you don't owe me one more minute

of your wasted time

The holy Gospel according to St. Luke (13:1-9, 31-35)!

The only thing worse than having a tough time, is knowing you’re having a tough time. Worst of all, though, is having a tough time, knowing it, BUT not knowing how to get out of it. 

Productivity-gurus call this a “vicious cycle.” The way trouble feeds on itself to create more trouble. 

It’s a nifty little phrase, “vicious cycle.” And it’s nice to have words to describe what you’re going through when you find yourself caught in one. But, it’s a bit of cold comfort. Isn’t it? After all, it doesn’t do much good to know how deep of a hole you’re in and how powerless you are to get out of it. 

If, heaven forbid, should you ever find yourself in such a cycle, you would want more than someone saying, “Golly, it sounds like you’re in a vicious cycle.” Wouldn’t you? No, you’d want to identify the source of your trouble and cut it out of your life—a lot like the owner of the vineyard in today’s parable… 

In his parable, Jesus tells of a man who, for whatever reason, decides to plant a fig tree along with all those grapevines in his vineyard. Those of you with green thumbs know this is unlikely to cause any problems. And it doesn’t. 

Except. Except that every time the man goes looking for figs on that tree, he comes back empty-handed. Finally, after three long years, the owner decides enough is enough. He calls the gardener and tells him to cut that fig tree down! The owner decides to do something about that tree’s barren history.

…The thing about vicious cycles is, when you’re in one, there isn’t much you can do about it. The reason for this is, anything you do is likely to get caught up in the vicious centripetal force of the cycle and contribute to its destructive momentum. 

What’s really vicious about these cycles is how they take everything, good and bad alike, and use that energy to make matters worse.

This all may sound theoretical, but you and I know it isn’t. Don’t we? We’ve all had times in our lives when we couldn’t catch a break no matter what we did. When everything we did only made matters worse.

In this parable, though, we don’t know what would have happened if that fig tree was cut down. Do we? It may have made matters worse, or it may have helped. Obviously, it’s hard to imagine how a stump would be any more fruitful than a barren tree. But it’s all speculation. Isn’t it? We don’t know what would have happened because the tree wasn’t cut down! 

The gardener refused to get caught up in that scheme of yield measurement! Instead, the gardener proposed to meet that tree’s unproductive history with more time, attention, and love. And with that, Jesus just ends the parable! 

The gardener tells the owner if his plan doesn’t work, the owner, not the gardener, can cut the tree down. But that’s it! Jesus doesn’t say if the gambit worked or not. Because, for Jesus, that’s not the point! 

The point of the parable is the foolish, extravagant care the gardener heaps on that good for nothing tree! And the whisper is, that is the only thing that has the power to produce fruit! Not effort by the barren tree. It’s barren, for heaven’s sake! Not judgment by the owner. That’s the height of foolishness! No, the only chance the tree has is standing on the receiving end of extravagant care. Care that cares not for potential output. Care that is willing to incur whatever costs might be sustained in nurturing such a fruitless tree.

For Jesus, the diving gardener, it ’s not a matter of production. It's a matter of pleasure! Jesus wants you around, not for what he can get out of you or what you can do for him, but because of how much he loves you! And that is the kind of love that has the power to break the vicious cycle we’re all caught in!

Ultimately, the real cycle we’re all caught in is the vicious one of Sin. And no matter what, all our efforts, good or bad, are only going to get swept up in its vicious force and contribute to its deadly power, which is Death itself. 

What Jesus does, though, is refuse to contribute to the cycle. Instead, full of compassion, he goes right into the eye of the storm, Jerusalem! “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” And there, Jesus utters the very words of the gardener! “Aphes,” in Greek. “Suffer with.” Or, as it is in our parable, “let it be.” Or, as Jesus says from the cross, “forgive!”

Jesus, that divine tsunami of Holy Spirit wind and baptismal water collides with the vicious cycle of Sin and Death! And what happens there is utterly unthinkable! Jesus takes that all that energy unto himself and suffers it, lets it be, forgives it! All the way. So completely, he dies. 

In Jesus’ death, the vicious cycle of Sin and Death has been spun out! After three days, Jesus finishes his work! Rising to new life where the cycle of Sin and Death is no more, for it has been fully absorbed! Swallowed in Jesus’ victory!

Jesus stills the storm of life and comes walking on the calm waters of his death and resurrection to you! 

In Jesus, the cycle has been broken! 

Whatever it is in your life that feels too intractable to change—and we all have them. It could just be a problem coworker, or maybe it’s a dry spirit this lent, or maybe it’s something deeper and darker. Perhaps you’re caught in some cycle you fear can’t be changed and is so vicious Jesus won’t have anything to do with it. Whatever it is, though, what Jesus really does is head right to it and “aphes” it! Suffer it, forgive it, and in so doing, bear it away! Breaking the cycle!

You are actually, really free! And you’re freedom isn’t found in doing something about those vicious cycles of life. It’s found in Jesus’ death. Jesus’ death to forgive you, have you, and be with you!

When you come walking out on these tranquil waters of your own empty tomb, you too, like Mary, may mistake Jesus for the divine gardener he really is! The one who shows up, trowel in hand, to dig around your death. Find that place where the vicious cycle of Sin and Death is most dug in. And there, apply the compost of his death for another year. However long it takes. Until the cycle’s broken and you are raised to new life in Jesus Christ’s never-ending, never-stopping, never-giving up love!