Lent: a time for new hearts (hearts that turn to Jesus)
It happened one night last week. I was in our own kitchen just trying to get dinner ready, and then it started—the refusal to listen to anything I said. I told him to leave, but he just wouldn’t…even after I showed him the door! His behaviour deteriorated into provocation and intimidation. Despite my warnings, he was defiant. He just wouldn’t leave me alone…and I got very angry. I thought I’d given him fair warning. I’d had enough, so in a moment of rage, with him in my sights, I let it rip.
I took a picture of the scene afterwards. A warning—some viewers may find this content distressing! Here it is. [next slide picture of fly stencilled in Mortein spray on window]. Well, that will teach that pesky fly a lesson for not listening to me! You can see his outline, stencilled in Mortein on the window…I think he died of drowning not poisoning!
That’s so often how people relate to one another—if someone is not listening, if they ignore us and continue behaviours we don’t like, if they fail to treat us how we should be treated, our patience quickly evaporates, and deep down we wish we could “let it rip”…and perhaps sometimes we do.
Imagine if that’s how God dealt with us!
This is the kind of thinking of the people in today’s text. It’s likely that they had just come from Jerusalem to report the horrific news to Jesus that some Galilean Jews had been massacred by Pilate’s army. They had been attacked in worship so that their blood literally mingled with that of the sacrifices they had offered. The ancient religious worldview would have held that they must have committed some kind of terrible sin to have had such disaster befall them.
Jesus poses the question, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?” He answers his own question with a resounding “NO!” To reiterate his point, Jesus cites a second example: the collapse of a tower in Siloam, killing eighteen people. Were these 18 who perished more guilty than anyone else? Was this was an instance of divine punishment for sin?
In both instances Jesus says quite clearly: “I tell you, no!”
But he adds: “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned by turning away from God’s word, sin has entered the world and nothing is left untouched by its disastrous consequences. All creation is in bondage to decay, groaning for deliverance. We see natural disasters regularly in the news, the latest being the earthquake in Japan. Did the people in Fukushima commit some kind of worse sin than other Japanese that warranted this as punishment? Closer to home, catastrophic flooding. Have these Queenslanders who have lost their lives, or life as they knew it, sinned worse than other Australians? And what of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Is this some kind of divine punishment in disguise for their sin? I’m fairly sure Jesus would say: “I tell you, No!”
All creation in bondage to decay includes us human beings too. We know all kinds of suffering, disease, disability, brokenness and fragility. And there comes a point when decay can decay no more, and there is only the end; the finality of death—which is, the Apostle Paul says, the wages for our sin. Since Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world, we are all born with a sinful nature, and we are all bound to die. Those who have suffered from COVID, those who have cancer or another kind of terminal illness, those who have been injured or who have died from tragic accidents, those who have disabilities, our loved ones with declining health or the people of Ukraine who have suffered such abominable abuse have not had their circumstances dished out by God as some kind of punishment because their sin was worse than others.
It is true that a holy God cannot compromise his just sentence of death upon the world for its sin. Yet God is not like me with the can of Mortein…or, to delve into our text, the owner of the fruitless fig tree in the parable, who would have been completely justified in ripping the tree out because it hadn’t borne the fruit it was planted for.
Because Jesus is like the fig tree of the parable. He was intentionally planted by his Father in the world as its Saviour. And then the righteous and holy Son of God became the fruitless fig tree in our place. The anger and judgment of God was not borne on those who do not bear fruit for him, but he poured it out on his own Son, and he was cut down, as it were, on the Cross. Isaiah would put it this way:
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
If God were to punish us throughout our daily lives, then Jesus’ suffering, punishment and death for our sin 2,000 years ago was incomplete. It would mean that us being punished by God, plus Jesus’ punishment, would be necessary for our righteousness.
But Jesus was punished by death to take away the sin of the world—which means all of our sins too. Jesus died to bring you forgiveness, life and salvation. His death paid the price for you to belong to God as his own dear child, made holy by his precious blood. Jesus died so that you could stand in freedom and have access to his grace, and receive all his blessing and favour.
And so Jesus’ warning: “Unless you repent you too will all perish!” is not a tactic to ‘scare people into the kingdom of heaven before God zaps them from above’, like spraying insecticide at a fly. It is simply stating the reality that all people are under God’s just sentence of death, so inevitably all people will die—unless they turn to the means God has given to overcome death and give eternal life—Jesus himself. Without Jesus there is no hope for true life in this world, and no hope for eternal life in the next.
To repent means ‘to turn around’. Repentance is often explained as a person turning away from their sin, then turning around to God. But we can’t turn away from our sin, then turn to God by our own strength. To try to turn away from our sin, then turn to God, would ultimately make us just like all other religions—trying to ‘clean up our act’ and ‘do good’ in order to appease God and earn his blessings.
When Jesus issues the call to repent, it is because, in him, the Kingdom of God’s grace has come near. This is nothing other than what Isaiah speaks of in today’s OT reading: “Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” In the purpose of repenting is the gospel. Unlike other religions which assert we need to clean ourselves up before we can come to God, we are called to turn to God with our sin. God doesn’t set up an impossible requirement, waiting for us to clean up our act by leaving our sin, before we can turn to him. God has first turned towards us in Jesus so that we turn to him with our sin, and he promises to pardon us, purify us, and free us from shame and guilt. Jesus does what we cannot do for ourselves—he releases us from the sin we cannot lay aside by our own strength.
Jesus’ warning to repent is serious. But it is first and foremost so people would turn to God to receive his blessing. For God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). He waits patiently for all to come to the saving help he has sent into the world in his Son.
Jesus illustrates this with the parable of the fig tree. The fig tree’s situation was even more dire than what first seems. Leviticus 19:23 stipulates the first three years of any fruit tree’s growth had to elapse before the fruit could be offered to the LORD. So the fig tree was barren for three years, before the three years that the owner came to it seeking fruit. The owner of the fig tree would be completely justified in in cutting it down and getting rid of it after finding no fruit for six years!
The fruitless fig tree represents God’s people who refused to turn to him—which is the very reason why they weren’t bearing the fruit he looked for. There is no fruit because there is something wrong with the core condition of the tree. The need for repentance is not a fruit problem; it is a root problem—a problem of the heart. We too have this same natural condition. God would be quite justified in bringing judgment on us for the times we have failed to bear fruit for him too.
But this parable shows us our Heavenly Father’s grace for Jesus’ sake. It is Jesus who is the vine-dresser, who pleads on behalf of humanity: ‘Lord, leave it be for this year also that I may dig around it and fertilise it. And if it is at the point of bearing fruit, well and good, but if not, then indeed cut it down.’” Jesus’ parable teaches us that our Lord who prays for us, and who has freed us from sin, death and hell, also works in us to bring forth the fruit of faith which shows itself in repentance and good works.
Jesus is the one who nurtures, who grows, who tends, and makes fruitful. Through his word, he goes to work in the garden bed of the human heart. He comes like the gardener, nurturing, tilling and fertilising, to create in us new hearts—repentant hearts. That is why worship and time studying God’s word this season of Lent is so vital. For digging into his word is how we turn to Jesus. Without it, we cut ourselves off from God’s fruit production.
Lent Calls for repentant hearts because the one who has already forgiven you stands near to bless. From the very moment God washed you by water and the word, Jesus went to work in your heart, to rule with his grace and give you his own goodness and righteousness. He stands near again today as he takes the fruit of the vine and gives it to you, saying “This is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” So throughout this season of Lent, turn to the Lord who has first turned to you, for he will freely pardon, and cultivate your heart to be fruitful for him. Amen!
