Luke 13:18-35 Warnings

Luke 13:18-21 Parable of mustard seed and leaven. These two parables seem to be meant to illustrate that the kingdom of God is not about size and power and show. These metaphors are of things that are so small they would be ignored unless you cared about them, but they are used to produce very large effects when properly treated. You wouldn't notice them. But if the seed is planted and tended, and if the yeast is placed in the dough and the break allowed to rise, they have the desired effect. So it is with spiritual things. We don't notice them unless we attend to them. But when we do, spiritual causes that seem so insignificant in the world have an enormous effect on the people involved.

Luke 13:22-30 Teaching in the villages about entering into the kingdom now. This passage somewhat parallels Matthew 7:15-16, 8:12, 13:42, 13:50, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30. Matthew seemed to lean heavily on the phrase "gnashing of teeth". Although Jesus also quotes Psalm 119:115. The core of this teaching seems to be a warning not to delay in making reconciliation with God, because there will come a day in which judgment will be made and eternal destiny will be irrevocably assigned. This seems eschatological, but as mentioned above, for 2,000 years people have died, many without much advance warning, and the die is cast just as finally for them as it will be for those who are left behind when Christ returns. And to add insult to injury, many who were thought to be outside the covenant - gentiles in the day of Jesus, but we might think Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists today - but who have in their heart reconciled with God through Christ, will be part of His eternal kingdom, while those who got their theology right but did not repent will be outside it.

Luke 13:31-35 Prophetic words about His coming trials in Jerusalem. Jesus quotes Psalm 118:26 in this passage, as He warns about what will happen. People warn Him that Herod is out to get Him. Jesus is not afraid of Herod. But He laments over Jerusalem, because it is the city that had been established as the center of the Jewish faith, many centuries earlier. And Jesus weeps because the people of Jerusalem did not receive God's message or messenger, either earlier or at the present time. God raises up and deposes rulers. (Psalm 75:6-7). But as the previous passage indicates, those who miss their opportunity to repent and get right with God will be eternally excluded from that divine joy of being in His presence. And Jerusalem, who will (prophetically) go along with His crucifixion, will be destroyed, demolished by the Roman army under Titus in 70AD. The heart of God desires to shepherd and nurture His sheep/children, but when they refuse His Fatherhood, He cannot or will not force them to obey Him. He can only send them away, and they will reap what they have sown.