20th March 2022 (Lent 3)
Title: Open Invitation & One More Chance
(Scripture Readings: Isaiah 55:1-9 & Luke 13:1-9)
By Heeyoung Lim
In Isaiah 55, God calls people to return to Him and find comfort, peace, and compassion in his eternal covenant of blessing. The fruit God’s word produces is the fruit He plans. People cannot put conditions on God’s word and make him act the way they think. They must be willing to be a part of His plan. (6)
The goodness of God invites all to its feast, opens hearts to reconciliation, gives healing, and brings second chances. Do we feel its grace, seek healing, and turn to God with deep belonging?
Both the book of Isaiah and the Season of Lent are about journeys. Loss of home and temple to a powerful army and being carried into exile had devastated Israel’s faith. Isaiah offers the hope of a journey home to Jerusalem for the exiles in Babylon. Lent recalls the journey made by Jesus and the disciples to Jerusalem and the cross. Both journeys rely on radical trust in God. Both Isaiah and Luke anticipate a new thing that will be done by God and bring deliverance.
The wisdom tradition in Judaism focuses on ways to live that open a person to the goodness of God. God’s grace provides the foundation for that wisdom. Thus, Isaiah 55 depicts such wisdom in the image of a feast that is free to all who seek its goodness.
Today’s text testifies key elements of God’s character. God is generous and gracious. The invitation to this table and its gifts is open to all and without cost. God is near and does not hide from us. Verse 6 assures us that the Holy One can be found, but God remains mysterious. God’s love, mercy, and grace far exceed our ability to imagine and control. We are called to the feast of such gracious relationships.
The expectation of our response in faith to such an invitation is revealed in the imperative verbs of this text: Listen. Come. See. Seek. Forsake. Return. The free and open invitation to God’s grace beckons us to these responses, which do not earn the grace offered, but rather live out its call. This theme of call and response also links Isaiah once more with Lent. For Christian discipleship also consists of trust: trust that embraces God’s graces and is lived out in the actions of our lives. In Isaiah, as in the gospels, God makes the first move. The invitation to table, to journey, and to trust is offered freely. Today’s readings invite us to listen and seek, to come and see, to forsake and return. God promises a restoration and renewal beyond our previous condition. While we may not be able to see the possibility or understand the way, God’s word will accomplish its purpose.
In accordance with today’s gospel reading, dedication to God’s mission begins with repentance from sin for every person. In Luke 13:2-3, In commenting on the death of the Galileans in the temple and the eighteen people at Siloam, Jesus raises the connection between sin and suffering. “Is this punishment for sin? Do persecution and death prove the victim to be a greater sinner than those who do not suffer?” In 13:4-5, “when eighteen people died in an accident on the tower there, were these the worst sinners in Jerusalem, punished for their horrible sin?” Jesus clearly rejects that suffering is a punishment for sin. He tells them, “Of course not!” Jesus firmly refutes any suggestion that the victims were being punished. When their interpretation about two disasters was entirely wrong, Jesus did not want them to create a hierarchy of sin and make others greater sinners than ourselves. Everyone has sinned, and all deserve to die, but Jesus’ invitation for salvation is open to all people.
The expressions for sin in verse 2 and 4 differ in their native meaning. One means that we have done something that has been off target, while the other means that we have not done what we all owe. In one sense we are all in debt to life. We came into it at the peril of someone else’ s life, and we would never have survived without the care of those who loved us. Jesus called on his followers for total dedication, and he demonstrated this to them in Jerusalem.
In 13:6-9, the warning concludes with a parable about a fig tree given one last year to be productive. A man went out to his vineyard to get figs to eat. He found a tree but no figs. Three years looking for figs on the tree, but never any figs. “Cut it down. It’s taking up valuable space and soil. Plant something productive there.”
Jesus himself could be seen as the vineyard-owner. He has been coming to the Lord’s garden, seeking the fruit through his ministry. Maybe Jesus is the gardener too, the servant who is now trying to dig around and put on manure, to inject life and health into the old plant before everything is over. “One more chance, please,” begged the man who kept the vineyard and had come to love his trees. “Let me try everything possible for this one year. If we have no success, then you can cut it down.”
Luke 13:1–9 focuses on Jesus’ call to return to God. That call itself trusts God will be open to such turning and be gracious in response. The patience of the gardener in the passage’s closing parable speaks to the character of God’s goodness. Such goodness is revealed not only in attitude, but also in action.
God’s grace takes form in God’s actions. During the Season of Lent, we reflect on how God acts for our good. God invites us to open ourselves to the sound and sight, and to the presence and call of God’s generous goodness all around us and within us. Why would God offer such an open invitation to all? As we continue in our spiritual journey during the Season of Lent, in what ways might we and our church share these gifts that God offers to us and to all.
We need to return to God and follow Jesus here and now. I hope we do not postpone our repentance of our sin or our mission for the Lord until tomorrow, since we do not know our life span and when Christ will come again. We have only a limited time to repent or do missional work for the Lord, so we need to do so today. The kingdom of God may appear small on the earth in our eyes, but it is growing quietly and surely.
May we have confidence that God is at work growing his kingdom even when we cannot see much evidence of it. We believe in Jesus’ death as the way to salvation. Trust is possible because of God’s goodness and love. I believe that we can enter the kingdom of God by believing in Jesus, listening to God’s Word, and practicing it, not by maintaining religious tradition.
We have received the most precious invitation for salvation and got another chance that we can get beautiful fruits through Jesus’ word and cross. God’s grace has given us another chance. May we experience God’s abundant love grounded in receiving God’s grace and help.
I pray that the Lord’s joy and peace will fill our hearts even during the season of Lent. Romans 5:8 says, “While we still were sinners Christ died for us”. Jesus is present again and again wherever anyone will allow Him to come to life. May we respond to Jesus’ invitation and calling by bearing beautiful fruits. I pray that all of us can repent, turn from sin, and turn toward God in obedience and dedication.
God loves us and is eager and ready to bless us. During this Lenten season, may we first focus on being with Jesus, spending time with Him, and praising the Lord to please God. I also pray that everyone around us will be drawn to the joy and glory of God through our beautiful fruits.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
(Ref. Bible, commentaries, theological books, UCA materials)
