Luke 13:31-35 -Jerusalem, God's Special City

Herod Antipas, who had John the Baptist killed, was threatened by the large crowd that followed Jesus. Fearing a revolt of the Jews, the obvious thing he thought was to have Jesus, their leader, killed.  So in Luke 13:31, we see some Pharisees using Herod's threat to kill Jesus to urge Him to leave where His entourage was. His response in verse 32 shows the Lord's unyielding focus on the goal He came to accomplish. He told them to tell Herod that He would not waver on His mission. He knew for certain that Jerusalem would be where He would be crucified finally.

The reason they wanted Him to go to Jerusalem was not to protect Him but to ensure that He would come under the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin. This was the authority that the Roman authority had set, to allow the Jews to judge matters pertaining to their customs. Jesus’ reply showed that He felt safe in Perea for two reasons. The first was that the time God had predetermined for His death had not come. Herod could not do a thing till the timing had come. So He would just go on meeting the needs of the people till the time came. Secondly, the place God had appointed for Him to give His life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world was Jerusalem. He must be there. Hence Herod could not do a thing to Him as He had to die in Jerusalem.

Since the time David captured it, built it and brought the Ark of the Covenant there, Jerusalem had been a special place in the history of the Jews. When Solomon built the temple there, she became the centre of the nation's worship. God still loves Jerusalem. So turning to Jerusalem, Jesus said that she would come under divine judgement, since it would be the place where He would be rejected and crucified. This city had a long history of killing God's prophets and messengers. Though in God's grace He had sent His Son to them, but they still would not accept Him. Like a mother hen which would gather her chicks to herself, the Lord yearned to gather them to Himself. His desire was to protect them from destruction, but they would not let Him. Thus, the city came under severe judgement in AD 70 when Titus invaded and destroyed it.

But Jerusalem would still see the face of the Lord again at His second coming. And this would not take place until a remnant of Jews has been prepared. This remnant would then welcome Him with these words, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" As we think of the Lord's yearning and love for the Jewish people, we can't help but also think of the long history the nation had suffered. Even today their suffering has not stopped. They have paid for their disobedience and are still paying for what they had done. But let's remember the exhortation to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Do keep this beloved city of our Lord in prayer. For the peace of Jerusalem bring peace of the world.

Luke 14:7-11 – Humility positions one for promotion

The Pharisees were well known for their love for places of honour. Whether in the synagogue or wedding banquet or celebration, they would always seek the first place. Here at the same meal that Jesus was attending, He noticed that some of them were picking out the places of honour at the table. So Jesus in Luke 14:7-11, sets out to address this flaw. Luke called this a parable. It was both a gentle rebuke and an advice to the Pharisees.

As guests, Jesus told them, they should not go for the most honoured seat at a wedding dinner. The reason is simple. The seat may have been reserved for someone else. When that someone arrived, the seat would have to be vacated for him. If one happens to sit on it, he would be asked to vacate it for the intended guest. It would then be an embarrassment for one to be told publicly that the place was not meant for him. Hence, it's always better to go for a less conspicuous seat. So that when the host moves you up to a better seat, you will be greatly honoured in the sight of the people.

In whatever sphere of life, self-importance and self-promotion invariably leads to shame instead of honour. Loss of face brings shame. If one chooses the lowest place, that person couldn't fall any further down. In fact, a person opens himself up for honour when he gets invited to a better seat. Self-importance would often exert itself and cause one to unconsciously assume one's right and entitlement. We need to bear in mind that it's the host who always has the prerogative to decide who sits where at a dinner table. Wouldn't it look better when one is invited from a lower position to a more honoured one?

Jesus’ point is this: No one can snatch honour from the hand of God. It is His to give to whomever He deems fit. To ruthlessly snatches it may lead one to embarrassment at the dreadful moment of demotion. Hence it is futile to assume a position other than the one that one deserves.  It's always better to start low. He then summed up by saying in verse 11, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” God is the one who deserves all the rights to promote a person. If we humble ourselves before Him, we open up the possibility of being exalted by Him. If we grasp at a position ruthlessly, we may experience the shame of being demoted.

