Sermon - March 16, 2025 (Luke 13) Sin and Repentance

Introduction

A career that spanned four decades, this Major League player had 2,715 hits in his career, three times he hit over .300, made an All-Star team, and won a batting title. He also had a career fielding percentage of .992 at first base, which is among the highest ever for players not in the Hall of Fame with 20+ seasons. Despite his clear ability to excel as both a hitter and fielder, what baseball fans only remember him for was the one that got between his legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, a costly error that allowed the tying run to score.

Over his 22 year career, this NFL kicker made 80% of his field goals—including a season in which he made 100% ---a perfect 35/35. But for Vikings fans, none of that made a hill of beans because in a crucial postseason game it was the one he missed that forever immortalized his name.

In what is widely considered one of the greatest upsets in sports history, the United States Men’s Hockey team owes much of its unlikely success on their goaltender’s sparkling play. His composure was evident as he stopped an incredible 36 of 39 shots against the formidable foe, on their way to defeating the Russians 4-3 and then taking Olympic Gold two days later versus Finland. Jim Craig went on to the NHL after the Olympics but found it difficult to duplicate his magic there.  

What Will You be Remembered For?

What these three people have in common is no doubt athletic excellence---and what separates them is not only the sport they played, but what they are remembered for. Billy Buckner and Gary Anderson, and their sustained careers of high caliber success missed the mark when the lights were as intense as they could be, while Jim Craig, a nobody NHL Goalie somehow shined brightest on the biggest stage of them all.

Which of these careers would you prefer? Unless something miraculous occurs, most, if not all of us listening to this message will not play professionally for twenty years in any sport, but if we’re lucky, we will be active at the game of life for far longer. Imagine if over the course of your lifetime YOU only had one thing you wanted yourself and your loved ones to remember you by: what would it be? The moments when you missed your mark or by something else?  

Sin Commentary

I think we need to recalibrate our understanding of the concept of Sin. Sin, that big three letter “S” word, that S word when not read carefully looks like Sword – Sin is a concept that cuts deep.

The Definition of Sin in Greek is “to miss the mark.”

The common understanding of sin at the time of Jesus was a cause and effect system: It was Sin that caused suffering. When Jesus questioned his listeners about the Galileans that suffered and died at Pontius Pilate’s hands and reminded people about a terrible fatal accident involving the tower of Siloam killing 18, the prominent thought racing through those first century minds was that surely those unfortunate souls suffered and died as the result of some sin they committed.

But Jesus refused that explanation: “No, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all also perish.” Then Jesus tells them the parable of an unproducing fig tree and later on a story about his lament over the city that kills prophets.

Making sense of these three very different passages may seem nonsensical at first glance. To make heads or tails of it, let’s consult early Christian history for a second.

Early Church History

Like the Pharisees of early Judaism, the early Church fathers took Sin another very serious step further and assigned Sin extra significance. Sin not only led to suffering, but they taught through the doctrine of Original Sin that the human condition was doomed from the start of life. That people were conceived in sin and born in sin--Sins that only belief in Jesus’ death saved them from experiencing eternal damnation.

I have spent years studying theology like this, and I have discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that this thinking might not hold up under careful inspection. Think about it like those athletes careers I described: If Billy Buckner was in fact a Screw-Up from birth, then how in the world did he have such terrific success over 20 years of playing baseball? Because Billy Buckner was not born a Screw Up. Billy Buckner just screwed up on occasion, including one magnificent routine play in the World Series.

We are not Screw Ups. We just screw up sometimes.

And when we miss the mark, we get to engage in the more important aspect of our lives following Jesus: we get to learn and change and grow and produce fruit. In the ancient world, that learning, changing, growing, and producing fruit can be summed up in one word: Repentance.

Is Sin a serious problem and hindrance in our lives? Yes. Is Sin something Jesus took seriously? Yes. Was Sin the most important part of Jesus’s teaching? I don’t think so.

Repentance

In Luke’s Gospel, the primary content of proclamation is repentance and forgiveness. That’s the crux of Jesus' message: a call to repentance. A call to learn. A call to change one’s way of thinking. When we do that, we change from the inside out and what results is growth—and growth produces fruit. And fruit feeds the world with nutrients. And nutrients develop healthy people. And healthy people change the world for the better.

Jesus’ call is not primarily a call to worship or praise God. You can do those things, sure, but such actions without repentance are meaningless. It’s right there in the scriptures: what brings the greatest joy in heaven is the repentance of people who commit sins, not the identification of them. And repentance is not about wallowing in our past mistakes, either.

What made Jesus the most upset was the mistreatment of prophets—who were teachers of the Word. Teachers who sought to help people learn and grow and produce fruit. In other words, if you want to make Jesus weep and lament, neglect your human nature to learn. If you want to make him smile, embrace your human nature by learning and growing and making a positive difference, no matter how small, in your life and in the lives of others.  

Conclusion

The lesson of the fig tree is a challenge to live each day as a gift from God—to remember you are saved from condemnation and saved for compassion. So let’s Live each day in such a way that does something in you and for others. Note that the "sin" of the fig tree is not that it is doing something bad, but that it is doing nothing! It is just taking up space in the orchard. 

If you don’t hear it enough: you are forgiven. You are saved from the power of Sin. And when you miss the mark? Repent. Because your learning is producing something awesome in you and in the world. In other words, we are created to be so much more than people who take up space. We are created to live, to take chances, to play and succeed, and yes, to occasionally miss the mark. And when that inevitably happens, what are we gonna do?

Repent!

Siblings in Christ, you are more than what you’ve done or didn’t do; You are saved from your Sin by Jesus and Saved for Jesus to share his love with the world. You are forgiven. You are beloved. And you are here to be who God created you to be: a child of God, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ, forever. And at the end of your days, that’s how you will be remembered. In Jesus’s name. Amen.