Category: Luke 13

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Luke Luke 13

What God longs to do, what he won’t do, what he can’t do

Luke

This is one of the more poignant portions of scripture. After dealing with the Pharisees, Jesus weeps,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ (Luke 13:34-35)

All throughout Israel’s history, they had rejected the Word of the Lord and the prophets that shared it. And now, Jesus was saying that judgment was coming.

The temple would be destroyed yet again (which happened in 70 A.D.) and the Jews would be dispersed until the 20th century. Only when Israel as a nation accepts Jesus as Lord will they see him again.

But what does this mean for us? I think we see several things in this passage. What God longs to do, what he won’t do, and what he can’t do.

What does God long to do? He longs to draw us into a close and intimate relationship with us. A loving relationship in which he cares for us as a hen cares for its chicks, and we find peace, satisfaction, and joy.

What will God not do? He will not force us to accept him.

He told the Jews, I longed to draw close to you, but “you were not willing.”

God will not force himself upon us. And if we choose to reject him, he will accept our decision.

What can’t God do? He can’t give us a life of joy, satisfaction, and peace without him. Not won’t. Can’t.

Why not? We were designed for a relationship with him. And as long as we are apart from him, there will always be a missing piece in our soul.

We can try to fill it up with many things, money, possessions, jobs, or relationships. But none can fill the piece that a relationship with God can complete. Instead, we will ultimately be left desolate.

That’s what life is without God: desolation.

Without love, because God is love.

Without peace, because God is peace.

Without joy, because God is joy.

And you will never truly have these things until the day you say in your heart, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

How about you? Have you accepted Jesus as Savior in your life? Or have you been spending your life trying to find love, joy, and peace without him.

That kind of life will leave you desolate. You will only find true satisfaction in a relationship with him. Won’t you accept him today?

Lord, I admit that I have turned my back on you. I have been trying to live life without you, and it’s left me empty, desolate. Forgive me.

I believe you died on the cross to take the punishment for my sin, and I believe you rose again. I accept you as my Lord and Savior. Now draw me close in a relationship with you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Luke Luke 13

Refusing to give in to fear

Luke

It is very easy to tell other people not to be afraid, it’s another thing to live it. Yet, that is exactly what Jesus did.

Some Pharisees came up to him saying,

Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you. (Luke 13:31)

Were these Pharisees sincere about their concern for Jesus? It’s possible. Certainly at least one Pharisee, Nicodemus, seemed to be pro-Jesus. There could have been others.

But I have my doubts. Nothing that we see about Herod in his reactions to Jesus give us the impression that he had an interest in killing him.

When Herod first heard about Jesus, he thought it might be John the Baptist raised from the dead. And it says in Luke 9 that he tried to see him. See him…not kill him.

When Herod actually got the chance to see Jesus, it seems he was more interested in seeing Jesus perform magic tricks than anything else. (Luke 23:8).

This is not to say Herod wasn’t a danger. He was. But it’s my guess that these Pharisees were hoping to frighten Jesus away by exaggerating the current danger that Herod posed.

So Jesus replied,

Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’

In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day–for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! (Luke 13:32-33).

In short, “Buzz off.”

Why did Jesus call Herod a fox? A fox was considered sly and dangerous. But at the same time, it was a symbol of a worthless and insignificant person.

Jesus took his own counsel to be as wise as a serpent. To not simply ignore the dangers that were out there, but to be aware of them and to be cautious.

At the same time, however, he refused to give into the fear of people. They could only destroy the body, not the soul.

On top of that, Jesus knew the time had not yet come for him to die. So he determined to keep on doing his Father’s will.

We need to do the same. People may oppose us when we choose to live for God. Some of them are very cunning, and some are very dangerous. We do need to watch out for them, because they can cause us great harm if we’re not careful.

So while we should be wary, let us not fear them. Let us not fear rejection. Let us not fear anything that they might do to us.

Rather, let us keep pressing on, doing the things God has called us to do.

As the writer of Hebrews said,

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:2-3).

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Luke Luke 13

Before it’s too late

Luke

None of us like to think about hell. And none of us like the idea that anyone is going to hell. We’d like to think that everyone (or almost everyone) will go to heaven someday.

Perhaps that’s the feeling this person had when he came up to Jesus and asked,

Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? (Luke 13:23)

Perhaps as he asked this, he was thinking, “Can’t it be easier? Can’t we let more people into the kingdom of heaven?”

Let’s think about the context of the situation for a moment.

The person asking this was a Jew. In asking this, I don’t think he had any thought in his mind that the Gentiles could be saved. Rather, as a Jew, he was thinking about how tough it would be for him to be saved.

After all, if you looked at the “religious people” of the day, you had to be thinking of people like the Pharisees, people who studied the law, and tried to keep every rule both God-made and man-made.

And as he looked at the Pharisees and other religious folk, he must have been thinking, “This is impossible. I can’t possibly live like the Pharisees. And Jesus once said that our righteousness has to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees!”

But Jesus doesn’t salve his worries. Instead, he said,

Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. (Luke 13:24)

In short, “Yes, only a few people will be saved.”