Humility is a rare commodity. Among the best of us, there are always moments where we try to look good in the eyes of others. Be sure to live for the audience of one - God Himself. There is no necessity for self-promotion. It's in our weakness that His strength is made perfect. Let's seek to glorify and magnify Him above all else.

Luke 14:1-6 – Be compassionate and merciful

It's interesting to note here in Luke 14:1-6, that Jesus was once again in the house of a Pharisee and having a meal. But what's uncomfortable about the setting is that they had laid a trap for Jesus. We are told explicitly that this was a Sabbath. A better translation for the phrase in verse 2: "they were watching Him closely" would be, "they were lurking and watching Him". They were actually looking out to trap Him. This was a set-up.

Verse 2 in the ESV puts it this way, "And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy." What is dropsy? The modern term is oedema. It is the pooling of excessive fluid in the soft tissues of the feet. It is not a sickness but the symptom of a very serious sickness. This symptom usually reflects that a person is suffering from congestive heart failure. The word, behold, suggests that he was planted there. He did not just stroll in. He was brought in. The timing and the presence of that sick man presented a dilemma for Jesus. To heal or not to heal. Healing him would mean being accused of breaking the Sabbath. But not to heal him would appear being uncompassionate.

Jesus decided to turn the table on them. He asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” They were put in a fix. To say "You can't heal him" would be uncompassionate. To say, "Heal him" would break their own rigid religious regulation. So they took the best course of action. Keep silent. The Lord knew what He wanted to do, Sabbath or not. His compassion and mercy would not allow a tangible need of a person to go unmet. So He healed him. Then He put the Pharisees further on the defensive by asking, "Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” Answering either way they would be trapped. Unlike Jesus, they did not know what the priority is. So they kept uncomfortably silent and resentfully quiet and uneasy.

Luke's whole intention was to show that God's authority, power and presence reside in Jesus our Lord. No wonder Paul in his Colossians Epistle said that the fullness of God dwells bodily in our Lord and we are complete in Him. Jesus is the epitome of God's compassion and mercy. Even on the rest day, His compassion never ceases. We are called to love God and to love our neighbour. How can we love God, Whom our eyes cannot see, if we cannot love our brethren whom our eyes can see? The question is, where then is the love of God? Let's not be governed by our rigid religious obsession till we occlude the compassion of God from a needy world.

 

Luke 13:22-30 – Be in the Kingdom - start well and pursue to the end

It is sad for one to be able see the Kingdom and yet refuses to enter, participate and experience its impact. But it is sadder still for one to see it, enter in, experience it but fails to pursue it to the very end. This was in essence what Jesus was saying in verses 22-30. He was still on His teaching tour towards Jerusalem. It was a good three months away, before the appointed time for the goal of His mission to be accomplished. However, He was getting closer and closer to fulfilling it. So here in Luke 13:23, He was asked, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” This question was asked because so far, many had rejected His message. It indicates a comparison made between those who had accepted Him and those who had rejected Him. Obviously, those who had accepted Him were lesser in number, hence that question. In His response, Jesus was encouraging those who followed Him, to continue to pursue the narrow way. He revealed to them that the door to the Kingdom would not be opened forever.

He was telling them that there would be a time when the opportunity would be closed. He used the barring of the door of a house at night to illustrate this. At a certain time of the night, the door would be closed and bolted. Once that happened, those outside would be shut out. There would be some who would realize it, but it would be too late. The door would already be shut, the opportunity to go into the Kingdom would be gone. With urgency they might stand outside the door and knock, but it would not be opened to them because the time had passed. They might even claim to know the Christ, who had secured the gate, and even made reference to the time they had fellowshipped with Him. Still, that would not help. He would not respond to their pleading because they had rejected the opportunity when it was given. They did not identify with Him when the door was open. Hence they would be placed among the evildoers marked for condemnation and be excluded from the Kingdom. In that place of condemnation, there would be both anger and sorrow. The grinding of teeth would be a sign of anger and weeping, and sorrow.

