Sermon Snippet – The ABC’s of Luke 13:1-9
INTRODUCTION – As Jesus steadfastly makes His way to Jerusalem to die on the Cross for our sins (Luke 9:51), He encounters a variety of people and deals with a number of subjects. Luke 13:1-9 deals with an intense issue of that time, one from which we can draw helpful principles.
1. ASSUMPTIONS ARE USUALLY WRONG
Like the proverbial blind squirrel, we might occasionally stumble across an acorn by making a correct assumption. However, we are much more likely to be wrong. We know nothing more about the event described in verses 1-3. Sadly, such incidents were common under Pilate’s vicious governance. The general belief of the day was that bad things happened to bad people (see John 9:1-3 for another example of this misguided and misanthropic mindset). Jesus bluntly discards this dogma and adds a similar example (verses 4-5), pointing out that both Galileans and Judeans (geographic rivals within Israel) had suffered violent deaths. Our Savior knows that we have limited knowledge (including presuppositional biases) and that, even if we have good information, we still struggle with our besetting sin natures (Romans 7:15-25). He reminds us here of what is inarguable: anyone can be killed. It is God’s grace alone that keeps any of us alive – alive so that we can “repent” verses 3, 5). All people face spiritual death – eternal separation from the loving presence of our Savior God; thus, all need to “repent” – to turn from ourselves and our assumptions to the absolute assurance of Christ Jesus. At best, our assumptions are speculative and unhelpful. At worst, they are negative and destructive, and they distract us from the certainties of the Word of God.
2. BLAME IS NOT A GAME
What if someone has hurt us in some way, with no doubt, caught red-handed? Revenge and vengeance are the ways of the world, but not the ways of the Word (Romans 12:19-21). We have recently studied the better way (including I Corinthians 13:5 – “thinketh no evil” means “keeps no record of wrongs”). If we seethe and stew, we might well begin to blame God. In so doing, we distance ourselves from the One, the only One, Who makes no negative assumptions about us and Who removes the blame that we deserve from Him.
3. CHOICES MATTER
In verses 6-9, Jesus adds an agricultural parable, teaching us that time to repent is limited. Today is another opportunity, but it could be the final one. Jesus might return (He will some day); the heart can be hardened over time; death will come upon us if Jesus does not return first: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
CONCLUSION – Jesus was headed to the Cross in Jerusalem. Anyone viewing Him there would have assumed that He was a criminal – certainly not the Messiah! – and would have blamed Him, not the religious leadership, not callous Pilate, not all of mankind and our accumulated sins. When we compare Matthew 27:46 and II Corinthians 5:18-19, we see that God the Father did care about God the Son. Yes, in one sense, the power of the Father’s presence, the closeness of His communion, was absent. Yet, at the same time, the salvific strength of the Father “was in Christ,” reconciling us to Him. What was not obvious at that moment has been made clear to all now. May each of us turn, turn to Jesus, turn today while there is time and blessed opportunity. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2c-d).