Third Sunday of Lent (C) [Lk 13:1-9]
20.032022
Repentance
and the Parable of the Barren Tree
- Theme in brief:
Urgency
of repentance and opportunities offered by God.
- Focus Statement:
If
we fail to bear fruits of repentance in spite of the urgent and repeated
appeals of God and the manifold opportunities
given by Him, we shall meet disastrous consequences.
- Explanation of the text
In the first part of today’s
gospel Jesus refers to two tragic incidents that invite his listeners to repentance (13:1-5); and in the
second part tells a parable that illustrates God’s patience and mercy towards sinners because of which
he gives them plenty of opportunities to change (13:6-9). In Jesus’ time,
the belief that all suffering, including sicknesses and natural calamities, was
the result of one’s sins was one of the common ways of explaining the problem
of suffering in human life and creating a fear in sinners not to commit sin any
more. The Jews used to closely link sin and God’s judgment.
In the beginning of today’s text,
we see some people in the crowd that had gathered around Jesus speaking about
an abominable crime committed by Pilate in the past (13:1). Once upon a
time, Pilate got some Galileans slaughtered in their temple and committed the
sacrilege of mixing their (human) blood with the blood of their sacrificial
animals. Imagine a group of modern day terrorists entering our church, shooting
down members of our Sunday congregation and mixing their blood with the
Eucharistic wine after the prayer of consecration! Jesus’ listeners might have
expected a strong condemnation from him at the behaviour of
Pilate and his soldiers. They wanted to know from Jesus why those innocent Galileans
suffered such a terrible fate. What sins had they committed? In answer, Jesus
denied that those Galileans suffered such a terrible tragedy because they were worse
sinners
than other Galileans (13:2), but if his listeners did not repent now, they too might
suffer similar type of fate any day and perish (13:3). Unlike the said historical
event which could not be reversed, they still had a chance to change their life. They had a
tremendous obligation to repent in order to escape from such a disaster.
The second disaster
mentioned by Jesus is the collapse of the
Next, through the parable
of the barren
fig-tree (13:6-9), Jesus stressed the urgency of repentance and the opportunities
given to his listeners by a merciful God for a change of heart. He used the
image of a tree bearing
fruit to emphasize the urgent need of repentance. He warned them
that it could be the last chance given by God, before the final judgement, to
be converted to his teachings. If not, they would perish like the Galileans and
Jerusalemites, or be cut down like the barren fig-tree (13:7).
Normally a fig tree was supposed
to bear fruits in three years of time. When the owner of a vineyard could not
find any fruit in a fig-tree planted in it even after three years (13:6-7), he
ordered the gardener to cut it down (13:7). The reason was, it was not only unproductive
but also “wasting the soil” (13:7) by preventing other trees from getting
enough nourishment. Three years probably referred to the three years of Jesus’
ministry provided to Israel either to repent or perish. The gardener pleaded
with his master to give one more year’s time to that tree to bear fruits (13:8).
In the meantime he wanted to “dig around it” and “put manure” on it (13:8).
Earlier Jesus had mentioned
that with his ministry the year of the Lord’s favour or mercy (called Jubilee Year) had
begun (Lk 4:19). Now Israel was given further opportunity because of Jubilee
Year of God’s mercy – a second chance. If
- Application
to life
Jesus’ call for
repentance and conversion
in today’s Gospel is an urgent and desperate need, especially in the
Lenten Season. It contains a stern warning about the disaster, that is, God’s judgement,
which will fall on us if we do not change or get converted. It calls for a
serious self-examination
of the direction in which we are heading.
In Luke’s and other
synoptic gospels, conversion or change of heart is always
towards God’s Kingdom
or its values. We are called to bear fruits of God’s Kingdom – genuine love-relationships
among us, doing justice, building peace, bringing about fellowship, etc. If we
do not have these fruits on the tree of our life, Lent is the
time to do serious ‘digging around,’ ‘manuring’ (fertilizing) and pruning as
the parable in the given text says. ‘Digging around’ could mean a deeper and
serious self-examination and reflection on our attitudes and life-style;
‘manuring’ could mean taking recourse to prayer, acts of penance, the Word of
God and sacraments; and ‘pruning’ could mean giving up our selfish ways. As per
the given parable, the owner of the vineyard gave one more year for a fig tree in
it to bear fruits. Similarly, this Lenten Season is another (but may be the
last) opportunity/chance
given to us by an infinitely merciful God to respond to his love and call
to repentance.
It is up to us either to harden our hearts, or to melt them by humbly
turning towards God and his ways.
