Luke 13:3 “I tell you, No; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”

Jesus was referring to the Galileeans who were killed by the Pilate, and whose blood he had mingled with their sacrifices. He also brought up the event of the fall of the tower of Siloam and the accidental death of eighteen people. He then declared that these accidental deaths were not because these people were worse sinners than the once who were alive.

So then, was he saying that if one repents, they can escape the possibility of sudden and premature deaths? If so, then how could Apostle James or Stephen have sudden and premature deaths?

For a while I assume that Jesus was referring to the purpose in their death. I am reminded of Solomon’s statements in Ecclesiastes 6:3-5. If a man has a hundred children and lives many years but does not get a proper burial, it was better off that this person were still born. When a child is still born, it is dead on its birth. No one got an opportunity to know this child. This child got no name and made no impact on anyone that was supposed to be in its immediate surroundings. So our man is worse off than a still born child as in his long years of life and with a hundred children he made no significant, lasting and memorable impact on anyone so much so that they found meaning in this person’s life or his death.

Well, in reality, we don’t find this happening. In fact, people see to it that even the worst people get the best burials. Sometimes, I wonder whether I have reached the right place! People show no dearth of words in praising the dead man. There are institutions that see to it the even the vagabonds get a decent burial.

Looking more closely, I realize that Jesus has linked the purpose of life and purpose in death to repentance. I know that! What’s new about that? Wait my soul. There is something more interesting ahead. In fact very curtly Jesus is saying that however big be the reasons that I live and die for, without repentance, I will perish.

Our mission in life maybe as important as that of the Galileeans, where in they were fighting against the Romans and trying to free at least their part of the land, and if possible, entire Israel from the clutches of the Romans and re-establish the state of Israel. They had a gory end, but Jesus says that they were not worst sinners; the worst were still at loose. But the mission of their life and death also didn’t appeal to Jesus even though it was concerning God’s chosen people and nation-Israel? It was better off for them to have lived for a smaller cause than that, but a life of repentance. At this juncture I feel, God has excluded patriotism from the objectives of the church, but I will not dwell on this right now as it is a wider subject.

Scholars opine that the Tower of Siloam perhaps was being constructed to have a water tank that could replenish the pool of Siloam. It was required for the Jews to cleanse at this pool before they entered the temple. Now this cause should have appealed more to Jesus! Oh Come on! The tower was being made to fulfill the cleansing requirements set by Yahweh-the God of Israel. Jesus again shows no interest in their cause! He says that it would have been better for these people to have lived for a much lesser cause, but a life of repentance.

So let me gather my thoughts once more. According to Solomon, it is important to create an impact through your life and project a meaning of your life in your death. According to Jesus; who has arrayed the lilies of the valley to be more beautiful than Solomon in all his splendor; repentance will bring meaning to your life and more importantly to your death than all other achievements you can ever gather.

So repentance is more important than finding a purpose and making my life more meaningful! Yes. It’s not just repentance from acts of sin and unrighteousness and a life according to the flesh and the world, but it is repentance unto God. A change in mind, heart and every aspect of life so that the relationship with God remains reconciled and intact, a life filled with works that befits and proves the repentance.

“I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”.

John 6:53 “….unless you eat the flesh & drink the blood of the Son of man, you have no life in you!”

Jesus had opened the eyes of the crowd to a new level of understanding about him. All He did was bless the bread, break it and give it to his disciples and more than 5000 men and all those who accompanied them had there fill! Oh what a man. Perfect to be their king! He was apparently Israel’s answer to Rome’s Caesar. They all tried to make Jesus king by force. Jesus escaped!

Jesus why did you escape? Your mission on earth was to establish a kingdom! In fact your first message was, ‘Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.’ A kingdom where you would be king was why you had come. Then why did you escape? Of course, the kingdom had to happen in the hearts first before it could happen in physical reality.

However the people had not yet given up on Him. They made search parties to trace Him. When they finally did locate Him, Jesus told them not to work for the food that perishes. So now they were interested to know, how to do the works that please God. Jesus told them to believe on the One that God sent. It’s interesting to see how this crowd responds. Give us a sign that we may believe. Our forefathers got manna. Show us something similar and surely we shall believe. O my soul, did you get that? They were telling Jesus to do exactly what they were craving after. Provide them a permanent source of food and thus security and then they would believe! How many times have I behaved similarly? I ask God to provide me material blessings and security in exchange for my continued loyalty to him.

Jesus tries to clarify their understanding a bit by saying that this bread from heaven would give life to the world. They get more excited and asked more for this bread for it seemingly provided them not only a filled stomach through their life but also provided them life itself!

