NL 332: Lament Over Jerusalem - Luke 13:1-9, 31-36
image: “The Gardener and the Fig Tree” photo from a church in Dungarvan, Waterford, Ireland (Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
February 28, 2021
Luke 13:1-9, 13:31-35
Initial Thoughts
Check out A Sanctified Art’s excellent movie artwork on this passage
Repent or perish!! Seems a little harsh
Seems very “John the Baptist-y”
Bible Study
Context
Slaughter of the Galileans
not mentioned outside the Gospel of Luke
Presumably refers to Galileans who were killed by Pilate while offering sacrifices at the Temple
Doubly egregious in that is happened in the temple while they were offering sacrifices (reminiscent of the murder of Oscar Romero while celebrating Mass.
Also plays on the prejudices of the Jerusalem jews against Galilean Jews.
Jesus is asked to comment on the political issues of the moment- the slaughter of the Galileans, but instead of railing against the oppressive injustice of Pilate- he instead turns the focus back on the crowd- demanding repentance from them. True change begins with us.
Jesus evens the playing field and silences the justifications of tragedy - were the Galilean Jews who were killed by Pilate/Rome worse sinners than the Jerusalem Jews who were killed in a natural disaster?
Sin and suffering
God does not enact external punishment on “sinners”
Immediate rejection that the Galileans were killed because they were sinners or that this tragedy was God’s punishment
God’s wrath seems much more tied to our choice to change our hearts and minds to accept and share God’s grace than external factors
Awful things happen, but it is worse to deny or reject God’s love and grace
Fred Craddock, “they come to Jesus and want to know if violence and suffering are random or according to divine law. Jesus rejects such attempts at calculation, not only because they are futile but also because they deflect attention from the primary issue: the obligation of every person to live in penitence and trust before God, and that penitent trust is not to be linked to life’s sorrows or life’s joys. Life in the kingdom is not an elevated game of gaining favors and avoiding losses.” Interpretation:Luke.
Repent?
Terrible translation of metanoia which means a change of Mind, a change in the trend and action of the whole inner nature, intellectual, affectional and moral.
The Greek does not contain any sense of regret or moralistic implication but rather a complete and total change of heart, gut, soul and mind
Common English Bible is a much better translation
About being transformed - not about feeling guilty
Kenneth Bailey brings up the implication of telling an oppressed people to repent- similar to Matthew 1:20-21, “their primary problem is their sin--the Roman occupation is an important concern, but it is secondary” Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p.50
“As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Barren Fig Tree
Direct connection to the previous conversation - if it were just a matter of sin, then we all deserve to be cut down, but by the grace of God, we have the opportunity to bear good fruit.
Allegory - God as the landowner, Christ as the Gardener and we are the fig tree
Classical theology as summed up in Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
We have all failed to bear the fruit expected of us and, therefore, are deserving to be cut down
Christ intercedes on our behalf (like the Gardener) and does everything in his power to help us bear good fruit (care, till, fertilize, etc)
“The manure around our roots is the very blood of the one who pleads for our justification before God, the one through whom we may offer up the fruits of the kingdom to our Creator.” Daniel Deffenbaugh - Feasting on the Word – Year C, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide.
Still gives us a set time to bear fruit - change our hearts and minds - or face imminent wrath
How to handle this in a more progressive sense? There is something to this even if you are not a sacrificial atonement theologian (i.e. Christ died for our sins)
Affirm that God’s grace is a gift which is not earned
God’s grace can only be fully accepted when we change our hearts and lives toward God and neighbor
Eternal life is living in full relationship with God, self and neighbor
Christ shows us how to live in that fullness of life
By following Christ’s way we have a chance and a choice to accept God and other centeredness and life or self-centeredness and death
The “wrath” of God is as much one of our own choosing as it is God’s
This parable is often misused- misinterpreted to support the prosperity Gospel: look how the fig tree is blessed with special care and fertilizer - that must be because the tree is special, faithful, and fruitful.
This interpretation is attractive for those of us who “like to think that we have comfortable houses, when so many are homeless, or a substantial income, when so many are poor, or all kinds of food to eat, when so many are ill, because we have somehow been particularly faithful.” Gonzalez, Luke, p. 172
That is NOT what Jesus is saying in this parable, but instead the opposite. The tree is given blessing and special attention because it failed to be faithful, it failed to bear good fruit. “Could it be that our apparent advantages and privileges are also a warning about impending doom lest we bear fruit?” Gonzalez, Luke, p. 173
Thoughts and Questions
Many, though not all, tragedies are caused by human sin, although not necessarily (or arguably, not usually) the sins of the victim. Human sin leads to the killing of innocents, to natural disasters caused by climate change, to inequitable distribution of resources leading to unsafe school, and residential structures. If we simply explain tragedy away as a result of the victim’s sin, then none of the larger sins (which we may be complicit in) can be addressed.
In other words - if we unfaithfully dismiss the murders of George Floyd (“he used counterfeit money”) or Eric Gardner (“he was illegally selling loose cigarettes”), then we ignore the real causes of these tragedies (white supremacy, police brutality without accountability, and systemic racism) which too many of us in our words and actions or silence and inaction perpetuate.
Are you and your church honest about the radical transformation required by the Gospel?
