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This Week's Sermon The Third Sunday in Lent 11 March 2007 "Repent or Parish" Luke 13:1-9 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Just a little over a week ago I discovered a special section on a website which logs natural disasters. In view of the fact that our Gospel reading today mentions two disasters I was a bit excited to see them all collected in one place. The categories listed are the following [FoxNews.com>special sections>natural disasters]:

Latest News-(this includes the latest headlines for all sorts of natural disasters)
Hurricanes
Wildfires
Floods
Volcanoes
Earthquakes
Tsunamis
Tornadoes
Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath

These kinds of stories raise questions in our minds. They are unsettling. In particular, when there is a man-made disaster, such as a bus plunging off a bridge, we are inclined to look for blame. Even in the killer tornado that savaged the high school in Enterprise, Alabama, some news people were looking for fix blame on school officials for not sending the students home before the storm hit. On another level many want to know if someone's relationship to God had anything to do with it. In other words, "Was God punishing them for something?"

That's exactly what some people who had been listening to Jesus wanted to know about some Galileans who had made Pontius Pilate very angry for something. As they were offering sacrifices in the temple one day, Pilate's soldiers raided them and put them to death, mingling their blood with the blood of the sacrificial animals. What kind of person dies in such a blasphemous way? They thought that these men must have done something very wrong in God's eyes. Jesus' answer was surprising because he turned the question back on the questioners:

"Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

"Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:2-5, ESV)

One might get the idea that the first group was doing something very wrong for Pilate to swoop down on them in the temple, but the second group was simply standing there when a tower, which might have been on the eastern wall of the city of Jerusalem, gave way and fell on them, killing eighteen people.

When disasters of any kind occur, one's reaction says a lot about how one understands God, how one understands the main doctrine of the Christian faith. When an obviously wicked person gets killed we conclude that God got him for what he did. We like to call that "God's justice." The malevolent person "got what he deserved," we say. But we have difficulty comprehending disasters where seemingly innocent people die. You see, we tend to separate sins into greater and lesser sins. Some sins are worse than others in our eyes. A child molester is a worse criminal than a petty thief or a liar. A murderer is a worse person than an adulterer.

That's the way we see it because we ourselves are sinners and would like to believe that God sees things the way we do. We like to absolve ourselves of being worse than other people, just like the Pharisee in the temple when he compared himself to the tax collector, thanking God that he wasn't as bad as that man.

But that's not the way God sees sin. Every sin is an offense against God. It doesn't matter if you have broken one Commandment, you have broken them all, says the Apostle James [James 2.10]. God doesn't reserve extra punishment for the worst of sinners and less punishment for the "best" of sinners. A sin is a sin in God's eyes. It doesn't matter how heinous or horrible it has been or how slight it may have been, it is a sin, and sin offends God. Period.

God does not punish individual sins or we would see the worst of people always suffer the worst consequences. All murderers would die horrible deaths, maybe like those men who died in the temple or the people on whom the tower fell. We could say the same about the students in Alabama who died in the tornado. Somehow they must have been terrible persons who deserved that kind of death. The same is true of the members of the baseball team whose bus plunged onto the highway below, killing at least seven of them. But somehow we know that isn't right. God does not punish individual sins according to the severity of the sin. God punishes sin. That's what Jesus is telling us here.

Look at our reading and you can see that it is all about repentance, isn't it? Even the parable that Jesus told is about repentance. The fig tree yielded no fruit. For three years the man came looking for fruit and found none. It's a picture of the sin of Israel. For three years in Jesus' earthly ministry he came looking for fruit but found none because Israel had not repented at the preaching of the Gospel. The man was determined to cut the tree down and throw it into the fire, definitely a picture of judgment. But the vinedresser pleaded with him to give it yet another year to yield fruit. The outcome of the parable is left open so that we understand that this is the time of repentance.

Twice in this reading Jesus states very clearly:

"No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5, ESV)

We need to speak about the nature of repentance. Repentance does not save you from your sin, but you cannot be saved without repentance. Let me repeat that. Repentance does not save you from your sin, but you cannot be saved without repentance. Your repentance does not cause God to forgive your sins. There is only one cause of God forgiving your sins and that is Jesus. Jesus was sent to shoulder all the sins of the world, every sin from the very worst murderer or child molester to the petty sins of lying or being self-centered. Jesus is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." When Jesus died forsaken on the cross all sin was paid for. The debt between God and man was settled-for good! It is not as though Jesus paid for sin up to a point and that you are now responsible for the rest of your bill, but he has paid the whole debt. Nothing more can be paid by you because you are still a sinner.

I know that some people believe that God forgives them because they repent, because they confess. We begin the Preparation of nearly every Divine Service with the words from John's first letter:

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:8-9, ESV)

What is repentance, then? First, listen to the proper, theological definition from the Augsburg Confession:

1 It is taught among us that those who sin after Baptism receive forgiveness of sin whenever they come to repentance, 2 and absolution should not be denied them by the church. 3 Properly speaking, true repentance is nothing else than to have contrition and sorrow, or terror, on account of 5 sin, and yet at the same time to believe the Gospel and absolution (namely, that sin has been forgiven and grace has been obtained through Christ), and this faith will comfort the heart and again set it at rest. [XII.1-6]

"Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, and by what we have done and by what we have left undone" [LSB.151]

Perhaps you saw the movie "The Terminal" starring Tom Hanks. It's the story of this man from a tiny fictitious country called Krackoziah. He arrived at JFK airport in New York but during the flight there was a coup in his country and his visa suddenly was invalid. He couldn't get into the US and he couldn't go home. Hanks lived in the terminal for months in a section that was being remodeled. He couldn't leave the terminal. He would fill out the forms to gain entry and he would wait in line to present his forms to the clerk at the desk, but every time the woman at the desk would take out her red stamp and stamp his application "Unacceptable." Hanks would look at his form and in his broken English would say, "I am unacceptable." Repentance is you saying to God, "I am unacceptable." No matter how many times you get in line and present your credentials, the answer is still the same, "unacceptable." Repentance is agreeing with that verdict.

But, of course, that isn't the end of the story for you. You get the green stamp, as it were, because of what Christ has done for you. As that formal definition I read to you from the Augsburg Confession said, there is Baptism. Holy Baptism is your green stamp, your entry into the presence of God. Holy Baptism puts the righteousness of Christ on you like a white garment. Some years ago, after we moved the baptismal font to its present location at the entry of the sanctuary, someone said to me, "It's in the way. You can't walk in without bumping into it." "Exactly," I replied. "That's by design." We placed an obstacle in the entrance to God's presence. It is just as if Jesus himself were standing there saying, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Coming to the font is coming to Christ and receiving his perfect righteousness and holiness.

You repent so that you do not perish, but instead receive the life of Christ. Jesus' earthly ministry was all about the preaching of repentance and forgiveness. Before there is forgiveness there must be repentance. As we said earlier, repentance does not save you from your sin, but you cannot be saved without repentance. Acknowledging your sin and your sinfulness is the first step in finding refuge in Christ.

God has showered his grace upon us in order to lead us to repentance. He does not desire to cut you down in the prime of life, to exact judgment on you. He wants your repentance so that he can speak his Absolution on you. Here in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion God pronounces his "acceptable" to you, not because you have repented, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for you.