The Latter Judean Ministry - Part V
THE MESSAGE which we examined in the preceding study, Luke 12:13-53, was delivered by Jesus to His disciples (vs. 22). When our Lord finished this message, He then addressed the multitudes (vs. 54) which were evidently in attendance upon Him on this occasion (vs. 2). That the excitement and general interest were running very high is most obvious. Jesus had left Judea at least two years before this time and had consumed all of His thought and energy in His great Galilean ministry and in His labors during His four retirements from the Holy Land. During these two years, however, He did go to Jerusalem to certain of the feasts; yet He did not come in contact with the great multitudes of the people, but with the religious authorities only.
Let us recall that we are, in our studies, about three months before the crucifixion. The seventy disciples whom He had sent forth had engaged in a very intensive campaign, preaching throughout all Judea. They had healed the sick and cleansed the lepers, confirming their messages by the miracles which they wrought. Of course, they were all working under the leadership of the Lord Jesus Christ. Naturally there were many thousands of the multitude that were following Him on this occasion.
The Significance of the Signs of the Times
In 12:54-59 Jesus rebukes the people because they can read the signs of the heavens and earth so far as the weather is concerned, but are unable to discern the signs of the times. If they knew God in a personal manner and if they fully knew and believed the Scriptures, they would recognize Him as the long-promised and looked-for Messiah, which thing they do not (Acts 13:27-28). There is therefore no excuse for their not recognizing the times in which they are living.
There are certain signs of the end of the age, which are in evidence on every hand now. If the Lord Jesus were present with us today, He would reprove us and call us hypocrites, possibly, in that we can discern weather conditions, as the people of His own day did, but are unable to see and recognize the fulfillment of prophecy today.
There are large portions of different parts of the Bible that deal specifically with our times. There is no excuse for our not knowing and not recognizing the fact that we are in the very end of the age. But one retorts that such language is the stock in trade of certain fanatical students of prophecy. We are therefore often told that this is the same cry of, "Wolf! Wolf!" that students of prophecy have been shouting from time to time. I recognize that there have been much speculation and guessing in regard to prophecy. Certain speculators have made out schedules and timetables for the Lord to carry out, but He never runs the earth or the universe according to man-made schedules and timetables. The only wise and intelligent thing for us as Christians to do is to study honestly, conscientiously, and thoroughly the prophetic word as well as all other portions of the Holy Scriptures and then give it out to the people in order that they may know where we are in this dispensation. God expects us to know about these things and to act accordingly.
The Solemn Call to Repentance
There were present on that occasion certain ones who reported to Jesus concerning the Galileans who had been slaughtered by Pilate, and whose blood had been mingled with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1-5). Jesus said to those giving Him this information; "Think ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they have suffered these things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish." There are those who hold the theory that God punishes people during this life in proportion to their sins. That is a mistake, and Jesus here corrects it. Then He calls attention to the eighteen people who were killed by the falling of the tower of Siloam (vs. 4). They were not the worst sinners in Jerusalem. Thus declares the Lord Jesus. Then He enforces the lesson of repentance: "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish."
In giving the world-wide commission to the disciples, our Lord enjoined upon them to preach "repentance and remission of sins" in His name among the nations. In his speech at Athens the Apostle Paul asserted that God passed by the times of ignorance and overlooked many things: "... but now," he said, "he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent..." (Acts 17:30). In his ministry Paul taught publicly and from house to house, "... testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21).
Godly sorrow, when it is sorrow caused by the fact that one has sinned against God and is out of fellowship with Him, is the thing which produces repentance (II Cor. 7:9). I fear that we ministers of the Word do not always put the proper scriptural emphasis upon repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and His atonement. May God enable us at all times to put the scriptural emphasis upon the various doctrines taught in the Word!
The Cursed Barren Fig Tree
In the following paragraph (Luke 13:6-9) the Lord Jesus spoke a parable to this effect: There was a man who had planted a fig tree in his vineyard. From time to time he came seeking fruit, but found none. Then he said to his gardener: "Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this tree, and find none: cut it down; why doth it also cumber the ground?" The gardener pleaded with the owner to allow him to dig about it and to put fertilizer in the soil in order that it might bear fruit; but the latter said that in the event it did not from henceforth produce, then it was to be cut down. On this occasion, as at all other times, Jesus drew His illustrations and parables from familiar facts and objects. He did this in order to send the truths home to the hearts of His hearers.
We are told that this narration is a parable, an object lesson, and this is correct. The prophet Joel also uses the fig tree, as well as the vine, as a symbol of the Jewish nation (Joel 1:7). The Apostle Paul in Romans, chapter 11, likewise used the olive tree as a symbol of the Jewish nation. When we note what is said in the first five verses of Luke, chapter 13, concerning the Galileans and their being sinners--and the people of Jerusalem and their also being sinners, when we note the solemn words that our Lord spoke concerning the necessity of repentance on the part of the Jewish people in general, and when we remember that He had engaged in His public ministry for probably three years and that the owner of the vineyard came looking for fruit on the fig tree for three years, we are driven by these facts to conclude that the fig tree in our parable is used symbolically to refer to the Jewish nation. An examination of the account of our Lord's cursing the fig tree (Matt. 21:18-22) likewise confirms our interpreting the fig tree here as referring to the Jewish nation.
