Day 289 – Jesus’ Teachings on Israel

• The brief parable of the fig tree at the start of today’s passage in Luke is a parable about the whole nation, with the tree being Israel. If you know this, perhaps you can work out the rest of the parable. Who is the man? What is the fruit? What was the warning for the Jews who heard it?
• In the story of the crippled woman, what other stories are you reminded of? Jesus accused the Pharisees of hypocrisy. Do you know why?
• In Luke 13:18-21, Jesus described the kingdom of heaven. What do you think His point was? How did He use the analogy of the mustard seed, which is a particularly tiny seed?
• The passage about the narrow door is interesting. Imagine a city with wide gates and a separate door which is only wide enough for one person. The easy option is to go in through the wide gate, but in Jesus’ analogy, that entrance led to death. Only the narrow door led to salvation. What does this mean for us? Be careful not to think that we have to work super-hard to get somewhere without relying on Jesus – He has already done for us what we could not do for ourselves. But living a life of following Jesus is, as I’m sure you know, harder than one where you put your own needs and desires first. How much more rewarding is it in the end though?
• Jesus said that people would come from “east and west and north and south”. What’s Jesus’ point about who is able to be saved? What would the Jews hearing this have thought?

All three passages in today’s short selection of readings are connected by the reference to the tree and the fruit.

In what looks like harsh language, Mark described in his version of the events how Jesus cursed the tree that had no fruit on it, demanding that nobody should ever eat fruit from it. But Mark told his readers that it wasn’t the season for figs anyway, so why did Jesus say what He said?

Well, to answer that we need to know a little bit of gardening knowledge, and also consider what Jesus was meaning in his words. The fruit of a fig tree wouldn’t be ready yet, as Mark said, but the figs should have started to grow when the leaves came out. A fig tree with leaves but not even the start of fruit was one that was probably not one to put much hope in… figs probably weren’t going to come.

So, we know about the fruit part. But what did Jesus really mean? This is where the reference in Hosea helps (and other references in the Old Testament, such as Jeremiah 8:13 and Joel 1:17). When Jesus cursed the tree, he was reflecting the judgement of God on the nation of Israel and their “fruitlessness”. The Jews – especially the Pharisees – had turned away from God, replacing a relationship with Him to a simple, legalistic, religion.

Jesus was calling the people around Him, using this example, to examine their hearts and see if their words, prayers and actions came from a true love for God.

Over to you, then. Are Jesus’ words ones which need to challenge your heart too?