Luke 13 Archives | Moment to Moment

To set people free

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.

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

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?”