As we come to the middle of Lent we hear stern words from Jesus (Lk 13:1-9). People are chattering about the latest news. Doubtless they have been catching up on the latest posts from their Facebook friends, or checking their Twitter feed. Maybe some had even been watching CNN or just possibly reading a newspaper, although that seems unlikely, it’s so old-fashioned.
But they certainly want to catch Jesus up with the latest. Did you hear, did you hear, … Terrible things happening, that disgusting Governor, how can such things happen, it’s awful, …
We’re fascinated when terrible things happen to other people. There’s a deep need in us to follow what’s happening to others, it seems especially when it’s bad news. Clearly an interest in other people is not in itself a bad thing, but when it prevents us looking at ourselves then it can be. This challenge didn’t start with social media, or the internet, or the nightly news, or even newspapers. It was obviously happening in Jesus’ time and probably even with Moses.
Jesus turns this straight back on us. His response to the news reports: quit worrying about the others, whether they are the victims of some terrible government outrage, or the collapse of a badly constructed building. Worry about sorting yourself out, not about all those other people.
But despite this very brusk reaction, what does he go on to tell us in his parable? That despite the reasonable frustration of the landowner, who really sees no justification for wasting space in his garden with this useless tree, the gardener (Jesus) is still going to try one more time to make the plant productive.
We could focus on the threat that if, after all that, it’s still a waste of space it’ll get cut down – or on the fact that Jesus is still going to work at making it good, despite so much time in which it was useless. Jesus is always there, wanting to make another effort for us.