Luke 13

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1Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

2Jesus answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered such things?

3I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.

4Or those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them; do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem?

5I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.”

6He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.

7He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?’

8He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it, and fertilize it.

9If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”

10He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.

11Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up.

12When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.”

13He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight, and glorified God.

14The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!”

15Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water?

16Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

17As he said these things, all his adversaries were disappointed, and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

18He said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what shall I compare it?

19It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and put in his own garden. It grew, and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

20Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?

21It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

22He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

23One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,

24“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able.

25When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

26Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

27He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

28There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves being thrown outside.

29They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in the Kingdom of God.

30Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last.”

31On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here, and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”

32He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I complete my mission.

33Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can’t be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.’

34“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

35Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Commentary

13:1-5 Mention was made to Christ of the death of some Galileans. This tragical story is briefly related here, and is not met with in any historians. In Christ's reply he spoke of another event, which, like it, gave an instance of people taken away by sudden death. Towers, that are built for safety, often prove to be men's destruction. He cautioned his hearers not to blame great sufferers, as if they were therefore to be accounted great sinners. As no place or employment can secure from the stroke of death, we should consider the sudden removals of others as warnings to ourselves. On these accounts Christ founded a call to repentance. The same Jesus that bids us repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, bids us repent, for otherwise we shall perish.

CHAPTER 13Lu 13:1-9. The Lesson, "REPENT OR Perish," Suggested by Two Recent Incidents, and Illustrated by the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.1-3. Galileans—possibly the followers of Judas of Galilee, who, some twenty years before this, taught that Jews should not pay tribute to the Romans, and of whom we learn, from Ac 5:37, that he drew after him a multitude of followers, who on his being slain were all dispersed. About this time that party would be at its height, and if Pilate caused this detachment of them to be waylaid and put to death as they were offering their sacrifices at one of the festivals, that would be "mingling their blood with their sacrifices" [Grotius, Webster and Wilkinson, but doubted by De Wette, Meyer, Alford, &c.]. News of this being brought to our Lord, to draw out His views of such, and whether it was not a judgment of Heaven, He simply points them to the practical view of the matter: "These men are not signal examples of divine vengeance, as ye suppose; but every impenitent sinner—ye yourselves, except ye repent—shall be like monuments of the judgment of Heaven, and in a more awful sense." The reference here to the impending destruction of Jerusalem is far from exhausting our Lord's weighty words; they manifestly point to a "perdition" of a more awful kind—future, personal, remediless.

"\nAnd Jesus answering, said unto them,.... Neither approving, nor condemning Pilate's action; and though he allowed the Galileans to be sinners, which could not be denied, he does not bear hard upon them, but improves the instance for the conviction of his hearers, and in order to show them the necessity of repentance, and to bring them to it:\n\nsuppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? such a supposition they seem to have made, by their speaking to Christ concerning this matter; and concluded from their violent and untimely deaths, that they had been notorious and uncommon sinners, and guilty of the most enormous crimes, which had brought upon them the just judgments of God: whereas this is not a rule of judging; oftentimes the best of men suffer exceedingly in this life; God's judgments are a great deep, and not to be fathomed by us, nor is it to be easily known, when any thing befalls persons in a way of judgment; there is nothing comes by chance, but every thing by the wise disposal of divine providence, to answer some end or another; nor are persons that are punished, either immediately by the hand of God, or by the civil magistrate, to be insulted, but rather to be pitied; besides, love and hatred, the characters and states of men, are not to be known by these effects in providence.\n\n\n "

"\nI tell you, nay, c,] They were not greater sinners than others of their neighbours, nor is it to be concluded from the bloody slaughter that was made of them others might be much more deserving of such an end than they, who yet escaped it:\n\nbut except ye repent; of sin, and particularly of the disbelief of the Messiah:\n\nye shall likewise perish; or perish, in like manner, as these Galileans did: and so it came to pass in the destruction of Jerusalem, that great numbers of the unbelieving Jews, even three hundred thousand men were destroyed at the feast of passover {c}; and that for sedition, as these men very likely were.\n\n{c} Vid. Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 11. & l. 7. c. 17. Euseb. l. 3. c. 5.\n\n\n "

"\nOr those eighteen,.... Men; the Persic version reads, "those twelve"; but all copies, and other versions, agree in this number:\n\nupon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them; there was a pool near Jerusalem, called the Pool of Siloam, Joh 9:7 near, or over which, was a tower built, which fell down and killed eighteen men; very likely as they were purifying themselves in the pool, and so was a case very much like the other, and might be a very late one: and this Christ the rather observes, and puts them in mind of, that they might see that not Galileans only, whom they had in great contempt, but even inhabitants of Jerusalem, died violent deaths, and came to untimely ends; and yet, as not in the former case, so neither in this was it to be concluded from hence, that they were sinners of a greater size, or their state worse than that of other men:\n\nthink ye that they were sinners; or debtors; for as sins are called debts, Mt 6:12 so sinners are called debtors:\n\nabove all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? there might be, and doubtless there were, as great, or greater sinners, in that holy city, and among such that made great pretensions to religion and holiness, as they were.\n\n\n "

13:3 Ye shall all likewise perish - All ye of Galilee and of Jerusalem shall perish in the very same manner. So the Greek word implies. And so they did. There was a remarkable resemblance between the fate of these Galileans and of the main body of the Jewish nation; the flower of which was slain at Jerusalem by the Roman sword, while they were assembled at one of their great festivals. And many thousands of them perished in the temple itself, and were literally buried under its ruins.

"\nI tell you, nay,....

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