Luke 13 Study Notes

13:1-5 It is not known why Pontius Pilate (see note at 3:1) killed the Galileans mentioned here. The mention of their sacrifices specifies that their deaths took place in the temple area, probably in relation to a major religious festival, when all Jewish men were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Nor is anything else known about the eighteen people killed by the collapse of the tower in Siloam in the southeastern part of Jerusalem. Jesus’s questions about the sinfulness of the Galileans and those killed by the tower was apparently inspired by widespread opinion that such things happen only as punishment for specific sins. Jesus countered this notion but nevertheless emphasized that every person must repent (see note at 3:2-3) or else perish spiritually for eternity.

13:6-9 The fig tree is often used as a symbol for the nation of Israel (Mt 24:32-33; Mk 11:12-14). Though young fig trees are slow to begin bearing fruit, three years was a sufficient length of time for trees to become mature and thus fruitful. The extra year requested by the vineyard worker represented one final chance for the trees to become fruitful. Otherwise they would be cut . . . down. This parable thus referred to Israel’s last chance before judgment. If they rejected Jesus’s message and miracles, the time for patience would be ended. But a future hope for Israel remains (Rm 11).

13:10-13 The mention of the Sabbath as the time of this healing calls to mind the earlier controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders (6:1-11). The woman he healed had severe curvature of the spine, caused somehow by a demon (an evil spirit). The healing involved two acts: (1) the casting out of the demon, and (2) the straightening of the spine. This verse does not imply that deformities or illnesses are commonly caused by demons. This was apparently a very rare case, reflective of the heightened spiritual warfare during the time of Christ’s earthly stay.

13:14-16 The leader of the synagogue rejected the healing as it was work done in violation of the Sabbath day (see note at Ex 20:8-11). Jesus’s use of the plural hypocrites shows that he knew the leader spoke for many others who shared his view. He revealed their hypocrisy by showing that it was necessary for everyone to do some work on the Sabbath, notably related to the tending of farm animals. Should not a Jewish woman (daughter of Abraham) under bondage to Satan for such a long time also be untied on the Sabbath?

13:17 Those who had sided with the leader of the synagogue were humiliated because it made them look as if they had more compassion for animals than for a demonized, disfigured woman.

13:18-21 Both of these parables allude to the astonishing advancement of the kingdom of God (God’s rule in this world) that Jesus initiated. The first story focused on the kingdom’s small beginning (like a mustard seed, which was proverbially considered the smallest seed in the ancient world) and dramatic spread (a tree . . . its branches) through Jesus’s ministry. The second parable reinforced the first, with the implication that the kingdom of God would eventually permeate the entire earth much like leaven can spread through even fifty pounds of flour. While it is true that leaven often symbolizes evil in the Bible (1Co 5:6), this passage is a clear exception. Here leaven is used positively and calls to mind the potency of Jesus’s message and works on behalf of humanity.

13:22-23 Luke structures his Gospel in a way that emphasizes that Jesus was making his way to Jerusalem in order to die on the cross. The question are only a few people going to be saved? may reflect two important realities about Jesus’s ministry: (1) Many of his teachings insisted that true discipleship comes with many difficult challenges, and (2) though large crowds came to hear Jesus in every town and village, there were relatively few who authentically followed him as disciples.

13:24-27 Jesus’s story here answered the question in v. 23 about why so few people were being saved. It is because they were not entering by the narrow door (faith in Jesus) while the Lord gave them opportunity (in this case, while Jesus was present, preaching the gospel). Unbelievers may appeal that they knew Jesus in his social life (we ate and drank) and public ministry (you taught in our streets), but they don’t know the Lord personally as Savior (I don’t know you or where you’re from). Because they had not been justified (declared righteous) through faith in Christ (Rm 5:1), they were ultimately evildoers.

13:28-29 An irony of eternal life in the kingdom of God is that many Jews, though they were the original people of God’s covenant, will be excluded due to their unbelief, while many believing Gentiles will share the banquet in full fellowship because they have accepted God’s offer of reconciliation in Jesus. There will be much anguish (weeping and gnashing of teeth) among excluded Jews.

13:30 The kingdom of God reverses many of the world’s values. In the present context, the inversion apparently refers to the fact that believing Gentiles, though they were historically not part of God’s covenant people Israel, became the first to receive the Messiah en masse. By contrast, the Jews were chronologically first in God’s plan, but they became spiritually last since the bulk of their numbers rejected Christ. Jews will receive Jesus widely near the end of the age (Rm 11:25-27).

13:31-34 Jesus seemed to take the warning of these Pharisees at face value, though it is doubtful that they really wished to protect Jesus from Herod Antipas (see note at 3:1). Most likely they simply wanted him to leave their region. Though v. 32 makes it seem that Jesus stayed put for three days more, the subsequent mention of travel to Jerusalem in order to die there makes it likely that this verse was a veiled reference to his coming resurrection. The mention of Jerusalem and his coming death as a prophet allowed Jesus to review the city’s history of killing the prophets whom God sent to her. Jerusalem had repeatedly rejected God’s compassionate outreach (pictured as a mother hen gathering her chicks). The city would soon do the same thing again by rejecting Jesus, God’s Son.

13:35 Your house is abandoned reveals that God’s blessing and protection would be removed, leading ultimately to judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord quoted Ps 118:26 and was later cited in regard to Jesus’s “triumphal entry” (see note at Lk 19:37-38). However, here it looks beyond that to the second coming of Christ (see Zch 12:10; Rv 1:7).