Most of what we learn about life we discover through experience. Between infancy and adulthood our knowledge of how we can get what we need and want grows, then much of life becomes a pursuit of those things. A natural self-orientation develops as a result, something that is essential to identity but something that can also have significant ill effects if, along life’s way, we don’t learn to consider the needs and desires of others. To the extent that self-orientation is unhealthy, it can cause us to see ourselves at the pivotal center of life with everything and everyone revolving around us, including God.

 

In Chapter 13, Luke tells a story of, what I believe to be, Jesus’s intent to expose self-orientation. In this story Jesus was told about some Galileans who were executed by the Romans in the Temple. (Theologians speculate the violence might have occurred in retaliation for some anti-Rome action by the victims.) Jesus responded by asking if these martyrs were worse sinners than other Galileans, a rather pithy but not uncommon statement for Jesus. Jesus then reminded the crowd of a similar tragedy that took place near Jerusalem in which a tower fell killing 18 people. He then posed the same question asking if these victims were worse sinners than others who were spared the same fate, followed by the statement, “…unless you repent, you too will perish.” (v.5) We know that Jesus, the consummate teacher, is instructing but his point is not obvious. Without interlude or explanation, Jesus then told a short parable.

 The story included a vineyard owner who gave instruction to his caretaker to cut down a fig tree that was not bearing fruit. The caretaker, believing the tree could still be productive, asked the owner for additional time to cultivate the ground around the tree.

 

Jesus’s response to the crowd’s concern was oblique, His statement about repentance without behavioral context, and the parable’s meaning disguised. The dots surely connect something, but what? Jesus was notorious for this style of communication. His usual intent for this slanted type of teaching was to cause us think more deeply in order to discover His meaning for ourselves.

 

After having “scratched my head” long and thoroughly trying to make sense of this story; it seems to me that the audience may have been expressing a concern that the brutal action taken by the Romans might have been God’s judgement and, perhaps, they were subtly asking Jesus to advise them on how to protect themselves from similar action. If so, Jesus was likely calling his listeners to repentance for expressing more concern for how to avoid God’s judgement (self-orientation) than for what happened to the victims. If my speculation is true, to what then does the parable connect?

 

The obvious objective of the vineyard owner in the parable is fruit production. Jesus saw the people’s self-orientation as the reason for their unfruitfulness. He placed Himself in the parable as the caretaker asking for more time from His Father to cultivate the soil in their lives. But, even if they had repented of their self-orientation, what would they have turned to?

 

The Scriptures seem to give only one alternative to how repentance is possible: an intervention of the glory of God. As this happens, God’s grace and truth replace self-orientation with the awe and wonder of God, the person who is in control of both our lives and His world and the one who deeply cares about us. Here are a couple of examples.

 

The Samaritan woman who Jesus met at the well (John 4) possessed an acute self-orientation. Her story indicates that she was dedicated to finding security, satisfaction and meaning in relationship with a man. In her encounter with Jesus, Jesus revealed Himself as Messiah after having demonstrated to her great dignity and respect in their earlier interactions (grace). Then, He exposed her sinful lifestyle (truth) and as a result she bore the fruits of worship and repentance expressed by her passionate urging of her fellow villagers, from whom she formerly hid in shame, to urgently “come see a man who knew everything about [her] life.” (4: 29). She had found a man who actually possessed and gave her life.

 

Zacchaeus also had a similar encounter with Jesus (Luke 19). This enterprising businessman exchanged his dignity as an Israelite for the security, satisfaction and meaning afforded through wealth. Even though his tax-collecting vocation provided him an immense income, he was excluded from Israelite community as a despised traitor. Having experienced Jesus’s strong wish to have a meal with him in his home, Zacchaeus saw himself, perhaps for the first time, as capable of giving and receiving friendship. Zacchaeus had previously lived with the daily awareness that his life was unacceptable to God (truth), but when he received the grace of Jesus, he responded with the fruits of worship and repentance by stating he would pay restitution four times the amount he had extorted from anyone in collecting Roman taxes. Zacchaeus found a source of “wealth” that afforded him inclusion in the community.

Both Zacchaeus and the woman at the well witnessed the glory of God through the extravagant grace of Jesus’s acceptance and the truth of His words that illuminated their sinfulness and spiritual bankruptcy. Having encountered this glorious grace and truth, they each recognized they were foolishly occupying the pivotal center of their lives and gladly vacated that preeminent position to Jesus.

 

So, how might we summarize what Jesus was saying to the Galileans that day? Perhaps we could phrase it like this, “Even though you have reason to fear the countless ways you can experience injustice or misfortune in life, stop trying to preserve your life; otherwise you’ll lose it and miss me—the source of life. I am standing right in front of you. I am your God. I am what you need. Open your eyes. Behold my glory and my grace. Repent of your unhealthy self-orientation that leaves you spiritually bankrupt and lacking God’s care because you’re relying on your own limited wisdom to save yourselves. Discover my care to be better than your own. I want you to know me, follow me and find in me what will satisfy your soul and produce in you a fruitfulness that will last.