Repent or Perish

Luke 13:1-9

What if you picked up your local newspaper this morning and read a headline like the following.  “Eighteen die in construction sight tragedy downtown.”  Something like that would rock our world wouldn’t it.  Our communities and schools would be affected, because there would no doubt wives who lost husbands and children who lost fathers.  And even if you didn’t know any of those 18 individuals personally, pretty much everyone would know someone who knew at least one of them.  It would take a while for any community to recover from such a tragedy. 

Or imagine if you read this headline.  “Worshippers at local Church put to death for failing to offer proper worship.”  If it’s possible that could even be a worse tragedy than the construction accident.  At least the accident was just that; an accident.  But this is more like state approved murder; and in a church of all places.  One of the few places left in our communities where we have a sense of safety for us and for our kids.  We would be reeling for weeks, months, and perhaps even years.

These “what if” tragedies I’ve referred to are thankfully only made up and not a reality for us, but they should sound familiar, because I’m trying to bring home the brutality of the tragedies spoken of in our text today.  In these tragedies Jesus has an important lesson for us when it comes to the issue of sin and suffering and death.  He asks them a question.  He asks if they thought those who were put to death were somehow worse sinners than they were.  He asks this because the going belief was to connect ones sin with suffering and even death.  A good religious person would be familiar with passages like the second half of Deuteronomy where a long list of curses are mentioned for those who are disobedient to God’s decrees.  I won’t get into it too much now, but it’s pretty thorough.  It starts by saying you’re cursed in the city and cursed in the country, and you’re cursed when you come and cursed when you go.  And then it gives all kinds of fun specific curses as well.  It’s not exactly what you would call a feel good passage.  It’s not going to show up in many devotionals for “higher Christian living.”  But notice how Jesus responded to that sort of mindset.  He says “I tell you no.”  He’s saying these Galileans who were killed in the temple were no worse sinners than the rest, so they should stop thinking they somehow had it coming.  Because it’s not up to us to decide who deserves what for one’s sins. Not only that, but the last I checked Romans 3:23 still says “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  

The bigger issue is what we do with our sin.  What does Jesus tell us to do?  Does he say “be really self-righteous, and pretend that you have no sin, or if you have to admit to it, at least make sure you accentuate the fact that your sin is not as bad a lot of those other more disgusting sins?”  No, He just says one thing.  Repent.  Repent, or you’re going to end up just like the rest of them.  He ends up turning these tragedies into a bit of a warning.  You see as Romans 6:23 tells us, the wages of sin is death… period.  It doesn’t matter what sin or whose sin you might think is worse.  Spiritually speaking, if you don’t repent, you die.  We all will die a physical death, but if you don’t repent than you die spiritually too.  That means we are eternally separated from God. I'm not a real "turn or burn" king of preacher, but sometimes like Jesus has done in our text, you just have to lay things on the line. I even struggled with using today's title, but you should know I took it directly out of our Bible reading.  Thankfully Romans 6:23 goes on to say, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”  And we receive that gift through repentance.  It’s “metanoia” in the original language, which means a complete turning away from former beliefs and actions in faithful acceptance of the proclamation of God’s kingdom in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Whatever you do in this life, don’t make the mistake of thinking your sin is somehow okay because you’re “better than most.”  Just repent and live your life for Jesus Christ.  It’s the most important thing you can ever do.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, I turn away from all of my beliefs and actions that have been contrary to your will for my life, and I turn to You.  Please come into my life.  You are my Savior, and I will make You my Lord.

If you’ve prayed that prayer for the first time, and you want to know a little more about what it means don’t hesitate to contact me. pete@sandwichcovenantchurch.org.