您的浏览器不支持 audio 标签。
经文：路加福音 luke 13:1-9
[Luke 13:1] Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices
[Luke 13:2] Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way
[Luke 13:3] I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish
[Luke 13:4] Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them - do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem
[Luke 13:5] I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
[Luke 13:6] Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any
[Luke 13:7] So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?
[Luke 13:8] "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it
[Luke 13:9] If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'
证道内容：
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to the cloud worship service today. Because of the epidemic, we have been worshiping at home through internet for several weeks. We thank God for being with us, guiding us and loving us with patience. Please now join me in a short prayer.
Dearest Lord, in the face of chaos and suffering brought by the epidemic, we pray for your peace and your sovereignty. May your Holy Spirit be with us, and please use your servant to pass on your wisdom and comfort to those who are looking for you and those who trust in you. LORD, you are our strength and our redeemer. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be accepted in your sight. In Christ’s name, we pray! Amen.
Ever since Jan. 20th, all of us have experienced a lot of pain, confusion, anger, anxiety, disappointment and despair. As David shared two weeks ago, we thought we need to know more so that we can control our emotions and stop being anxious. But the more we know the more anxious and angrier we become. All of a sudden, the world turned out to be different. We are forced to face our own stupidity and the unbearable lightness of life. One of my colleagues described the situation in beautiful Chinese: 疫情以极其粗暴的方式让原本形如散沙的个体突然命运相连，又强行暂停了一直向前狂奔的时间，历史就这样进入了日常生活。北京的街道空空荡荡，一切都在悬置，一切都在等待。In English: “The epidemic, in its most brutal form, has suddenly linked together the fortunes of the individuals who have been like a heap of loose sand and forcibly paused the time that has been running relentlessly. In this way, history has entered into our daily life. Streets of Beijing are empty. Everything is suspended. Everything is waiting.”
Waiting for what? For a turn, for an explanation, for a change? Every time when there is a disaster or when we hear the tragedy, we face the same questions:
- Why does God allow so much suffering in the world?
- Why do bad things happen to the ordinary and the innocent?
- Is this a punishment to the sinners?
We also face the challenges from others who do not believe in the existence of God. They claim, “Either God is not loving and merciful, or, God does not have the power to control what God created.” We are again forced to reflect on the meaning of suffering and the problem of evil in this special time.
Next Wednesday, Feb. 26, we will enter the season of Lent 大斋节. Lent is a 40-day exercise of meditation. We repent, reflect and fast, meditating the meaning of Christ’s life, death and mission, preparing ourselves for the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. I confess that I read a lot and struggled what to share. After praying to God, I borrowed some ideas from my readings and hope these messages can be a mutual encouragement to all of us. Now open your bible and read Luke 13, verses 1-5.
- Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Here Jesus was told a tragic event by the crowd. Pilate killed some Galileans when they were offering sacrifices. The crowd came to Jesus for an answer of this tragedy. The hidden question of the crowd is, “Are these people punished by God because of their sins?” Jesus impatiently answered them, “You think they were worse sinners because they suffered this way? I tell you NO!” Then he mentioned another tragic event in Siloam where people died because of the fallen tower. “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
So, when being asked if these tragic events are God’s punishment to these people because of their sins, twice Jesus requests the audience to stop asking such questions or making such judgments but to repent! Why? Because such a question assumes that God is basically just like us, maybe bigger or maybe more powerful. The god in such questions is just an idol whose mind we can read and whose purposes we can plot. Besides, the god in such questions is not the same God we know in Jesus, who is never vindictive, vengeful, or violent, but always gracious, merciful, and peaceful. The God we see in Jesus would rather die for the sinners than kill them. The God we see in Jesus preserves and sustains the creation and lets creation be in freedom.
After telling people to stop giving silly comments on the tragic events but to repent, Jesus told them a story of the barren fig tree in Luke 13, verses 6-9:
- “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Just imagine we were the fig trees. Imagine that when Jesus looks at us, and what does he supposed to see? He sees that often we are dry, barren, fruitless. Chop us down? No! He gives us time. He is patient with us, very, very patient with us. Jesus is using this story to tell us God is patient and loving. This is the same God in the story of the prodigal son, in the parables of the lost coin or lost sheep. This is the God who gives promise of love all the time, including the time of suffering. How dare we say that disaster and suffering is the punishment of God? Jesus did not answer that question but asked the audience to “repent or you shall all perish”. If we combine verses 6-9 with verses 1-5, we can guess what Jesus wants the audience to repent in the face of suffering: “Stop judging others! Examine your hearts! Redirect your lives! Reimagine the world! So that you may bear fruit for God.”
