Luke 12:1-35

SECTION 5 (12:1-14:35).

We commence here a new section of Luke. As we shall see this section centres around a mighty act of Jesus in delivering a woman bound by Satan, and thus doubled up and unable to straighten. By this He made clear why He had come. He had come to make the crooked straight (Luke 3:5). And here He did it openly on the Sabbath day. Indeed we are regularly told that Jesus saw the Sabbath as a day for ‘healing' and ‘making straight', for He had come to turn men from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18). It may therefore be that He intended men to see by this that in Him God's new rest had come (Hebrews 4:3-4; Hebrews 4:9). The whole of the section may therefore be seen as gaining its significance from this act of power, as He sought to make both His Apostles and those who followed Him ‘straight'.

The centrality of this incident in the section is revealed by the following analysis which indicates that the section is in the form of a chiasmus, with the incident of the straightening of the crooked woman central.

This next Section from Luke 12:1 to Luke 14:35 can be separated into its separate parts as follows:

a Instructions to disciples concerning facing up to eternity (Luke 12:1-12).

b An example is given of covetousness concerning an inheritance which is followed by the parable of the fool who decided to enjoy rich banquets, ignored the needs of the poor, and in the end suffered the unforeseen consequences of prematurely losing his wealth to others who benefited unexpectedly while the one expected to benefit lost out (Luke 12:13-21).

c We are to seek the Kingly Rule of God and not to be anxious about other things (Luke 12:22-34).

d We are to be like men serving the Lord in His house and awaiting His arrival from a wedding feast, being faithful in His service at whatever time He comes and meanwhile making use of all our time for His benefit (Luke 12:35-40).

e There are stewards both good and bad who will be called to account for He has come to send fire on earth which will cause great disruption (Luke 12:41-53).

f Men are to discern the times and not be like a debtor who realises too late that he should have compounded with the Great Creditor (Luke 12:54-59).

g Some present draw attention to the tower that fell on men. He points out that that was no proof of guilt, for all are sinful and will perish unless they repent. They would therefore be wise to repent while they can (Luke 13:1-5)

h The parable of the fig tree which is to be given its chance to bear fruit (Luke 13:6-9).

i The crooked woman is healed on the Sabbath for Jesus has come to release from Satan's power (Luke 13:10-17).

h The parables of the grain of mustard seed which is to grow and reproduce, and of the leaven which spreads, both of which represent the growth of the Kingly Rule of God in both prospective ultimate size and method of expansion (Luke 13:18-21).

g Someone asks ‘are there few that are saved?' The reply is that men must strive to enter the door while they can (Luke 13:22-23).

f We must not be like those who awake too late and find the door closed against them and wish they had befriended the Householder (Luke 13:24-28).

e We are to watch how we respond as His stewards for some will come from east, west, north and south, while others will awake too late, like Herod who seeks to kill Him and Jerusalem which is losing its opportunity and will be desolated and totally disrupted (Luke 13:29-35).

d Jesus is invited into the home of a Chief Pharisee. And there He eats with him at table, surrounded by many ‘fellow-servants'. There He sees a man with dropsy. As God's Servant He knows what His responsibility is if He is to be a faithful and wise servant. It is to heal the man. For God's works of compassion should be done at all times including the Sabbath and not just at times of man's choosing. And yet He is surrounded by those waiting to catch Him out (Luke 14:1-6).

c None are to seek the higher place, for he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:7-11).

b An example is given of inviting the poor to dinner which is followed by the parable of a rich banquet, where those who made excuses were rejected, and the result was that due to unforeseen circumstances there a banquet for the poor, while those for whom it was intended lost out (Luke 14:12-24)

a Instructions are given to the disciples concerning facing up to the cost (Luke 14:25-35).

· ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear' (Luke 14:35).

