Jesus Shows the Father’s Grace Toward Sinners 3 Lent C Luke 13:1-9 (ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 “ … unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  (Luke 13:5 ESV)

Pray: Love caused Your incarnation; Love brought you down to me. Your thirst for my salvation Procured my liberty. Oh, love beyond all telling, That led you to embrace In love, all love     excelling, Our lost and fallen race. (O Lord, How shall I Meet You? LSB 334)

Dear Fellow Pilgrims on the Way to the Paschal Feast,

Last week we learned something about Lent and Jesus.  We learned that his journey to Jerusalem is destined to end in death for him.  It isn’t because the devil is directing Jesus’ fate.  Neither is it because Herod is bent on killing Jesus.  Even the Pharisees cannot successfully manipulate the Savior.  It is, rather, the father’s will. Fate does not bring Jesus to the Cross.  Our sins do.  And the Father has sent Jesus to save us from perishing because of them.

Jesus himself said the truth of it, “Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.” (Luke 13: 33)

 We also had introduced to us last Sunday, one of the characters of the Passion: Herod. In the scheme of things he is rather unimportant, except that he thinks he is, and also he has John the Baptizer put to death.

Today we have in the very same chapter of Luke’s Gospel another player in Jesus’ Passion named.  He is far more important.  He is Pontius Pilate.  Whenever Christians confess their faith in the words of the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds, Pilate gets mentioned.  “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried,” –we say in the Apostles’ Creed, and,  “[he] was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried,” is what we say in the Nicene.

 There was a time when some historical critics of the Bible argued that Pilate was a totally fictional character: absolutely made-up –mainly because the only written record known about him was the Bible’s mentioning of him here and in a couple of other places –especially in connection with Jesus trial and crucifixion.

But that all changed when archeologists discovered at the Mediterranean Sea coast site of the ancient port city of Caesarea,–a stone that had been recycled in a theater for an entirely different use than its original purpose –originally it had been a kind of dedication stone –with large Latin letters cut into it saying,

            Pontius Pilate, Prefect of Judea, has presented the Tiberiéum to the Ceasareans.[i]

You can imagine that that reference in stone to Pilate changed the historic critics’ view of the historicity of Pilate in a jiffy. And, we recall how on Palm Sunday, when Jesus’ enemies told him to stop the children from singing his hosannas, that Jesus said if they were to be silent, the very stones would cry out. (Luke 19:40)  And this way, in a sense, they have cried out.

 St. Luke, the writer of our Gospel, was a historian.  He gives us the Gospel with his name and the Book of Acts.  He tells us he carefully researched everything.  He conducted interviews with the eyewitnesses of the events he records.  Luke tells us that at the time of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem,

A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria (Luke 2:1-2)

thereby gives us a historical reference point with which to begin. And, that,

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of  Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of     Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness,

describing for us the political arrangement of Palestine at the beginning of John’s and, subsequently, also Jesus’ ministry. (Luke 3:1-2)  Again, this helps us accurately date the events recorded.

Unlike many of the world’s religions, the Christian faith is one where God steps into human history as a man, assuming our flesh, living, and dying, as all people do.  You can go to the places of the Bible.  Ancient Palestine is under piles of dust and dirt.  Ancient Rome has left its monuments to be seen and studied by the modern tourist.  Ours is not a faith that begins with, “Once upon a time.”

St. Luke also tells us about a tower falling over, crushing eighteen people –to be exact, and about Pilate’s blasphemous martyring of Jews and mixing their blood with their sacrifices.

One of the things we should draw from all this is that these were not pretty times.  The world was a very cruel place when Jesus lived.  Villainy and treachery were rampant.  People could be made to suffer horrible deaths.  The portrayal of the Romans as rough characters by our Living Nativity actors is not too far from the truth.  There certainly were some exceptions –but for the most part you and I would have done whatever we could have to keep from trouble with the Romans.  As Pilate pointed out at Jesus’ trial, he had authority to release him and authority to crucify him. 

But we know Jesus also answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” (John 19:10–11)

Yet we can take comfort in the fact that Jesus did not come into a time of comfort and ease, but a time of cruelness and suffering –which is just what we deserve for our sins.  The sinful human condition is such that human beings are able to come up with the most horrible ways to kill each other, crucifixion being the preferred method of the Romans. 

Yet, as was pointed out last Wednesday evening in church, the holy prophets of God described the crucifixion long before it was ever invented.  It’s not that God invented crucifixion, rather, it’s that he already saw our sins, our need for forgiveness, the horrible cruelty and hate that people can have toward God and each other –and he chose that his own Son, begotten from all eternity, would suffer and die and pay the punishment that was ours on the cross.

St Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us –for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13)

Jesus became cursed for us. He died because of your sins; because of my sins. These were not his sins that made him to suffer so.

But neither did fate put him on the cross.  He went willingly.  When Jesus sent out his twelve apostles he told them,

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29–31)

When our last hour comes, or whenever we think about our death, we should not think that our end will be arbitrary.  Whether that be in our beds, or suddenly on the road, or unexpectedly by heart attack, or long and perhaps even painful like from cancer  -true, we all must die because we are sinners.  But as redeemed children of God, our deaths are in God’s hands.

 And that is what brings us here today to God’s House: to confess our sins.  As Jesus says, “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”  We recognize this as a time of grace; the Lord allowing yet another season; him looking for the fruit of repentance.

Each year we observe the Savior’s passion during this time of Lent.  Each Wednesday evening we especially consider the great cost of our redemption to our heavenly father, who loves us so very much.  If you are unable to come to our evening services, I hope you have a good reason.

If you are un-willing to come, I hope you change your mind –especially if you are fearful of hearing about your sins and about Jesus’ death because of them.  And I sincerely hope it is not because you refuse to repent of these.

Today, as we reach the mid-way point of Lent, we see more clearly what God had in mind for us.  He’s is not an arbitrary God, with a terrible hate for his own son –or for us.  He has a plan for us that is not evil, but will give us an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11).

People worry about these things whenever disasters strike.  “Was God punishing them?”  It was that way when Katrina hit New Orleans. People thought that about Haiti recently, and now Chile. Even Taiwan had an earthquake this week.  Jesus said earthquakes and other natural disasters would happen.  But he didn’t mean that earthquakes tell us that the end of the world is right now.  The end has always been near. 

He means that we should not think that earthquakes and such disasters mean God is angrier with us, or that his wrath is particularly focused on us now.  That’s what the people were implying when they came with terrible news about Pilate what had done; and it is good for us to hear his answer to them, since we wonder that as well.

Sin has brought evil in to the world.  That’s why bad things happen.  But bad things happening to people do not necessarily indicate a greater or lesser sin has been committed and that they are being punished by God for it.  The thing to avoid is dying –however that might be –unrepentant. Because if you do, then –regardless of what the cause of your death might be –you most certainly will perish and be lost forever in hell –if you do not repent.

Thanks be to God that he has sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. And thanks be to God that his Word comes to us today and calls us to repentance.  And thanks be to God that he has given us a way out from under the punishment for our sins.  And thanks be to God that he has also given to us faith that believes in Jesus.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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[i] Maier, Paul In the Fullness of Time Grand Rapids: Kregel, 197. p. 145.