The Third Sunday of Lent
March 4, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Ezekiel 33:7-20 1
Corinthians 10:1-13 Luke 13:1-9
Grace,
mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and savior Jesus
Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson just
read, especially these words, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Thus far our text.
Dear
friends in Christ, It seems it is happening more and more. Senseless tragedies where seemingly innocent
people die. 162 dead as hurricane Sandy
swept up the eastern seaboard, leaving a wake of destruction in its path. 26 young children murdered at Sandy Hook
elementary school by a deranged murderer.
12 killed and 56 more wounded at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado,
bringing back memories of 15 more killed at Columbine School just a few miles
away. Earthquakes in Japan, Haiti, and
Italy. War in Afghanistan, Syria, and
Lybia, protests in Egypt. Countless
fires in people’s homes, car accidents, floods, and more.
And
in it all, people who seem to have so much ahead of them, taken in an instant. So many innocent dead, leaving us with all
sorts questions. How could God allow
these terrible things to happen? Why did
one die, and another live? What difference
was there in any person? Were any of
those involved bigger sinners than others?
Were some more deserving than others?
Why did these many people die such tragic and gruesome deaths?
These
questions are difficult. These questions
do not have easy answers, answers that we like to hear. These questions are the questions that have
been asked throughout the ages. Every
time there is a tragedy people turn to God with questions too big for us to
answer. And that’s exactly what happens
in our text. A tragedy had befallen
Jerusalem only a little while before, when a group of Galilean Jews had been
rioting in Jerusalem while offering sacrifices, Pontius Pilate, the Governor,
had them brutally killed and their own blood poured on the altar at the temple. Many died, many families were left weeping
and mourning. How could this have
happened?
And
so the ancient people turned to God as we did, asking Jesus bluntly about this
tragedy. And Jesus gives them a
difficult to hear answer. “Do you think
that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because
they suffered this way? I tell you, no!
But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
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? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you
too will all perish.”
In
other words, Jesus says, you are all sinners, you’re all guilty, and unless you
repent you all deserve the same death the same punishment the same horrible
end. For the punishment for sin – all
sin, sin great or sin small – is death.
As St. Paul would later write, the very wages or payment for sin is
death. All who sin will die. Some in riots. Some in earthquakes and shootings. Some with
cancer and heart problems. But every
single sinner, you and me included, will face death.
And
the death of sin isn’t just a temporal thing.
It is an eternal thing. For sin
doesn’t just bring temporal death, but eternal death and hell. In sin, one is dead forever. In sin, death is a permanent event, something
to be dreaded and feared. Something that
destroys and hurts. Because of sin,
death is our dreaded enemy – it’s the very power of Satan.
So
what does Jesus say? We are all
sinners. We all deserve death, and we
all will face it. But Jesus also says
there is a way out. Repent. Admit your sin. Admit your wrong. Admit that on your own you have nowhere to go
except to death. That on your own, you
fail time and again, and have no hope.
Repent and turn away from your sin!
That’s
what the season of Lent is all about.
Repentance! Turning from
sin. That’s why the church is dressed in
purple, its why the church dims down the glory of the its worship
services. To show our repentance, to
show our sorrow over our sin, to show the sorrow that death brings to the
sinner. And to show our sincere desire
to change our hearts.
But
dear friends, repentance is not enough.
For no act that you can do would erase your sin, or the death that it
can bring. Not even the most outwardly
“holy” person you know can repent enough to take the power of death from our
lives. We need something more. We need a savior, we need a rescue. We need someone to take our sin away.
And
so we turn to Jesus, or rightly speaking, he turns to us. He declares “Repent – Yes” but realize that
it is I who save you, by my own death, by my own submission to the Father’s
will, by my own suffering, and bloody death.
That’s the only solution to the tragedy of this world, the only solution
to sin. The death of Jesus in your place
is the only solution to our own pain and suffering, our own weakness. Jesus takes your place in death, he suffers
in your place the fullness of Hell, and he gloriously is resurrected into
eternal life, promising that the same will happen to you who believe as
well.
That
death and resurrection comes to you today in the promises of God’s word, the
washing of rebirth in baptism, and in the reception of Christ’s crucified and
risen body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
These gifts overcome tragedy.
These gifts destroy death in all its forms. These gifts confound the power of Satan
turning him into a weak and powerless force in our world – only able to make
death a temporary sting that is at the last overshadowed by the promises of
eternity in heaven with Jesus.
The
blood of Christ brings life. It brings
forgiveness. It destroys the power of
death, promising for you life to the full.
Repent of your sin. Turn from it,
and receive the forgiveness of Jesus, delivered to you here today. Repent, fear not the tragedies of this world,
but trust the words and promises of Christ.
For Christ has overcome the world.
Christ had promised life. Christ
gives victory. Amen.
