Slices
Prepare
Here’s an old proverb: happy is the man who sees his neighbour slipping on a banana skin. It’s a funny and depressingly profound commentary about relationships. And so we repent and pray for people who are finding life hard at the present.
Bible passage
Repent or perish
13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.’
6 Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig-tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, “For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig-tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”
8 ‘“Sir,” the man replied, “leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilise it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”’
Explore
We have a knack of blaming others or looking for simple causes to complex problems. Sometimes, justice demands that we identify the people responsible although this isn’t always possible. At our worst we end up blaming the victims for their fate. This was the case in the immediate aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, where 96 Liverpool fans died during a football game against Nottingham Forest. As thousands of fans poured into already overcrowded spaces, with no means of exit, the game was abandoned to tend to the dead and dying. A lie circulated that drunk fans were responsible. This was published in the national media and believed for a long time afterwards. The lie was later exposed and the spotlight fell on the public authorities for their negligence.
In today’s reading, reference is made to two man-made disasters on the basis that the dead must have been more sinful than others. Jesus won’t have any of it. God looks at what is going on in the heart, and in the face of the crisis about to happen in Jerusalem, repentance is the only response required from anyone and everyone.
Respond
It’s time to turn and be realigned to God’s purposes and not our prejudices. Without repentance, we will lose everything.
Deeper Bible study
Draw near to God today in an attitude of self-examination and reflection.
Two historical events lie behind this passage, though neither is referred to elsewhere in the New Testament. Pilate, who was as cruel a ruler as most others, had apparently executed some Galileans at some point who were seeking to offer sacrifice. At another time, part of the walls of Jerusalem near the Pool of Siloam had collapsed with loss of life. We are familiar with such atrocities and tragedies today. The conventional interpretation in Jesus’ day was that they were the consequence of personal sin: that those who perished deserved it. Jesus raised this in a rhetorical question to dismiss such thinking. Stuff happens. Those who died were no more guilty than anybody else. The fact that these events had not happened to his hearers by no means let them off the hook, since all of them (and all of us) were (and are) also sinners liable to perish. The point is to learn from such incidents by referring them to ourselves.
Today we are more likely to look for someone else to blame, possibly even to scapegoat. The blame game is an unhelpful modern preoccupation, whereas learning from things that go wrong plainly helps to prevent similar things happening again. The glib tendency to connect unfortunate events with divine judgement and to look round for someone who might be thought to have incurred God’s displeasure (we might think of a number of categories) is a vindictive and self-righteous practice.
The Greek word for ‘judgement’ is krisis, which we have as ‘crisis’. When crises occur, it is wise not to blame the victims or to look round for scapegoats, but to put ourselves in the frame. What might this say about me or us? How can we prove to be better human beings for God’s glory?
Read the parable in verses 6–9 once more. The farmer was allowing the fig tree space to bear fruit. In which ways is God giving you time to improve?
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 3,4; John 2
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray that local mission partner Stort Valley Schools Trust will be able to find new Trustees with a real heart and enthusiasm for the ministry amongst young people in local schools, and a strong sense of God’s call.
