March 23 | Lent 3, Year C
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
Warning! Being called by God as his people does not place us above the law or exempt us from the temptations common to all fallen human beings. Unrepented sin is just as deadly to the individuals and communities of God as they are to the citizens of the world. We are blessed by being shown the way of salvation, but if we are to experience reconciliation with God, we must walk the road of obedience.
On the danger of presumption, we see the Old Testament example of Israel—even those who followed the Lord in the wilderness during the Exodus from Egypt. If anyone appeared to be justified in relationship with God, the Hebrews qualified because God delivered them from bondage and oppression. Yet even as God delivered them by his grace, he held them accountable for their choices and actions. In his holiness and justice, God will not ignore the consequences of anyone’s sins. That is the message of the cross. God in Christ took on the consequences of our sin and did not ignore them. Neither will God ignore our ultimate act of faithlessness, which is to celebrate our privilege and ignore his sacrifice.
God calls us into community—with both our neighbors and with himself. He calls us as individuals, however, and holds us responsible for our response. In obeying God through the repentance of sin, each of us is judged for our sins and confession of faith. There are no comparative scales or grading curves. Thus, the correct question is not “What about them?” but “What must I do?”
One seemingly universal dodge of personal accountability is to jump from practical to theoretical questions about life. Perhaps the most challenging questions have to do with death. The finality of death in our practical experience makes it a fertile subject for both fear and philosophizing. It is simply too disquieting for most of us to discuss death on a personal level. We are more comfortable dealing with death at arm’s length. As a result, we ask questions about our neighbor and God: “What did Joe do to deserve such a fate?” “How could God allow such a thing to happen?” Both questions avoid the same question of how we should respond to death.
Jesus does not allow people to escape into the theoretical. He answers their questions by rephrasing those questions. Were these victims worse sinners, or more guilty than others, who caused their own demise? “No,” Jesus says, to both the premise and the question. The proper focus regarding death is not on its circumstances and timing, but rather on its certainty. The probability of death is as close to the perfect statistic as we can have in this world. In fact, if we define the translation of Enoch and Elijah out of this world as a form of death, then for human beings everyone dies. Jesus cuts through the cloud of conjecture and tells us to focus on how we will deal with the reality of death.
How we respond to the reality of death determines whether that certain event will be a portal through which we pass to real life or the abyss into which we fall to eternal death. Although it is no game, one image is that of a game show in which contestants must choose a door and receive whatever is behind the door. Jesus is one door and everything else is the second door. We choose Jesus through believing in him and repenting of our sins. Whether we refuse to make a choice or actively choose something else, we are opening the other door. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to the Father and, as a result, real life.
Look It Up: 1 Corinthians 10:13
Think About It: What other god became a human and died for our sins?
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.