Category: Luke 19

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Luke Luke 19 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

Fruitless

The gospels

This is a story where it is a little hard to understand the actions of Jesus. Why would he curse a tree that wasn’t bearing fruit though it was not even the season for it?

There does tend to be disagreement on the answer.

One idea is that during the time of the Passover, fig trees in Palestine usually produced crops of small edible buds.

These buds were often eaten by local peasants, and it was perhaps this that Jesus was looking for. But if there were no buds growing at that time, it was a sign that there would be no fruit at all from the tree.

I don’t know if this is the answer, but it seems as reasonable as any other explanation I’ve heard.

At any rate, sandwiched around the cleansing of the temple as it is in Mark, it seems Jesus was making a point. That just as judgment came upon that fig tree for not bearing fruit, so judgment was coming upon Israel for not bearing spiritual fruit.

This was clearly seen in the temple and the people running it.

Early in his ministry, Jesus had cleansed the temple, casting out the merchants and money changers from the court of the Gentiles.

As I mentioned before, this was the only area where the foreigners could come and worship God within the temple courts.

But the priests had turned it into a market, and not only that, a “den of thieves” where people who came there were cheated of their money. And this was the temple. The very center of Israelite worship.

All of their religious acts, all of their zeal, was proven to be corrupt by what was happening in their temple. Particularly in the fact that they not only rejected Jesus as Messiah, but plotted to kill him.

And because of that, judgment came when Titus tore down the temple for the final time.

To this day, it has not been rebuilt. Why? Because for all the time and love God poured into Israel, ultimately, they proved to be fruitless.

But none of God’s actions are fruitless. Through the Jews’ rejection of Christ, the gospel spread to the world. And in time, the Jews too will come to Christ. (Romans 11)

The question we need to ask ourselves, however, is what fruit is coming out of our lives?

The Bible calls our lives the temple of God. As his temples, are we bearing fruit? Are we making a difference in the lives around us?

Or have we let ourselves become corrupted by the world? By a love of money as the priests had, or by other things?

If so, then we will stop bearing fruit and all that we “accomplish” or “achieve” will eventually be burned.

Let us not be fruitless, but fruitful. Filled with God’s Spirit, and touching the lives of all he puts in our path.

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John John 12 Luke Luke 19 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

What would bring us peace

The gospels

Lots going on in these passages, and as you look at all four gospels, you really get an idea of the frenzy going on due to Jesus’ entrance in Jerusalem. People are shouting,

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven! (Matthew 21:9)

And,

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! (Mark 11:10)

And again,

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! (Luke 19:38)

And ultimately,

Blessed is the king of Israel! (John 12:13)

Because of the frenzy some people were asking, “What’s going on? Who is this guy?” And others replied, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matthew 21:11)

We see from John that one of the reasons for all this frenzy was that people were still talking about Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead. (John 12:17-18)

At first, the Pharisees tried to stop all of this, even trying to get Jesus to stop his disciples from crying out all these words of praise. But when Jesus refused, they muttered to themselves,

This is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him! (John 12:19)

But for all the frenzy surrounding Jesus’ coming the most poignant moment comes just before Jesus enters the city. In the midst of all the cries of joy from the people, Jesus wept when he saw Jerusalem, saying,

If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you. (Luke 19:42-44)

And that’s exactly what happened in AD 70 when Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple.

Why did this happen? Because they “did not recognize the time of God’s coming” to them.

And because of that, they missed the peace that could have been theirs. Peace within themselves. But more importantly, peace with God.

The same is true with us. God comes to each of us at some time in our lives.

According to Romans chapter 1, even the one who has never heard of God knows about him.

And when they gaze into the sky or see all the nature around them, I believe the Spirit speaks to them saying, “This cannot be an accident. This was designed. You were designed. Seek the Designer.”

For others, the call is much more direct. It comes at church or through a friend telling them about Christ.

And at that point people reach a crossroad. What will they do with this call? Will they listen and follow? Or will they reject it? To follow is to find peace with God and eternal life. To reject it means judgment and eternal death.

How about you? If you are reading this, God is calling you now. Now is the day of salvation. Won’t you receive him today?

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John John 12 Luke Luke 19 Mark Mark 11 Matthew Matthew 21

The Lord needs it

The gospels

We have now reached the home stretch of the life of Jesus, his final week.

As I read this passage, one phrase struck me. Jesus was instructing his disciples to do something very unusual, to go into the village, and just take a colt and donkey that they found there. And if anyone challenged them, they were to simply say, “The Lord needs it.”

The disciples did as they were told, and when the owners saw this, they immediately asked,

Why are you untying the colt? (Luke 19:33)

The disciples responded as Jesus had commanded, and immediately the owners acquiesced.

The question that came to my mind was, “When the Lord says to me of something, ‘I need this,’ how do I respond?”

If Jesus, for example, were to say, “I need you to give some money to this person. They are in need.” Would I immediately say, “Yes Lord?”

Or if I were headed somewhere, and I happen to run into someone, and Jesus were to say, “I need some of your time. Stop and talk to this person,” would I do so?

Or if God were to tell me, “It’s time to leave Nishinomiya. I need you elsewhere for another work,” would I say yes?

Or would I instead cling to what is mine?

Honestly, I don’t know, and probably too often, the Lord has told me, “I need this from you,” and for whatever reason, I said no.

“I’m too busy.”

Or,

“I need that money for other things.”

The disciples brought the colt to Jesus, set him on it, and honored him as king. And we need to do the same.

When Jesus says to us, “I need this,” we need to bring it to Jesus, setting him above it, and honoring him as our king over all.

Do I?

Do you?

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John John 11 Luke 19

A cleansing that goes beyond the surface

The gospels

Right after Jesus’ parable about those who were determined to reject him as king, we see the actual people whom Jesus was speaking of.

Jesus was fast approaching Jerusalem, and a lot of people were already there to celebrate the Passover. And everyone was asking,

What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the Feast at all? (John 11:56)

But the Pharisees and chief priests had already given orders that anyone who found Jesus should report him to them so that they could arrest him. The irony of all this?

Before celebrating the Passover, people had to purify themselves, that is to have a ceremonial cleansing. (John 11:55)

But while these priests and Pharisees may have been outwardly clean, their hearts were full of murder.

What can we learn from all this? A spiritual cleansing goes beyond ritual. It goes beyond doing a lot of good things.

A spiritual cleansing starts by receiving Jesus as your King. It starts by saying, “I can’t cleanse myself. All my efforts, all the religious rituals that I do can’t cleanse me. Lord Jesus, help me.”

John tells us in his first letter that in the end, it is,

the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, [that] purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

There is no other way for us to become right in the sight of God. We must come to the cross of Christ and accept the work he did for our salvation.

Only by putting our faith in him will we truly become clean in the eyes of God.

How about you? Are you truly clean before God?

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Luke Luke 19

If we are determined to reject Christ

Luke

There is another point to this story that Jesus told that we didn’t get to touch on yesterday.

It says in verses 12-15,

A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return….

But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

He was made king, however, and returned home. (Luke 19:12-15)

This was actually based on a true story.

When Herod the Great died, one of his sons Archelaus had to go to Rome to have his kingship ratified since they were the true power in Israel at that time.

The Jews, however, sent an embassy to Caesar Augustus basically saying that they didn’t want him as king.

Ultimately, Archelaus received charge over Judea, but did not receive the title of king.

In the same way, Jesus is awaiting his Father’s “ratification” of his kingdom. But to this day, there are people who hate him and say, “We don’t want this Jesus as our king.”

But whether they want him as king or not, Jesus will be king someday. And if these people continue in their rejection of him, they will be judged and condemned as the people in Jesus’ story were.

How about you? Have you made Jesus king in your life?

He will be king whether you want him to or not. Would it not be better to turn over your life to him willingly, rather than to fight it and be condemned for all eternity?

I don’t mean to try to “scare the hell out of you.” I’d much rather talk about God’s love and grace.