In their remorse, they could even see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These patriarchs, together with the prophets from everywhere, would be reclining at the table with Jesus and having fellowship with Him in the Kingdom. Many Gentiles who had entered the Kingdom would also be there at the table. Then, there would be those who seemed to be in the forefront now, but they would have barely made it into the Kingdom. And there would be the relatively unknown, they would be given places of honour in the Kingdom.

Walking with Jesus demands resilience. We must hold on to His unpopular teachings and practise them diligently. We must seek to know Him. Though it requires discipline but its reward is immensely rich. Stay through. We will realize finally that it is worth it all, when we recline with Jesus at the table in eternity. He is calling on us to hold on, don’t give up, for the moment will soon be here!

Luke 13:18-21 - Small beginning with great ending

From the healing of the bent-over lady, the Lord launched the two parables about the Kingdom of God recorded in Luke 13:18-21. To show the characteristics of this Kingdom, the Lord began by asking, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?” These two parables picture for us the Kingdom of God and its ultimate growth. The first about the mustard seed illustrates how from a tiny seed, the Kingdom will grow into a huge tree. The Kingdom may begin as a trivial pursuit but it will grow to be a major enterprise. From insignificance, it would become a huge recognizable entity.

The tiny seed becoming a tree also shows the great transformation that would take place. It may be something the naked eye could hardly see, but it will become something that could not be missed. Not only will the Kingdom of God be clearly visible, it would also be a place of shade and shelter. This is a major point of the first parable. Jesus wants us to know that the Kingdom will provide refuge for many. The image of birds nesting in the tree is significant. It points to the fact that even us, Gentiles, were on God's mind. He wants us to also make our home in this Kingdom. Praise God we have!

In the second parable, the Lord uses leaven to illustrate how pervasive and penetrating the Kingdom of God would be. Like leaven that would thoroughly penetrate a lump of dough in the baking of a bread, this Kingdom would also permeate the world and significantly impact it. How it works may be unseen and unknown, but its result would be evidently telling. What are the main thrusts of both parables?

Firstly, like a mustard see, the Kingdom of God may start out small but will reach the point where many may dwell securely in it. And secondly, like leaven to a bread, the Kingdom of God would have complete penetration and would totally impact the whole world. These two parables were designed to challenge the followers of Christ then. They were assured that the programs God had for them may appear small, but they had not seen the magnitude of it yet. Though it may begin small but ultimately God would cause it to penetrate the whole earth and bring His reign to impact it.

In the same way, the Lord assures us of His program for the Kingdom through our lives. It may look insignificant but its inherent power and impact cannot be measured. We must fully trust His programs for the Kingdom through us. Let's diligently engage in whatever role God has given us. We must put our hope in Him and trust that the final outcome of what He is doing through us, will far exceed what we can conceive or imagine. We are a part of this great Kingdom!

Luke 13:10-17 – Well-placed priority

Luke 13:10 tells us that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on a Sabbath. Present and listening to Him was a woman who had suffered from a condition for 18 years. Her condition was both spiritual as well as physical. The passage makes it clear that it was caused by a spirit. She was unable to stand or walk physically upright. Imagine for 18 long years she was bent over. Just as the fig tree in earlier verses represents unbelieving Israel, this lady could represent their inability to walk upright despite being given the law. The healing of this woman has an intended lesson.

Notice in verse 12 that it was the Lord who had initiated the healing. He called her over to Him. Because of the spiritual origin, He first broke the shackle of the spirit that held her. Then He laid His hands on her and prayed for her. Verse 13 tells us that immediately she was unshackled by the spirit and straightened up and began to glorify God. We need to know that the Lord still does heal to meet our needs. Healing of physical conditions still brings glory to God.

