Third Sunday of Lent
“‘No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.””
Summary
“Why, Isaiah 55:1-9 asks, do we spend our time, energy and resources on “that which does not satisfy” whilst refusing the gifts God offers freely? The answer has something to do with why Jesus’ contemporaries thought that those who suffer misfortune were worse sinners than those who escaped misfortune: we think that we are responsible for good gifts we enjoy, we think that we have earned them. Jesus and Isaiah are each try to change the way we see both ourselves and those who are in need. We are all in need of God. None of us can succeed by our own efforts alone. We are the same. All of us are vulnerable. And if all of us are vulnerable, how should we act towards those in need? In Luke 13:1-9, Jesus, having castigated those who think people bring trouble upon themselves, tells a parable of the man who wants to cut down his fig tree because it is not bearing fruit, it is not paying him back for the efforts expended on it: the feeding, watering and tending. But the gardener asks that, instead, the fig tree be given even more time and even more care. Jesus is inviting us to stop seeing the world in transactional terms but instead to view life in relational terms. When we are aware that we too are needy we are more likely to show empathy for others in need. If our eyes are opened to see that there is no distinction between the fortunate and the unfortunate perhaps we will be more committed to building a world in which the needy are responded to with the abundant compassion and generosity of the gardener.
FIRST READING
Isaiah 55:1-9
“Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
GOSPEL
Luke 13:1-9
'At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.”
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
