March 23, 2025 Luke 13:1-9
(by The Rev. Kathryn Snelling)
Today we have arrived at the third Sunday in our season of Lent and we are in Year C, which means we get to wrestle with the age old question of human suffering.
Theologians and scholars through the ages - Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Barth, and everyone in between and since, have wrestled with this question.
And all the hypothesis and theory, brilliantly written as they are, never quite can arrive at a definitive answer.
And oh, don’t we humans love to have answers!
Because we all wrestle with this question every time we go through a painful experience. Or someone close to us does, or we pick up the newspaper or listen to the news.
Now this morning I have to tell you, I do not have the answer either.
Yet, we can wrestle with it.
So in our reading from Luke, some in the crowd tell Jesus about this horrendous news of Pilate ordering his soldiers to slaughter a group of Galileans and lay their bodies on the pyre to burn as part of his religious sacrifice to the emperor.
And Jesus gives voice to the question they have on their minds.
“Do you think that these Galileans suffered this way because they were worse sinners than any other? “
And Jesus offers another example: “Do you think that the 18 who died when the tower suddenly crumbled on top of them, were worse sinners than anyone else?”
To both he says, “No.”
The deeper, underlying question was, what did they do to deserve this? What kind of sin caused their deaths?
Because it was the common Jewish belief at the time, that when people suffered painful experiences it was a divine judgment. God had sent this upon them as a punishment.
And to that, Jesus says “No.”
And we’d like to think that this way of looking at calamities has gone the way of the Dodo bird; is extinct. But it still rears up at times. It hasn’t been that long ago, when the AIDS epidemic was raging. There was a lot of shaming and blaming around that.
But Jesus reminds us that these kinds of calamities can happen to any of us. We could be victims of some random act of violence, or a freak accident, or a debilitating disease. We are all vulnerable to the changes and chances of this world - and we all are sinners alike.
But God does not send the calamities upon us.
And that, right there, is Good News.
Jesus assures us -- That is not how God relates to creation and especially human creation.
So Jesus tells them a parable.
Now, parables are tricky little blighters.
They are full of mystery and open to many ways to try to interpret them and hear the message within. Which we also know, can vary with different times of reading through a parable.
And there are many methods we may use when trying to understand a parable.
This morning, and in the context of human suffering, I will choose to look at this parable allegorically.
Which is when you assign an identity to each of the characters in the parable.
And how I am hearing this parable, is that perhaps the inpatient vine grower represents the world. And we know our world to be a busy, hurry up kind of place.
We have TikTok and X and Instagram and instant food and instant this and instant that. And you better keep up, and measure up, and stay ahead of the game to thrive, or at least to survive.
And the little fig tree represents human beings - us - living our life as best we can.
In an environment, that though it can be very beautiful, can also be a dangerous and at times hostile place.
A little research tells us that grapevines thrive in a dry acidic soil, whereas fig trees do better in a soil with a more neutral pH balance.
And it takes a fig tree at least 3 years before producing fruit, and more often it is 4 to 5 years, depending on the variety.
Which brings us to the gardener.
Whom I view as representing God.
Father-Son-Holy Spirit-God.
Who, in the face of the impatient vine grower, who is ready to rip this tree up and order a new one from Amazon, says “No, wait, give it time.”
Here I envision the Ent. A creature in Tolkien’s trilogy, Lord of the Rings.
If you have not read the books or watched Peter Jackson’s movies based on them. An Ent is a treeish looking fellow, and is a shepherd of the forest.
He moves and says everything with slow, thoughtful deliberation.
And his most memorable line is, “Now, now don’t be hasty”
But, furthermore, this gardener has a special relationship with this little fig tree.
He desires nothing but good for this little fig tree.
And so he tells the vine grower, “Let us wait and let me tend to it.”
And he turns up the soil and adds nutrition to it and makes sure the little fig tree gets the water it needs, his breath touching her leaves as he works close around her.
Now the little fig tree is still in the same environment, with the same struggles.
But perhaps now has a different master?
One who gets down in the dirt with her, making a difference in her life.
Jesus wants us to know - deep in our bones - that God relates to us through love and is always with us through joyful times and through whatever pain and suffering we experience in this life;
Offering nurture with mercy, loving care, patience and presence.
Let us pray,
Merciful God, You teach us in your holy Word that you do not send afflictions but walk with us through them. Nourish our souls with patience, comfort and a sense of your abiding presence. In Christ’s Name we pray, Amen
***PHOTO: The Gardener and the Fig Tree
Dungarvan, Waterford, Ireland