The reaction from the synagogue official was appalling. Instead of applauding the Lord for healing that lady, he began to address the other attendees at the synagogue. He told them that they could come and be healed on six other days, why must they come to be healed on the Sabbath. This reminds us that opposition to the Lord's work can be irrational. Though that official did not confront the Lord directly, Jesus knew that the message was intended for Him. He also knew that what that officer said was not his idea alone. It represented the idea of a group of Pharisees. Knowing that, He chided them and called them hypocrites. They all had misplaced value and priority.

Why were they hypocrites? It's because they were not congruent in applying their religious regulation. They deemed their work of leading a donkey or an ox for a drink at the water trough on the Sabbath as necessary work. And this was allowable by their regulation, hence, they did not violate the Sabbath. So obsessed were they by their desire to oppose Christ that they couldn't see the healing of that crippled lady was also a necessity, even if it's on the Sabbath. After all, this lady was a child of Abraham and also of a higher creative order. What the Lord did, humiliated the religious leaders, but pleased the crowd and brought great joy them.

In our life and ministry, we must seek to be governed by the Word of God. And our dedication must be to Christ. We need to give attention to the Word of God and meeting human needs in the ministry. So act and live as directed by the Word of God, and our faithful commitment to Christ.

 

Luke 13:1-9 – True repentance facilitates spiritual growth

Haven't we all ever thought like those people in Luke 13:1, who came reporting to Jesus concerning the plight of the pilgrims from Galilee? They thought that people who have experienced a calamity must have committed a grave sin. The calamity was seen as a divine judgement and a revelation of the degree of their sinfulness. Luke 13:1-5 tell us about two tragedies. The first was when some Galilean pilgrims celebrating the Passover in the temple were killed by Pilate. They expect Jesus who hailed from Galilee to be more sympathetic toward the victims and hope to catch him making some seditious remarks that would get Him into trouble with the authority.

The second tragedy was brought up by the Lord Himself. It's about an incident where eighteen people were killed while building the tower of Siloam which collapsed on them. Here Jesus voiced their thoughts. They were reading into the tragedy and concluded that the eighteen killed were worst sinners than others from Jerusalem. His answer to them was the same for both tragedies, "...unless you repent, you will all likewise parish." Tragedy notwithstanding, sin is sin. There is no greater or lesser sin as far as God is concerned. For truly all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone needs to repent.

Repentance is not the same as remorse. It's not just an emotional experience where one merely cries over a sin. The tears of remorse are usually not so much because of the weight of the sin but more for the fact that one’s sin had now been discovered. True repentance, on the other hand, is a definite change one would make to one's life. It results from a radical change in one's heart and mind concerning sin. It always affects the will and decision to act rightly to amend for the sin. The first aim of repentance is to mend one's fractured relationship with God. It is a pre-requisite for growth in Christ. In life's journey, one would have at times offended God knowingly or unknowingly, and sometimes through wilful disobedience. We need to repent if we want to move on with Him.

In verses 6-9, Jesus then told a parable to challenge the crowds to respond to God's grace and mercy toward them. To understand the parable we need to know that the owner of the vineyard represents God, the vineyard keeper represents Christ; and the fig tree represents Israel (and by extension, the church). Israel, the barren fig tree planted by God was scheduled for destruction. But Christ came in His mercy with the view to see a response to His grace. For three years He showed the kindness of God in the hope that Israel, the fig tree would respond to His mercy and bear fruit. If there is no response, despite His sacrificial work, then it would be hewed down for destruction. Like the challenge Christ made to those people, He is also calling on us to respond positively to God's mercy.

There is a necessity to repent over sin if we desire growth. Having acknowledged Christ's Lordship we must be watchful over our lives. We need to repent every time sin shows up. The middle letter of the word sin is "I". Sin is caused by putting the "I" in the centre of one’s life. The word obedience also has nine letters. The middle three letters spell the word "die".  The middle letter of die is also "I". To live a life of obedience, the "I" in the centre must die. Repentance helps us to deal with the "I".

Paul dealt with it by saying, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." What a way to live! It’s worth emulating!