Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Luke 13:3,5

Read Luke 13:1-9, “Call to Repent”

In 1789, Ben Franklin said in a letter to a friend, “Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Inigo Montoya said in the The Princess Bride, “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!”

We prepare for many things in life, but we don’t seem to prepare to die. On this, Jesus makes the above statement twice in the context of sudden unexpected death (which has been in the news frequently these days).

He’s not really focusing on its uncertainty but on the certainty of eternal death if such happens in an unrepentant state.

We all are ticking time bombs. The only way to snip the red wire is to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

How much time we’re allotted is a mystery. In the case of a fig tree, no fruit was expected for three years. It’s understandable that the man in the parable orders the tree to be destroyed thereafter. In our case, there is no life expectancy and there will be no time extensions.

There’s also something to be said for the bearing of fruit in one’s waking days. One would expect that with conversion there should be marked change.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

To the outsider, if there is nothing new the only conclusion that can be reached is that nothing happened in the first place.

In one’s heart, the lack of impetus to shed one’s sins is the relentless sound of the bomb ticking. It’s an ever present blinking red warning light.

With no response we can only say, “prepare to die.”