Luke 13:1-17: “Jesus Teaches About The Importance Of
Repenting / The Unfruitful Fig Tree / Jesus Heals On The Sabbath”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 35-59 of chapter 12.
1.1.1. Having told His disciples that He would die and raise again from the
dead, Jesus told them that after He has raised from the dead that they need to
begin living their lives in such a way that they are always prepared in heart
for His return for them.
1.1.2. Jesus told His disciples that regarding His return for them they are to
be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from a wedding
feast.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going
to look at the first 17 verses of chapter 13.
1.2.1. We will see that Jesus takes an opportunity to discuss why bad things
happen to some people as well as the importance of every person repenting and
getting their life right with the Lord.
1.2.2. Jesus speaks about the unfruitful fig tree.
1.2.3. Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath which causes much controversy when
the synagogue leader is angry because he believes Jesus has broken the Sabbath
Law by healing. Jesus rebukes this
leader and the Jews in general for their callous attitudes and for hypocrisy.
2. VS 13:1-3 - “1 Now on the same occasion there
were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate
had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you
suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans
because they suffered this fate? 3 “I tell you, no, but
unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” - Some people report to Jesus
about a massacre of some Galileans at the hands of Pontius Pilate and Jesus
uses the opportunity to teach about why tragedies occur and the need for
repentance
2.1.
This report to Jesus by the
crowd at this time might have been in response to Jesus’ apocalyptic teaching
of the people just previously about the importance of seeing the signs of the
time. Jesus chided the Jews for being so
adept at predicting the weather because of the appearance of the sky or the
direction of the wind, yet they were had no spiritual perception at all and did
not have a clue who Jesus was or why He had come.
2.2.
Here we read about a tragic
event caused by a very treacherous man, the governor, Pontius Pilate. In another couple of weeks or less Pilate
will have the opportunity to spare the life of Jesus when Jesus is brought before
him with false charges being brought by the Jews. However, instead of setting Jesus free, with
a callous indifference he will choose to abdicate his responsibility to execute
justice and wash his hands of the matter
giving the Jewish leaders the permission to crucify their own Messiah.
2.3.
We do not know exactly which
event in history might be in reference in this passage, however this type of
treachery was carried out by Pontius Pilate on several occasions. Darrell Boch lists five different events that
occurred during this general timeframe that have been proposed as the specific
incident mentioned here:
2.3.1. “After effigies of Roman rulers were displayed in
2.3.2. Some Jews were massacred in connection with the building of an aqueduct
in
2.3.3. Some Samaritans were attacked at
2.3.4.
Archelaus slew three
thousand Jews in 4 B.C. (Josephus, Jewish War 2.1.3 §§ 8-13; Antiquities 17.9.3 §§ 213-18; S. Johnson 1935). The time is too early, and it involves a
different ruler.
2.3.5.
Six thousand Jews were
murdered by Alexander Janneus, who had been pelted with citrons during the
Feast of Tabernacles (Josephus, Antiquities 13.13.5 § 372; noted by Zahn 1920: 521).
The incident is entirely too early, having occurred in the early part of
the first century.”
2.4.
Warren Wiersbe has given his
opinion about this particular incident, “The atrocity mentioned in verse 1
may have taken place when Pilate “appropriated”
money from the temple treasury to help finance an aqueduct. A large crowd of angry Jews gathered in
protest; so Pilate had soldiers in
civilian clothes mingle with the mob.
Using concealed weapons, the soldiers killed a number of innocent and
unarmed Jews, and this only added to the Jew’s hatred for their governor.”
2.5.
Regardless of whatever event
it was that was being referenced by those who reported the incident to Jesus at this time, this deed was very
evil and left a big impression upon those who reported it to Jesus.
2.6.
The crowd might have wanted
to know if Jesus was willing or interested in getting involved in righting such
a horrible injustice, especially if they sensed that Jesus intended to position
Himself to be Messiah King over the Jews in fulfillment of God’s promise to the
nation. In keeping with Jesus’ expressed
mission in this first advent, He avoids a political discussion and uses this
opportunity to warn the people about the importance of repenting of their sins.
2.7.
Before admonishing the crowd
about the need for repentance, Jesus first wants to make a point about why tragedy
occurs in peoples’ lives. In considering
this topic, notice first of all here that the people do not ask Jesus why
things such as this happen to people and whether or not those who were
slaughtered were worse sinners than others.
Jesus Himself chooses to address this topic, and perhaps in addressing
the topic He is answering a question that the people were considering in their
minds but had not asked. The question
is, “How could bad things happen to good people?” This question has been asked by people all
through he ages.
2.8.