He then warns,

Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ (Luke 13:25)

In other words, we only have a limited time in which to enter the narrow door, that is, we only have our lifetime here on earth. If we die before entering, it is too late.

What is the door? Jesus answered that in the book of John. He said,

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. (John 10:9)

Only through a relationship with Jesus, by believing in his work on the cross, and putting our faith in him will we be saved.

Jesus warned the Jews,

There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.

People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.

Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last. (Luke 13:28-30)

Many Jews thought that just by being a Jew they would be saved. Others thought by keeping the law they would be saved.

But Jesus warned that while others who would receive him as Savior would enter the kingdom, many Jews would be left outside because they rejected him.

They thought they would be first in the kingdom. But they would be left out entirely.

Many people today feel the same way as the Jews. They feel like because they were born in a Christian family, they are Christians. Or by going to church and doing a lot of good things, that makes them a Christian.

But those things are not enough. Jesus is the gate, and only by him can you be saved.

Won’t you enter before it’s too late?

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Luke Luke 13

The need to be watchful

Luke

I wrote on this passage when we came across it in Matthew (the same illustration is used twice, though probably on different occasions).

The more I look at it, however, I wonder if perhaps Jesus didn’t mean something else than what I first said.

Knowing Jesus and how he often uses multiple meanings for the same illustration (Matthew 5:23-26 and Luke 12:54-59 for example), perhaps he meant more than one thing.

But I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this possibility because it is a very important one. Jesus said,

What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Luke 13:20-21)

If there is one consistent picture throughout the Old Testament, it is the idea of yeast and impurity or sin.

One of the pictures of the Passover meal was the unleavened bread. What happened to that bread? It was broken and eaten, giving (physical) life to those who ate.

Why was it unleavened? There was, of course, the practicality of the matter. The Jews had to prepare to leave Egypt quickly, and so God told them to cook bread without yeast as it would bake faster.

But there is another very important reason. Jesus called himself, “The bread of life.”

And later, at the Passover meal, Jesus took the bread and broke it, saying, “This is my body given for you.” (Luke 22:19).

When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t do so for any sin he had committed. Like the Passover bread, he was completely free of impurity or sin.

But his body was broken for our sins. He took our sins upon himself and took the punishment for our sins.

And now, if we eat of this living bread, in other words, if we believe in him and put our faith in his work on the cross, we will have eternal life.

But getting back to the point, yeast is always used as a picture of sin and impurity.

Yet here, Jesus uses the picture of yeast spreading throughout bread to illustrate the kingdom of God?

Why? The answer is scary. It is very possible for corruption to spread among God’s people.

You don’t believe me? Just look at what’s happening in America today. The Episcopal church started allowing gay marriages last year, and just this past week, the Presbyterian church allowed the same.

That’s just the moral side.

Throughout the centuries, we’ve seen corruption come into the church in terms of who Christ is.

You have people disclaiming the virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ, and his deity, all the while claiming to be Christians.

How can they do this? By discrediting the very word of God. And of course, by discrediting the Word of God, it becomes easy for moral corruption to creep into the church as well.

Jesus warned us about this. He talked about Satan sowing weeds among the wheat. Among the evil that Satan plants in the world is the false doctrine that he also spreads within the church itself. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

And Jesus warns in the latter part of this passage of people who claim to know Christ, but don’t. So he tells us,

Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. (Luke 13:24)

What is my point? Be watchful.

Be careful of what your pastors are saying. Be careful of the people you listen to on podcasts or on the radio. Be careful of what you read.

If what you hear and read is consistent with God’s word, accept it and obey it. If not, reject it.

If you’re not watchful, corruption can easily spread into your hearts and minds.

So as the apostle Paul wrote,

Test everything. Hold on to the good. (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

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Luke Luke 13

To set people free

Luke

Old ways of thinking die hard. You’d think that by now, the Jewish leaders would start to understand that healing on the Sabbath was not wrong.

They had tried time and again to argue the point with Jesus, and time and again, they were left speechless by his responses.

But as I look at this passage, two words strike me. They’re words that embody the reason for Jesus’ ministry here on earth. The two words?

Set free.

When Jesus saw the woman, he said to her,

Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. (Luke 13:12)

And when he was defending his actions to the synagogue ruler, he said,

Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her? (Luke 13:16)

What can we learn from this? Jesus is more interested in setting people free than us keeping a bunch of religious rules.

Here was a woman who had been bound by Satan for 18 years and living in total misery.

And yet, this ruler had had little sympathy for her during those years. If he had, he probably would have responded with joy at her healing. Instead, he scathingly rebuked Jesus for “breaking the rules.”

Jesus, on the other hand, had compassion on her from the moment he laid his eyes on her.

He saw how Satan had kept her in bondage all those years, and it was his deepest desire to set her free. So he reached out to her, touched her, and she was healed.

How about you? Are you so wrapped up in trying to keep religious rules, that you fail to see the people in bondage around you? That you fail to have sympathy for them even if you do see them? That you fail to reach out with God’s love and power that they might be set free?

You can keep all the rules, but if you have no compassion or mercy in your heart for those Satan has bound, if you are not doing what you can to help set them free, you’re just like that synagogue ruler.

