Bible Study – Second Sunday in Lent “To Turn, To Repent”
Share: Your highs (something that made you happy) and lows (something that made you sad) this week with others around you or write them down.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come, let us adore him. And what if, during this season of Lent, we sought a deeper understanding of this amazing gospel of grace? Will that image of grace energize us to do the spiritual housekeeping we need to be ready for the "new thing" God is doing in Easter?
To repent means to turn or return after seeing what you have done or not done is wrong. It is a change of mind – turning away from the evil ways, toward the good ways. The first part of today’s Gospel may seem like another version of the age-old question: why are some people killed in bizarre accidents — and others amazingly spared?
However, today’s lesson is not about good guys or bad guys, but rather about turning your life around so you are ready to meet God. It is about feeding our souls with the good, nurturing ourselves so we will produce good things, and turning over the soil of our lives so we can begin again and again.
Opening Prayer: Thank you, God, that you always forgive us and are ready to hear us when we say we are sorry. Amen.
Please open your Bibles to Luke 13:1-9 and read or read the scriptures below.
Luke 13:1-9
Repent or Perish
13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Reflection Questions (Answers at the bottom of the page.):
- The people are asking whether those who died were more guilty than those who were spared. What does Jesus say to this question?
- What does Jesus say that everyone needs to do about this situation?
- What did the owner think needed to happen to the fruitless tree?
- What did the gardener think needed to happen?
Click her for the young learner’s lesson
Videos (Click on the words or url)
Daily Gospel Reading Video - Luke Chapter 13:1-9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcFFsB62pQM
Gospel of Luke Summary: A Complete Animated Overview (Part 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26z_KhwNdD8
Song: To Be Like Jesus - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhxVuqnPVs or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwvK5stK-Us
Activities
Repentance in the religious language means to “turn around” or to “turn away from.” When we turn our lives around or turn away from things, we need to let go of stuff we are hauling around.
Think about a time when your backpack was getting heavy. You just kept adding more stuff, a bit at a time until you could hardly carry it. How did it fill to have all that stuff on your back? How did it feel when you got free of it? What things weigh us down, keeping us from being who God wants us to be? What might we give up?
If we thought of our Spring Training as needing soil dug up a bit and fertilizer added, what would the digging be and what might the fertilizer be?
Spring Training: Find the bag you made last week. You will need pieces of paper and a pencil. Open your bag and read what is in there. Now write something on the pieces of paper that you have noticed this week to improve your Spring Training. Then seal your bag and then place it where it will be remained sealed.
Remember two weeks ago you designed your own Spring Training kit — for your eyes only. At the end of this activity, you put what you have been writing inside your bags, put our names on the outside, seal the bags, and place it where it will remain sealed until next week. The purpose is to develop individual Spring Training disciplines. Some options: finding a time during the week to read from the Bible, finding time during the week to pray for help with dumping something that is getting between you and God, giving up something that is getting in the way, or that will get you in better shape, etc. Then, write something to put in the bag. When you are finished, you can seal your bag and then place it where it will be remained sealed.
Fruit Puzzles: Draw a large piece of fruit on a piece of poster board. Write fruits that God wants to see in our life on your fruit such as love, joy, peace, faith etc. Also write on your poster board “A FRUIT BEARING CHRISTIAN” and write words that represent bearing good fruit such as WORSHIP REGUARLY, READ GOD’S WORD, PRAY, SHARE JESUS WITH OTHERS, etc. around the fruit. Then cut your poster into a puzzle of 5 to 10 pieces. See if you can put is together. You can also put the pieces in an envelope and give your puzzle to a friend or family member.
The Parable of the Fig Tree – Word Shape: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/parable-of-the-fig-tree-5
The Parable of the Fig Tree - Word Search: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/parable-of-the-fig-tree-4
The Parable of the Fig Tree – Crossword: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/parable-of-the-fig-tree-1
The Parable of the Fig Tree – Decoder: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/parable-of-the-fig-tree-2
The Parable of the Fig Tree - Word Search: https://sermons4kids.com/activities/parable-of-the-fig-tree-3
Prayer: Thank you, God, that you are full of compassion and mercy. Help us to turn toward you and away from the things that are weighing us down, or the things that are holding us back from doing what you call us to do. Amen.
Answers to the above questions:
- The people are asking whether those who died were more guilty than those who were spared. What does Jesus say to this question? (Verse 5: I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”)
- What does Jesus say that everyone needs to do about this situation? (Repent, stop doing what they know is wrong, tell God they are sorry, and do things differently afterward.)
- What did the owner think needed to happen to the fruitless tree? (Chop it down. It was using up good soil!)
- What did the gardener think needed to happen? (Some care, loosening up of the soil that was packed down, adding a bit of fertilizer…helping the tree turn around and bear the fruit he knew it could with some care and tending)
