in deep sh*t

 

Bad things happening to people is not evidence of God judging them. Indeed, death is not divine judgement, nor should we ever threaten it.

Once upon a time some people told Jesus that Pilate (the governor of the Roman province of Judaea) had violently put down some Galilean-led disorder at the time of a Passover. This raised questions for them, about the nature of God. Had God allowed this to happen because he did not approve of the men in question? Jesus refuted such a view; and added that unless they were prepared to change their understanding of God, they themselves would be caught up in human violence and not be able to understand it as such. Jesus himself would be killed at Pilate’s orders, and this would not be a sign of his sinfulness.

Jesus cited a further example: eighteen debtors who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. These, Jesus insisted, were no worse debtors than anyone else living in Jerusalem, and this tragedy was not divine judgement. Unless they could understand that they would not be able to construct any sense when tragedy befell themselves.

Then, as Jesus habitually did, he told them a parable. A story thrown out to disrupt their thinking and, perhaps, enable them to see things from a different perspective. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Having given it three years to take root, he looked for fruit and found none. And so, he instructed his vinedresser to cut it down, so that the soil might be put to better use. But the vinedresser asked for one more year, that he might dig manure around the roots, and see if that might make all the difference.

Parables lead us down an easy path, only to turn us onto a different Way. Here we have a vineyard, a symbol of the nation of Israel. And so, the owner must be God. God has had enough of the apostasy of his people, of their fruitless lives, and calls for their destruction. But the prophet intercedes for his people, successfully persuading a vengeful God to show uncharacteristic albeit temporary mercy.

But this easy path will not do. The vinedresser is, indeed, Jesus. But Jesus does not pacify an angry Old Testament God. Jesus is the revelation of God. When we see Jesus, what we see is what God is like. And what humans are to be like.

What we see is that to be a sinner (a debtor, among debtors) in the hands of God is not to suffer terror; it is to suffer care: to be handled with care.

The man in this parable is not God, but us; and the fig tree is not Israel, but also us. (By us, in the first instance I mean the original heaters of the parable, and by extension all who hear the parable.) This is a parable about how we see others (the man considers the tree useless, as we often see others as useless) and how we see ourselves (often we consider our lives to be fruitless, which may result in despair, or may result in pleading with God to give us one last chance to turn our lives around).

Jesus is the vinedresser, who stands up to our violent tendencies towards others or towards ourselves, and who states his intention to dig in manure. To use the seemingly worthless reality of waste to produce fruitfulness. Committing to slow processes. Absorbing humiliation and transforming it into glory.

Unless we are able to see this, we will suffer much violence at our own hands and inflict much violence on others. The spiritual abuse of holding the threat of divine destruction over people. Such a stance is utterly anti the posture Jesus adopts.

To be a sinner in the hands of God is to be loved, to be nurtured, to be transformed by the tender heart and worn hands of Jesus. To surrender to his life reviving us from our dormancy.

Bad things happen. But all things are being reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. Including you.

A year after this exchange, Jesus will be cut down by men who did not approve of the fruit his life produced. He will suffer their violence, and God will reward his faithfulness even unto death on the cross with glory, a glory countless others receive a share in. Including you.

Luke 13.1-9

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

‘Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’