Chapter Thirteen

1–9. Exhortations to repentance. – 10–17. Healing on the Sabbath. – 18–21. Two parables about the kingdom of God. – 22–30. Many may not enter the kingdom of God. – 31–35. Christ’s word concerning the designs against Him by Herod.

Luke 13:1. At that time some people came and told Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. The exhortations to repentance that follow are found only in the evangelist Luke. In the same way, he alone reports the incident that prompted the Lord to address such exhortations to those around Him. “At that time,” that is, when the Lord was speaking the previous discourse to the people, some of the newly arrived listeners reported to Christ about an important piece of news. Some Galileans (their fate appears to be known to the readers, because the word Γαλιλαίων is preceded by the article τῶν) were killed by order of Pilate at the time when they were offering sacrifice, and the blood of those being killed even splashed upon the sacrificial animals. It is unknown why Pilate allowed such cruel lawlessness in Jerusalem against the subjects of King Herod, but in that rather troubled time the Roman procurator could indeed resort, without serious investigation, to the most extreme measures, especially toward the inhabitants of Galilee, who were generally known for their stubborn character and tendency toward uprisings against the Romans.

Luke 13:2. And Jesus said to them: Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? The Lord’s question was likely prompted by the fact that those who brought Him the news of the destruction of the Galileans were inclined to see in this terrible destruction the punishment of God for some special sins committed by the destroyed. “Were” – more precisely: became, made themselves (ἐγένοντο) or punished themselves through their destruction.

Luke 13:3. No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Christ uses this occasion to address an exhortation to His listeners. The destruction of the Galileans, according to His prediction, foretells the destruction of the entire Jewish people, in case the people remain unrepentant, of course, in their opposition to God, who now demands that the people accept Christ.

Luke 13:4. Or do you think that those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? Luke 13:5. No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Not only the case with the Galileans can strike the mind and heart. The Lord points to still another, evidently quite recent event, namely the fall of the Tower of Siloam, which crushed eighteen people under its ruins. Were these destroyed more sinful before God than all the other inhabitants of Jerusalem? What this tower was is unknown. One can only see that it stood in the immediate vicinity of the Siloam spring (ἐν τῷ Σιλωάμ), which flowed at the foot of Mount Zion, on the southern side of Jerusalem. “All”—again an allusion to the possibility of the destruction of the entire people.

Luke 13:6. And He said this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it, and did not find any. Luke 13:7. And he said to the vinedresser: Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and found none; cut it down. Why does it still use up the soil? Luke 13:8. But he answered him, saying: Master, leave it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it— Luke 13:9. if it bears fruit next year, well; if not, you can cut it down. To show how necessary repentance is now for the Jewish people, the Lord speaks a parable about a barren fig tree, from which the master of the vineyard for the time still expects fruit, but—such a conclusion should be drawn from what is said—his patience may soon be exhausted, and he will cut it down. “And he said”—said, addressing the crowds of people standing about Him (Luke 12:44). “In his vineyard...a fig tree.” In Palestine, on grain fields and vineyards, wherever the soil permits, fig trees and apple trees grow (Trench, p. 295). “For three years I have come...” More precisely: “three years have already passed since I have been coming” (τρία ἔτη, ἀφ´ οὗ). “Why does it still use up the soil?” Land in Palestine is very precious, once it affords the opportunity to make plantings of fruit trees. “Use up”—more precisely: draws out the strength from the earth—the moisture (καταργεῖ). “I will dig around it and put manure on it”—these are the final measures to make the fig tree fruitful (as they do today with orange trees in southern Italy—Trench, p. 300). “If it bears fruit next year; if not, you can cut it down.” This translation is not altogether clear. Why must the fig tree that proves to be fruitless be cut down only “next year”? After all, the master stated to the vinedresser that it uselessly exhausts the soil, so it needs to be removed right after the last and final attempt to make it fruitful. There is no basis for waiting another year. Therefore, it is better to accept the reading established by Tischendorf here: “Perhaps it will bear fruit in the coming year (κἂν μὲν ποιήσῃ καρπόν εἰς τὸ μέλλον)? If not, you can cut it down.” Until the coming year one must wait because the fig tree will only be fertilized in the current year.

Revelation 2:5. By the parable of the barren fig tree the Lord wanted to show the Jews that His appearance as Messiah was the last attempt God was making to call the Jewish people to repentance, and after the failure of this attempt there remained nothing for the people but to expect a speedy end for itself. But besides this direct meaning of the parable, it has also a mystical meaning. Namely, the barren fig tree signifies “every” people and “every” state and church which do not accomplish their purpose, which is given them by God, and which for this reason must be removed from their place (cf. Rev 2:5 the address to the angel of the Ephesus church: “I will remove your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent”). Then in the intercession of the vinedresser for the fig tree, the Fathers of the Church saw the intercession of Christ for sinners, or the intercession of the Church for the world, or the righteous members of the Church for the unrighteous. As for the “three years” mentioned in the parable, some commentators saw here a designation of three periods of Divine dispensation—the law, the prophets, and Christ; others saw an indication of the three-year ministry of Christ. But all these interpretations have no basis in the parable itself, whose details, like every parable in general, do not need explanation: it is important only to emphasize the main thought of the parable, and this thought is clear to everyone. Luke 13:10. And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. Luke 13:11. And there was a woman there who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over and could not straighten up completely. Luke 13:12. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her: Woman, you are freed from your sickness. Luke 13:13. And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and began glorifying God. Luke 13:14. But the synagogue leader, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd: There are six days in which work ought to be done; in those come and be healed, and not on the day of the Sabbath. Luke 13:15. But the Lord answered him and said: You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water? Luke 13:16. And this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years, should not she be loosened from this bondage on the day of the Sabbath? Luke 13:17. And as He said these things, all His opponents were put to shame; and the whole crowd was rejoicing at all the glorious deeds being done by Him. Concerning the healing of a woman bent over by Christ on the Sabbath only the evangelist Luke tells. In the synagogue on the Sabbath the Lord healed a bent-over woman—though indirectly, in His address to the people—and the synagogue leader charged Him with this action, because Christ broke the Sabbath rest. Then Christ rebuked the legalistic champion of the law and those like him, pointing out that even on the Sabbath the Jews lead their livestock to water, thereby breaking the prescribed rest. This rebuke caused those opposed to Christ to be ashamed, and the people began expressing joy at the wonderful deeds being performed by Christ. “A spirit of infirmity” (verse 11), that is, a demon, which weakened her muscles (see verse 16). “You are freed” (verse 12)—more precisely: “you are freed” (ἀπολέλυσαι), the coming event is presented in this expression as already accomplished. “The synagogue leader” (verse 14; see Matt 4:23). “Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath” (verse 14; see Mark 3:2). “Said to the crowd” (verse 14). He dared not address Christ directly because the crowd was obviously on the side of Christ (cf. verse 17). “You hypocrites” (verse 15)—according to the more precise reading: “You hypocrites.” Thus the Lord calls the synagogue leader and other representatives of spiritual authority siding with this leader (Euthymius Zigabenus) because they under the guise of precise observance of the Sabbath law wanted to discredit Christ. “Does not each of you...lead it away to water” (verse 15). According to the Talmud, to water animals was permitted also on the Sabbath. “And this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham...” (verse 16). The Lord draws a conclusion from the thought expressed in verse 15. If for animals the strictness of the Sabbath law is violated, then surely for a woman descended from great Abraham it is possible to violate the Sabbath—to free this sufferer from the illness inflicted upon her by Satan (Satan is shown as having bound her by means of one of his servants—demons). “At all the glorious deeds” (verse 17)—omitted: being done or being accomplished (τοῖς γενομένοις). By this the deeds of Christ are designated as continuing.

Luke 13:18. Then He said: What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? Luke 13:19. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden; and it grew, and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches. Luke 13:20. And again He said: To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? Luke 13:21. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened. For an explanation of the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (see Matt 13:31-32; cf. Mark 4:30-32; Matt 13:33). Thus, according to the Gospel of Luke, these two parables were spoken in the synagogue, and here they are entirely appropriate, because in verse 10 it is said that the Lord “was teaching” in the synagogue, but what His teaching consisted of was not said by the evangelist there, now he supplements this omission. “In his garden,” that is, kept it under his immediate supervision and constantly cared for it (Matt 13:31: “in his field”).