Note that in ‘a' the Section opens with instructions to the disciples, and in the parallel it closes with instructions to the disciples, both seeing things in the light of eternity. In ‘b' we have a parable dealing with the use of riches, and in the parallel the use of wealth to help the poor is dealt with, in ‘c' we are to seek the Kingly Rule of God and trust our Father over our daily living, and in the parallel we are not to seek the higher place on earth, for the one who humbles himself will be exalted. In ‘d' we are to be like men awaiting in the Lord's ‘house', awaiting His arrival at whatever time He comes and meanwhile making use of all our time and serving Him faithfully, and in the parallel Jesus is in the Chief Pharisee's house and is called on to perform an act of faithful service even though it is the Sabbath, an act which He does perform. It is an example of faithful service even in the face of difficulties, and a reminder to us that we are to use all our time, including the Sabbath, for doing God's work. In ‘e' there are stewards both good and bad who will be called to account, for He has come to ‘cast fire on the earth', and in the parallel we are to watch how we respond as His stewards, for some will come into the Kingly Rule of God from east, west, north and south, while others will awake too late, like Herod who seeks to kill Him and Jerusalem which is losing its opportunity and will be desolated and will experience His ‘fire on earth'. In ‘f' men are to discern the times, and in the parallel we are not to be like those who awake too late. In ‘g' and its parallel the imminence of death and what our response should be to it is described. In ‘h' the vine is to be allowed its opportunity of bearing fruit, and in the parallel the mustard seed will grow and bear fruit. Central in ‘i' is the healing and making straight of one who is crooked, a picture of what He has come to do for Israel. This is the whole purpose of the Kingly Rule of God.

Resume.

Prior to looking at this section in detail we should remind ourselves of its context.

When Luke commences Acts he claims that in his earlier writing (this Gospel) he had dealt with ‘all that Jesus began to do and to teach'. That is an apt description of the Gospel, for its first half very much emphasises what Jesus had come to do, while the second half, commencing here, will concentrate very much on what He came to teach.

Not that it is quite as simple as that. In the first half He has certainly also given us a number of examples of the teaching of Jesus, for quite apart from the teaching which is connected with the various incidents, we find the sermon on the plain where He establishes the basis for the new Kingly Rule of God (Luke 6:20-49); the teaching concerning John, which emphasises the new situation brought about by the coming of the Kingly Rule of God (Luke 7:24-35); the parable of the sower, which stresses the coming and spreading of the Kingly Rule of God (Luke 8:4-18); and the detailed teaching concerning discipleship, which contains warning of the cost to His followers of coming under the Kingly Rule of God (Luke 9:21-27). Nevertheless on the whole the emphasis in the first part of the Gospel is on what He did.

In the second half of the Gospel the emphasis will be on what He taught. Again it is not a hard and fast rule. Luke tells us of the healing of the crooked woman and her deliverance from the power of Satan (Luke 13:10-14), the healing of a man with dropsy (Luke 14:1-4); the healing of ten lepers, the number indicating an increased abundance of healing (Luke 17:11-19 compare the one in Luke 5:12-14), and the healing of the blind man as He finally approached Jerusalem (Luke 18:35-42), and the impression is given that His healing work goes on continually, for He tells Herod, ‘I cast out demons and perform cures today, and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course' (Luke 13:32). But the remainder of the space is then given over to teaching. Having first given the impression of Who Jesus was, emphasis is now to be placed on His words.

Also prominent from now on will be His emphasis on training His disciples by word. Prior to this He had been content to live out His life before them, teaching them by demonstration, until in the end they had recognised that He was ‘the Anointed of God'. As they went about with Him and had seen what He was and what He did, they had had clearly presented to them in some considerable depth something of His uniqueness, a presentation over which He had taken a great deal of trouble.

