Luke 13:1-9 (NRSV)
Read Luke 13:1-9 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 13At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Verse 2He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? Verse 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Verse 4Or 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? Verse 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
Verse 6Then 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. Verse 7So 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?' Verse 8He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. Verse 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
Devotion
“Unless you repent . . .” Repent—it sounds like such an old-fashioned, “churchy” kind of word, something that some backwoods preacher would hurl out in a “fire-and-brimstone” sermon. How quaint. But the call to repentance is, in fact, at the core of the Bible’s message of hope and salvation. Repent means to “turn around,” do a 180 degree turn, so that we do not continue on our current path, a path that will invariably mean harm and suffering for ourselves and those around us. To repent is to turn away from harm and suffering and back to God, who loves us and cares for us more deeply than we can ever know. God does not wish to see us harmed, which is why God calls out to us, “Repent.” If only we can hear this loving Word of God, and turn to the source of our life.
Prayer
Oh loving God, help us to turn away from the paths that would lead us into harm, and call us to return to you. Amen.
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