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In Luke 13 we start coming across a lot more parables of the Kingdom of God. The first parable follows on Jesus encounter with people who had a wrong understanding of sin. There were in those times, just as in our times people who misunderstood the consequences of sin. They too were suject to superstition being brought into their faith, just as people in the modern age are. Some of the people told Jesus about
Galilleans whose blood Pilate had mixed with his sacrifices. In response Jesus asks them if they think those Gallileans were worse sinners than all other Gallileans, because they suffered such things? Their thinking was clear, they thought that such things only happened to people who had done very terrible things. A terrible and horrible thing indeed was the fate, for people who say they are the people of God and end up in a pagan cults sacrifice to pagan gods. Jesus answer to them is "no" they weren't worse sinners than any other Gallileans. Indeed that may sound astonishing,but these people who think themselves more righteous, if they don't repent to God they will likewise perish a terrible death. Jesus then mentions another tragic episode, when eighteen people were killed when the tower of Siloam fell upon then. Again he asks them do you think they were worse sinners than all the other inhabitants of Jerusalem.Jesus tells them no, they were no worse. But to these people who think they are better than them he solemnly warns, telling them they will suffer the same terrible fate if they themselves do not repent and turn to God. Immediatly upon exhorting them to repent and turn to God he tells them a parable to reinforce what he already told them. He tells them a parable of a man with a fig tree he planted in his vineyard.
The man who planted the fig tree keeps coming to look for fruit from the tree, but finds none. So he speaks to the the keeper and tells him to cut the tree down because after three years it hasn't born any fruit. The keeper restrains the owner and persuades him to give the tree another year and then if it hasn't born fruit he will cut it down.
The interpretation of the parable is that God has been patient with Israel and has come seeking fruit of repentance from her but has found none. That is why Jesus told the Gallileans if they don't repent they will perish in a terrible way. Now the time of the Kingdom of God has come and they need to respond urgently, for God has had patience with them. But now that the Christ has arrived in Israel there is no more time, for the owner of the fig tree is coming to cut the tree down, because he has given them more time and still finds no fruit. Israel is in terrible danger and must repent and turn to God or come to a horrible end. next we find Jesus in familar surroundings once again in a synagogue.. Again we can see how Israel has been taken captive by the Satan,her enemy, as we find a woman who has been bent over by a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years. It shows that Israel had departed from God and had followed the practices of the surrounding pagan nations. People don't just get taken captiveby evil spirits. Rather people who dabble in the occult and seek out mediums etc and in so doing break Gods law, become captives. Here is an Israelite in Israel, not in a foreign land, who is just like the pagans around about them. We see that God moved toward her when Jesus saw her and called her to him and declared her liberty from the evil spirit. This is sovereign grace of God moving toward a wicked sinner and sovereignly declaring her freedom from bondage. The woman didn't come to Jesus and ask for healing. The fact that she was in the synagogue could have been because it was the tradition of her fathers, or it could have been that she heard Jesus was there and heard that he was the Christ that Israel was looking for. Never the less Jesus declared her liberty and as he laid hands on her she was immediatly made straight and delivered of the demon and immediatly she gave God the glory. unfortunately as God was receiving glory the synagogue ruler reacted not by glorifying God for the mighty deliverance He had just worked in their midst. Nor did he declare the greatness of the God of Israel. Instead he acted like an unbelieving beast without compassion or sight. Here we have evidence of how the Pharisaic law was made above the law of God. he said to the people there are six days for you to work, so come and be healed on those days and not on the Sabbath day.Jesus is very blunt in His rebuke of the synagogue ruler. Jesus calls the ruler a hypocrite to his face. he says to him, all of you on the Sabbath loose your horse and ox from the stall and then lead it away to water it. Jesus is saying if you can do such work on a Sabbath and not be charged with violating the Sabbath,then don't be so hypocrytical and complain that a daughter of Abraham who has been held captive by Satan for eighteen years has been set free from bondage on the Sabbath. Of course we may not miss the significance of Jesus healing on the Sabbath. By doing this healing on the Sabbath Jesus was saying the Kingdom of God has come, it is the Sabbath year, the year of the Lords favour and rest from her hard labour of sin.So when Jesus answered the synagogue ruler, with this answer all Jesus adversaries were put to shame, but the multitude rejoiced in Jesus and all he had done. Jesus now addresses the peoples expectation of the Kingdom. He ask the question "What is the Kingdom of God like and to what can I compare it? Here we find that Jesus is bringing a reinterpretation to their expectation of the Kingdom of God. Many of them,like most Jews expected the Kingdom of God to come all at once and then this wicked age would be over. Rather Jesus is saying the Kingdom will come like a mustard seed that grows slowly and in time until it is a full grown tree. Jesus is saying the Kingdom of God has started to come in His ministry in this evil age, as is made evident by the powers of the age to come which is the Kingdom of God, being manifested in this evil age.The kingdom will not appear suddenly but the restoration of Israel and the world has started by the recreation of the many in Israel, because Jesus is reversing Gods curse. So the kingdom of God will grow slowly advancing in growth in time until it is come to fulness.Then the restoration of Israel and the world will be over all the earth and people and all creation will be the new creation. The new creation is begun now by Jesus plundering the strongmans goods, who are the people held captive by sin and the devil. The people who receive Gods Spirit are made into New creations, born again, Spirit filled, resurrection life, people of God. This the first fruits of the new creation and the fulness of the harvest and completion of the New creation work will come to fulness at Christs return. So the reinterpretation of the Kingdom is that it is without doubt "Now" but is also "Not yet".But make no mistake the Kingdom of God began in Christs ministry. |
