“The Extravagant Mercy of God”

Luke 13:6-9

I spent my childhood and youth bouncing between two very different styles of church. Sunday mornings found me in Sunday school and worship at a very traditional Presbyterian Church. Many Sunday nights and at other times I would be with my evangelist grandfather at various Church of God services and revivals. At the Presbyterian Church we rarely heard or talked about hell. At the Church of God services there was a steady diet of hellfire and damnation.

Obviously I followed the Presbyterian path. I am, however, a Presbyterian who takes very seriously the biblical message of Divine judgment of our sins. People do experience the consequences of their behavior. Hell, the absolute absence of God, is real. Not everybody is going to make it to heaven. As “The [1973] Proposed Declaration of Faith puts it: “We live in tension between God’s warnings and promises. Knowing the righteous judgment of God in Christ, we urge all people to be reconciled to God, not exempting ourselves from the warnings.”

As a Presbyterian who takes seriously the entire body of Scripture I have come to realize that God’s grace is much more prominent than his judgment. Continuing with “The Proposed Declaration:” “Constrained by God’s love in Christ, we have good hope for all people, not exempting the most unlikely from the promises. Judgment belongs [thank goodness] to God and not us. We are sure that God’s future for every person will be both merciful and just.”

Today’s parable told by Jesus makes clear the immeasurable extravagance of God’s grace. Fig trees are supposed to bear fruit after three years. The one discussed here, as a matter of conventional and pragmatic agricultural wisdom, should have been chopped down and burned. That’s what the owner wanted to do, but the gardener convinces him to give it one more year.

In the original context of today’s text that fig tree stood for Israel. God had waited centuries for Israel to produce the fruit of righteousness. His final, and very gracious, decision was to go to Israel in the person of Jesus and plead with his wayward children one more time. Jesus’ ministry was their fourth year, so to speak. That didn’t work so God extended his covenant to the New Israel, the church of Jesus Christ, wherever it might be found. He extended his grace to all of humanity.

Within the context of those of us who read this text today, the fig tree serves as a three-fold symbol. First: The church as it is called by God to faithfully produce the fruit of righteousness by way of its ministry and mission. Secondly: Each and every individual Christian is called to grow in Christ, to become a mature disciple. Thirdly: Non-believers are called to repent and believe the Gospel.

The failure to be fruitful is still an invitation to judgment. At some point even the extravagant patience of God comes to an end and the non-fruitful are left to suffer the consequences. Individual congregations, and even denominations, can die if they are not fruitful. Individual Christians can fail to claim the abundant life offered to them by Jesus. Heaven will still be there for them, if they’re willing to wait. The tragedy in this is that the abundant life, a preview of heaven on earth, could have been theirs all along. Non-believers will find themselves on the outside looking in on judgment day.

Judgment is always a possibility, and in many cases a probability. Some biblical examples of that judgment: In Isaiah 5 the prophet supposedly sings a song about his unfruitful vineyard, but then turns the tables on his listeners, the unfaithful people of Judah. Judah is itself the unfruitful vineyard. Hear God’s Word of judgment as it was sung by Isaiah: “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured. I will break down its wall. And it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; he expected righteousness, but heard a cry!”

Not long after that the northern kingdom of Israel was utterly destroyed by Assyria. Judah suffered greatly but survived another century or so, but eventually was overrun by Babylon and its people hauled away in exile. Judgment happens. But even in this case God’s grace prevailed. He took his people home. In the person of Jesus Christ he sent the promised Messiah.

But that Messiah himself spoke to his disciples about the dangers of unfruitfulness. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit… I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit… Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” For pseudo-disciples, those who’re just playing church, this text is a warning to get real or suffer the consequences. And even for real disciples it is a reminder of how close our relationship with Jesus should be.

Unfruitful vineyards are destroyed. Unfruitful branches are burned. Unfruitful fig trees eventually get chopped down. “Knowing the righteous judgment of God in Christ, we urge all people to be reconciled to God, not exempting ourselves from the warnings.” Judgment happens.

So does grace. People run away from God’s love. God passionately pursues them. People reject the abundant life offered by Christ over and over and over again, but he never stops offering it. Even the best Christians stray from the paths of righteousness, but the Good Shepherd Jesus comes seeking us. Sometimes Christians try to leave the fold altogether; we are all at one time or another prodigal sons and daughters of God. But at some point, within the providential grace of God, we come to our senses and head for home. There our Father graciously embraces us and welcomes us back. We all stupidly inflict damage on ourselves. God has a way of healing us.

Judgment… Grace. Judgment… Grace. Like some eternal scale. But always the grace outweighs the judgment. That’s the lesson that I never heard in granddaddy’s church. People were urged to come to Jesus, or otherwise they would suffer hell. But the real message of Jesus is, “Come unto me, all ye who are heavily laden, and I will give you rest… Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price… How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood… As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…”

Rest, comfort, protection, nourishment: these are God’s promises to those who will turn to him. Grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness: this is what Jesus Christ offers us. Healing, deliverance, and salvation: all this is ours in Jesus Christ. Jesus understood his mission as it was described in the words of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus was the Living Word of God made flesh. John 3:16 gives us a clear vision of the Living Word’s mission. “For God so loved the world that gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John’s Gospel does make it very clear that some will reject Jesus. However one word in John 3:16 sums up God’s attitude toward us: “world.” God so loved – God so loves – the world, meaning every human being on it. God is immeasurably extravagant in his love and mercy toward us – toward you – toward me. It is not his will that any of us end up on the outside looking in come Judgment Day. The tragedy is that some will anyway.

We all find God’s extravagant mercy hard to understand. Some of us accept it on faith, ultimately that’s the only way we can accept it. Others totally reject it, often because they cannot grasp the reality that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. In his brief commentary on today’s Old Testament Lesson N. T. Wright wrote the following: “Why does [Isaiah] explain the invitation [to Israel] to return [from exile in verses 5 and 6] by saying [in verses 8 and 9] that God thinks differently from how we do? Presumably because no human being would have been faithful and merciful when faced with Israel’s rebellion. Isaiah appeals to the transcendence of God, not to frighten, but to explain just how much more generous and merciful God is than we would ever have imagined.”

We are created in the image of God. As Christians we have answered a call to imitate Jesus. But sinful human beings that we not only cannot grasp the reality of God’s mercy, but we are unable to reflect that mercy to others in our daily lives. Still we are called to accept that mercy for ourselves, and within our human limitations, extend it to others. Amen.