As this exchange goes ahead, Jesus finally tells them that He is the bread from heaven and the bread that He shall give for the life of the world is His flesh! It sounded very cannibalistic per se. If taken literally, it did, but in the light of what happened later, we know that He truly did offer His flesh in exchange for life of this world, thus becoming the bread of life.

But then He repeats it by putting it more brusquely and in a way that would offend even the most sincere of listeners. He said that to live, they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood! Even now it is too grotesque to read, let alone think about it and forget absolutely about doing it! Now this never became a practice in the church nor was such an event repeated later. So then what was Jesus saying here?

When I eat a piece of bread, or drink something, it becomes a part of me. If I were to stand on a weighing scale, my weight would also include the weight of what I ate or drank. If my x-ray were to be taken, the bread or drink would easily remain undetected and thus appear an integral part of me. That’s what Jesus was saying. I have to take him in, completely, flesh and blood, so that He becomes a part of me in a way nothing or none can differentiate between us. I would of course like to keep the whole of Jesus, in his full beauty and form to stand next to me, but Jesus says, “No; I want you to cut me to pieces and eat me into you rather than keep me beside you”. It seems He is saying that He doesn’t want me to look like Him on the outside, but have Him and be nourished inside and become like Him on the inside.

Jesus was also pointing at commitment. If I am not ready for such an intake and imbibing of His principles and teachings, then I am wasting my time. Many disciples left Him after they heard this noticeably hard teaching and Jesus made no effort to stop them. In fact He even asked His disciples, if they wanted to leave? Jesus bothered not about how many followed him, but made sure that all those who followed him took up their crosses, hated even themselves and ate his flesh and drank his blood!

Surely He had come to become a king, but on His own terms. He had surely come for a kingdom but a kingdom whose citizens had a heart and mind and story like their King’s. Humble, compassionate, focused, driven by love, sacrificial, self controlled, peaceful, righteous, merciful, pure in heart, kind, gentle, faithful, victorious, rejoicing always and bringing glory to the Father. I will eat your flesh and drink your blood Jesus.

Psalm 131:2 “….I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast!”

Recently I had started traversing on a journey of trying to discover the attributes of God as revealed in the Bible. As I navigated through the first few attributes, I comprehended that I was venturing into something that would need my grey cells to stretch their dendrites and axons a bit more than the usual to grasp the concepts even faintly and my mind will have to stretch beyond limits to even vaguely grasp the depth, height and width of His greatness!

The very first realization was that since God is infinite, there is no end to the number of attributes that He has. God has only revealed a small fraction of Himself to us! There is so much more to Him that no creature knows about, even Angels in heaven! Moreover, the few attributes of God that do emerge in the Bible are themselves infinitely deep, high and wide! As my limited mortal mind tried to unravel the mysteries of God’s sovereignty, self sufficiency, omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience, His wisdom, His incomprehensible and inscrutable nature, His immutability, His holiness, His righteousness and justice, His goodness et cetera, I was just awestruck and stunned. I could almost feel the reverberations of the age old quest that was sung as a psalm by David of Bethlehem – What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

I also realized that the human language is inapt, deprived, inadequate, ill-equipped, gawky and so deficient that it’s impossible to even appropriately describe its poverty! When language cannot even describe the taste of honey in such a way that the listener gets the taste of it, how can I expect it to describe to me the Creator of honey and every other thing? How can it assist me to express anything at all, even my gratitude or my awe of Him? But even as I wrestled with all these inappropriate words that were trying to portray the Most High God on the canvas of my mind, I did manage to sketch a portrait that was a resemblance, albeit vague, of His greatness and most remarkably, I was also allowed to feel of His love and have a glimpse of the burden on His heart. And it was so overwhelming. Every word that I had ever used in praise of Him or even to express my thanks to Him, looked so worthless, so hollow in comparison to what He truly Is! I felt as if by saying whatsoever I had, I had actually deprived Him (not that I can do that!) of what He truly deserved. My phrases and expressions were an injustice to His grandeur.

I suddenly realized the significance of silence. Not the silence that is forced upon the congregation after a rocking time of praise and heavy music, but a silence in awe of Him. A silence observed not in public worship but in the closet, in the secret. It is a silence that ensues my giving up of every attempt to express anything at all to Him, knowing that it is not worth its while.

Again emanating above the din of this silence, barely audible to my inner ears, were familiar words from the distant past, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me, but I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother’s breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul.

