked his brain trying to help us. God has even come down here himself and become one with us. God has literally faced the gates of hell for us, and we still blow him off. So God has given us one more chance. It’s called today. Tomorrow will be too late. The axe is at the root of the tree, as John the Baptist reminds us. It needs to start producing some fruit, right now.
Therefore, life really is short and sweet. God is not out to get us. Bad things happen all the time, but it’s not because God hits “smite” in that great computer in the sky. No, God wants to help us. God is honest to goodness on our side down here. Life is very sweet that way. “ ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,” we say, and it is. But there will come a time when it’s too late to trust in Jesus and it’s too late for us to bear fruit. There’s a concert tomorrow, and we’ve got today to get ready for it. So I don’t know what your afternoon is like but you better start practicing, right now. The conductor cares very much that you know your part. There are consequences if we don’t. So God has given us one more chance. It’s called today. Make it count.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
