Luke 13
This chapter contains different parables and metaphors to get this point across; our salvation rests in Jesus is Lord. That statement affects our decisions, how we love people, and why we live for the Kingdom. Jesus is displayed in three ways throughout this chapter:
The call to repent (V1-5)
Urgency to share the gospel (V15-17)
How we act and our character (V25-30)
The call to repent
Jesus levels the playing field when it comes to sin. In the story of the Galileans, he shows that no one sinner is greater than the other. ALL sin is sin against God and calls for His wrath. Although, the act of repentance is a treasure because it allows us to offer our weakness, shame, and guilt over to God and receive His mercy. All of this was BEFORE Jesus even died. So when we believe Jesus is Lord, we also believe His death covered our past, present, and future sin (Romans 10:9) - we don’t know what tomorrow will hold (Matthew 6:34), so Jesus’ call to repent is urgent, and necessary.
Urgency to share the Gospel
During this time, sabbath was sacred (air quotes). There were certain things you could and could not do on the Sabbath. Jesus, without holding back, tells the synagogue leader that he will help his animal on the sabbath but not this woman (who had been in pain and bondage for 18 years). Jesus did not wait to heal this woman - she had come to the synagogue and prayed for it for years! In a commentary on this passage Timothy Spurgeon says:
“For eighteen years she had not gazed upon the sun; for eighteen years no star of night had gladdened her eye; her face was drawn downward towards the dust, and all the light of her life was dim: she walked about as if she were searching for a grave, and I do not doubt she often felt that it would have been gladness to have found one.”
Do we view the people around us in pain or in need of healing and redemption with compassion? Does that compassion lead us to an urgency to share? Even when reading this passage, I call into question my own motives and am compelled to examine my own heart when it comes to this urgency. We are no different than the synagogue leader, and we are also no different than the woman in pain.
How we act and our character
So after hearing all these parables and stories, what is the point? Well, there will come to a point where we will have to meet Jesus and give an account (Romans 14:12) of every word we speak. Jesus expresses this through the narrow door and how some will pass through it, and it will close on others. He says that MANY will not be able to enter. This should lead us to be transformed to live as Jesus did - not that works can save us but because His life is worthy of following and submitting to.
How do you need to repent? What do you need to believe? Ask God to transform your heart towards compassion.
