[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Points - Luke 13:1-9 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

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From: Joe Parrish 
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Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2010 11:07 PM
Subject: Sermon Points - Luke 13:1-9 - Part 1


Those preaching on this passage might do well to press these questions: Do we build our lives upon those rationalizations that allow us to get through the day feeling blessed, safe, and able to presume upon a better fortune than that of our Haitian and Chilean sisters and brothers-both the victims and the still-impoverished and perpetually at-risk survivors? Or, do we build our lives on the knowledge that God's judgment is certain? Do we build them on the efforts that God, like the parable's gardener, undertakes to prepare us for that judgment? God transforms us through grace, a grace that calls us to be generous toward those still trapped under the weight of poverty, want, and devastation of all kinds. 

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=3/7/2010#

Matt Skinner
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It was commonly believed that pain and premature death were signs of God's adverse judgement. Now we read of two events where people died prematurely and unexpectedly: one group ("the Galileans", v. 1) doing God's will, killed intentionally as they sacrifice to him in the Temple; the other group ("those eighteen", v. 4, possibly construction workers) killed accidentally. In both cases, Jesus says, there is no link between early death and sin; however, these deaths do show the fate of those who fail to "repent" (vv. 3, 5), to turn to God.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt3m.shtml

Chris Haslam 
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Verse 1: ...another [interpretation:] The contemporary historian Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews 18:3:2, says that when Pilate used Temple funds to build an aqueduct into Jerusalem, some Jews opposed it. Pilate used a ruse to murder some Jews: his soldiers mingled with the crowd, and beat them down with clubs they had concealed. The obvious interpretation would be in accord with what is known of Pilate's character.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt3l.shtml

Chris Haslam 
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Josephus reports a massacre at Mt Gerizim of Samaritans in similar circumstances, but this is about Galileans.
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...an alternative approach: to see the resurrection not as the reversal, but as the affirmation of the crucifixion: this love and vulnerability is God's way. It was not an exception to God's way, an interim stunt that had to be reversed. This is life and, paradoxically, only by affirming it do we find life.

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkLent3.htm

William Loader
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Jesus' harshest words of judgment are towards the unrepentant:

  a.. 10:13 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 

  b.. 11:32 The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! 

It seems that the crux of Jesus' message (which continues in Acts) is a call to repentance. It is not primarily a call to worship or praise God. Such actions without repentance are meaningless. What brings the greatest joy in heaven is the repentance of sinners. As I noted earlier, the present tense of the verbs in our text indicate living repentantly, rather than seeing repentance as an occasionally act. 

http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke13x1.htm

Brian Stoffregen
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Jesus' example, however, contains a twist.  In the first instance--Pilate's random violence--Jesus undermines the idea that the people who suffered were "sinners" (hamartoloi) and thus deserved it.  In the second instance--the falling tower--Jesus undermines the idea that bad things happen to people who are in debt (opheiletai).

http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2010/03/lectionary-blogging-luke-13-19.html

John Petty 
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