IS TRAGEDY JUDGMENT?

Luke 13:1-9 NET.

¹ Now there were some present on that occasion who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² He answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things? ³ No, I tell you! But unless you repent, you will all perish as well! ⁴ Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you! But unless you repent you will all perish as well!” ⁶ Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷ So he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For three years now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue to deplete the soil?’ ⁸ But the worker answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer on it. ⁹ Then if it bears fruit next year, very well, but if not, you can cut it down.'”

Every year bad things happen, but it just seems like 2023 has had more than its own share of disasters and tragedies. It seems like the glue that holds the planet together is starting to wear off. I’m reminded of Gilligan’s Island. If you never watched that show, it is about some people stranded on an island and trying to get back to civilization. In one of the early episodes, the professor comes up with a glue, and Gilligan uses the glue to reinforce and repair their ship. Unfortunately, the glue wears out after time, and the whole ship falls apart.

That is the image that came to mind when I thought of how to describe what is happening on this planet. Some of the disasters are natural and some of them are the evil that people do to others. Some are just failure of leaders to lead, failure of parents to parent, failure of people to accept who they are. When you add all these things up, you cannot help concluding that God is trying to get our attention.

I think the crowds that Jesus was teaching in today’s text had the same kind of feelings about the time in which they were living. They had come out to the Judean countryside to see the prophet from Nazareth because they wanted to hear what he had to say. But many of them probably felt like their world was falling apart, and wondered if anything could be done about it.

A horrible crime (1-2).

The crowds had heard about a horrible crime committed by the governor of Judea – Pontius Pilate. Some Galileans had offended him, so he had them murdered while they worshipped in the temple, and he mixed the blood of their sacrifices with their own blood. By so doing, he had desecrated the temple and committed a human atrocity. But he was the guy in charge, so he got away with it.

Now, the crowds could not get their heads around the unfairness of that event. Some thought that there must be more to it. They conjectured that these Galileans must have been guilty of some secret sin which had to be punished, and that is why God allowed the tragedy to occur. After all, it wasn’t something that happened all the time. This was a terrible and tragic incident. Something like this had to be caused by some terrible hidden sin. There must be a reason.

When people experience horrible crimes, we wonder if they are being judged. The Hamas attack on October 7^th killed hundreds, wounded thousands, and left the fate of hostages in question. Israel’s retaliation has resulted in the displacement and death of numerous Palestinians. People on different sides of the political divide are quick to place blame on either Israel or the Palestinians.

I suppose some of that kind of automatic blaming was happening among the crowds in Judea in the first century. But it seems that the real question they were trying to figure out was whether God was behind the tragedy at the temple. Was God punishing those Galileans specifically?

A horrible accident (4).

Jesus brings up another tragedy as he is speaking to these curious and bewildered people. He reminds them of the time when the Tower of Siloam fell on eighteen unsuspecting people in a neighborhood south of the old city of Jerusalem.

When a terrible accident occurs, resulting in much loss of life and much human suffering, we are tempted to ask the question that seems to have been on the minds of the crowd in today’s text. Is tragedy judgment? Do terrible things like this happen because God is targeting people with his wrath?

Before we quickly answer “no, of course not” we must come to grips with the fact that the Bible records many events in which God does take an active and immediate role in dispensing judgment upon human evil. There was another tower, called Babel. There was a flood in the days of Noah. Etcetera, etcetera.

Also, let’s not forget that there will be a Judgment Day in which all who have ever lived will face the consequences of their actions. God is a judge, and Jesus will sit on his great white throne. Jesus is going to judge everyone when he returns, but he has a different point to make here.

A call to repent (3,5.)

Jesus asks the crowd to listen because those terrible tragedies of his day were not designed to judge the victims. They were warnings from God that everyone needed to heed. The victims of today’s tragedies are reminders that all of us deserve that kind of treatment. All of us have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. We all like sheep have gone astray. We all deserve to be victims.

The word that Jesus uses for what we all deserve is perish: ἀπόλλυμι. It refers to the action of being destroyed. Luke had recorded the fact that a demon had asked Jesus if he had come to destroy him (4:34). He used it to describe the murder of Zechariah (11:51) and the drowning of all the people who did not find safety in Noah’s ark (17:27, 29).

