Luke
By Joyce Webb 2020
Chapter 13 verse 1-17
Verse 1- 5 Some people told Jesus about some men from Galilee.
These men were Jews. They had come to Jerusalem to make sacrifices–killing of an animal as an offering for sin, or other reasons.
As these men were doing the sacrifices, Pilate sent soldiers to kill them.
(The Bible does not say why Pilate decided to kill them.)
The people telling about it said, the men’s blood mixed with the animal blood that day.
The people telling about it seemed to think that these men must have been very bad men and God punished them by letting this happen to them.
Jesus said, that these men were not more evil than any other men.
Jesus told about the time in history— when some other men were killed by a tower that fell on them. Jesus asked, Do you think those men were more evil that other men because that happen?
No, they were not.
Then Jesus said to the people with him, Those people were not judged by God by what happened. They were not more evil than other people.
Then he said to them, Think about yourselves and if you need to repent of your sins. Maybe something like that will happen to you—–and you would die in your sins.
Verse 6 – 10 This is a parable–story–that Jesus told about a fig tree. The tree had grown enough that it should be having figs, but there were no figs.
The man who owned the tree wantrd his servant to cut it down because it had no fruit.
The servant asked him to wait. He said he would dig around the tree and give it fertilizer and maybe it would begin to have figs.
Then if it did not—-then he would cut it down.
The spiritual meaning of the story—–People are like fig trees.
When we become believers in Jesus, we are to follow his teachings.
The way and live and do things, the way we talk, should show that we obey Jesus’ teachings.
We are to have “fruit” of God’s spirit showing in the way we live and talk.
In Galatians 5:22,23 we read about the “fruit of the spirit”—love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.
If we do not have these things in our life—-then we are not growing in the Lord and getting mature as we should.
The question would be—why aren’t you showing some of these fruits in your life?
As we obey what Jesus taught –we should be having joy, peace, patience, etc.
Also, part of our “fruit” should be bringing others to believe in Jesus. We should be doing things, giving money, to help others hear about Jesus and what the Bible teaches.
Like the servant in the story who wanted to wait and try to get the tree to give fruit, — so God is patient with us—He works with us to try to get us to be “fruitful”.
Verse 11 -17 Jesus saw a woman who was bent over and could not stand up straight. She had been this way for 18 years.
The Bible says that a “spirit of sickness” had made her this way.
Later in verse16, Jesus said that Satan had “bound” her. (Made her to have this problem, and she could not get better).
Jesus called the woman to come near him. Then he said, “Woman you are free from this sickness.” Jesus put his hands on her, and she was able to stand up straight. She was so happy and began to praise God.
A leader of the Jewish church said that Jesus should not have healed someone on the Sabbath day.
(The Sabbath day for the Jews was Saturday—the day they worshipped God. We worship God on Sundays.)
The Jewish leader said that the law said we are to work 6 days and rest on the 7th day. Jesus broke the law by “working” —-by healing this woman on the 7th day.
Jesus said to the Jewish leader—-you leaders “work” on the Sabbath. If you have an ox or a donkey, and it gets into a ditch or gets into trouble of some kind—-you go and help the donkey or ox and get it in a safe place. So you “work” on the Sabbath.
So, why should I not heal on the Sabbath? Healing a person of a sickness on the Sabbath is a good thing.