“If Men Do These Things . .
. ?”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. During Lent this year, for both our special evening and Sunday morning
services, we are considering “Questions at the Cross,” questions asked by Jesus
and others during the first Holy Week. The entire sermon series is listed
on the back of today’s bulletin. This morning we continue with a question Jesus asks those who are
weeping over him while he is carrying his cross out to Calvary: “A large number
of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus
turned and said to them, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me; weep for
yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will
say, “Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts
that never nursed!” Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if men do these things when the tree is
green, what will happen when it is dry?” Jesus himself is the green tree. For, in his life on earth he
bore such marvelous fruits as men have never seen, before or since. “We
beheld his glory,” John says, “the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.” Peter says in Acts, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man
accredited by God to you with miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among
you through him. . . he was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and
foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing
him to the cross.” “Weep not for me; weep for yourselves . . . For if men do these things
when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” We are the dry
trees, as Paul says in Ephesians, “As for you, you were dead in your trespasses
and sins.” “The ax is already at the root of the trees,” John the Baptist
warns, “and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and
thrown into the fire.” We are the dead, dry trees, under the same judgment as the fruitless
tree in today’s Gospel Reading: “I’ve been looking for fruit on this tree and
haven’t found any. Cut it down!” That is what we all deserve,
because we are dead in our trespasses and sins, dry trees, not producing in our
lives the fruit God requires. We deserve to be cut down and thrown into
the fire of hell. “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen
when it is dry?” Jesus is warning us, “If this is how I am slaughtered by
humanity, even though I have done nothing wrong and committed no sin—a green
tree bearing the perfect fruits of righteousness—then consider how severely all
of you as dry trees truly deserve to be punished by God.” “Weep not for
me; weep for yourselves . . . For if men do these things when the tree is green,
what will happen when it is dry?” “I’ve been looking for fruit on this
tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down!” “‘Sir,’ said the gardener, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll
dig around it and fertilize it.’” The digging around symbolizes the
preaching of the Law, which prepares us to receive the fertilizer of the Gospel.
One of best fertilizers is actually called blood meal, because it really is made
from the dried blood of animals. The book of Hebrews says, “Jesus suffered
. . . to make [us] holy with his own blood. . . he has appeared once for
all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. . .
we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all.” “‘Sir,’ said the gardener, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll
dig around it and fertilize it.’” You were a dry, fruitless, dead tree.
But, like the gardener in the parable, Jesus spares you from destruction, and
lovingly fertilizes you, with his own blood. He applies this fertilizer of
his blood to you through the Word and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy
Communion. Christ’s blood is the true “miracle grow.” For, this
miraculous fertilizer does what no other fertilizer can, takes what was dead and
makes it alive again. As Paul says in Ephesians, “Because of his great
love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we
were dead in transgressions. . . in him we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins.” “If men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when
it is dry?” The Good News is, for us men and for our salvation the green
tree was cut down. In our place he was cursed, damned, crucified, dead,
and buried. And on the third day he rose again from the dead. Paul says in Romans, “He was put to death for our sins and was raised
to life for our justification. . . therefore, since we have now been
justified through his blood . . . we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Your sins are all forgiven, you are justified and at peace with
God, you will not receive the punishment a dry tree deserves, because for you
the green tree was cut down. “If men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when
it is dry?” This question Jesus asks on the way to the cross is a final
warning and earnest plea to repent and believe the Gospel, to trust in him as
your Savior. Jesus put it this way a few hours earlier at the Last Supper: “I am the true vine. . . remain in me, and I will remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.
If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you
can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that
is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire
and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask what you desire,
and it shall be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much
fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office
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