Luke 12:54–13:9 CSB
54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, right away you say, ‘A storm is coming,’ and so it does. 55 And when the south wind is blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why don’t you know how to interpret this present time? 57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort to settle with him on the way. Then he won’t drag you before the judge, the judge hand you over to the bailiff, and the bailiff throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny.” 1 At that time, some people came and reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And he responded to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful than all the other Galileans because they suffered these things? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well. 4Or those eighteen that the tower in Siloam fell on and killed—do you think they were more sinful than all the other people who live in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.” 6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’ 8 “But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
Introduction
Main Idea: Jesus calls us to recognize our spiritual need and to respond in repentance.
Jesus is addressing the crowds who swarmed to see him. As you can hear, the tone he uses is urgent and sober. If you’re here this morning and you are not a Christian, I urge you to weigh carefully the words of Jesus in this passage.
If you are a Christian, you may be wondering, How does this affect me? I believe there are two effects this passage should have on us. First, it should lead us to examine our hearts to ensure that we are in the faith. Second, it reminds us of the urgency of the mission that Christ has given to his Church.
Let’s see four exhortations that Jesus delivers to the crowd.
#1: See the time correctly (vv. 54–56)
Jesus begins his rebuke with a lesson in weather watching. If gardening or caring for livestock is important to your way of life, you get pretty good at observing the weather patterns. Even in this part of the country, people are more accustomed to observing weather systems in the gulf and tracking them because of hurricanes.
Jesus is addressing a group that would be familiar with the weather patterns of that region. In verse 54, he says, “If you see clouds gathering on the horizon in the west, you prepare for the coming of a storm.” Geographically, to the west was the Mediterranean Sea, and storms would often blow in from that direction.
Likewise, if a southern wind blows, you know it’s going to be hot. South of them would be the Sahara Desert. In a similar way, we know if the wind here shifts to a north wind, what’s likely going to happen? It’s going to cool off.
What is Jesus saying here? In verse 56, he rebukes the crowd because they know how to interpret the weather, but they don’t know how to interpret this present time? What is the present time? It is the fact that Jesus is the King who has come to save the world. The people had grown spiritually dull.
In other words, you’re aware of the details of the weather, while you should be paying even closer attention to the spiritual climate. The Messiah was right there, preaching and performing miracles that clearly testified to his true identity.
Friends, it falls to each and every person to rightly interpret the time. With this, I don’t mean going to apocalyptic sections of Scripture to try to interpret in light of the world news.
Rather, realize that Jesus is the hope of the nations. He is your only hope to be reconciled to God.
#2: Beware the cost of rejecting Christ. (vv. 57–59)
Not only should we recognize the time, but we should also beware the cost of rejecting the truth. Jesus uses the example of someone who owed a debt, and they were being taken to court for that debt. If found guilty, they would be in prison until it was paid off.
Jesus is basically saying, “If you know you’re guilty, plead with the offended party before you stand before the judge.” Otherwise, he warns, you will remain in jail until the last penny is paid. Actually, my translation says “penny,” but the coin is actually a lepton, which was the smallest currency available then, and it was worth something like one-eighth of a penny.
Jesus is pleading with his hearers to consider the cost of not recognizing the time and not following him.
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. 3 For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. 5 They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:1–5)
Jesus’s example points us to the reality that we all stand guilty before God for our sin. That’s the bad news. The even worse news is that we can never repay the debt that we owe.
But the Good News is that everyone who cries out to Jesus for forgiveness and grace will be forgiven.
24 “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. (Jn. 5:24)
So, consider your spiritual state. Does your conscience condemn you this morning with the lie you told your spouse? With the anger that erupted at your work? With the inappropriate content you were looking at on your phone recently?
What do you do with that guilt? The answer is not to bury it or mask it with mind-numbing scrolling or alcohol or eating or even an iron-will to fix it yourself.
First and foremost, it’s to come before the risen Lord and Savior and plead for mercy.