At the same time they had heard continually His message to the crowds, both those to whom He had taught in the synagogues, and to those who continually flocked around Him. In this they had been taught the attitude of sacrificial love that would be required of them as they established His Kingly Rule (Luke 6:20-49), even if they had not really grasped its full significance (Luke 9:54). That was in teaching given to all. And He had also given them special coaching when they sought it (Luke 8:9). They had further learned that what lay ahead of them may have a great cost in terms of turning their backs on themselves and even facing death for His sake (Luke 9:23-27). And they had been warned, with little sign of taking it in, that He must suffer. But overall this teaching had been additional to His revelation by His doings, and had not been the emphasis, and thus, while they now recognised in Jesus ‘the Messiah of God', they were still very much imprisoned within their own ideas. For Jesus knew the importance of leading rather than forcing. He knew that simply to overwhelm them with new ideas would be fatal to their understanding. He did not want them just to learn by rote (although that was a useful beginning and many of His messages were designed to that end), but rather that His ideas might seep through gradually and take root in their hearts, until they then became a part of them.

Of course, they knew by now that they had been called to proclaim that the Kingly Rule of God was among them, and that men were now to respond to His Kingly Rule. That had been the message that they had proclaimed when they themselves went out preaching. But they had not really grasped what was involved in this Kingly Rule, and what was to be the final result of it. They still had the idea of a literal kingdom on earth in Palestine (Acts 1:6). They still thought in terms of taking over the reins from the Romans in Palestine, ousting them once and for all, and then ruling in their place (as David had once done, followed by the Maccabees). They had still not realised that the Old Testament contained greater heavenly truths than were apparent on the surface, and that they themselves were involved in a greater and more exciting project than the transformation of Palestine. They were involved in something that would lead to the transformation and salvation of men and women throughout the world, through the word.

This lack of understanding comes out in a number of ways:

1). It is made quite apparent that they were still thinking in terms of which of them was to be the greatest, and which of them would hold the most important offices once the new independent kingdom was established. They would continue to jostle for, and argue about, such positions. This was something that they would continue to do right to the end until the coming of the Holy Spirit and the commands they would receive in Acts 1 changed their whole perspective (Luke 9:46; Luke 22:24-27).

2). They were still almost certainly thinking in terms of the need to raise a large number of supporters, and were seeing their future in terms of going forward with such an army when the time was ripe, in order to establish God's Kingly Rule by this means. This was something that ‘Messianic' claimants were constantly doing, thus raising the ire and retaliation of the Romans, and what they would continue to do once Jesus had died and risen again. Why then should they be any different? It was the popular conception (see John 6:15), and their thinking was little different from that of others. It was what they had been brought up to expect. And they were very much of the people. The only difference between them and the others was that they knew that their leader had extraordinary powers. He could do things that took the breath away.

This is no doubt why they were puzzled at the continuing fewness of their numbers and had to be reassured (Luke 12:32). They had seen the first increase in popularity as they moved around as preparation for what was to come, and had been encouraged. But they were puzzled as to why Jesus had not made the most of it, and why Jesus now appeared to have left the places where His influence was greatest, and was even talking morbidly about being seized by His enemies and being put to death. Was He not then concerned about the size of His army?

At first numbers had not appeared to be a problem. They had appeared to be growing rapidly, with Jesus at work training His leaders. But now many of those very leaders had dropped away (John 6:66) and things seemed to have come to rather a low ebb, and this in spite of the continuation of the large, but impermanent crowds which they discovered wherever they went (Luke 12:1). Jesus was still popular but why was He not turning it to advantage? As He Himself was aware they were no doubt more than a little puzzled (Luke 12:32). Yet it was clear to them that Jesus Himself did not seem to be worried. So their thoughts may well even have turned to the thought of Gideon and his few as an explanation (Judges 7:4-8). God could save by many and by few. Perhaps it was all part of God's plan to demonstrate His power once and for all.

But then had come the mission of the seventy. That had probably boosted all their hopes. At last He was getting everyone prepared for the coming of the Kingly Rule of God! They probably thought that by this Jesus was establishing a base in every city, with the confidence that when the time came for them to rise up, many would be there ready to rise with them. For they had still not fully taken in His teaching about loving their enemies, or the message of His lowly death, or, to the extent that they had, they saw in the promised resurrection the hope that He would arise with power from the grave to defeat all who stood in opposition to Him.

