Free

March 23, 2025 homily on Isaiah 55 and Luke 13:6-9 by Pastor Galen for the Third Sunday in Lent

“Hear, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” — Isaiah 55:1

Free

In our society, we love getting free things. 

Case in point, this past week was the first day of Spring. Apparently, Rita’s Italian Ice gives out free Italian Ice every year on the first day of Spring. One of my coworkers reported that there were long lines of people waiting to get their free Italian ice. The same thing happens on July 11th (7-11) when people flock to 7-Eleven to get free Slurpees, or on National Donut Day when people look around to see which donut shops might be giving out free donuts.

All Who Are Thirsty

Isaiah 55 begins with the invitation, “Hear, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). Now if you’re buying something with no money, that means it’s being offered for free!

Of course, Isaiah is using imagery of water and wine and milk as symbols of spiritual things — God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness — all of which are offered freely to all. If these things were offered at a cost, none of us would be able to afford them, but God invites everyone to come and receive whatever we need. The grace of God is offered freely to all. There’s nothing we can do to earn it. There’s no amount of money we could spend to buy it, there is no amount of good works we could do to deserve it. God’s mercy and grace are free and available to all, no holds barred.

That’s pretty amazing, right? Grace and mercy and salvation for free! We don’t need to spend money on it! We don’t need to do anything to earn it!  

In a society that loves free things, you would think everyone would be flocking to receive God’s grace and mercy — that there would be long lines of people waiting out the door to receive God’s grace, just as people wait in long lines for free Italian ice on the first day of Spring.

I’m OK, You’re OK(?)

But the reality is that many people don’t realize that they need God’s grace and mercy. Part of this is because as humans, we have a tendency to compare ourselves to other people. And we can always find someone who has done worse things than us! Every day we’re inundated with stories on the news of people who have done horrible things, and it’s easy to compare ourselves to them and say, “Well at least I haven’t done anything nearly as bad as that!” We think we’re OK in comparison to those horrible people who do bad things.

Similarly, many people often look at their external circumstances, and say, “Well, I have a good job, and I drive a nice car, and live in a nice house, so I must be doing something right!” We think that those who are prosperous have earned God’s favor and blessings and therefore don’t need God’s grace and mercy, whereas we think that those who are going through tough times must have done something wrong to deserve the challenges they’re facing.

But Jesus refutes these ideas in Luke 13, where he discusses a series of tragic events that had recently occurred. Apparently, the Roman governor Pilate had recently killed some Galileans while they were offering sacrifices, and Jesus’ followers wondered why these righteous people had died. After all, they were offering sacrifices to God — why did God allow this to happen to them?

But in response, Jesus brings up another event that had recently occurred, where a tower had fallen, causing the death of some innocent bystanders. Jesus asked his followers, “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did” (Luke 13:4b-5). 

In other words, every one of us has done things that are deserving of punishment.  As we read in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). 

But that doesn’t mean that people who experience tragedy or loss are any worse than anyone else. Sometimes people experience tragedy and loss because of someone else’s destructive behavior or abuse of power (as in the case of Pilate). Other times it might have been caused by other’s negligence (as in the case of the tower), or maybe it was no one’s fault. We can’t look at tragic events that occur and assume that the victims were any worse than the rest of us, any more than we should look at people who are experiencing wealth and prosperity and assume that they are better or more righteous.

Rather, the truth is each and every one one of us has messed up and made mistakes, and yet so often God often protects us, not allowing us to experience the natural consequences of our mistakes and failures, extending grace and mercy to us, giving us more time to repent and turn back to God, as we see in the parable that Jesus tells about the owner of the fig tree and the farmhand in Luke 13:6-9.

The Fig Tree

In this parable, a man has a fig tree planted in his vineyard and every year he comes looking to harvest the figs, but there are none to be found. After this happens three years in a row, he wants to just chop it down, but his farmhand begs him not to, saying, “‘Let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Jesus’s parable reminds us that this world as we know it will not go on forever. There will be a day of judgment, when Christ will return and will put an end to evil and injustice, and on that day, Jesus will be looking for good fruit from those of us who are followers of Christ.