And God does truly love you. He sent his Son to die on a cross so that your sins could be forgiven and you could have peace with him.

But if you spit on that peace offering, and are determined to reject Jesus as king, then only judgment remains.

The apostle John wrote,

Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:18)

The choice is yours. What will you choose?

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Luke Luke 19

Parable of the minas: While we are waiting

Luke

It says that Jesus told this next parable because,

He was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. (Luke 19:11)

In other words, there was an idea that he wanted to dispel from their minds, but there was another idea that he wanted to plant. And so he said,

A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.

So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.

‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ (12-13)

The idea that Jesus wanted to dispel? That his kingdom was imminent.

Before becoming king, he had to first die on the cross to deal with the problem with sin. And after he had done so, he ascended to heaven and sat down at the Father’s side.

Now the Bible says,

Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool… (Hebrews 10:13).

And to this day we await our Lord’s return.

So until that day, what are we to do?

We are to serve him until he returns. That’s the idea he wanted to plant in their minds. That there is still much work to be done.

In the story, the king-to-be called ten of his servants in and gave them each an equal amount of money and said, “Put this to work until I come back.”

What is Jesus talking about here? I believe he’s talking about the salvation we have received.

Notice that these men didn’t work to obtain the money. They were simply given it. But they were to invest what they were given.

In the same way, we never worked for our salvation, rather we received it by God’s grace. But we are to take what we’ve been given from God, and put it to work.

Paul puts it this way,

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13)

What does it mean to invest this salvation we have been given?

It means to take this salvation we have received and invest it in the lives of others. To not hoard this salvation we have received to ourselves, but to share it with others.

It means to pray for them. To minister to them as the mouth, ears, and hands of Jesus in their lives. And we are to do this until Jesus returns.

If we do, we will be rewarded. How? By being given more responsibilities in his kingdom.

So many people want to do great things for God. But if they fail in the task of sharing this salvation they’ve been given, can they expect God to give them more responsibilities?

What’s more, if they fail to invest in the kingdom, as the last man in the story did, all they can expect is rebuke from Jesus when he returns.

Paul says of such people,

He will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:15)

How about you? What are you doing with this gift of salvation you have received?

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Luke Luke 19

Because of us

Luke

This is a very famous story in the Bible, and it’s one I’ve heard (and sang) since I was a kid. But as I looked at it today, verse 3 struck me.

[Zacchaeus] wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. (Luke 19:3)

Zacchaeus, of course, was a tax collector. In our day and age that would be bad enough.

In the Jews’ day and age, however, it was worse because as I’ve mentioned before, they were basically considered collaborators with the Roman government, not to mention crooks.

As a result, they were utterly despised by their fellow Jews.

And yet, he wanted to see Jesus. Why? Probably because though he had all the money he could possibly want, he still felt empty inside. And in Jesus, he saw something different. He saw life and hope.

But because of the crowd, he couldn’t see Jesus.

This was a crowd, that if you had asked them, would probably have said that they were very religious. That they loved God. And yet because of them, Zacchaeus could not see Jesus.

Part of this was because he was short, of course, and because of the sheer number of people.

But I think there’s also a chance that Zacchaeus knew what would happen if he tried to push through to draw near to Jesus. That being who he was, the crowd would not be inclined to let him through.

And so he climbed a tree in order to see Jesus. When Jesus saw him, however, he said,

Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. (5)

If there had been any doubt at what the people’s reaction to Zacchaeus would be, it was quickly dispelled as the people grumbled,

[Jesus] has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’ (7)

But touched by the love of Jesus, Zacchaeus became a changed man, and he said,

Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. (8)

What can we get from this?

How often are like that crowd? We say we love God. We say that we even follow Jesus. But because of us, people can’t see him.

They can’t see him because we fail to tell them about him. Or even worse, because we look down on them and even push them away.

But let us always remember Jesus’ reaction to Zacchaeus. He longs for a relationship with them. That’s why he went to the cross. Not just for you and me. But for those around us. Even the despised.

So let us not despise those around us. And let us not block others off from him. Rather let us remember these words of Jesus and live them.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (10)