Are we honest about the complete “change of mind, trend and action of our inner whole” in order to follow Christ or do we make the Gospel palatable and relatable in order to get more members?
UMC - “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
Jesus is more concerned about being honest regarding the demands of a faithful life- are we willing to be that honest?
Jesus is asked to comment on the political issues of the moment- the slaughter of the Galileans, but instead of railing against the oppressive injustice of Pilate- he instead turns the focus back on the crowd- demanding repentance from them. True change begins with us.
Luke 13:31-35 Warning and Lament
Initial Thoughts
Pharisees are not the ‘Bad-Guys’
Jesus eats with Pharisees three other times in Luke (7:36-50, 11:37-54, 14:1-21).
Some of Jesus’ most important teachings happened at the table of a Pharisee - often in opposition with them, but always in conversation.
In Acts 15:5, Pharisees are among the first believers. Still considered Pharisees even though they are a part of the Jerusalem Council
The Warning only occurs in Luke’s gospel
Bible Study
Literary Context
Luke 13:22-30, “Jesus traveled through the cities and villages, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’”
Make every effort to enter the narrow gate, but some will be left outside the gate.
Jesus claims that people from the North, South, East, and West will ‘sit down to eat in God’s Kingdom.’
“Those who are last will be first and those who are first will be last.”
Luke 9:9 - Herod, who had already killed John, heard about what Jesus was doing, and decided he wanted to see Jesus for questioning.
Immediately after (14:1) Jesus is eating at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, and Jesus challenges them about humility, generosity, and healing on the Sabbath.
Pharisees warn Jesus not to go to Jerusalem because “Herod wants to kill you.”
Jesus response: “Tell that fox that I’m throwing out demons and healing people.”
Fox - In OT: destructive pest. In Greek: clever and cunning.
When questioned by John’s followers, Jesus response, “Go report to John what you have seen and heard. Those who were blind are able to see. Those who were crippled now walk. People with skin diseases are cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. And good news is preached to the poor.” (Luke 7:22).
Jesus ignores their warning. If death is where he is going, then so be it.
On Palm Sunday people are shouting, and again it is the Pharisees who try to keep them quiet. (Luke 19:39)
Jesus’s mission
“I am going to keep doing my thing. On the third day I will complete my work”
Completed work on the third day is a clear allusion to Easter. Also an important understanding above and beyond substitutionary atonement. Jesus’ mission is not to die. It is resurrection. This inevitably includes death, but death comes because the people cannot accept him, not because it is his mission to die.
“Impossible for a prophet to be killed outside Jerusalem”
Except for Jeremiah, who died in Egypt, and Ezekiel, who died in Babylon (Common English Study Bible notes, p. 141 NT).
Jesus knows his likely fate - the prophet Uriah was murdered and thrown on the trash heap for speaking out against the corruption in Judah (Jeremiah 26:23). Jeremiah, himself, was thrown in a muddy cistern and left to die at the hands of the King and those in power (Jeremiah 38:4-6)
Jerusalem
Rejection of the people brings sorrow, not punishment.
“Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord”
This is what the people will say upon Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in chap 19.
Jerusalem is a central theme in Luke. It is the central place of the ministry - as seen in Acts, and as told by Jesus just prior to ascension. It starts with Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, then the ends of the earth.
Luke refers to Jerusalem 90 times the remainder of the NT only mentions Jerusalem 49 times (Craddock)
Told as if the rejection has already happened. Fred Craddock, in the Interpretation commentary, points out 5 possibilities for this strange language.
1. The events are accomplished facts, and can be talked about as such.
2. Jesus’s prophecy of the future is so certain it can be past-tense.
3. Jesus had an earlier ministry in Jerusalem which Luke fails to mention.
4. Jesus is not referring to himself, but to God who has been rejected.
5. “By this ‘premature’ location of the lament, Luke is saying that there is yet time to repent, receive pardon for sin, and to welcome the reign of God. That offer, in fact, will continue to be made following Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, an offer not only in Jerusalem but to the entire world.” (p. 175)
Thoughts and Questions
It’s going to be a common refrain throughout Lent. There is a lot of dangerous water on which to tread in dealing with “The Jews” or Jerusalem. Jesus is not rejecting Jerusalem. He is yearning to embrace the people of Jerusalem, but knows that he too will be rejected. There is no condemnation for what the people have, only sorrow that they cannot see another way of being.
Jesus compares himself - and thus God - to a mother hen. Such explicitly feminine imagery can be very powerful. As David Lose says, “All of which brings me to yet a third question: when we only describe God with the typical male language of king and father, etc., do we run the risk of limiting our imagination? I’m particularly concerned with finding images that make God more accessible to women, but frankly I think we are all impoverished when we can only imagine God in the narrowest of terms.” (Working Preacher)
It is right, even inevitable, when dealing with this text, to ask about the present. Who or what is the 'Jerusalem' of the day in which one lives? Is it the political and civic sphere? Is it the religious sphere? Or is it both? Jerusalem was a center of both political and religious power and activity in the days of Jesus, but it refused to heed its prophets, of which Jesus himself was one. It is important at the same time to recall that, when judgment is declared, the purpose for such is that those upon whom the judgment falls may come to know their plight, repent, and be renewed. Judgment is pronounced for the sake of salvation. (Arland Hultgren)
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen