Luke 13
Read: Luke 13
The theme of Luke 13 is repentance, or maybe more specifically a lack of repentance. It starts out in verses 3 and 5 with the same phrase. Jesus says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as well.” Jesus came to fulfill and continue the ministry of John the Baptist. Remember in Luke 3:3 that John was, “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Here Jesus is doing the same thing, but he takes it further in this chapter to give more context.
First we see Jesus seem to randomly talk about a barren fig tree. This is no random comment; he is talking about Israel. Israel should be God’s people, bearing fruit and flourishing, but instead they are barren because of their unwillingness to repent and follow the Lord. Then when the people of Israel see the fruit produced by Jesus, they criticize him and seek his downfall while wallowing in their own hypocrisy.
Because of Jesus’ criticisms of them, he is asked in verse 23, “are only a few people going to be saved?” Jesus then makes a very uncomfortable statement. To put it simply, he says that many will think they are serving the Lord when they are not. In the end, they will be denied entrance to the kingdom of God. Some have taken this to mean, no one can really know if they are truly saved. That seems like a silly interpretation given everything we just read about repentance. Jesus said, many will “make every effort to enter… and won’t be able” (v. 24). The reason they won’t be able is because no one can get in by effort. We can only get in by repentance and faith!
Finally skipping down to verse 34, Jesus mourns over Israel’s lack of repentance. He says, “How often I wanted to gather your children together… but you were not willing!” Over and over through many times, kings, and prophets God called them to repent… but they were not willing. They kept sinning and trying to do things their own way. Luke 13 shows us that repentance is the only way into the kingdom of God. We must repent and have faith in the work that God has done for us through Jesus on the cross.
Repentance means to change your mind, to remorsefully admit your wrongs, and to live differently as a result. A truly repentant person cannot go on living the same after meeting Jesus. That doesn’t mean you won’t struggle with sin, and this passage isn’t meant to cause you to doubt your salvation if you do. But if you can sin without feeling convicted and if your life doesn’t look any different after meeting Jesus, you would be wise to examine yourself.
