In this video, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke discuss Luke 13:6-17, diving into the parable of the fig tree and the healing of a woman in the synagogue. They explore the themes of bearing fruit, the grace of God, and the contrast between those who rejoice and those who criticize. Join them as they provide insights and reflections on these powerful passages from the Gospel of Luke.
Thank you for joining us, we sincerely help that this study encourages you in your understanding of the Bible. Please be sure to share this with anyone who you think might be interested in joining us. If you want to subscribe for future episodes, go to our website pastortalk.co.
Pastor Talk Quick Links:
- Learn more about the Pastor Talk series and view our previous studies at https://pastortalk.co
- Subscribe to get the Pastor Talk episodes via podcast, email and much more! https://pastortalk.co#subscribe
- Questions or ideas? Connect with us! https://pastortalk.co#connect
- Interested in joining us for worship on Sunday at 8:50
Transcript
00:00:01:24 – 00:00:27:15
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for closing out the week with us as we move into the Gospel of Luke 13 chapter. We are in the sixth verse, covered a little bit of the opening of the chapter yesterday. I think maybe a little bit of a welcome turn of direction, Michael, as we kind of get into more traditional typical kind of Bible stories.
00:00:27:19 – 00:00:51:07
Clint Loveall
The first one is a parable. Jesus goes back to parables in this chapter. Verse six he told them this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and he found none. So he said to the gardener, Look, for three years I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree and I still find none.
00:00:51:12 – 00:01:17:24
Clint Loveall
Cut it down. Why should it waste the soil? The gardener replied, Sir, let it alone for one more year until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good. If not, you can cut it down. Then. So this is I think it’s a short parable, simple parable that’s a fairly well-known parable.
00:01:17:29 – 00:01:43:51
Clint Loveall
And the Bible has much to say with agricultural metal metaphors and much to say about bearing fruit. This language is written throughout the Gospels, certainly in the letter of Paul, the idea of being fruitful, of bearing fruit is well established in the Gospel. And here is a story about a tree that doesn’t bear fruit. And what happens to that tree?
00:01:43:51 – 00:02:08:22
Clint Loveall
And if you know biblical language, you know the answer to that. Things that don’t bear fruit are are of no good to the the vineyards, the farm, the managers, the stewards, whoever it is that is over them. And so they are dealt with. And that’s the premise of the parable here, Michael, that we have a problem. Fig tree doesn’t bear figs solution.
00:02:08:22 – 00:02:19:19
Clint Loveall
It cut it down. It’s wasting the soil, it’s using up its spot and its nutrients and it’s doing nothing in return, and therefore it has to be dealt with.
00:02:19:24 – 00:02:41:42
Michael Gewecke
Else to be dealt with. And there’s grace in a story like this. I mean, very quickly, we move into this story and we see that the owner I skipped over here, sorry, the owner just immediately wants to get the value out of the ground and the value out of the crop that should be coming and there is none.
00:02:41:42 – 00:03:08:58
Michael Gewecke
So it’s the gardener that says low loan. It will put manure on it. And if it does bear fruit, then good. I think there’s probably a great challenge in this. If you read this allegorically, if you look for the meaning behind a parable like this, you have individuals who should be bearing fruit, people who are planted, who are fig trees, people who have all of the capacity to grow spiritual fruit, not growing it.
00:03:09:03 – 00:03:32:00
Michael Gewecke
And the idea being, hey, we’re going to put some nutrients in that soil. Jesus has come, proclaims the coming of the kingdom. He’s revealed God’s plan for humanity. And the question is, will that take root? Will the fig tree grow fruit? Will it will that faith grow in the people who have been blessed with another opportunity, or will they miss their window?
00:03:32:00 – 00:03:59:11
Michael Gewecke
And if that’s the case, it’s very clear, then you can cut it down. That that’ll be the end. And so there is grace in it because of this second chance for the plant allegorically, I think we could read that as a second chance for those who are encountering the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then there’s also the challenge in the reality that that only goes for so long, that there comes a time where the plant gives account for its lack of fruit.
00:03:59:11 – 00:04:11:51
Michael Gewecke
And in our own lives, there’s a there’s a moment in which we are warned that we will account for the lack of our own fruit. There’s a kind of simple, practical, earthy meaning, I think, to a story like this.
00:04:12:01 – 00:04:37:09
Clint Loveall
There is. And Luke has done a beautiful job here of capturing the the two pieces of the story that are in tension with one another. On the one hand, people are called to bear fruit just like fig trees. A fig tree exists to bear figs. Right? And so there is no escaping the idea that this parable is a warning.
