Last week people warned Jesus of approaching danger with Herod’s murder threat. This Sunday further intrigue and suspense are reported to the Son of God. News of disaster like our recent bombings in the Middle East resembles Pilate killing worshipers at the Temple in Jerusalem. And can it be that these poor souls lost their lives for the grotesque pleasure of evil powers both seen and unseen? Human sacrifice was mixed with the animal sacrifice. Jesus human and divine blood was the ultimate and last sacrifice necessary for our sins. His blood was mixed over Golgotha, while the Passover lamb was sacrificed over the altar in the Temple nearby.
Jesus challenges the popular notion that Job’s friends and wife railed at him - that is “people bring evil and destruction on themselves.” Victims of unjust tyrants and terrorists throughout the ages have suffered similar criticism. Battered wife syndrome and other masochistic dysfunctions wrongfully cause people to blame themselves for their own suffering. Their failure to repent and turn to God is not necessarily the “cause” of their death. But Jesus seems to be saying that if you don’t repent, then your fate will be no different for all eternity than those who suffer terrible destruction in this life.
Genocide at the Temple - and then there were those eighteen in Jerusalem the other day - the ones crushed and killed when the Tower of Siloam collapsed and fell on them. They weren’t bad people either. But unless you turn to God, you too will die a more terrible death.
The truth is that as long as we are in this life we are never “Out of the Storm.” The consequences are still with us. Yes, we may cry to the LORD in our trouble, and God promises “to bring us out from our distress” a Psalm 107:28 says. But the good news also includes God’s expectation for us to make responsible choices. Repenting of even our unknown sins is a good thing to do.
Ominous clouds will continue to move through our lives like the ones that brought tornadoes, death and destruction over a week ago. We may quickly “take cover” in a building like those children in Enterprise or those who perished under the Tower of Siloam, but shelter is not an absolute guarantee. Since 1990, almost 11,000 people were saved by airbags, but 229 people died because airbags inflated during automobile crashes. Those who were worshiping in the temple were sacrificing animals to save their souls from damnation. They were surprised by the Roman soldiers’ ninja-like assignation under Pilate’s orders to destroy them body and soul.
Many people in Montgomery have friends and relatives in the towns that were victims of our most recent storm. This causes us to ponder why we were spared while our sister towns are devastated. Others are angry with God. They want to know how a loving God could allow this tragedy to happen.
UMCOR and many of our churches have been effectively serving and ministering to those who are hurting in the midst of the pain and suffering. Retired Episcopal Priest Al Spencer told me this Friday morning how he is caring for his son’s family who lost their home in Columbus, Georgia. Like many others they have opened up their home to those left homeless. After the three hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 many of us provided food and clothing, as well as physical work cleaning and rebuilding the affected communities.
The good news is that God expects you and me to make responsible choices: to minister to the distressed, to remind others and ourselves of God's loving peace and comfort; to serve as God's hands. But most of all God expects you and me to repent, change and follow Jesus Christ.
Pick up. Pick up. Pick up your cross and follow the one who suffers and calls us to suffer and yet . . . serve obediently.
And what about this parable of the landlord who wanted to cut a fruit tree down, because it didn’t bare fruit. Jesus takes us from our corporate mind- set about human suffering and shows us His personal concern for each one of us.
A man planted a fruit tree in his yard. After three years he expected to harvest fruit from it, but none came. So, he tells the gardener to chop it down! Why waste the space on non-productive creatures. After all, service is the price each one of us pays for taking up space on this planet. Right? And this tree wasn’t giving over the service for which it was planted.
But the gardener said, ‘Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.’ ”
The key role here is not the landowner, but the intercessor, the patient gardener, who advocates for you and me by digging around our fruitless lives. He spreads fertilizer around complacent but non-productive roots so you and I will grow and bare fruit. He doesn’t simply pass by and expect me to bare fruit of the spirit without tending to my needs - so I will produce the love and service for which God planted me. My gentle Savior hears my humble cry - and He yours, too. He knows our every weakness, trial and temptation.
It took a tree to be cut down so as to make the cross. Was it my failure and my sin that became that tree on which He was crucified? When cry out, “do not pass me by” to Jesus, then it is my very sinful nature that is of no earthly good calls out to Jesus, “pass me not o gentle Savior, hear my humble cry.”
The good news is that you have a Savior who is ready and able to impart mercy and sweet relief, when you kneel deeply rooted in His fertilizer of repentance and contrition. He will help you in your unbelief, if you ask Him to do so.
When you trust only in the intercessor’s gardening plan for your life, then God will heal your wounded and broken spirit. Then Jesus saves you by His grace.
(Singing) Thou the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me, whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee? (Won’t you sing the refrain with me:) Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry; while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Now will you please individually pray with me this prayer: Dear Lord and Father, forgive my foolish ways. Re-clothe me in my rightful mind, so that I will give You a purer, more reverent and fruitful life in Your service. Accept my simple trust like those who heard, beside the Syrian sea, Your gracious calling. I rise like them from my daily tasks and, without a word, rise up and follow You. Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still, small voice of calm.
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine; alive in Him, my living Head. And when You clothe me in righteousness divine, then I will be bold to approach Your eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own. And it will be to His glory and honor that I lay all at His feet. In Christ’s name, Amen.
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