As followers of Christ who have accepted God’s free gift of grace and salvation that Jesus offers to all, we do not need to live in fear of this day of judgment, because we know that our sins have been forgiven and forgotten. Psalm 103 tells us, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. [And] As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:12-13). Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). These are promises God has made to us, and we can rest assured of God’s grace and mercy toward those who have believed and put our faith and trust in God.

Farmhands in the Vineyard

But many of us probably find ourselves identifying with that farmhand in the vineyard. We have friends and family members and neighbors who we see heading down a path toward destruction. We see them choosing behaviors that are self-destructive. We know that what they are doing will eventually bring hurt and pain to themselves and those around them. We know that eventually their sinful behavior will catch up to them, but we love them and want good things for them. And so we cry out to God, saying, “Give them one more year! Give them a little more time to repent and turn their lives over to you!”

At the same time, we look at the world around us, and we see so much turmoil and chaos. We watch the news, and we’re afraid for our world and our society. We wonder where all this is heading, and we know that if things continue on this trajectory, it will not end well.

Like the farmhand, we cry out to God. We “stand in the gap,” pleading and praying to God on behalf of our friends and family, and our society and our world. We pray for God to change hearts and minds, to turn the hearts of our loved ones and our nation and our world back to God. We plead to God to just give us a little more time, to grant us grace and mercy for just a little while longer, to give us more time to share God’s love, and a little more time for our world to wake up and turn back to the Lord.

God’s Word Will Not Return Void

This is indeed the role that the biblical prophets such as Isaiah often played. They extended God’s invitation — God’s offer of grace and salvation — while also crying out to God on behalf of those who had not yet turned back to the Lord. We may not always see results. Our friends and family may not always listen to what we have to say, but we are called to be faithful and “stand in the gap” through prayer.

With this in mind, I want to just end by looking at a few of the beautiful images that we see here in Isaiah 55. These are images that we can hold on to as we pray for our friends and family and the world around us.

1. In the first few verses, there’s the invitation to a rich banquet — an abundant feast, and this is important for us to keep in mind as we pray for our friends and family members, and the world around us. We are not just praying that they would turn away from their sinful and destructive behaviors, but that they would turn to God and experience the richness and goodness of God’s mercy, pictured here as a bountiful banquet. 

As Christians, we are not “spoilsports” who go around judging people and trying to stop their fun, but rather we are inviting people to get free stuff that’s even better than free Italian ice or donuts — we are inviting people to the experience the rich and bountiful banquet of God’s grace and love and mercy.

2. There’s a promise here that just as the rain that comes down from the sky does not evaporate and return to the sky until it has first nourished the earth, bringing life-giving water to living creatures and causing plants to grow. In the same way, God’s Word will accomplish God’s purposes.

Often we wonder if our good deeds and actions and words make any difference at all. They feel like a drop in the bucket compared to all of the bad things that are happening in the world around us. But just as every little drop of rain brings life-giving nourishment to our world, so too God will use our good words and deeds to make a positive impact in the world, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem.

3. Lastly, Isaiah provides us with this amazing imagery of mountains and hills bursting into song, and trees clapping their hands. He says, “For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:11-12).

So often it seems that everything in our world is going downhill, but Isaiah reminds us that because of God’s grace and mercy, the end will not be destruction, but joy. Hatred and injustice will not win in the end, but indeed, everything will be made right, and because of God’s everlasting mercy, there will be everlasting joy.

And so may we not grow weary in doing good. May we continue to cry out to God for mercy on behalf of our friends and family and our world. And may we remember that God’s word will not return void. Let’s continue to extend God’s free gift of salvation, and let us remember that in the end, there will be joy.

Amen!

Questions for Personal Reflection in Response to Today’s Sermon:

1. Have I ever compared myself to others to justify my own goodness or success? What does Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13 say about this mindset?
2. Who in my life do I feel called to pray for, like the farmhand pleading for more time?
3. In what ways can I be more intentional about sharing God’s grace with others?
4. Do I ever feel discouraged that my actions don’t make a difference? How does Isaiah 55 encourage me to trust in God’s work?
5. How can I embrace joy and peace, knowing that God’s purposes will prevail?