Will You Follow Jesus?
Luke 13:1-9
Gospel Lesson
1 About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were sacrificing at the Temple in Jerusalem. 2 "Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than other people from Galilee?" he asked. "Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will also perish unless you turn from your evil ways and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen men who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will also perish."
Illustration of the Barren Fig Tree
6 Then Jesus used this illustration: "A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7 Finally, he said to his gardener, 'I've waited three years, and there hasn't been a single fig! Cut it down. It's taking up space we can use for something else.'"
8 "The gardener answered, 'Give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I'll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, you can cut it down.'"( )
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to You, O Christ.
Jesus came to us. He wants to be our savior, our friend and our redeemer. Jesus is also our judge; we are called to face up to what we do in our life and to take responsibility and to repent when necessary. Once we have repented we can follow Jesus.
In this Lenten season we need to honestly face how we live our lives. In the first portion of our lesson this morning Jesus uses two instances where people have been killed. In both stories Jesus asks if those who were killed were worse sinners than those who survived. His reply both times is no. But more importantly He also states that unless we repent we will perish. We have to turn from our foolish and sinful ways, turn to God, ask for forgiveness and then try again to live our life following the example of Jesus.
When a tragedy happens, it doesn't mean that all who are injured or killed are bad people. People's actions and choices will affect those that are around them. If someone is distracted while driving, they can cause an accident, thus injuring or killing others around them. The only mistake a person may have made is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad things do happen to good people. Rushing to get somewhere while walking quickly, you can bump into someone or something causing a mess, how you react shows whether you are following Jesus' lead.
A friend just sent me this example of following Jesus lead titled: "EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU JESUS?" As I read this, think about what you would do!
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table, which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our Destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
We all need to face up to the choices we have made and, if need be, repent for a wrong we have done. This is not a once in awhile thing that we are to do. We need to repent daily for our sins. Being human means that we will make mistakes, its just part of our sinful nature and we can't always stop ourselves from doing something wrong. But what we can do is turn to Jesus and ask Him to guide our choices and to accept our repentance.
The second part of our lesson this morning is the parable of the fig tree. The owner kept coming to the garden and wanted to have some figs from this tree, but it failed to produce fruit. He then tells the gardener to cut the tree down since it has failed to produce fruit. In the Old Testament we often see a fruit-bearing tree as a symbol of good living. The gardener asks if he can work with the tree, tend the soil, and add more fertilizer and see if he can help it to produce fruit. Then he says if he cannot get the tree to bear fruit in the next year, then he will cut it down.
Jesus uses this story to show us that we can reach out to others or work on our own lives and make our life be more fruitful. We can use the examples and stories of Jesus life to make our lives better. Sometimes we have to prune away the dead branches; this gives more food and energy to the good branches so they can produce good fruit. This fruit can then be given to others to help them grow in their faith. This is how we follow Jesus example and reach out to others. Will You Follow Jesus?
Amen.
©Jann Martin 2007
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3/18/2007 mfc