Another theologian relates this passage to the Cross. He reminds us that this happens on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem so he suggests that “the Cross is not about punishment but is instead about identification, solidarity, and love.” He also says that, I quote here, “in cross we recognize that God’s answer to sin isn’t punishment but instead is love. That is, in Jesus God loves us enough to take on our lot and our lives fully, identifying with us completely. In the Cross, then, we see just how far God is willing to go to be with us and for us, even to the point of suffering unjustly and dying the death of a criminal. And in the resurrection, we see that God’s solidarity and love is stronger than anything, even death.” (end of quote)
在十字架上，我们认识到上帝对罪的回应不是惩罚，而是爱。也就是说，在耶稣里，上帝爱我们，完全接纳我们的命运和生命，完全认同我们。因此，在十字架上，我们看见上帝愿意与我们同在，为我们舍命，甚至承受不义之苦，与罪人一样受死。在复活中，我们看到上帝的团结和爱比任何东西都强大，甚至比死亡强大。
So, in face of suffering and tragedy, Jesus asks us to stop giving comments or guessing reasons for God, but to focus on ourselves and repent, change, and reimagine the world we are living. Yes, we still can ponder over the question of suffering, but when we are asking “Why, O God?” we can ask as a prayer, as an articulation of pain and protest, and as an appeal for comfort and strength, instead of asking with an expected answer.
To repent is not easy. Our hearts are often fixed and hardened but we are not aware of that. To repent requires a heart that is willing to be changed with the help of Holy Spirit. In the face of suffering, to repent is to change our fixed mindset, for instance, the 应该思维, the mindset that takes things for granted or thinks that we deserve for a certain result. This mindset will blame God for allowing the terrible things happen in the world. Or think that 上帝应该惩罚这些恶人。God should interfere and punish those evil people. We use this mindset, this kind of应该思维in our daily life a lot, which is one of the reasons of our pain and poor relationship. If we repent for our fixed mindset, for our 应该思维, we may ask different questions:
- Or, Lord, along with all the ugliness, why do we find so much beauty in the world? People like to talk about the mystery of evil, but what about the mystery of good? Where could it possibly come from?
Then, we discover the beauty and goodness in those ordinary people in Wuhan and Hubei who are courageously offering their lives for the others. We see courage in Dr. Li, Dr. Zhong Nanshan and other doctors and nurses who are helping the country and us. We have read many sad stories but we also find many touching stories. We know beauty, love and goodness come from our God. Our God is “The fountain of all good”, and after recognizing the beauty, love and goodness in these people in the epidemic, we gain the strength to offer thanks to our God.
Psychologists have warned us that after this trauma and disaster, people all over China will face the psychological challenges. As Christians we are luckier because we have God and Christ. We can find answers and guidance in some situations through reading the bible and praying to God. But we know clearly there are still so much confusion and doubts in our hearts. So we need to make full use of the resources around us. We need to keep learning! I recommend a book here The Courage to be Disliked (被讨厌的勇气). It is introducing Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler’s theory. Adler is famous for his Individual Psychology, and many ideas such as 课题分离 (Separation of Tasks) and 共同体感觉(Social Interest) are very inspiring. If you can relate his ideas to your Christian faith, you will gain wisdom to repent, to build a proper relationship with others, with yourself, and with God. You will also realize that why we say faith takes courage to make a choice. It takes courage to believe in a merciful God who may not have that magic power to wipe out the epidemic but will certainly give us wisdom and courage to make a decision, to help, to love and to rebuild.
Today we reflected on Luke 13: 1-9. When Jesus was asked to explain the suffering and tragedy in the world. Jesus did not answer them but asked the audience to repent and change. In the face of this epidemic, we have so much to repent. We need to repent that we are easy to forget God’s commandments, showing no respect to the natural world created by God. We fail to hear the little voice of God in the creation. We stupidly thought our high-tech could solve every problem, and now many people in the world have learnt that human beings are not the measure of the world. In the TV mini-series Hot Zone,血疫 the scientist told us, “As we deforest these viruses' home, wipe out their reservoir hosts, they need a new one to spill over into us. Viruses have been around for billions of years because they're smart. The Ebola virus feeds, and then it retreats back into the shadows, where it learns, mutates. Believe me when I tell you this Monster will be back again. And we need to be ready.” 当我们砍伐这些病毒的家园，消灭了他们的宿主，他们就需要一个新的宿主来寄生—那就是我们。病毒存在了数十亿年，因为他们很聪明。伊波拉病毒捕食后，又退回阴影中，在那里学习，变异。相信我的话，这个怪物还会回来，我们需要做好准备。
We also repent that in the face of suffering we are easy to be caught by the negative thinking and forget God’s promise of love. Through the story, Jesus is telling us that even we are like that barren fig tree, even we are suffering the disaster caused by our stupid mistakes, God is with us. God understands what our suffering is like. God has promised to redeem all things, including our suffering. Suffering and injustice do not have the last word in our lives and world. And God will keep waiting for us and keep urging us to turn away from our self-destructive habits to be drawn again into the embrace of a loving God. This is the good news we need to share and bear witnesses to.
At the end, I hope to repeat the message we get in Luke 13: 1-9: Do not judge in the face of suffering but repent and change yourself. Remember that God is love, and we have the promise of love of God in the face of suffering. When we are not able to do anything, we can repent and change ourselves. We can be the recorder of this epidemic, like the writer 方方. Let us all remember this saying of Ms.黄恩佩of Breakthrough Corporate突破机构 : “Instead of cursing the darkness, I’d rather burn myself. In my life, there will be no curses but only blessings.” 与其咒诅黑暗，不如燃烧自己；我的生命只有祝福，没有咒诅.”
May God bless his world and us. May we walk in God’s light and wisdom. Amen.