Lent 3
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
... do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?
-- Luke 13:4
It is common in our culture when the media interviews someone who narrowly escaped some natural disaster to suggest that God was looking out for him or her. While it is natural to feel a need to thank someone for such good fortune, when one hears it, one wants to ask why those who were injured or killed were not looked out for as well. There is the implicit suggestion that somehow they were being punished for some reason or another. Jesus gave two examples of people who suffered a tragedy. The first example was a group of people who were the victims of a political conflict: "Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." The other example was of a group who had been killed when "the tower of Siloam fell on them."
In each case, one the result of a political incident and the other of a natural variety, Jesus asked whether those who had suffered were worse sinners than those who had escaped suffering. His response to his own question was an emphatic denial that suffering was indicative of their sinfulness. While individuals can suffer because of their sinfulness, there is also something called fate or just the accident of time and place. Death, Jesus seemed to suggest, comes to all of us. There is an uncertainty to life that we cannot guard against. What we can do is choose our response: "Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." To repent is to turn and redirect our lives.
Jesus' parable about the man with the barren fig tree suggests that we are given more time to live not as a reflection of our superior life but as a gracious opportunity to bear more fruit. Some who have had a near encounter with death have been shocked into the realization that they need to reprioritize their lives. Often that reorientation suggests a need to pay attention to the relationships they have been given. Lent is perhaps a good time to reflect on whether we have been giving enough attention to those with whom we are most closely related.
-- Luke 13:4
It is common in our culture when the media interviews someone who narrowly escaped some natural disaster to suggest that God was looking out for him or her. While it is natural to feel a need to thank someone for such good fortune, when one hears it, one wants to ask why those who were injured or killed were not looked out for as well. There is the implicit suggestion that somehow they were being punished for some reason or another. Jesus gave two examples of people who suffered a tragedy. The first example was a group of people who were the victims of a political conflict: "Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices." The other example was of a group who had been killed when "the tower of Siloam fell on them."
In each case, one the result of a political incident and the other of a natural variety, Jesus asked whether those who had suffered were worse sinners than those who had escaped suffering. His response to his own question was an emphatic denial that suffering was indicative of their sinfulness. While individuals can suffer because of their sinfulness, there is also something called fate or just the accident of time and place. Death, Jesus seemed to suggest, comes to all of us. There is an uncertainty to life that we cannot guard against. What we can do is choose our response: "Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." To repent is to turn and redirect our lives.
Jesus' parable about the man with the barren fig tree suggests that we are given more time to live not as a reflection of our superior life but as a gracious opportunity to bear more fruit. Some who have had a near encounter with death have been shocked into the realization that they need to reprioritize their lives. Often that reorientation suggests a need to pay attention to the relationships they have been given. Lent is perhaps a good time to reflect on whether we have been giving enough attention to those with whom we are most closely related.
