March 23, 2025, Saint Barnabas Lutheran Church, Howard Beach, Queens, N.Y.
As we open our bibles to the 13th chapter of Luke, Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem is interrupted by a frantic delegation of Galilean citizens.
They are not agitated with Jesus. They are angry with their governor, Pontius Pilate, and they are eager to hear Jesus’ views on an appalling event.
Pilate has ordered the execution of Galilean citizens and – to add grievous insult to injury – Pilate mingles their blood with the blood of their sacrifices. It’s hard to imagine a more loathsome affront to Jewish law and practices.
There is no record of this barbarity outside of Luke, but there’s little doubt it happened. It has Pilate written all over it, and there are ample records of his vicious cruelty.
This disgruntled delegation coming to Jesus may have wanted to hear Jesus rebuke Pilate, which would be like criticizing Hitler within earshot of the Gestapo.
But Jesus, who reads people with uncanny accuracy, senses a deeper concern on the part of the delegation. He know they are worrying about whether these executed people had done something to deserve it this awful fate.
“Do you think,” Jesus asks, “that because these Galileans suffered this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” (Lk 13:2)
Jesus also cites an event that is not mentioned outside of Luke, the death of eighteen people who were caught in the collapse of a tower in Siloam.
“Do you 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.” (Lk 13:4-5)
“As Jesus speaks to a crowd, some of those gathered seek Jesus’ opinion on current affairs,” writes New Testament professor Jeremy L. Williams. “Jesus as a prophet places the local issue within a cosmic frame that yields a divine imperative for the audience. Rather than focus on a past event and what cannot be controlled, Jesus encourages them to change what they can—their minds.”
And that, asd we know, is not an easy thing to do.
Have you ever tried to change the mind of an adolescent whose under-developed frontal cortex deprives them of flexible thinking?
When I was a teenager, my mother tried without success to convince me that President Kennedy had Addison’s Disease, an often life-threatening disorder in which the adrenal glands don’t produce enough hormones.
I absolutely refused to believe it. JFK was my boyhood hero, and I had read that Bobby Kennedy had specifically denied his brother had this disease.
And the Kennedys wouldn’t lie, would they? My mind could not be changed.
Years later, when my cortex was complete, I began to see the evidence that was in front of my face, including autopsy records that the President’s adrenal glands had shriveled away.
At long last I had to face the truth.
There were many other difficult truths to face about JFK’s private life and I gradually absorbed them all. He was a perfect example of what Martin Luther described: “Simul iustus et peccator.” We are simultaneously saints and sinners.
I find that when we open our minds to facts, when we repent of those times when our thoughts and actions fall short of God’s love, it is liberating. If we have been held captive by our stubborn ignorance and willful prejudice, our moral horizons are expanded exponentially.
Sadly, we can all think of persons and groups who are unable to break free of their sinful ignorance.
I think of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, a hateful congregation that acts on its hatred for LGBTQ people by picketing so-called liberal churches. Members of this church have interrupted funerals for fallen soldiers to protest the Defense Department’s practice of enlisting gays, lesbians, and trans people into the ranks.
I think of white supremacists whose minds are locked into the fantasy that Caucasions are the superior race (it used to be termed “master race”). They believe their superiority gives them license to discriminate against, denounce, and assault, persons of color, Jews, and members of other religions.
Most recently, and perhaps most tragically, I think of the fractures that have sprung up between supporters of Israel and supporters of Palestine since Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
There is no doubt that the Hamas attack on hundreds of innocent Israeli citizens was an atrocity. Men, women, and children were massacred, raped, and taken prisoner in 21 Israeli communities. The governments of 44 countries denounced the attack as terrorism.
In response, Israel launched a scorch-earth invasion of Gaza. No matter how enraged we were by the Hamas attacks, it was difficult to watch as Palestinian children were killed by Israeli arms. It was difficult to watch as Palestinians lost their homes, their livelihood, their medical support, and their lives. And whenever the smoke cleared, it was difficult to watch Palestinian children starve.
Here in our country, college campuses became the scene of pro-Palestinian demonstration, pointing out that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, and mistreatment of Gaza citizens, were the match that set off the powder keg.
So much wrong, so much hatred, so much ignorance on both sides; so many minds that can never be changed; so much suffering.
God weeps.
But when Jesus was questioned by the Galileans who fretted about who was sinning the most, he reminded them that everyone sins alike, “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.” (Lk 13:4-5)
It's not easy to hear that God does not rank sins. We gluttons would prefer to think our sins are not as serious as the sins of murderers. God doesn’t rank sins from bad to not-so-bad. Jesus said. “Unless you repent, you will all perish.”
Professor Williams writes, “Jesus tells them to repent—to change their mind about their current commitments to injustice and unrighteousness. Changing one’s mind in this way leads to a change in conduct.” He calls upon his listeners “to return” or “to go back” or even “to go home.” Jesus invites the audience to adjust their current course and return to God. “Jesus is not suggesting that repentance will prevent them from a physical, catastrophic death. Rather, he is stating that changing their minds will prepare them for whatever they will experience, including producing fruit.”
There is little we can do about the horrible things we see in our world, and there is little we can do to make right the mistakes we have made.
When he calls upon us to repent, he is calling on us to stop doing the things that disturb or injure others. Repent and begin to do those good things, those righteous things, that may begin to have a good effect on the people and on our neighborhoods and on the world around us.
In the parable of the fruitless tree, Williams says, Jesus’ message is clear: do not be like the fruitless tree. Rather than focus on the gravity of others’ transgressions, make sure you are producing good. Instead of assigning causality to others misfortune, ensure that you are not ignoring your own missing fruit. Jesus’ words suggest that tending to one’s own life and positively changing one’s own mind is the best strategy to prevent or even persevere through unexpected calamity. If one refuses to do that type of work, they are already ruined.
Repent, Jesus commands.
What are signs of repentance? A useful check list to identify repentance is offered by Paul in the letter to the Galatians.
Before we repent, before our minds are changed, before we adjust our attitudes, our spirits are captive to the flesh. “And the works of the flesh are sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy,] drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
But we will see the evidence of repentance through the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
God, as we follow Jesus’ Lenten trek to Jerusalem, give us the courage to change our minds, to repent, and to seek God’s guidance in all that we do. Amen.
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