In this connection the question arises as to whether or not the fig tree which is mentioned in Matthew 24:32-33 is likewise used as a symbol of the Jewish nation; "Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; 33 even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors." There is nothing in this context that indicates a symbolic meaning of the word "fig tree." On the contrary, everything points to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about a literal tree. In view of these facts, we do not believe the fig tree in this passage has any reference to the Jewish nation.
God had done all that He could to make His national fig tree in its own land to be productive of the fruits of righteousness, justice, and holiness; but it did not bear such fruit. The tree must first be made good; then the fruit will be good. So also must the human heart be regenerated and changed in order for man's conduct and life to be what it should.
The lord of the vineyard acquiesced in his gardener's suggestion of doing all that could be done for the fig tree in order that it might bring forth fruit that year. Our Lord, in accordance with the suggestion of the parable, let the nation of Israel continue on; unfortunately, however, it did not bear fruit. Hence, it was ripe for judgment, which fell upon the nation in its fullness in A.D. 70.
Jesus Healing the Infirm Woman
In Luke 13:10-17, we have a record of our Lord's healing a woman who had been afflicted for eighteen years. From verse 10 we see that Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. In fulfillment of the prediction found in Isaiah 42:1-4, Jesus did not go out in public places and in the streets and markets to stir up the masses, but He resorted to the regular places of worship and of teaching the Word of God in order to do His teaching. When, however, He was on a Journey from one place to another, frequently something arose that caused Him to speak in a public manner; but, as stated, His established custom was to speak in the synagogues and at the Temple. When He was, therefore, speaking in one of the synagogues on the sabbath day, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and was bowed down by it. She could in nowise stand erect. We are not told what the disease was which she had. It may have been arthritis, or some kindred disease. Jesus, being moved with compassion toward her because of her unfortunate situation, immediately said: "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13 And he laid his hand upon her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." The power that went forth from Him cured her of her sickness. Thus she stood erect and was restored to perfect health. He did not have to pray for her but had to rebuke the disease. This He did in the form of making the announcement to her that she had been loosed from her infirmity.
The ruler of the synagogue was moved with indignation against Jesus because He healed on the sabbath. In an uncouth, undignified manner the ruler retorted: "There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the day of the sabbath." This statement was a backhanded knock at Jesus. He was working, but He was working on the sabbath--according to the ruler of the synagogue. He should keep the sabbath day holy and not relieve the poor infirm woman. Thus the ruler reasoned. He was more interested in a strict legalistic ceremonial observance of the sabbath than he was in the restoration to complete health of a poor unfortunate woman, who had been gripped by this infirmity for eighteen years. There is such a thing as holding to the letter of the Word of God and missing the spirit altogether. This man implied that Jesus should have come there some day during the week--any day except Saturday, the sabbath day, and perform the miracle of healing which He did on the sabbath. It is quite possible that the woman had gone to the synagogue many times during the week, as devout, consecrated Jews often do, visiting it every day. But Jesus was not at the synagogue every day. On this occasion He was there and so was the woman. Being moved with compassion, He healed her--the normal thing for Him to do.
The Lord, knowing the situation with which He was confronted, spoke to the ruler, and doubtless also to those who were present, and who probably were backing the ruler in his unheard-of and unreasonable demand, saying, "Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? 16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the sabbath?" (vss. 15,16). Doubtless every one of those to whom He spoke unloosed his ass and ox and led him to water on the sabbath day. They did more manual labor by far than Jesus did. In fact, He had not done anything but simply spoke the Word and healed the woman. They were illogical and hypocritical in doing what they did, or were accustomed to doing all the time, and at the same time in objecting to what He did.
The Lord Jesus gave the true explanation of the woman's infirmity: Satan had bound her for eighteen years. If our spiritual vision could be opened, we would very frequently, I am sure, recognize that much of the sickness that is in the world today is due to, or traceable back to, Satan and his activity. He is a mighty foe--very powerful; but not all-powerful. He who is in us (Christians) is mightier than he who is in the world, Satan. There is only one way in which we can deal with Satan, and that is to turn the case over, as did Michael (Jude, vs. 9), to the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the other hand, doubtless there are many diseases that are caused by our own imprudence--our lack of eating properly, and our failure to take the right kind or amount of rest and exercise. At the same time Satan is working overtime in afflicting the saints if possible.
On this occasion our Lord again repeated His parables of the mustard seed and of the leaven which a woman put in three measures of meal. In these two illustrations He spoke of the growth and the development of wickedness in the kingdom of God--in its present condition. Thus the seed of the particular mustard plant, which He had in mind, grew into an abnormal tree; and the leaven, the symbol of evil, spread throughout the entire batch of meal.