00:04:37:13 – 00:05:08:49
Clint Loveall
It is a call to be fruitful, particularly to those who have not been fruitful. On the other hand, this story is a beautiful reminder that the master, the gardener, is gracious. There is a kind of bent towards waiting. There is a kind of gracious opportunity. And rather than rush to punishment, rather than rush to take the tree down, there is this voice of intervention.
00:05:08:54 – 00:06:02:38
Clint Loveall
Give it a little more time. Maybe. Maybe something different will happen and it is this and this is not alone. This kind of picture is given of God in other parables, but this fundamental willingness to be gracious, to be patient, to wait and see. I think it’s easy to read this passage and see the warning, but I think if that’s all you take out of it, I think you miss a really nice remind to the God who expects fruit bearing is also the God in many cases, who is willing to wait and give the the tree every chance to accomplish what it’s there for in the same way that God is willing to hang in
00:06:02:38 – 00:06:23:43
Clint Loveall
there with people who are not bearing great fruit and give them an opportunity to change their life. And so I think it’s important that we see both sides of that parable, Michael, because it they inform one another. And I think Luke does a really nice job of holding them together here in just given that he only uses a few verses.
00:06:23:43 – 00:06:25:01
Clint Loveall
It’s really well done.
00:06:25:06 – 00:06:44:40
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, and we’ve said this if we’ve said it once, we said a thousand times, but let’s just be clear that we understand verse six it is small connecting words matter. Then he told this parable then, okay, well, what was the thing that came before jump back to the last study if you missed it? Right. That caveat pause this go there.
00:06:44:54 – 00:07:05:36
Michael Gewecke
But that said, what we just dealt with yesterday, it matters. Verse five. I tell you, unless you repent, you will all Paris just as they did. And you have to go back for the study about the just as they did. But what’s key here is repent, right? That call to action we now see modeled in this call to bear fruit.
00:07:05:38 – 00:07:40:46
Michael Gewecke
Right. So we now have a parable that is helping to illustrate the fact that we are called to take real action in our life. The fruit of faith comes when we practice, when we intentionally pursue, when when we confess our faults and then we give ourself fully to the act of following. And I think that this is a beautiful way of us being reminded of the grace, as we now said multiple times, the grace of the one who gives us time and patience, but then also the awareness that there is an expectation that if we apply ourself, fruit will grow.
00:07:40:46 – 00:08:03:16
Michael Gewecke
There’s a possibility held open in this parable for the FIG plant. There’s that, there’s the real shot that it could grow, and if it does, then it will continue to stand. It will not be cut down. And that’s a kind of grace later the end into it. It’s not just that there’s grace for time. There’s grace that that there’s a future for this fig tree if it grows.
00:08:03:16 – 00:08:10:39
Michael Gewecke
And we should repent like Jesus calls us to. And when we do that, we will grow. And that’s a beautiful gift.
00:08:10:44 – 00:08:37:52
Clint Loveall
There’s also a suggests in that while the master’s patient, it’s not infinitely so. There is an expectation the master is not simply going to have a fig tree that never bears fruit. And while there is a willingness to wait, there is an expectation. And this in such is true of the lives of people of faith as well. God is patient, but God also expects of us.
00:08:37:57 – 00:09:05:44
Clint Loveall
Then we move on to another story. It’s been a while since we had a healing story, but we see one here. Verse ten Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for 18 years. She was bent over. She was quite unable to stand up straight when Jesus Sari called her over and said, Woman, you’re set free from your ailment.
00:09:05:49 – 00:09:36:24
Clint Loveall
When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the Sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, There are six days on which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be cured and not the Sabbath. But the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the manger and lead it away to give it water.
00:09:36:28 – 00:10:04:03
Clint Loveall
And not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, who Satan has bound for 18 long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath. When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing. This is really a drama in two parts and maybe I should have broken up the reading, but we’ve seen this pattern before.
00:10:04:08 – 00:10:29:09
Clint Loveall
Jesus notices a woman in this case. She is impaired with her posture, with she’s bent over. Crippled is the word here. She’s hampered and Jesus calls her over and with the words, sets her free, touching her, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. And and yes, this is a conflict story, Michael, but we don’t want to miss the miracle.
00:10:29:24 – 00:11:02:42
Clint Loveall
Scripture gives us these wonderful opportunities to try and put ourselves in the shoes of those who need healing, of those who encounter Jesus. And I think it’s worth pausing for a moment to imagine this woman’s day, this woman, this moment for this woman in her life, when after 18 years of struggle and suffering and pain that she stands, that she is set free from that, that that weight is lifted, hid from her, that’s a dramatic moment.
00:11:02:47 – 00:11:24:36
Clint Loveall
And this line immediately she stood up straight and began praising God is a beautiful moment and we don’t want to run ahead to the conflict and simply miss an opportunity to rejoice with this woman. This is this is a powerful moment.
00:11:24:41 – 00:11:58:51
Michael Gewecke
Jesus turns to speak directly to this woman. And that is an amazing gift to see in Scripture. The times when a person gets a direct visit from Jesus and to imagine in an encounter like that Jesus doing that for you. Right. The thought that you might see the one face to face look him in the eyes that you might see in his physical visage, that his own face looking in yours, you could see the boundless love of the creator of the universe.
00:11:58:51 – 00:12:25:43
Michael Gewecke
That that is a moving image. It it moves this woman literally. She is healed. She’s straight and she’s made able again, which is what healing does in Luke. Healing restores the broken so that they might participate in the kingdom that God has made for them. That that when God shows up, the brokenness of life is bent back into order.
00:12:25:48 – 00:12:49:03
Michael Gewecke
And it’s a beautiful encounter here. And we’re not going to rush into the conflict. But the conflict I think, is actually pre visage to a little bit. We have a little bit of just a shot across the bow here. And I want to point it out because verse 11, it says that this woman has a spirit that crippled her for 18 years.
00:12:49:03 – 00:13:18:12
Michael Gewecke
And we do have other references to the idea of, you know, satanic forces being the result of an illness or a handicap, a disability. But in this particular part of Luke, I think that this is really important language because I think the spirit that afflicts this woman is about to be contrasted with another spirit afflicting a group of people as we’re going to see in the conflict narrative.
00:13:18:14 – 00:13:36:59
Michael Gewecke
When Luke pairs and a healing encounter like this with a conflict like we’re about to talk about, that is something you should take note of. These have not come together accidentally. It’s not as if these things were on the cutting room floor and he thought, Well, I’ll just throw them in the blender and see what happens. This is carefully thought through.
00:13:36:59 – 00:13:53:19
Michael Gewecke
These are connected stories and that something about this woman and her bondage for 18 years that she’s now been freed from on the Sabbath, that stands to instruct us in the opposite about the bondage that other people are in on that same Sabbath.
00:13:53:24 – 00:14:30:05
Clint Loveall
Right. And so, yeah, that’s the for me, that’s the clue. Luke says here he’s teaching on the Sabbath. This woman has this moment. She she praises God, she stands up in view of everyone. This is a moment to rejoice and be grateful with her. But of course not everyone can do that. The leader of the synagogue, the indignant is a strong word, became indignant, upset that Jesus had cured on the Sabbath and said, Look, there’s six days and he understands this to be a law, don’t do work on the Sabbath.
00:14:30:05 – 00:14:55:37
Clint Loveall
And he he believes that Jesus has just done work, that Jesus has put forth effort and Jesus calls him out for that spirit. Hypocrites, again, one who acts like something that they’re not. Wouldn’t you untie your donkey? Wouldn’t you lead it away to give it water? Now, I want to be clear. Jesus is not equating this woman with a donkey.
00:14:55:37 – 00:15:27:43
Clint Loveall
That’s not the point at all. What he’s saying is you would do a small thing for something in need. I have done this thing for this woman in great need, and. And you’re criticizing me for it. And I think your point is well made, Michael. They also are captive to a spirit, because unlike the woman who stands and praises God, they curse Jesus, they grumble, they can’t see what is clearly happening in front of them.
00:15:27:48 – 00:15:54:34
Clint Loveall
And they criticize it as legalistic and as controlling men. And Jesus is simply saying, you missed it. This woman with all of this suffering has been set free. And don’t you think she deserves that? Are you going to tell her she can’t have that because it’s a day? Because it’s the day you think healing shouldn’t happen. You don’t understand anything.
00:15:54:34 – 00:16:18:22
Clint Loveall
You’re talking about it. And I think you know it. It’s a I think the contrast of a broken woman who is healed and praises versus broken synagogue leaders who see God at work and refuse to praise is a really nice mechanism that Luke has written in the story for us.
00:16:18:27 – 00:16:42:41
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, the language here is just explicit. In verse 16, the woman has been bound for 18 long years by Satan. She’s now freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day. She’s been freed from the bondage. But this synagogue leader, Clint, sure, he will live with that bondage, right? The bondage is one of religion. The bondage is one of hypocrisy.
