For Sunday
Lent 3C
Collect
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Reading this passage, one might feel like they’re missing something. There are two tragedies here that they probably want to know more about — both dealing with people who died. But knowing about these events would do little to help us what Jesus is directing us to see: assumed inferiority.
Jesus directs the attention of these city people to their presumed condemnation of the country bumpkins from the north, asking if they assume their suffering must be a result of sinfulness and not, say, the violent, outrageous, and pathetic evil of Herod! No, he says, if you don’t repent, you will have the same fate.
The second story matches the first in this same way. The tragedy of the people who were crushed to death — that isn’t a result of sin. The innocent and the guilty both get crushed. Here the message Jesus keeps repeating: Repent! We’re all in this boat together!
Use this understanding with the fig tree which chooses to never bear fruit. It isn’t sinful and therefore can’t. Nor is it sinful as a matter of birth. The question of its sin isn’t relevant! It’s a tree that is choosing to avoid doing good! The gardener wants to give it one last chance — to repent, to turn from its current path — and to choose to bear fruit worthy of repentance.
The problem here is comparison and judgment. And these people seeking guidance keep obsessing about that stuff when Jesus says we’re all in this. This is about us all. And this obsessing about someone else’s sin is bound to leave us in the falling path of the tower or as the sacrifice of a petty tyrant.