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Title: On Repentance
Text: Luke 13:1-9
Liturgical Date: Lent 3
Calendar Date: March 23, 2025
Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County
Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County serves Sturgeon Bay and other locations around Northeast Wisconsin.
The following transcript was generated with the assistance of AI and does not reflect the sermon as preached 100 percent:
TRANSCRIPT
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today, in our sermon, we’re taking up the theme of repentance—that God loves to forgive our sins when we repent. Today, we are exploring this theme under four headings. First, we’re going to be talking about what repentance is. Second, we’ll discuss the fact that the reason why this world continues to turn day by day is for the sake of repentance, so that sinners would repent of their sins and trust in Christ. Then, we’re going to talk about how whatever evil we behold in this world is there—that we experience it—to remind us to repent. And finally, we’ll see that nobody is too far gone to repent. So let’s get into it.
What is Repentance?
What is this word “repentance” that we use a lot in church? It’s one of those words we probably use so much that we don’t really think about it, and we don’t really remember what it means. So let’s talk about that a little bit. Repentance has two parts. Those two parts are contrition on the one hand and trust on the other. Now, what is contrition? It’s one of these fancy church words that we use. Basically, that means that we’re sorry for our sins. If we examine our lives according to the law of God and take an honest look at ourselves—as we honestly look at God’s expectations for us—we’ll see that there is ample opportunity to sorrow over our sins.
God demands purity of us. God demands purity of us in our actions, honoring the Lord with what we do and serving the neighbor as well. God demands purity not only of our actions but of our words, our lips. God wants us to speak prayers, for example, and not curse. God wants us to speak the truth instead of lies. God wants us to honor Him not only with our actions and our words but also with our minds. He wants us to accept the truth and to understand what is right and what is wrong. And finally, above all, God wants us to honor Him and our neighbor with our hearts.
Here, I believe, we have the two bookends—the two hardest commandments. The first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” With that commandment, God encourages us to love, fear, and trust Him above all things. And on the other bookend of the commandments, there’s the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s house or the various relationships that your neighbor has.” That is also a commandment of the heart. Not only are we supposed to be externally righteous to our neighbor, but also internally. Those are the hardest commandments because externally we may look good, but internally it could be a very different matter—and it is a very different matter.
I’m convinced that if each one of us could see into each other’s hearts, we would not be able to look each other in the eye. We’d all go around like this, in utter complete shame, if people could look into our hearts. The plain fact of the matter is that all of us commit idolatry in our hearts whenever we put something in our hearts where only God ought to be. Every single one of us sins against our neighbor in our hearts. Who of us can say that we’ve never been bitter, that we’ve never been unforgiving, that we’ve never borne a grudge, that we’ve never been jealous? The whole list could go on about the nature of our hearts. When we understand the depth of our sin—both in what we do and say, but also what we think and the motions of our hearts—it ought to lead us to sorrow over our sin. That’s what contrition is.
But that’s not where repentance ends. There’s contrition on the one hand, and then there is trust on the other hand. Trust in what? Well, it’s the law which leads us to contrition, and it’s the gospel which causes trust to well up in us. The gospel is that message of free forgiveness, life, and salvation won for us by King Jesus on the cross. It’s the message that we no longer have reason for shame because, while our hearts have been defiled, the heart of Christ has been pure towards us. Therefore, the righteousness of Christ is our righteousness. We can look God, as it were, in the eye—not as condemned sinners, but rather as redeemed sons and daughters. That’s the message of the gospel, and the wondrous message it is. Therefore, we shouldn’t shy away from repentance but rather gladly repent, gladly acknowledge our sin, and gladly receive the forgiveness that God so abundantly offers. Because if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just—He will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God delights when the sinner repents.
The World Turns for Repentance
And therefore, it is for this reason that this world continues to turn as it does. It’s the reason why the sun rises each day. Today, we heard in our gospel lesson these words from Christ: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. He said to the vinedresser, “Look, for three years now I’ve come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?” And he answered him, “Sir, let it alone this year also, and I’ll dig around it and put on manure. Then, if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
What is that parable about? That parable is about the reason why, to our understanding, Christ is tarrying in His return—why Judgment Day has not yet happened. Now, we pray that Christ returns. We pray for Judgment Day, and you actually might not realize how often you pray for it. In that common meal prayer, “Come, Lord Jesus,” that I know a lot of us pray—do you know where that phrase comes from? It comes from the last chapter of Revelation, where the Lord is instructing us to pray, “Jesus, come and bring Judgment Day.” That’s what you’re praying. Yes, you’re praying, “Jesus, be present at our table at this meal that you have set before us.” But also, you may not exactly realize this, but maybe from time to time you can think about this—you’re also praying, “Jesus, come and set before me the great messianic feast that you have promised, the feast of fine wine well refined and meat full of marrow.” Jesus, do that.
