The Fourth Week in Lent
Devotion Guide for the Week of Thursday, March 27, 2025
Imagine Worship Theme: "Turning our Eyes to God" (Sight)
Gospel — Luke 13:1-9
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' 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 good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
Meditation by Brooks Ishler
This text is one of the most important in the New Testament for addressing the problem of unjustified suffering. Jesus is directly refuting a view that is held by many about God, both in his time and in ours today: that all events should be interpreted as divine justice, that God is the direct cause of tragedy. You may be familiar with the saying “everything happens for a reason.” Here, Jesus is wrestling with this understanding of God and offering a different approach to reconciliation with suffering.
In this passage, Jesus responds to two different events: the execution of a group of Galileans by Pontius Pilate and the collapse of the Tower of Siloam. Jesus essentially asks whether the people who fell victim to these events deserved it. His definitive answer is no. Jesus directly refutes the claim that God caused these events for the purpose of divine justice.
So, what then do we make of tragedy? Jesus does not offer an explanation as to why Pilate committed those atrocities or why the tower fell. Rather, he calls for repentance, focusing on our response to suffering instead of its causes. For whatever reason, life is short, and we should focus on leading good lives in the here and now. The enigmatic Parable of the Fig Tree emphasizes this point. It illustrates God's patience and mercy in allowing us the time for personal growth. But perhaps in the end, like the fig tree, we too may be cut down. It is best to bear fruit while we can.
We may never know why God allows suffering, but Jesus is clear that tragedy certainly doesn’t occur because God is punishing his people. This passage calls us to focus on the way we live rather than on any divine cause of our pain.
Questions for Reflection
- How have you wrestled with what C.S. Lewis termed “the problem of pain” in your own life?
- How does Jesus’ rejection of the idea of God as Heavenly Punisher challenge us today?
- How can contemplating Jesus’ solidarity with humanity – living as one of us, loving the ones surrounding him, dying under an oppressive empire of human making – shift our perspective on “the problem of pain”?
Practice
In his 1983 book Now and Then, theologian and writer Frederick Buechner wrote, “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” This week, try “listening to your life”, as Buechner suggests. This might take the form of eating one meal mindfully, noticing how each bite tastes and how you feel as you eat. It might look like meditating or listening to a piece of music that moves you–-with no other distractions, as much as you can help it. Notice how you feel in these moments. Practice being curious about how God might be speaking “in the boredom and pain” as well as “in the excitement and the gladness” of your life this week.
Prayer
Wounded Healer,
who has wept and walked where we walked,
who sees what no one else sees,
who laments what we cannot even name—
thank You for seeing. For knowing. For being.
Be with us in the great despair.
Show us the contours of the pit because You have been there, too,
and when we are ready (or maybe when we think we’re not),
show us how to climb up,
with shaking limbs and all.
For You are the redeemer of the lost,
and the healer of the broken, and the One who shows us that life is worthwhile, even with holes in the story.
Amen.
By The Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail, God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us, pp. 169-170
Visio Divina Week 4
Cosmic Mourning by Joesph Matar
