Luke 13, a visual study from The Lampstand Project.
Strive to enter through the narrow door.
Repent or perish. The fig tree given one more year. A crippled woman healed on the Sabbath. The mustard seed and leaven. The narrow door. Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
Three movements. Repentance and healing, parables, lament.
Luke 13 moves between urgency and tenderness. Repent or perish. But look at the fig tree — give it one more year. A woman bent over for eighteen years is straightened on the Sabbath. The mustard seed grows enormous. The leaven works through. Strive to enter the narrow door. And then the lament over Jerusalem — the city that kills prophets — ending with the longing of a mother hen for her scattered chicks.
A chapter in 3 movements.
Tap any numbered marker to read its part
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Repent or perish. The fig tree. A woman loosed.
Some tell Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate has mixed with their sacrifices. He says: do you think they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell — were they worse offenders? No. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Then the parable of the barren fig tree: a man looks for fruit for three years, finds none. Cut it down. But the dresser asks for one more year: let me dig around it and put on manure. If it bears fruit, well. If not, then cut it down.
On a Sabbath he is teaching in a synagogue. A woman is there bent over with a disabling spirit for eighteen years. Jesus sees her and calls out: woman, you are freed from your disability. He lays hands on her. Immediately she is made straight and glorifies God. The synagogue ruler is indignant. Jesus: you hypocrite! Does not each of you untie his ox on the Sabbath? Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham bound by Satan for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?
“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
“Strive to enter through the narrow door.”
Mustard seed, leaven, the narrow door.
What is the kingdom of God like? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree and the birds nested in its branches. And again: it is like leaven that a woman hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened. Small, hidden, unstoppable. The kingdom begins invisibly and grows to contain everything.
He travels toward Jerusalem, teaching in towns and villages. Someone asks: Lord, will those who are saved be few? He says: strive to enter through the narrow door. Many will seek to enter and will not be able. When the master of the house has risen and shut the door, you will begin to knock and say: Lord, open to us. He will say: I do not know where you come from. People will come from east and west, from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom. Some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.
“For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”
Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The lament of the mother hen.
Some Pharisees tell Jesus: get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. He says: go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my course. I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.
Then the lament: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The tenderness and the grief in this passage are complete. The metaphor is maternal. The longing is total. And the city will not come.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
The narrow door saying follows the question: Lord, will those who are saved be few? Jesus does not answer directly. He turns it into an imperative: strive to enter. The present urgency matters more than the speculative number. The door will be shut. The master will say: I do not know where you come from. There will be weeping when they see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom and themselves cast out.
The chapter of urgency and patience.
Some tell Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices. He asks: do you think they were worse sinners? No. But unless you repent, you will likewise perish. And the tower of Siloam. Unless you repent. Then the fig tree parable: three years, no fruit. Cut it down. But the gardener: let it alone for one more year while I dig around it and put on fertilizer.
He is teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. A woman bent over with a disabling spirit for eighteen years, unable to straighten herself. He sees her and calls: woman, you are freed from your disability. He lays hands on her. Immediately she is made straight and glorifies God. The synagogue ruler is indignant. Jesus: you hypocrite! You untie your ox on the Sabbath. Should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham bound by Satan for eighteen years, be loosed?
“Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”Luke 13:35 ESV
All scripture quoted from the English Standard Version (ESV). A study from The Lampstand Project.