#3: Don’t be fooled. Repent. (13:1–5)
Even though we start a new chapter, this section is linked to the previous one. You see in verse one that “at that time” some folks came and reported about a tragedy that had taken place. It’s reported that a group of Galileans were killed by Pilate, and their blood was mixed with the blood of the animals that they were preparing to sacrifice.
No one knows exactly what historical event this refers to, although it is known that Pilate could be brutal. We do know, though, that this must have taken place in Jerusalem as the people came from Galilee to offer worship at the temple. Obviously, this would be a tragedy for the Jewish people, and the intentional mixing of blood with animal blood would be outrageous.
Jesus confronts a common belief that many would hold during that day: this sort of experience is divine judgment against the individual’s sin.
Do you see what he says in verse 2? The crowd thought that the Galileans faced this sort of tragic death because they were more sinful than those in the crowd. Likewise, Jesus mentions another incident in verse 4 where a tower fell on and killed eighteen people. Siloam was a reservoir in the city of Jerusalem.
We see Jesus addressing this mindset elsewhere in John 9:1-3:
1 As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.
This should give us pause before attributing a tragedy to the Lord’s judgment against that people. For instance, when Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina, some pointed to the flooding of Asheville as God’s response to the sin in that city. The problem is that we don’t know the Lord’s motivation, but also, it ignores the fact that many Christians and churches serving in the area were decimated.
Jesus takes the opportunity to point people to the spiritual lesson. Notice what Jesus repeats in v. 3 and verse 5: “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.” It’s not as though those sinners are out there with the unwashed masses.
Repentance is for everyone. The Galileans who faced that tragic death and the religious leaders who stood amidst the crowd all had the same need. They need to turn from their sin and look to Christ.
In the same way, this speaks to the need of every person here today. If you have lived a life of licentiousness, giving yourself to every sort of unmentionable vice, your need is to repent and look to Jesus for forgiveness and true satisfaction.
On the other hand, if you have prided yourself on living a perfectly disciplined life, and your confidence in your ability to keep your nose clean and do what is expected of you, your response is to repent of your self-righteousness and look to Christ, the only perfectly righteous One.
The gospel is for everyone.
#4: Don’t wait. (vv. 6–9)
In this last section, Jesus tells a parable to the crowd to demonstrate the last truth. He tells of a man who owned a vineyard, and the man had planted a fig tree. After three years, a length of time by which the tree should be producing fruit, there was still no fruit.
The man ordered the tree to be cut down since it was taking up space and taking the soil’s nutrients, but he and the vineyard worker came to an agreement to give it one more year. The worker will fertilize it, but if it does not produce fruit, it will be cut down.
In order to understand the parable, it’s important to note that Israel is often represented in the Old Testament with vineyard imagery. For instance, look at Isaiah 5:1-7.
1 I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even dug out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes. 3 So now, residents of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could I have done for my vineyard than I did? Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes, did it yield worthless grapes? 5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland. It will not be pruned or weeded; thorns and briers will grow up. I will also give orders to the clouds that rain should not fall on it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, the plant he delighted in. He expected justice but saw injustice; he expected righteousness but heard cries of despair.
Likewise, if you remember from last week’s passage, Jesus quoted from Micah 7 to explain the hardheartedness of Israel and the animosity that his followers can expect. Well, in that same chapter, we see the fig imagery.
1 How sad for me! For I am like one who— when the summer fruit has been gathered after the gleaning of the grape harvest— finds no grape cluster to eat, no early fig, which I crave. (Micah 7:1)
This parable is told to awake Jesus’s hearers with the severity and urgency of the situation. He’s telling them, “You’re in danger of judgment. Don’t wait. Turn to him while you still can.”
The Lord is graciously giving them time to repent. In the same way, the Lord is patiently and graciously giving you time to repent, but don’t take advantage of it
8 Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8–9)
Conclusion
Friends, don’t wait to make things right with the Lord.
Likewise, church family, let us live on mission together with an urgency that is rooted in our love for those who are headed to face God’s judgment.
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