LUKE 13:1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

Jesus said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!

Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’

He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”

Repent or die

Two kinds of bad news are brought to Jesus as he journeys to the cross. Pontius Pilate has massacred a group of pilgrims from Galilee who were offering sacrifices in Jerusalem.  The other tragedy is about people killed when a tower fell on them. News of sudden death falls like a shadow across Jesus’s path.

How does he respond? He calls all of his listeners to repentance: the disciples, the watching crowd, and even those who brought the news. What is the “repentance” to which Jesus calls all of us?

Repentance means changing your mind, your direction, your whole life. Repentance is something which is a mysterious cooperation between God and us. God desires us, he wants us to find the way home. He touches our hearts, and we may then choose to respond – we remain free, but called by God.

Then Jesus tells us a story, a parable, about a fig tree that is growing but not bearing fruit. For three years the tree has borne no fruit, and the owner of the orchard is fed up, he says that it’s wasting soil. The gardener is the voice of God’s mercy.

Here’s the key point of this parable: just as the gardener will cultivate and fertilize the soil, so God’s mercy softens our hearts, and prepares us to turn to him. But, God’s mercy offers us more: we will bear the fruit of love in action, of charity towards others.

But as the journey continues Jesus will be the innocent victim on the cross, condemned to death by Pilate, suffering sudden, tragic death. Jesus’s journey to the cross calls us to repent, to get back on the way, and offers us God’s love, which will bear fruit in our lives, and lead us to eternal life.