I had never allowed myself to discover the beauty of silence in the presence of God. I always thought that the most impressive words would make my praise dear. Sometimes I have thought that reserving some words of the language just for God and nothing else would be the right thing to do. Perhaps that was a much better deduction. But now I think that practicing silence in His presence is perhaps a much better deduction. He leads me beside still (quiet) waters. He restores my soul.

Without asking too much, without saying too much, plainly loving Him and enjoying Him in silence is what I am relishing now. That silence has changed my attitude and perspectives. That silence is helping my patience. That silence has brought me peace. That silence and the reasons for my silence have taught me to trust Him. Earlier I believed Him, now I trust Him. That silence allows me to enjoy each moment and every circumstance of my life. I don’t need to occupy myself with too many things. He shelters me. I’m held in His arms right by His side. That silence helps me to hear His whispers. I’m talking less and listening more. That silence has helped me to anchor myself and not sway to every wind. I have been tossed so much in the past. That silence is helping me to be gentle and compassionate. That silence has calmed and quieted me.

Luke 13:9 “….but if not, you can cut it down”

Grape vines grow the best on very unfertile soil that cannot be used to cultivate anything else. That’s the reason why mostly the hilly terrains are used for the grave vine. No wonder the beloved of Isaiah 5 dug up his vineyard and removed the stones from it. The beloved was developing a land that had been written off and was actually in an uncultivable shape. Oh the heart of God! It is still the same. He chooses the barren womb to produce his mighty men, and chooses the fools to confound the wise, and the weak to humble the strong and the most infertile of all lands to plant his vineyard! After planting his vines, the beloved built a watch tower, and also made a vine pit. I am sure he also had it fenced to protect it from the little foxes.

In our story in Luke13, we read about an owner who plants a fig tree in his vineyard! Fig trees were common in Jesus’ days and they were found everywhere and along the roads. The figs were referred to as the poor man’s fruit because of it availability in plenty. The good sense or the rationale behind the master’s action is subject to speculation. However, I can relate with this tree as I too was like this fig tree and one day he planted me in his vineyard!

He came back to me expecting fruit! Was it a special or valuable fruit? No; not at all. It was a common fruit, a poor man’s fruit. He didn’t expect me to produce dramatic results, neither in quality nor in quantity, but he did expect me to produce fruit. Fig trees give fruit round the year, so I am not sure how many times during the first year, He would have come to me expecting fruit. When he didn’t find fruit through the year, He persevered and continued to look for fruit through the second year and this he continued for one more year, till the third year. When still I produced no fruit, he called the gardener and reported that I have produced no single fruit in the last three years and have been using up the ground, where some vine could have been planted instead! So he asked the gardener to cut me down.

The gardener pleaded for one more year-the year of grace. He promised that he would dig around it and put on manure. He was going to dig up the ground around this tree and make it a little shaky and he was going to harm some of its roots in the process. He was going to expose the hidden things. No wonder my life suddenly goes through shaky periods and I feel swayed by the winds of trouble and trials. Suddenly, some of my sources get cut off and even some of the people I trusted on and drew strength from are suddenly removed. Things happen in such a way as to cause an upheaval. But strangely, His word and his counsel come as a great respite and strength. Other times, it’s his people who come by to encourage and edify and still other times, it just a plain peace that I cannot understand. I suppose, these were the times that I had received manure - extra nutrition and care.

The gardener then goes on to say, something more startling! If still he doesn’t produce fruit, then you can cut it. So is it possible for such a tree to be unfruitful still? It seems so. Despite all the grace supplied, wisdom and strength provided, it is possible to still miss out on fruition. Oh woe unto me if I go through all the trials and tribulations and taste the mercies and provisions of God all through it and still at the end of it all, I am unable to produce fruit! Even the gardener gives up hope for such a tree. There is nothing more left to do so as to make this tree produce fruit. Oh if only this gardener was more like Abraham for the sake of Sodom and Moses for the sake of Israel, the fig tree would have got one more year at least. But No; he tells the owner that he can cut it down.

What is a fruit? I can say that it is the result of the basic characteristics of the plant combining with all things drawn from the ground. The expression of the inherent combined with the input is called the fruit. What I already have in me, and what all I soak in from ‘the God provided surroundings’ have to combine and form a fruit which can become useful for someone. Some of us become flowers and show off. But the gardener expects fruits. Not to be titillated in the eyes and the nose, but to taste and be filled. I need to process what God gives and combine it with what I already am and produce something that can bless others.

Strangely, the Fig fruit is not a fruit or a flower, it a combination of both. So am I expected to be both. I think so. But if I can’t, he is clear, I will be cut off! God help me.