Jesus begins His teaching by
first asking the people a rhetorical question, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners
than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?’ The answer to this question Jesus immediately
gives, ‘I tell you, no.’
2.9.
Throughout history it has
been the case that when bad things happen to people there are some who have
taken the position that the person to whom the things happened must have
somehow deserved what happened. They think
that it must be that the person has committed some sort of horrible sin because
how would a just and loving God allow bad things to happen to good people? When you read the book of Job in the Old
Testament you see that this is the very position that Job’s friends took
concerning the calamity that occurred in his life. They accused him of sinning and bringing his
suffering upon himself. However, we also
read in the latter part of that book that the Lord rebukes Job’s friends for
sinning because they spoke to Job and condemned him without knowing what they
were talking about.
2.10.
Warren Wiersbe writes the
following story which illustrates the importance of not judging others by their
circumstances, “When the blind English poet John Milton was old and obscure,
he was visited one day by Charles II, son of the king that the Puritans had
beheaded. “Your blindness is a judgment
from God for the part you took against my father,” said the king.
2.11.
In the book “In the Eye of the Storm” by Max Lucado, he tells
the following story that illustrates how wrong it is to judge others based upon
things that happen to them:
“Once there was an old
man who lived in a tiny village. Although poor, he was envied by all, for he
owned a beautiful white horse. Even the
king coveted his treasure. A horse like
this had never been seen before—such was its splendor, its majesty, its
strength.
People offered
fabulous prices for the steed, but the old man always refused. “This horse is
not a horse to me,” he would tell them.
“It is a person How could you sell a person? He is a friend, not a possession. How could you sell a friend?” The man was
poor and the temptation was great. But he never sold the horse.
One morning he found
that the horse was not in the stable.
All the village came to see him.
“You old fool,” they scoffed, “we told you that someone would steal your
horse. We warned you that you would be
robbed. You are so poor. How could you ever hope to protect such a
valuable animal? It would have been
better to have sold him. You could have
gotten whatever price you wanted. No
amount would have been too high. Now the horse is gone, and you’ve been cursed
with misfortune.”
The old man responded,
“Don’t speak too quickly. Say only that
the horse is not in the stable. That is
all we know; the rest is judgment. If
I’ve been cursed or not, how can you know?
How can you judge?”
The people contested,
“Don’t make us out to be fools! We may
not be philosophers, but great philosophy is not needed. The simple fact that your horse is gone is a
curse.”
The old man spoke
again. “All I know is that the stable is
empty, and the horse is gone. The rest I
don’t know. Whether it be a curse or a
blessing, I can’t say. All we can see is
a fragment. Who can say what will come
next?”
The people of the
village laughed. They thought that the
man was crazy. They had always thought
he was a fool; if he wasn’t, he would have
sold the horse and lived off the money.
But instead, he was a poor woodcutter, an old man still cutting firewood
and dragging it out of the forest and selling it. He lived hand to mouth in the misery of
poverty. Now he had proven that he was,
indeed, a fool.
After fifteen days,
the horse returned. He hadn’t been
stolen; he had run away into the
forest. Not only had he returned, he had
brought a dozen wild horses with him.
Once again the village people gathered around the woodcutter and
spoke. “Old man, you were right and we
were wrong. What we thought was a curse
was a blessing. Please forgive us.”
The man responded,
“Once again, you go too far. Say only
that the horse is back. State only that
a dozen horses returned with him, but don’t judge. How do you know if this is a blessing or
not? You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you
judge? You read only one page of a
book. Can you judge the whole book? You read only one word of a phrase. Can you understand the entire phrase?
“Life is so vast, yet
you judge all of life with one page or one word. All you have is a fragment! Don’t say that this is a blessing. No one knows.
I am content with what I know. I
am not perturbed by what I don’t.”
“Maybe the old man is
right,” they said to one another. So
they said little. But down deep, they
knew he was wrong. They knew it was a
blessing. Twelve wild horses had
returned with one horse. With a little
bit of work, the animals could be broken and trained and sold for much money.
The old man had a son,
an only son. The young man began to
break the wild horses. After a few days,
he fell from one of the horses and broke both legs. Once again the villagers gathered around the
old man and cast their judgments.
“You were right,” they
said. “You proved you were right. The
dozen horses were not a blessing. They
were a curse. Your only son has broken
his legs, and now in your old age you have no one to help you. Now you are poorer than ever.”
The old man spoke
again. “You people are obsessed with judging.
Don’t go so far. Say only that my
son broke his legs. Who knows if it is a
blessing or a curse? No one knows. We only have a fragment. Life comes in fragments.”