The first part of today’s
gospel draws our attention to another issue prevalent among people in many
societies, that is, a belief in divine punishment for our sins. There is a
wide-spread belief from ancient days till today that natural or man-made calamities
such as floods, droughts, earthquakes, cyclones, accidents and death are a punishment
from God for our sins. People of some societies believe that such calamities are
caused by evil spirits, witches or sorcerers or by a bad omen. In man-made
calamities, people normally blame the authorities (civil or religious), the
system or anybody/ anything else. From today’s gospel text we understand that Jesus
did not equate natural or man-made calamities with divine punishment. He made use
of the memory of the two above-mentioned human tragedies to speak about another
disaster that could happen, unless we change. If we do not repent, that is, change
our ways or turn away from ungodly ways and turn back to God’s ways, we also
will perish like the Galileans and Jerusalemites. Such tragedies are a reminder
for us to think of the fragility of human life, and to be prepared to
meet the Lord at any time by going through a personal purification or transformation every
day.
Jesus has tackled this
problem of evil in another place also. According to John’s gospel, when his disciples
met a blind man, they asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents
that he was born blind?” (Jn 9:2). Jesus replied that neither the man nor his
parents had sinned; instead, that person’s blindness gave Jesus an opportunity
to heal him and reveal God’s glory through this ‘work’ (that is, healing miracle.
cf. Jn 9:3). Therefore, according to Jesus’ mind, instead of wasting our time
in useless speculations like who sinned, it is high time that we check our own
tendencies or weakness towards violence and revenge. Though people like
Pilate are responsible and culpable for their misdeeds, it is useless to
hide behind the blame-game
and escape from our own responsibility for evil in the world.
Otherwise, it could be an excuse for avoiding our own need for
conversion.
Repentance and conversion
should be a continual
process because we never know when a tragedy of this sort will fall on us; when
we shall meet a tragic accident; when we shall get a heart attack or become a
victim of a fatal illness. Neither the Galileans who were slaughtered by
Pilate’s soldiers nor the Jerusalemites had any opportunity to repent, because
the tragedy happened all of a sudden without any previous warning. Repentance helps us to live without fear of
death. It is an occasion to think about the impermanence of life. What would
we do if we had only one year more to live? Therefore, it is high time to make
up for wrongs done and opportunities missed. We are to live your life such a
way that we shall have no fear of giving an account to God. Life is so fragile.
At any time any of us could stand before the judgment seat of God without any
notice.
Jesus reminds us not only
about the need for personal conversion but also for self-examination of
our social
responsibility. For instance, we should think of the disaster
that may fall on us and on the world if we do not protect our environment from
further degradation by changing our selfish, greedy and irresponsible ways of
over-exploiting and misusing natural resources, or if we conscientiously do not
try to conserve
nature’s resources. We should imagine the tragic consequences for our families
and society if we do not protect our children from the onslaught of violence
propagated by the media. Similarly, if we get into the habit of valuing
money
more than human relationships, or blindly imitate the corrupt ways of the world, what
a disaster may fall on humanity! Jesus says that instead of busying ourselves
in blaming
others like Pilate for man-made calamities or attributing God’s curse/punishment
to natural calamities, it is better to spend that time for personal and social transformation.
In the Bible we find a progressive
growth in the revelation of God’s unconditional and boundless
mercy
towards sinners from the OT to the NT. In the OT, though God is generally
depicted as gracious, merciful and forgiving, sometimes he is depicted as the
one who curses and punishes his enemies. Jesus came
and purified
or re-interpreted
the OT thus: “You have heard it was said (in the OT)…..but I tell you ….(differently).
[Read Matthew 5:21-48]. He presents the image of not a punishing and terrifying
God, but of a Dear
Daddy (‘Abba’ in Jesus’ language) who loves without any limit
and conditions. The parables (stories) of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son (found
in Luke 15) tell us that God loves a sinner even while sinning and never rests
until he/she returns, and forgives as if nothing has happened (when he/she
repents).
Hence we need to read and
understand the OT not literally or as it was understood by the Jews but with
the ‘torch’ provided by Jesus in the NT. Therefore, we now understand
the story of flood in the OT at Noah’s time when God drowned the whole
world and showered rain of fire and brimstone over
- Response to God's Word
What is our response to
the last chance given by God to repent? Instead of blaming others for the evils
of the world, do we ourselves change first and own our own responsibilities for
the ills of the world? How often did we miss the opportunities given by God to
reform ourselves and change our attitudes and life-style? Suppose you would get
only one more year to live till the next Lenten Season, what would you do to
make amendments in your life? Do you believe in a punishing and cursing God or
an infinitely merciful Father, a Dear Daddy?
6. A Prayer
Merciful Lord, give us
the docility of heart to heed to your urgent appeal and also a stern warning
about the disaster, which will fall on us if we do not get converted to your
ways. Considering the fragility of our life, grant that we may feel the need of
repentance to become worthy to meet you at the end of our life. Grant that we
may make use of the manifold opportunities given by you to change, especially
during this Lent, and bear fruits of love, justice, peace and fellowship. May
your infinite mercy melt the hardness of our hearts. Amen.
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