Sometimes we pray that prayer in a very mindful way. For example, maybe we are in a time of suffering or a time when we experience the evil of this world—which we’re going to get to here in a minute—and we see all the darkness, the chaos, and the fallenness of this world. We may say to ourselves, “Jesus, come, Lord Jesus.” You’re praying for Judgment Day. But why does Christ tarry? According to my understanding, He isn’t tarrying, mind you—doesn’t Scripture say, “For God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day”? But this parable gives us the answer. Jesus is tarrying for the sake of repentance, that sinners might turn to Him in faith and hope and trust.
I love this metaphor that is used there. It may not be exactly what Christ had in mind, but I think it’s applicable—I think it’s valid. What does this gardener do? First of all, he digs around the roots of the tree. Now, I don’t know if plants feel pain or not—they haven’t told me. But I imagine if they could feel pain, that would not particularly feel good, to have someone digging around your roots. Isn’t that exactly what happens with the law? The Lord digs around our roots. Yes, that can be painful. By this means, we are enabled to receive the life-giving nutrient of the gospel. That’s precisely what God intends to do as well—yes, to dig around our roots and the roots of all the sinners of this world with the law, so in turn we might receive that life-giving nutrient of a message of free forgiveness and salvation, which certainly brings forth the fruits of repentance. God desires the repentance of the sinner so much that He allows this fallen world to continue to turn, so that the evil might repent and receive salvation.
Evil as a Reminder to Repent
But this puts us in a very difficult circumstance, right? In some ways, we continue on in this evil world, and we behold all kinds of evil things. I used to think—by the way, as I kind of mature in life, I now see the wisdom in things that I used to think were foolish. Let me tell you, I go and visit a lot of seniors—it’s part of what I do, right? Almost inevitably, as I’m visiting seniors, I’ll start talking about the news and all the terrible things happening on the news. They’ll say, “You know, I think God’s sending us a message. People need to turn to Him. That’s what’s happening.” I used to think, “Oh, that’s just kind of lowbrow thinking—that’s kind of foolishness and silliness.” But no, I think that’s exactly right.
Whenever there’s chaos, darkness, destruction in this world, it’s a little window into the ultimate chaos, destruction, darkness, damnation of hell. Yes, whenever we encounter that—whether that’s on the nightly news, or when we open up a newspaper, or when we’re doom-scrolling on our app of choice or whatever it is—when we encounter evil, darkness, destruction in this world, this ought to warn us. This is precisely what Christ was saying once again in our gospel lesson. People come to Him and say, “Jesus, Pilate just did something terrible. There were these Galileans—maybe you even knew them; you’re a Galilean, after all. There were some Galileans, and Pontius Pilate shed their blood even as they were offering sacrifices.” Mind you, Christ knew that He would be offering Himself, and this Galilean—His blood would be poured out as well in the midst of that sacrifice.
But Jesus goes on and says, “Well, you see what happened there? And also the people of—well, guess what? Even worse things are going to happen unless you repent.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, the darkness that we experience in this world ought to motivate us to embrace the light of the world to come. The evil that we see in this world ought to move us to embrace the purity of the heavenly kingdom, and so on it goes. We ought to repent because repentance is essentially saying, “Lord, the evil, the darkness of this world—even while I reflect that in my own heart—I want nothing to do with it. So cleanse me of it. Purify me of it. Forgive me of it, so that I might belong to the world to come, which your Son is bringing when He returns in power and might and glory.”
No One is Too Far Gone
And finally, here’s the last encouragement: There’s nobody that is too far gone to receive the grace and mercy of God in Christ. If we took a look at ourselves honestly, we might be tempted to think, “There’s no way God could show mercy on me. There’s no way salvation could be mine. I am too far gone.” There were some in the time of Ezekiel who felt the same way, who would express the same things when they realized just how bad the iniquity of Israel was. They said, “Truly, our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?” In other words, the people of Israel were saying, “We are too far gone to be redeemed by God.” And kind of the upshot with that is, “Why not just continue in the evil ways that we have been?”
God commands His prophet Ezekiel to say this: “As I live,” declares the Lord, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways—for why will you die, O house of Israel?” It may be the case for you, or it may be the case for someone you know, but there’s a feeling there—a sense that there’s no way that you could be a child of God, no way that heaven could be yours, no way that you could be acceptable to God. But I am here to tell you that the merits of Christ are so overabundant, the forgiveness that He won for you is so cleansing, that your sins stand no chance before the cleansing flood of His blood on His cross. There was no mere man who died, but the Son of God in man—man in God. Your sins are nothing compared to the righteousness of Christ.
Conclusion
God desires for you to repent because God desires you to live. So gladly, day by day, contemplate your life according to the law of God. But even more, day by day, gladly remember the salvation won for you by Christ Jesus. By this, know and be certain of eternal life. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.