1000 Quiet Kindnesses

---

---

Sermon Notes

---

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.” Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Luke 13:1-21)

---

1. Context

   1. A strange, disconnected set of teachings.

      1. Something about sin and repentance

      2. A strange parable about a fig tree and patience

      3. An argument about the purpose of the Sabbath

      4. And two mini-parables about the Kingdom of God.

   2. What’s this passage all about? Are these just random fables (little stories with individual morals)? No. Luke is a much more careful writer. Each of these teachings make one point. You just have to understand the context to understand the point.

      1. These are not disconnected teachings. They are responses to people.

      2. And the people are not wooden figures. They are real people in a real context with real concerns. Real conversations.

         1. The primary concern for most being the same as it is today. Religious people wondering: How do I navigate life in a broken world?

         2. Their brokenness was, perhaps, more specific than ours (centered on the Romans), but we all have the same feelings: helplessness, frustration, anger, anxiety, depression, a general sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be.

      3. It was for these people that Jesus came, for them that He died, and significantly, for them that He lived and taught.

      4. We have to understand the people in order to understand the point.

2. The people

   1. The Galileans

      1. On the border of Herod’s territory.

      2. The hotbed of the zealot movement: Jewish nationalists

      3. Strong Messianic hope.

      4. Along comes Jesus

         1. Grew up in Nazareth

         2. Based His ministry around the lake

         3. He was fulfilling prophecy

         4. More than that, it was a strategic move: Jesus was recruiting an army, or so it seemed.

      5. Road to Jerusalem

         1. And then the army started to march.

         2. At the end of Luke 9, following a supernatural commissioning, Jesus and His army set out toward Jerusalem, presumably to bring the Kingdom, that is, to take on the Romans and restore the glory of Israel.

         3. As He travels the road, He sends ambassadors ahead of Him to announce the good news (with power) that the Kingdom had come, to take territory and to recruit followers.

         4. It worked, and the crowds swelled, to the point that, in Luke 12, there were so many people that there were very real concerns of them trampling one another. In other words, an army.

      6. Now, why does all this matter? Because this helps us understand Jesus’ crowd. They were revolutionaries, and that helps us understand the conversation they have with Jesus.

         1. A group of revolutionaries on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus brings up a current event. Toward what end?

         2. Clearly not to warn Jesus to turn back.

         3. They were stirring Jesus up.

      7. Jesus doesn’t take the bait, but says something that would have baffled everyone: “If you don’t repent, the same thing will happen to you.

         1. Traditional reading in the Church has made this a statement about sin and eternal punishment. In other words, if you don’t repent of your sins, you will end up in the same spot.

         2. But that reading doesn’t make sense in the context. Here they are having a conversation about the political situation in Jerusalem, and Jesus takes the opportunity to warn them about sin and eternal punishment.

      8. What makes more sense? That Jesus is continuing the conversation.

         1. They said, “This is what happened in Jerusalem.”

         2. Jesus responded, “Unless you turn around, the same will happen to you.”

            1. Not a generic statement about sin

            2. A statement about the inevitability of failure.

      9. The parable: patience

         1. We spend a lot of time with this confusing parable trying to figure out who’s who: who’s the man who owns the vineyard, who’s the vineyard, who’s the fig tree, etc.?

         2. And that’s not an unworthy pursuit, but it can distract us from understanding the main idea which is clearly patience. Don’t try to force the hand of God. Let Him lead.

      10. Their general answer to dealing with the brokenness of the system was revolution. Overthrow the system. Go against the flow. Rage against the machine. Politicized faith

          1. But Jesus says, “It’s not going to work.”

          2. Do you think you’re any better than anyone else who tried that strategy? Do you think you’ll succeed where everyone else has failed?

   2. The religious leaders: a different coping mechanism. Legalistic faith

      1. The healing on the Sabbath

         1. She has been like this for 18 years.

         2. Without any prompting, Jesus healed her.

         3. The synagogue leader was furious because it was the Sabbath.

      2. Sabbath law

         1. Was among the most important in the Bible

            1. Because it was the first

            2. Because it was a key distinctive of God’s people (which was the point of the law)

            3. Presumably, because law would bring Messiah back

            4. Because law gave some control over your life, a way of coping with the world.

            5. Where the Galileans were trying to overthrow the system, this religious leader (representative of many others Jesus has and will encounter) had found a way to cope with the system by isolating themselves.

      3. Jesus’ response:

         1. Are you serious?! You’ve missed the point entirely!

         2. Sabbath is intended to give life, and you are using it to prevent life.

      4. And then the parables of the Kingdom, which seems out of the blue until you realize that this is the major conflict of the passage. The major issue in everyone’s minds is how do we, God’s people, citizens of His Kingdom, deal with the brokenness of the world? How do we bring the Kingdom?

         1. The Galileans: through activism. We make the Kingdom happen. We change the world. Change the world on the world’s terms. Fight with the weapons of this world. Political faith

         2. The religious leaders: through legalism. We hunker down and isolate ourselves from the world. Control and manage our own, and wait for God to change the world. Isolate ourselves from the world and do our best to manage until God shows up. Legalistic faith

         3. Third group not represented here but represented in the last chapter (last week’s passage): settle into the Kingdom of this world and lose all perspective on the Kingdom of God.

   3. Do we relate to any of these?

      1. Lots of people distracting themselves from the Kingdom. This may be our primary issue. But sticking to this week’s passage…

      2. The Gospel certainly has social implications, but it is possible for the social Gospel to replace the actual Gospel.

         1. We replace faith in God with faith in ourselves

         2. We play the game by the world’s rules and with the world’s tools

         3. Overly political: I was in DC… Do we genuinely think that the right government will solve our problems?

      3. Isolationist church:

         1. Things are just going to get worse until Jesus comes back.

         2. All of our efforts are aimed internally.

            1. Our budget

            2. Our programs

            3. Even our evangelism: it’s not good news. It’s aimed at getting people in as opposed to getting people out

3. Jesus’ strategy for changing the world

   1. The parables

      1. Ordinary: don’t miss the mundane for the spectacular.

      2. Patience: Plant it in the ground. Knead it into the dough. Then watch. What happens? Nothing! Or so it seems.

      3. Invisible

      4. Small inputs with supernatural outputs

   2. The illustration (the woman) Faith expressed in love

      1. But Jesus doesn’t just tell them the answer with the parables. He uses the parables to demonstrate the fact that He has just shown them the answer, through the woman.

      2. With all of these expectations swirling around Jesus, He shows us (in the middle of the storm) what the Kingdom actually looks like.

      3. How is Jesus going to bring the Kingdom? How is He going to change a broken world?

         1. Here’s the point.

         2. One act of powerful (power-filled) love at a time

      4. Not against the world. Not apart from the world. But a redemptive force in the world.

---