(Preached on Sunday, March 7, 2010)
He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and god, but if not, you can cut it down. -Luke 13:8-9
“Hey Jesus! Did you hear about all those Galileans whom Pilate had massacred in the Temple while they were offering sacrifices on the altar? They said it was such a bloody mess that the blood of the people mixed in with the blood of the animals which they had sacrificed. They must have done something very, very wicked. I mean, why else would God punish them like that – at the very moment when they were offering sacrifice for their sins. They were engaged in an act of atonement. They were in the presence of God. They were on holy ground. To be struck down at that holy moment must mean they were terrible, wick people. It is as though their sin offerings were rejected and they themselves condemned right then and there.”
Within the telling of the story about the Galileans who had died, lies an old, old human fear. The people telling it want to believe that those Galileans somehow deserved what they got. Surely, that wouldn’t happen to us; surely God wouldn’t allow this kind of tragedy to touch our own lives. This approach to tragedy and catastrophe is as old as Adam & Eve, in other words, since the beginning of human history. It is known as “blame-the-victim” thinking and we hear it all the time still today.
And earthquake happens in Haiti and hundreds of thousands of people die. Within hours, TV preacher Pat Robertson is pontificating that the reason this great tragedy struck Haiti was the deal the Haitian people made with the devil 200 years ago which gave them the power and ability to overthrow the French colonizers. That is, they sold their national soul to the devil, rebelled against the French, kicking them out of Haiti and ever since they have endured one tragedy after another. Blame the victim. If somehow the earthquake is their fault then there may be less chance it will happen to us. (Of course, a month later a stronger earthquake rocks Chile. I have not heard if Pat Robertson weighed in on that event, but I did see some Facebook posts immediately after it occurred wondering who Pat would blame for that tragedy.)
We all engage in this thinking, maybe not at grotesquely as Pat Robertson, or even those wondering about the Galileans, but to some extent. I know I resonate with the attitude of that crowd around Jesus. When I hear about tragedy, my first impulse is often to create a mental checklist of why it won’t happen to me. Maybe you have done the same thing? When you hear about a fatal car accident on the news, do you ever wonder, “Did the driver wear a seatbelt?” When you hear about an acquaintance suffering from lung cancer, does the thought ever cross your mind “She must have smoked cigarettes?” When you hear about a tornado wreaking havoc and death, ever hear yourself say, “I’ll be the victims weren’t in their basements?”
It won’t happen to me. It’s a human tendency to deny the possibility of tragedy and death. We also tend to deny the possibility of sin. When a married acquaintance has an affair, we vow, “I’d never do that.” When we see someone fly off the handle and hit a child, we take a stand, “I wouldn’t do that.” Name the sin – gossip, coveting, whatever – and I’ll bet each one of us has a plausible reason for why it could never happen to us.
You see, it’s hard to admit that we are as vulnerable as the next person. It’s difficult to believe that we can make the same foolish mistakes that other people make. But, we are vulnerable. We are foolish. Any bad thing that befalls one person can hurt us, too. Anything. No one escapes this life alive. And no one, save Jesus, makes it through this life error-free. It sounds pretty dismal, doesn’t it? That is why I think that bumper sticker with that rather blunt phrase “Manure Happens” (although it wasn’t quite that genteel, but even more blunt) was so popular a few years ago.
Even so it is very upsetting to hear Jesus not only cut across the notion that they were punished for evil deeds, but also that we are no different than they. In this divided age of ours between red states and blue states, conservatives and liberals, illegal immigrants and not-so-illegal-immigrants we need to ponder Jesus’ words. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We may have come here on different boats but we are all now on the same ship. If we could get our hearts around this idea of our one-ness we could mend a lot of fences in our world.” So Jesus says that these very fears must be brought to the surface. We need to recognize that it indeed could have been us, and in fact, it is us. We are they, and they are we.
Jesus tells us, “Yes, your fears are valid. Your suspicion that life’s journey is fraught with senseless disasters, absurd cruelty, meaningless suffering and heartbreaking defeats is correct.” But Jesus offers us something else. Rather than denials, Jesus offers us courage and faith. Only one thing can free us from our anxiety and paralyzing fear which leads us to blame those who suffer, including blaming ourselves: trusting God to be merciful, loving and compassionate.
That is the message of the story of the fig tree. Here was a fig tree which had not produced fruit in three years. It was worthless, or so the owner thought. He was tired of walking out to the tree looking to pick luscious, delicious figs, only to find – nothing! So he tells his gardener to cut it down and replace it with a tree that actually bears fruit. But the gardener appeals to the owner for a little more patience. Let him try another approach. Let him actively feed and tend to the tree and see if it produces fruit.
Through this story Jesus is reminding us of the infinite patience of God. Certainly we all engage in behaviors at times which cause hurt and pain. Certainly each of us at times has done something to cause estrangement with some other person; most often someone we love and are very close to. Certainly we all at times have turned our back on God, or ignored God’s guidance for our lives and thus put up walls between ourselves and God. Even so, Jesus is telling us that God does not give up on us and toss us aside. Instead God continues to nurture us, love us, and cultivate us toward fruitfulness.
Jesus also tells us something else. It is often overlooked, but what the gardener proposes to do is to place manure around the roots of the tree. We all know what manure is. Now many city folk tend to think of manure (human as well as animal) as a waste product that is smelly and awful. But country people or those heavy into gardening think of manure as a useful by-product which, if wisely used, helps things grow. Someone once commented that manure, if it is piled up high, becomes a stinking waste, but if it is spread thinly and wisely, it is a source of life.
So yes, manure happens! Bad things happen. Senseless tragedy and suffering happen. It is not punishment from God. It is simply the way the world has evolved. Pain and suffering and death are facts of life. Some of it is caused by our own human shortcomings, or arrogance, or fear. But much of it, tragedies of nature, illness and disease are inevitable in a world of creatures. None of it comes from the hand of God as punishment or cruelty.
But if we offer our lives, our trust, to God’s hands, then God can use that manure to produce fruitful and beneficial results. God can show compassionate love in the midst of our suffering, and give us strength and the power to endure. God has shown that already in the life of Jesus. And God continues to show that through people. We are the vessels of God’s mercy, the conduits of God’s love. When God is able to work through us, then God is powerfully present in the pain, as we reach out and touch those who are hurting, suffering, dying.
We can only really begin to do this when we let go of our need to control everything around us and begin to trust that God, while maybe not in control (else why do these horrible things happen?) is with us and able to help us: to endure, to care for one another, to exhibit amazing acts of courage and heroism, to still find the beauty and joy in living, to love. Bad things happen – to everyone. But in God’s gentle hands, our lives change and grow and bear fruit despite the difficult times. And in the end, on the last day, we will be with our God forever.