It so happened that a
few weeks later the country engaged in war against a neighboring country. All the young men of the village were
required to join the army. Only the son
of the old man was excluded, because he was injured. Once again the people gathered around the old
man, crying and screaming because their sons had been taken. There was little chance that they would
return. The enemy was strong, and the
war would be a losing struggle. They
would never see their sons again.
“You were right, old
man,” they wept. “God knows you were
right. This proves it. Your son’s
accident was a blessing. His legs may be
broken, but at least he is with you. Our
sons are gone forever.”
The old man spoke
again. “It is impossible to talk with
you. You always draw conclusions. No one knows.
Say only this: Your sons had to
go to war, and mine did not. No one
knows if it is a blessing or a curse. No
one is wise enough to know. Only God
knows.””
2.12.
Jesus then tells the crowd,
‘unless you repent, you
will all likewise perish.’
This response by Jesus answers the question of whether or not a person
can come to salvation through Christ without having repented of his sins. Repentance is an inseparable step in coming
to have saving faith in Jesus. Faith and
repentance, you see, are two sides of the same coin.
3. VS 13:4-5 - “4 “Or do you suppose that those
eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits
than all the men who live in
3.1.
The first incident was one
which was caused at the hands of a treacherous government official. However, now the incident in question is a
natural catastrophe or an accident. A
tower had fallen upon some individuals and killed them.
3.2.
Jesus again poses the
rhetorical question of whether or not those upon whom these things occurred
were worse offenders than others. Then,
again He immediately gives the answer, “I tell you no.”
3.3.
In this life and with our
limited and humble understanding of the things that occur around us, we cannot
fathom to guess what reasons the Lord has for allowing to happen some of the
things that occur. Those who think that
they understand why the Lord does everything that He does are dangerous and
cause many to be hurt by their judgmental attitudes. When tragedy strikes someone we should weep
with them, point them to the Lord as their hope and help, but we should never
try to explain to them why God has allowed this to happen to them. Sometimes its best to just tell someone in
this situation, “I have no idea why the Lord allows some things to happen in
people’s lives, however I do know that He is a good and just God and that He is
in control of events and does have a good reason for allowing everything that
happens to occur.”
3.4.
Jesus repeats His warning to
the people here that if each and every one of them does not repent that he/she
will likewise perish. Repentance means
to make a 180° turn from our
life of sin and to begin following and obeying the Lord. We repent of our sin and we repent to God,
both are involved.
3.5.
We are living in a world
that has already been judged by God.
Mankind has inherited a sinful nature from Adam, our federal head, and
therefore we sin and because we sin we shall ‘perish’ for eternity in
eternal punishment. Jesus expressed this
in John 3:16-17 when He said, “16 “For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God
did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world
might be saved through Him.”
4. Luke 13:6-9 - “6 And He began telling this
parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he
came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 “And he said to
the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on
this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the
ground?’ 8 “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for
this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if
it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” - Jesus tells His disciples the
parable about the unfruitful fig tree
4.1.
Having warned everyone about
the need for repentance in a person’s life in order that he/she might not
perish, Jesus now begins though use of a parable to expound upon the fact that the
Lord wants fruitfulness out of His people’s lives.
4.2.
In
4.3.
When a person plants a vine
or a fruit tree, he usually has in mind a purpose for that vine or tree to
produce a fruit that will be useful for him to eat or sell. A vine or fruit tree that does not produce
its fruit has no other useful purpose and actually takes up space and nutrients
from the soil, as well as precious time and energy in maintenance from the one
who is the vinedresser.
4.4.
On other occasions Jesus
compared the crowd to a fruitless fig tree (see Matt. 21:19-21, Mark 11:13-14,
Matt. 24:32, Mark 13:28, Luke 21:29).
4.5.
4.6.
The owner of the vineyard
had shown great patience in putting up with a non-productive fig tree for three
years. Now, he was giving the
vinedresser one more year to try and give some special attention to the fig
tree to see if with this special care that it might be able to bear figs the
next year. For the next year, the vinedresser
will put fertilizer around the fig tree and break up the soil around its roots
so that it might more easily get moisture and nutrients. However, the owner of the vineyard will
eventually run out of patience and cut down this unfruitful fig tree if it does
not produce figs this next year. This
all illustrates that the Lord had just about run out of patience with
Israel. They had hardened their hearts
against the Lord and though a very religious people they had turned away from
the Lord. Now, the nation has one last
chance to repent and find the Lord and if they do not then they shall be
rejected by the Lord. We know that the
Lord did in fact judge Israel because they rejected their Savior for in less
than 40 years from this day the nation will be overthrown and destroyed by the
Romans (70 A.D.).
5. VS 13:10 - “” 10 And He was
teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.” - Jesus was teaching on the
Sabbath
5.1.
