"Does Mercy Have Limits?" - Luke 13:1-9 - March 18, 2001

In May of this year Timothy McVey will be executed by the Federal government. McVey is responsible for the deaths of 168 people in Oklahoma City. McVey declined any opportunity to appeal his sentence of death. It is unlikely, however that the court would have shown any mercy because of this hideous crime.

Most everyone believes that McVey’s sentence definitely fits the crime. In fact many would say there should be absolutely no mercy in this case. But then there are times when people ask for mercy and it is given. It seems to very from case to case and from state to state.

What about the mercy of God? Is there a limit to God’s mercy?

The parable of the fig tree illustrates how God intervened and gave the gardener a second chance. Three years had passed and the tree had not produced. But he pleaded for one additional year to get the fig tree to bare fruit. "If it didn’t," he said, "it could then be cut down."

The parable suggests that there is a limit to God’s mercy. The gardener has a year to nurture the tree, and hope that it will indeed bare fruit. However, we don’t know how the story ends. Perhaps the owner of the vineyard returned again the following year and again extended the life of the tree another year. Or perhaps, he didn’t and the tree was cut down.

So, is there a limit to God’s mercy? Since the gardener was given a one-year extension you could say yes. But, we don’t know what happened. Besides there are other stories in the gospel which indicate just exactly the opposite. Jesus once told Peter that he should forgive his brother not seven times but "seventy times seven."(Matt.18:22) This illustrates that there is no limit to the mercy of God. God is a God of grace and therefore forgives again and again. In other words, we always have another chance with God.

I believe that the extent of God’s mercy is in a realm that is totally foreign to us. We simply do not know what the limit of God’s mercy is. Why? Because it is not possible for us to know the mind of God. We who are finite cannot know God who is infinite.

If we knew what the limit of God’s mercy was we could then use the same standard of punishment for individual cases of crime. In our society we use judges to make those determinations and they very from bench to bench and person to person.

Our text graphically illustrates two situations where people died; one group at the hand of a cruel ruler and the other because of a tragedy. There were some Galileans who died at the hands of Pilate and some felt that they were executed because of there terrible sins. There were also 18 Galileans who perished because of a tower that fell on them. But Jesus said that you could not make any comparisons as to why they died and the sins they committed.

I was reading an article recently about a 21 year old woman who was killed in an automobile accident in Las Vegas. A few months earlier she had won the lottery worth 25 million dollars. She was a cocktail waitress and she and her boyfriend were on there way to a casino when she was hit by a drunk driver. By the way, the driver had been convicted of DUI, 16 times.

My first reaction was to say, "Yep, all that money and her greed to win more, contributed to her death." By making that judgment I am trying to rationalize her death by linking it to her "sins ." In that case I am exactly like the people in the gospel who were trying to link the sins of the Galilieans with their demise.

What did Jesus say to them. "No." It is impossible for us to judge. We cannot say a person got what they deserved nor that sinners meet up with bad consequences more than those who don’t sin. Besides, we are all sinful, no one is perfect. We live in a world of unnatural laws. Things happen beyond our control. And sadly, people commit random acts of violence against innocent people. As it says in Matthew 5:45, "God sends rain on the just and on the unjust." It cannot be determined who receives or deserves a particular outcome. Only God can know for sure.

We do, however have the freedom to make choices. In the past few weeks there have been three different cases in Shelby County where men decided to end their own life. All three were good citizens. None were convicted of any crime. But for reasons only known to God each chose to put an end to his life by shooting themselves. Great sadness has fallen upon their families and communities. Loved ones are totally perplexed by these tragedies. We wonder why God didn’t intervene and prevent them from happening.

The people in our story were equally perplexed by the senseless deaths of their Galilean friends. They wanted answers too, but only one was given. Jesus said it was impossible to know why these terrible things happened. One thing for sure, no one could equate them to their sins.

Does that mean that all is hopeless? Does it mean that God doesn’t care about us? After Jesus says it is impossible to understand the mercy of God he says "that unless we repent we will all perish." In other words, we do have a choice, we do have hope. We can make a conscious decision to keep a relationship with God each and every day.

I believe that this story exists to remind us that real sin is our arrogance to think that we can make judgments as to why or how God acts. The minute we point the finger or even rationalize the sinful behavior of another human being we have to "take the log out of our eye." (Matt.7:3 para.)

Yes, God is merciful and forgiving. Yes, God gives us second chances. At the same time the clock is ticking. It is best not to push our luck. The challenge for us is not to be making judgments about sinners but to be penitent.

Jesus calls us to "repent." That means to turn around in a new direction, to act differently in the future than we have in the past. It means to cease judging the sins of others and be aware of our own and change our ways.

The story of the fig tree is open ended, just like our lives. We don’t know what happened after the gardener had been given a second chance. The good news here is that the fig tree wasn’t cut down. That is because God is more interested in trees having an opportunity to bare fruit rather than be destroyed.

You may not agree with all of former president Bill Clinton’s 177 pardons. But the truth is we worship a God who "abundantly pardons." (Is. 55:7) The God who loves us is a God of grace and infinite love. It is not rules, regulations, and punitive measures that will save us, it is nurture, patience and TLC.

We used to have a swamp maple tree in our front yard. It shaded our porch and added to the landscaping in front of our house. We took it for granted and we never pruned it or fertilized it. About three years ago it began to lose its leaves and some branches withered and died. I pruned it back to give it some life. One fall we hammered fertilizer spikes into the ground in a circle around it. The following spring it sprouted new branches and you could see new foliage. For the first time in two seasons it appeared that it might make it. But, we had an unusually dry summer and the tree continued to lose branches. Finally it was invaded by carpenter ants and the tree was doomed.

We should have given the tree attention sooner but instead we procrastinated. Our efforts to save it were only temporary. Eventually the time came when we had to cut it down. In a matter of minutes the tree came tumbling down. All that was left was the stump, about 10 inches in diameter. The front yard looked bare and our front porch no longer had shade. My wife wanted to replace the tree with something new. So we went to a nursery and purchased a Bradford Pear. We selected the best tree we could find.

It took several days to remove the stump. I chopped and I sawed and I dug. Finally I succeeded in removing it. We then fertilized the ground and planted our new tree. We followed the directions that were given to us by the nursery worker to detail. He had told us that the Swamp Maple was really a poor choice for our soil and area. As long as we took good care of our new Bradford Pear Tree, we could expect good results.

Our lives are much the same. Without nurture they wither and rot. We can’t always control the forces against us, like weather and even people who do mean things to us. We can, however make every effort to change our ways.

Dr. Keith Wagner. St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio