Luke 13

When we hear of great tragedies, we might be tempted to think that these things could never happen to us. At some basic level, even when we do not admit it, most people seem to believe in a connection between sin and suffering. Many would want to deny this, but Jesus affirms that there is something to this link. He does not connect sin and suffering in order to attack those who have faced tragedy. He connects them in order to warn those who imagine that they are safe in their lives of unrepentant sin.

Do we really think that we don’t deserve to perish? What if we see our sin; what can we do? The answer of Jesus is very simply. We should repent. We should turn away from sin and turn toward God. Do we really want to test God on this? We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, but that grace of true faith is accompanied by true repentance, though we are not finished with sin until this life is over. God calls us to a life of fruitfulness, and we should not consider ourselves safe when we refuse to repent of sin.

Jesus knows that we will never come to Him, never repent, never produce fruit worthy of repentance without His powerful grace at work in our lives. We are very needy people. Our Savior has an eye for the weak person who is living a life in desperate need. He calls such a one forward, and heals her, even though His enemies count His healing as ill-timed. Such a needy person in a low condition finds a friend in Jesus, but the proud man who seeks to prosecute the Son of God would do well to be humbled, and to find grace from the Master.

The Jews, of all the nations of the world, should have understood grace. The whole idea of an animal that stands in our place should speak to us of a healing that comes because of the blood of another. The Lord’s people had been killing animals to ceremonially take away sin for many centuries, but so many of them could not receive grace. They could not celebrate with those who were discovering Sabbath healing. They could not question their own rightness, since they presumed that it was the only rightness they could ever have. But we have been covered with the righteousness of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. He is our Sabbath rest.

The small beginnings of a kingdom of grace might seem like only a mustard seed, but it would soon take over the world. It might seem to be just a little nothing, but it would be a leaven that will one day affect everything in every place. There will be nothing in the new heavens and the new earth that has not been transformed by the power of the grace of almighty God.

This salvation life in all its grandeur is greatly to be desired. Yet the people that will find it are comparatively few in almost any generation. The door is narrow, and Christ is that door. Through Him alone we have acceptance into the kingdom of heaven. Our place in eternity should not come down to what is popular among men. Men are not in charge of the place that we call the kingdom of God. There is one Ruler there, the One who has been given all power and authority by His Father, the One who saved us through His own death. We must come to Him, and go through Him, if we should enter His kingdom. False pretenders will be disappointed in that day. They will be called workers of evil. Surely the grace of God will come fully upon His beloved bride on that day. But what a horror to miss that celebration with the patriarchs of Israel! We come to His table in the lowliness of being the last, but we are found to be saved through His righteousness, as if we were the first, and we are granted bold access to God, even in this evil day.

There were those who would have over and over again dissuaded Jesus from the pathway of the cross. They urged upon Him a reasonable concern for His own safety, but He had come to die for sinners. No Herod was running the actions of providence that led to His death. The day would come when He would perish in Jerusalem. His death would mean more than the murder of the most faithful prophet from times gone by. That cross would bring hope to millions, even among the nations of the world.

The city of God on earth, Jerusalem, would turn against the King of the Jews. They would hate their Messiah. He had done nothing against God or against His people. Yet soon He would die a wretched death. This death would be for a New Jerusalem, a city that would be gathered among those who would love His appearing. Though the house of Old Testament Israel would come down, the city of the living God would be built up through the preaching of the Savior. There are all kinds of tragedies in this world, and all death reminds us of our failure to keep the Law of God, but there is no reason why anyone should consign themselves to the worst of all providences. The way to the kingdom of God is clearly preached in Christ Jesus our Lord. We should repent and live.