00:16:42:41 – 00:17:13:39
Michael Gewecke
It’s one of believing a thing which suits one’s own worldview and interests and then being unwilling to be confronted and unwilling, in the words of Jesus, to repent, to change, to be transformed. And of course, we know because of the parable that came just before this, again, not an accident, the idea that those who are unable or unwilling to bear fruit, that there comes a time where that grace runs out, where the window is no more.
00:17:13:39 – 00:17:40:30
Michael Gewecke
This woman is rejoicing because she can bear the fruit of encountering the risen Christ. Her life has been transformed. She is now able to live into a new kind of kingdom because of what has happened in her life. But the synagogue leader, we have to imagine as as the reader, I think Luke does this so well. You know, you get into a conflict with Jesus over the healing of this woman.
00:17:40:42 – 00:18:04:54
Michael Gewecke
He clearly comes back and just roast this individual, as all of the opponents, Luke say, were put to shame. Right. But it doesn’t say that they were put to shame and put their trust in Jesus. No, I mean, we’re left to imagine as the reader, that this guy goes home and he stews for the next month. And I think that that’s the real power of a text like this, a woman whose life has been transformed.
00:18:04:58 – 00:18:31:48
Michael Gewecke
She rejoices, the man who comes to Jesus and wants to press the letter of the law over the life that that law was made to protect. That man has God has now been put to shame and the one person’s bent open to a new life and possibility, and the other may have chosen a road that leads to closed death, the kind of death of a soul or death of a participation in God’s will and plan the world.
00:18:31:51 – 00:18:36:54
Michael Gewecke
I just think that this this story illuminates that in a powerful way.
00:18:37:06 – 00:19:07:59
Clint Loveall
We should absolutely connect this story with the parable that precedes it. All of the crowd sees the same thing. The Pharisees, the synagogue leader, they all see the same thing. They see a hobbled woman who has suffered for nearly decades, encountered Jesus, stand up and praise God, and the crowd rejoices at the end. Here, the entire crowd was rejoicing at the wonderful things Jesus was doing.
00:19:08:04 – 00:19:37:04
Clint Loveall
And yet this handful of people, this handful of men refuse to rejoice. They bear no fruit. And you know, we’re still in the window of grace and we’re still in the window of patience here. But the contrast is clear. They all see the same thing and most of them rejoice at what Jesus has done. And some of them criticize Jesus for when he has done it.
00:19:37:04 – 00:20:03:38
Clint Loveall
And you couldn’t have a clearer divide of those who get it and those who don’t. And the shocking thing in the gospels is that it’s always the religious people who don’t get it. In this case, even the crowd gets it. And scripture is not altogether kind to crowds all the time. But and in this moment, the crowd knows what they’ve seen.
00:20:03:43 – 00:20:21:07
Clint Loveall
And these religious men who who should be the first to get it don’t get it at all. And that’s a wonderful warning to those of us in the faith to keep our eyes open and to make sure that we are bearing the fruit of joy and grace as well.
00:20:21:12 – 00:20:39:37
Michael Gewecke
Well, and make no mistake about it, Luke is making very clear why Jesus died on the cross, that Jesus died on the cross because of encounters like this. He was the one who went to the people in power and the people who had been given privilege. And when he told parables, he told parables about the plant that did bear fruit.
00:20:39:52 – 00:21:16:21
Michael Gewecke
And it makes it very clear you’re not bearing fruit plant. And that’s the that’s the trajectory that Jesus has on He. And all the more. It just accentuates your point. The idea it’s the religious people who should have been first to receive Jesus are the first to be enraged. And it’s those people who will start with this small fire that will slowly grow and grow and grow until it becomes just a massive flame of anger at Jesus across the entire religious, Jewish, religious world, which will move Jesus forward towards his ultimate crucifixion.
00:21:16:21 – 00:21:28:24
Michael Gewecke
The reason Jesus died is not a surprise to the Gospel writers. Luke makes it clear from the start The reason that this is happening is because of encounters like this and and we’re seeing it in clear, clear as day.
00:21:28:24 – 00:21:51:40
Clint Loveall
CALLER Yeah, and this is challenging text. You know, the intersection often set before us is to criticize or to rejoice. And what are we looking for? What what are we pursuing and what fruit are we bearing and I think Luke, you know, Luke challenges us even as he tells us a story about other people.
00:21:51:45 – 00:22:12:39
Michael Gewecke
If you’ve been challenged, have you been encouraged? Give this video like helps others find it. Subscribe and join us next week because we come to a parable. I suspect everyone has heard that some juncture and in some ways it provides a positive upshot to what otherwise might be a very convicting parable. I hope to see you then. Until then, be blessed.
00:22:12:39 – 00:22:13:26
Clint Loveall
Thanks everybody.