And like that ruler, you will stand ashamed before Jesus someday.

May we each day look with compassion at the people around us who are bound by Satan. May we each day reach out with the love of Jesus that they might be set free.

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Luke Luke 13

Parable of the barren fig tree: Taking a hard look at ourselves

Luke

I suppose it’s only natural that after Jesus talked about the need for being reconciled to God before the coming judgment, that someone would bring up an incident that had just happened.

Apparently, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate had just ordered the deaths of a number of Galileans as they were offering their sacrifices. He then mixed their blood with that of the sacrifices.

The implied question: “Are you talking about people like this, Jesus? They must have been pretty bad to have been judged by God like this.”

But Jesus replied,

Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?

I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Luke 13:2-3)

He then pointed out another disaster that had recently occurred, this one an accident. He continued,

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?

I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Luke 13:4-5)

What is Jesus saying? We could waste a lot of time trying to figure out why things happen.

“Were these people that perished worse sinners than others? Why did God allow this to happen?”

But ultimately, the real question we need to ask ourselves is this:

“Just like these people who perished, one group at the hand of a wicked man, and the other group in a seemingly meaningless accident, all of us will die someday. And none of us know when.

We may think we have all the time in the world, but our life can be taken in an instant. Am I ready?”

The rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12 was not. The people who had just died in those two tragedies may or may not have been ready. But it’s too late to worry about them.

What about you? Are you ready?

Jesus then told a parable of a man who had planted a fig tree but which after three years had yet to bear fruit.

He determined to cut it down, but the man in charge of the vineyard asked him to give it a bit more time. He would do everything he could to make it bear fruit (fertilize it, etc.) and after another year, if it bore no fruit, then they would cut it down.

We see here two things, God’s judgment and mercy.

God desires to see fruit in our lives, the fruit of salvation that he bought with his Son’s blood. And it would be easy for him to quickly just chop down any tree, any person that does not quickly bear fruit.

But he is patient, continually working in people’s hearts that they might be saved.

But ultimately, the day will come when judgment cannot be put off any longer. And if you are not ready, if you are not bearing fruit, you will perish for all eternity.

So let us not worry about, “Why did this atrocity happen? Or why did this disaster occur?”

Instead, let us realize that our life could be cut short at any time. And let us ask ourselves, “Am I ready?”

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Parable of the leaven: Transformed

The gospels

I’m not a baker, but Jesus gives an illustration about God’s kingdom that even non-bakers can understand.

When a baker makes bread, he puts a bit of yeast in the dough. What does the yeast do? Two things.

First, it spreads throughout the dough. Second it transforms the dough. It makes what would be flat, hard, unleavened bread, into a bread that is fluffy and tasty.

The kingdom of God works the same way.

When we plant the yeast of the gospel in people’s hearts and by faith people embrace it, it starts to spread throughout their entire being and transforms them into a whole new person.

Their way of thinking changes, their behavior starts to change, and everything becomes new.

Paul puts it this way,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The same happens with the kingdom of God at large. We are not going to transform this world by political means, by fighting for changes in rules and laws.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t pursue these things. Certainly, in a democracy, we should take advantage of the rights we have to fight for change in our society.

But we are kidding ourselves if we think that changing the laws are going to change human hearts.

Even if we were to outlaw homosexual marriage, it would not stop people from engaging in homosexual behavior. Even if we were to outlaw abortion, people would still find a way to end their pregnancies.

The kingdom of God comes one heart at a time. As God the Holy Spirit transforms hearts one by one, starting with us, and then the people that we touch, then and only then will we see his kingdom spread, transforming our nations.

The question is, what are we doing with the gospel? Are we letting it transform us from the inside out?

And are we sharing it with those around us that the Holy Spirit may start his work in them as well?

May our prayer always be,

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

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Parable of the mustard seed: Starting small

The gospels

I love the vividness of the pictures Jesus paints as he tells stories.

As he talks about God’s kingdom, he talks about how the mustard seed, though it is extremely small, grows into a tree in which birds can find shade from the sun.

What is Jesus’ point? The kingdom of God doesn’t usually start with a bang, it usually starts with something small.

This is especially true in terms of the kinds of people that God uses for his kingdom. Think of Mary, a simple, poor, teenage girl. Think of Joseph, an ordinary carpenter.

And when Jesus came, he didn’t come as a great king surrounded by his armies. He, like Joseph, was a carpenter.

When Jesus chose his disciples, he chose ordinary fishermen, a hated tax collector, and a political radical.

When the Christian movement started, it started in a relatively insignificant city, at least compared to the other great cities of the world.

And yet, through these people in this insignificant city, the gospel spread to the very ends of the earth.

What can we get from this?

You may feel insignificant. Small. Useless to the kingdom of God.

Yet it is because of this very fact that God is so eager to use you. The kingdom of God is filled with such “insignificant” people that others are quick to look down on.

But it is through people like you and me that the kingdom spreads and touches the people around us.

Paul puts it this way,

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called.

Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

Never think that you are insignificant concerning God’s kingdom. It is through the small that God’s great work is accomplished.