Luke 13:22. And He went through the cities and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. The evangelist again (cf. Luke 9:51-53) reminds his readers that the Lord, passing through cities and villages (the evangelist probably means cities and villages of Perea, the region beyond the Jordan, which was the usual route from Galilee to Jerusalem), was moving toward Jerusalem. He thought it necessary here to remind of this goal of the Lord’s journey in view of the fact that further he sets forth the Lord’s predictions concerning the nearness of His death and concerning the judgment over Israel, which, of course, had direct bearing on the goal of Christ’s journey.

Luke 13:23. And someone said to Him: Lord! Are only a few being saved? And He said to them, “Someone”—evidently not one of the disciples of Christ. This is evident from the fact that in answer to the question posed by this person, the Lord addresses the crowd of people in general, from whose midst this person evidently came. “Are only a few being saved?” This question was prompted not by the strictness of Christ’s moral requirements and was not a simple question of curiosity, but, as is evident from Christ’s answer, was based on the proud consciousness that the one asking belonged to those who would surely be saved. Salvation here is understood as salvation from eternal destruction through reception into the glorious kingdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 1:18).

Luke 13:24. Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able to. (See Matt 7:13). The evangelist Luke intensifies the thought of Matthew, for in his account “enter” is replaced by “strive to enter” (ἀγωνίζεσθε εἰσελθεῖν), which presupposes a strong strain that will be required to enter the glorious kingdom of God. “Many...will seek to enter”—when the time of the dispensation of salvation has already passed. “And will not be able to,” because in their time they did not repent.

Luke 13:25. When the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, then you will stand outside and knock on the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; but He will say to you in reply, I do not know you, from where you are. Luke 13:26. Then you will say, We ate and drank before You, and You taught in our streets. Luke 13:27. But He will say, I tell you: I do not know you, from where you are; depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity. In proclaiming judgment over all the Jewish people, Christ depicts God as the master of a house who is expecting His friends at a supper. The time comes when the door of the house must be closed, and the Master Himself does this. But as soon as He closes the door, the Jewish people (“you”), who came too late, begin asking for permission to enter the supper and knock on the door. Only the Master of the house, that is, God, will say to these latecomers that He does not know from what family they are (cf. John 7:27); they, in any case, do not belong to His house, but to some other, unknown to Him (cf. Matt 25:11-12). Then the Jews will point out that they ate and drank before Him, that is, they were His close friends, that He taught in the streets of their cities (the discourse clearly now shifts to depicting the relationship of Christ to the Jewish people). But the Master of the house will say again that they are unknown to Him and therefore should leave as unrighteous doers, that is, evil, stubborn in their impenitence people (see Matt 7:22-23). In Matthew these words refer to false prophets.

Luke 13:28. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves being cast out. Luke 13:29. And they will come from the east and west, and from the north and south, and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. A conclusion to the preceding discourse depicts the sorrowful state of the rejected Jews, who, to their great annoyance, will see how access to the Kingdom of God will open to other nations (cf. Matt 8:11-12). “There”, that is, where you will be driven.

Luke 13:30. And behold, there are last ones who will be first, and there are first ones who will be last. (See Matt 20:16). “The last ones” – these are the Gentiles, whom the Jews did not consider worthy of admission to the Kingdom of God, and “the first ones” – the Jewish people, to whom the Kingdom of the Messiah was promised (cf. Acts 10:45).

Luke 13:31. On that day some of the Pharisees came and said to Him: Go out and leave from here, for Herod wants to kill You. The Pharisees come to Christ with a warning regarding the designs of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee (cf. Luke 3:1). From the fact that later (verse 32) the Lord calls Herod a “fox”, that is, a cunning being, one can confidently say that the Pharisees came by the command of Herod himself, to whom it was very unpleasant that Christ was remaining so long in his domain (Perea, where Christ was at that time, also belonged to Herod’s domains). Herod was afraid to resort to any open measures against Christ because of the respect with which the people received Christ. Therefore, Herod instructed the Pharisees to persuade Christ that there is danger to Him in Perea from the tetrarch. To the Pharisees it seemed better to persuade Christ to go quickly to Jerusalem, where – as they certainly knew – Christ would not be spared.

Luke 13:32. And He said to them: Go, tell this fox: behold, I cast out demons and accomplish healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will be finished; The Lord answers the Pharisees: “Go, tell this fox”, which sent you, that is, Herod: “behold, I cast out demons and accomplish healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will be finished”. “Today.” This expression means a definite time, known to Christ, during which He will remain in Perea, contrary to all of Herod’s designs and threats. “I will be finished” – I will finish (τελειοῦμαι, which is used everywhere in the New Testament as a passive form), or – I will reach the end. But what “end” does Christ mean here? His death? Some Church teachers and ecclesiastical writers (Jerome, Euthymius Zigabenus) and many Western scholars understood this expression in just such a sense. But the context of the discourse clearly speaks against such an understanding: the Lord is speaking, undoubtedly, of the conclusion of His present activity, which consists in casting out demons and in healing diseases and takes place here in Perea. Then another activity will begin – in Jerusalem.

Luke 13:33. But in any case, I must travel today, tomorrow, and in the following day, for it is not possible that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. This verse is very difficult to understand, because it is unclear, first, what “travel” the Lord has in mind, and second, it is not clear what connection this “travel” has with the fact that prophets ordinarily died in Jerusalem. Therefore, some of the newer commentators consider this verse to be corrupted in structure and propose this reading: “I must travel (that is, to accomplish healings) here today and tomorrow, but on the next day I must go on a journey farther, because it is not possible that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem” (Jo. Weiss). But there is no basis in this text for finding the thought of Christ’s decision to leave Perea: here is neither the expression “from here” nor any hint of a change in Christ’s activity. Therefore B. Weiss better interprets this place: “Of course, however, Christ must continue His path forward, as Herod wishes. But this depends in no way on Herod’s treacherous designs: Christ must, as before, move from one place to another (verse 22) during a firmly established time. In doing this He does not aim to avoid danger; rather, His journey has Jerusalem as its destination, because He knows that, as a prophet, He can and must die only there”. As for the remark about the death of all prophets in Jerusalem, this is, of course, a hyperbole, because not all prophets found their death in Jerusalem (for example, John the Baptist was executed in Machaerus). The Lord spoke these words with sorrow over the attitude of David’s capital toward God’s messengers 17.

Luke 13:34. Jerusalem! Jerusalem! you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How many times I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling! Luke 13:35. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. And I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! (See commentary on Matt 23:37-39). In the evangelist Matthew this saying about Jerusalem forms the conclusion to the reproachful discourse against the Pharisees, but here it has more connection with the preceding discourse of Christ than in the Gospel according to Matthew. However, in the Gospel according to Luke Christ addresses Jerusalem from a distance. He probably, as He spoke the last words of verse 33, turned His face toward Jerusalem and pronounced this full of sorrow address to the center of the theocracy. “And I say to you...” In the evangelist Matthew: “for I say to you”. The difference between these two expressions is this: in Matthew the Lord predicts desolation to Jerusalem as a consequence of His withdrawal from it, but in Luke the Lord says that in the state of rejection in which Jerusalem will find itself, He will not come to its aid, as the inhabitants of Jerusalem perhaps expected: however sorrowful your condition may be, I will not come to your defense so long as... and so on – that is, until the whole people repent of their unbelief in Christ and turn to Him, which will be just before His second coming (cf. Rom 11:25 and following). * * * Notes From this one cannot conclude that Christ rejects any connection between sin and punishment, “as a vulgar Jewish notion,” in the words of Strauss (Life of Jesus). No, Christ acknowledged the connection between human suffering and sin (see Matt 9:2), but He did not acknowledge to people the power to establish this connection according to their own judgment in each particular case. He wanted to teach people that, seeing the suffering of others, they should strive to examine the state of their own soul and see in the punishment that has befallen their neighbor a warning that God sends to them. Yes, the Lord warned people here against that cold self-satisfaction, which is sometimes manifested even among Christians, who see the suffering of a neighbor and pass by indifferently, with the words “it serves him right...”. I. Weiss finds in this expression of Christ an acknowledgment that He considered Himself only a prophet, like others before Him, and not the Messiah. But such a narrow understanding of this expression contradicts all other declarations of Christ, where He spoke of Himself as a completely special Anointed One of God (see, for example, the discourse of Christ in the Nazareth synagogue – Luke 4:18 and following). Besides, Christ here speaks from the point of view of Herod, who did not recognize Him as the Messiah, but perhaps only as a prophet. Moreover, Weiss’s remark that Christ here speaks of His death “only by conjecture” is unsuccessful: it is not possible that... This is not a conjecture, but a proof, explaining the reason for Christ’s withdrawal to Jerusalem.