Jesus’ message was that destruction is coming, and it is coming to all sinners. When tragedy happens in our lives today it is not the destruction which is coming. Today’s tragedies are terrible things, but they are not the ultimate wrath of God. If anything, they are warnings from God who sees the Day of Judgment coming and wants us all to escape it. There is only one way to escape the coming wrath: repentance.

Verses 3 and 5 of today’s text are the same in this English translation. In the Greek, Luke uses two synonyms. In verse 3, he uses ὁμοίως – similar in some respect. In verse 5, he uses ὡσαύτως – in the same way. If there is any distinction between those two synonyms, I imagine it has to do with the fact that God’s coming judgment looms over all sinners, but not because God is unexplainably cruel like Pilate was. Judgment is coming because all are sinners and deserve judgment.

All human beings are destined for destruction, and all are called to repent. Unless we repent, we will all perish as well – just like the unfortunate victims of Pilate and the accident at Siloam.

But Jesus uses this conversation to bring up an even more important truth. He uses the parable of the unfruitful fig tree to do that.

An age of grace (6-8).

In his parable, Jesus introduces two characters, and he does not explain who they represent. The first character is the vineyard owner. He had planted a fig tree in his vineyard, but he inspected the tree for three years in a row, and each year – bupkis.

The second character is the worker. The worker appeals to the owner for one more year to prepare the fig tree so that it produces fruit.

We have seen already in the preceding conversation the reality of universal sin and the need for universal repentance. Given that teaching by Jesus, it stands to reason that Jesus is not bringing us a new subject here. The vineyard owner is God and the fruit he expects is repentance. At the end of that year, if there is no repentance, there will be judgment. The tree will be destroyed.

We are living in an age of grace – where God bears with us even when we deserve punishment. That is why disasters and tragedies like those mentioned in verses 1-5 only happen periodically. They are not God’s judgment on us but are warning signs from God for us. They are designed to get us to repent. They are alarms going off in our otherwise peaceful lives to let us know that something is not right, and it needs to be attended to. The fig tree is not performing, and the blacksmith is sharpening the axe.

I don’t know who the worker is in the parable, but I – personally, take it to be those of us who count ourselves as saved. We have a responsibility to do all we can to encourage the lost to come to Christ before it is too late. We can have a wrong attitude about the lost all around us. We can be grateful that we are saved but not care much about those who are not saved.

That is not the way I want to be. I want to be like the worker who pleads for just one more year. I want to pray “LORD, give me time to reach my neighbor for Christ. I want you to come today, Lord, but there are so many who are not ready. Tragedy is about to come to them, and they do not know their fate. Their destiny is permanent destruction, and they are not ready. LORD, give me time to reach them!”

The final verse in the parable is a sobering reminder.

The end of grace (9).

This age of grace in which we live is like the four years described in Jesus’ parable – and we are living in the final year. This age of grace is limited. It will come to an end. Jesus taught that at some point in time “the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect” (Matthew 24:30-31).

Why will all the tribes of the earth mourn his coming? I’ll tell you why. They will mourn because the age of grace will be over. There will be no time to change their mind. The Son will come and they will not just be left behind. They will be destroyed. They will perish.

Knowing their fate, we can understand why Jesus said that some will weep in mourning and gnash their teeth in anger when they see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but they themselves are thrown out. They missed their opportunity. They refused to repent and now they must face the results of that failure. The vineyard owner will give the word, and the tree will be cut down and cast into the fire.

Our God is a God of grace. We should be thankful for the time he is giving us to reach our families, our neighbors, and other nations for him. He loves us and he loves them. But he will not tolerate evil in his universe forever. He is making all things new. He intends to purge this world of all those things that don’t belong. The barren fig trees will not stay forever. Their days are numbered.

Such truths remind us of our need to remain diligent in proclaiming the gospel of grace. The offer of salvation through Christ is a limited-time offer. Our task is urgent because a day of destruction is coming that will dwarf all other tragedies – old and new. As that day approaches, we need to make it our priority to prepare this world for its coming king.