This is the last record in
the gospels of Jesus teaching in the synagogues.
6. VS 13:11-17 - “11 And there was a woman who for
eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double,
and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called
her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” 13 And
He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began
glorifying God. 14 But the synagogue official, indignant because
Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response,
“There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get
healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him
and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or
his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? 16 “And
this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen
long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath
day?” 17 As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated;
and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by
Him.” - Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath and incurs
the wrath of the synagogue official
6.1.
Meetings of people with
Jesus are never chance meetings. The
meeting of this woman whom Jesus heals on this day could have happened at any
time and on any day of the week.
However, the Lord chose this day because He wanted to make some very
important points to the people in Israel about their religion by healing this
woman on the Sabbath, including:
6.1.1. It is always a good time to do a truly good deed for someone.
6.1.2. God’s working always has people’s best interests in mind.
6.1.3. Salvation is about being freed not about coming into bondage.
6.2.
We cannot imagine the suffering
that this woman has undergone through the past eighteen years of her life. Throughout these eighteen years she has
because of a demon been ‘bent double and could not straighten up at all.’
6.2.1. By the way, not all illness is from a demonic origin as we also see
from Jesus’ healings in the New Testament.
Most of the time we see that Jesus is not dealing with a demonic
condition when He heals people.
6.3.
This woman’s love for and
commitment to the Lord is seen in that even after eighteen years with a horrible
debilitating disease caused by a demon she still regularly attended worship at
the synagogue. We can imagine how she
could have gotten bitter towards God or allowed her severe physical
difficulties to become an excuse for not coming to worship, yet she did
neither.
6.4.
Jesus calls this woman to
come over to Him, and this would have been a cruel request for it brought
attention to her illness, except for the fact that Jesus intended to reverse
her condition and free her from all of her suffering.
6.5.
This is yet another healing
that came about at Jesus’ leading, no one asked Him to heal this woman on this
day. This shows yet again Jesus’
compassion that He had for people.
6.6.
What is at issue in this
story is that the synagogue leader really does believe that Jesus has broken
the Sabbath laws by healing this woman on the Sabbath. This man and his attitudes symbolize all of
the religion of the Jews in Jesus’ day.
6.7.
There are many things about
this story that show how ridiculous and hard-hearted this synagogue leader was
on this day, including:
6.7.1. How could healing someone be construed to be “working” on the
Sabbath? All Jesus did was speak to the
woman. It was God who did the healing.
6.7.2. The synagogue official is upset about Jesus’ healing this woman yet he
himself had no ability or power to heal this woman. Healing was something that was completely out
of his realm of possibilities. He was
upset that Jesus did an incredible and wonderful work in healing this woman
when he had nothing that he could offer to her in the way of help. Was he just jealous of Jesus?
6.7.3. Why isn’t this man simply rejoicing because this woman has been
released from this horrible disease after being afflicted like this for
eighteen years.
6.8.
This story was meant to
illustrate to the Jews how that their manmade religion with all of its made up
rules and regulations was not benefiting people and did not meet their
needs. Instead it brought bondage. Jesus reveals to this synagogue leader that
the leader is more concerned about his own animals than he is about
people. The synagogue leader would untie
his ox or donkey from the stall and take it to get water on the Sabbath, yet he
would not think about having a woman healed from a horrible illness of 18 years
on the Sabbath.
6.9.
We read here that as Jesus
was saying these things that the synagogue officials were being humiliated and
that the crowd was rejoicing over the ‘glorious things being done by Him.’ Having come into Judea for this last Passover
before His crucifixion, the conflict that Jesus will face with the Pharisees is
only going to worsen and finally lead to Jesus’ murder.
7. CONCLUSIONS:
7.1.
As we consider the events
that occurred in this study, we need to apply the principles we have learned to
our own lives. Considering Jesus’ teaching
about the fact that when bad things happen to people that this does not
necessarily mean that they are particularly evil or deserving of this, we ought
to personalize this by being careful not to judge others based upon their
circumstances. Leave all judgment to God
after all we only have a fragment of the information about anyone and their
situation, or about God’s plans and purposes.
7.2.
God has called you to be a
fruitful fig tree for Him. You have a
purpose that He placed you here for, it is to bear fruit for Him. Don’t allow yourself to merely a leach off of
God and take up valuable nutrients that could go to others. Fulfill your purpose and calling by the Lord!
7.3.
Considering Jesus’ healing
of this woman with great need on the Sabbath and the synagogue leader’s
response, don’t be like the Pharisees and allow religious tradition or rules to
get in the way of your caring for others and being a blessing to them. Christianity is about loving people and
caring and ministering to them, and Jesus is our best example of this.