Luke 13

      13:1-5.  No one is immune to the tragedies of life.  Though in this fallen world they come irrespective of just desserts, they are non-the-less stern reminders that we no longer live in Eden.  Vv.4-5 are a particular warning to Jerusalem.  Repent while you can.  The judgment of God is coming.

     13:6-9.  The fig tree is Jerusalem.  Cf. Mt.21:19 and Mark 11:12f.; Mic.7:1.

     13:10-17.  Modern naturalists that we have become, we tend to forget what the ancient world never forgot, that disease and miseries of all kinds have a spiritual dimension.  They entered the world when man listened to the word of Satan rather than God, and they are healed finally only by access to the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev.22:1-3).  This woman, afflicted by – what?  Osteoporosis?  A spirit?  Satan?  Her sins?  Which is easier, to say, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness,” or to say, “Begone Satan’ release this woman from bondage”?  (See Luke 5:23).

     Jesus had complete power and authority over all that ails us (13), but the poor blind synagogue officials could not see that the Son of Man was also Lord of the Sabbath.  His great mercy had called this woman out of the pressing multitude, and had given her rest from 18 years of torment.  Mercy, deliverance from bondage, true rest from her great burden; the woman had it all.  Jesus was her Sabbath.  The ignorant crowd instinctively understood and rejoiced, but the officials only saw Jesus breaking a law, his own Sabbath law.  They had turned the Sabbath into another load on the bent backs of the people (cf. 11:46).  Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, and humiliated them for their hardness of heart, while the multitude “was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him”.

     13:18-21.  The kingdom of God has a visible, outward aspect (18-19), and a hidden, inward aspect (20-21).  Ezk.17:23, which Jesus quotes in v.19, speaks of Messiah and his kingdom as a branch planted on a great mountain, and the birds (any who will come) find their rest there.  In this first parable, perhaps the mustard seed is the faith which God sows in his garden, his faithful church.  Christ grows there, and becomes for all who come a sanctuary and place of rest.

     In contrast to the leaven of the Pharisees (12:1), the woman’s leaven permeates the culture for good.  She is the church, and the leaven is the leaven of the Spirit doing his hidden work in men’s hearts, and in society.

     13:22-30.  This passage reminds us in earnest that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, this time to become our Passover.  It is not a time, now or ever, to speculate on who or how many will be saved, but now is the day and hour to strive to enter in before it is too late.

     13:31-35.  The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but the patience of God has a limit, and judgment is decreed for those who defy God’s mercy.  

(Cf. Ezk.18:23, 32; 33:11).  V.35 quotes Ps.118:26, and many were saying this as Jesus entered Jerusalem (19:38).  But the Pharisees who heard it said, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples”.  They would not see him come again until that day when every tongue would have no choice but to confess and acknowledge him as Lord (Php.2:11) at his second advent.