3). They were still thinking in terms of the position that was going to be theirs once they had finally firmly established God's Kingly Rule (Mark 10:35). Now that was something to look forward to. They would enjoy positions of great prestige and authority and all would look up to them. They would enjoy being admired, and tell everyone what to do. We can see then why it was hard for them to throw aside all their old ideas and see in humble service the fulfilling of their dreams.

4). They were still thinking in terms of the future possessions that would be theirs once the good times came (Luke 18:28). At present there was hardship, but they had sufficient confidence in Jesus to be certain that there would be a golden tomorrow. And they were thinking of, and looking forward to, physical gold.

All this brings out that they did have faith in Jesus as the Messiah of God, but that their eyes were still very much on an earthly Kingdom. They were like many are today. They could not rise above the earthly.

That they were in fact wrong in what they anticipated we now know. And that was why it was now necessary for Jesus to begin His task of wooing them away from such conceptions in view of His forthcoming death. And because men's minds, once formulated in a certain way from childhood, are very difficult to alter, and because men's obstinacy of thought is what it is, it was inevitably going to be a slow process. It would be a matter of a slow seeping of information into their minds until in the end the truth would dawn on them (as the truth of His Messiahship had already dawned). This will be the aim of the next few Chapter s. They are to be times of reformulating all of their wrong ideas, until they begin to grasp more and more of the truth that what the world needed, and what they had been appointed for, was the spread of His word. In this regard no change is more marked than that between what the Apostles are now, and what they will be in Acts.

Jesus' New Approach.

The whole process commences by His now turning their thoughts to eternity and the Judgment to come (Luke 12:1-11). The first thing that it is necessary for them to do is to begin to live in the light of eternity. So He now sets out to wake up to the fact that they must cease thinking altogether in terms of material possessions, or of prosperous living, or of what they can get out of life (Luke 12:13-31), and must recognise that all their concentration must be on establishing the Kingly Rule of God (Luke 12:31). And He wants to make them see that this will not be by means of a large army, well-armed, but that God will begin to establish His Kingly Rule through a few, with those few having no earthly resources at all (Luke 12:32-34), apart from the Holy Spirit (Luke 12:12 compare Luke 11:13).

Further He wants them to recognise that He will not be with them permanently. He will be going away from them (as He has already told them - Luke 9:21-22; Luke 9:26; Luke 9:44), but that when He is away they must live in readiness for when He returns (Luke 12:35-48), for they will have much to do, and after a while He will be coming back in order to reward them for faithful service. (He wanted them to recognise that, while they must be ready for His coming, they must not expect His return immediately).

He also wants them to know that all that is ahead is not going to be rosy (Luke 12:49-53). Let them not think that the world is soon to become a Paradise. Rather He is shortly going to cast fire down on it, something which would tie in with great suffering that He Himself would have to undergo. And as a result of this He would bring about great divisions in the world (Luke 12:52-53), and Jerusalem would be desolated and forsaken (Luke 13:34-35; Luke 21:6; Luke 21:20; Luke 21:24; compare Matthew 23:37-39). So there was to be a revolution. But not quite of the kind that they were expecting. Rather than be a revolution which drives families together, it will be a revolution that splits households in two because of their attitudes towards Him and His word. These will be His next lessons. And they will not be quickly grasped.

But this new emphasis on teaching does not mean that nothing practical was now happening, for, as the chiasmus below reveals, the whole of this present section of concentrated teaching will centre around a practical demonstration of His power in the healing of a crooked woman and her deliverance from Satan's power. Here was another powerful symbol revealing a picture of Israel in its need and how Jesus has come to meet that need. This woman was a symbol of what He had really come to do. He had come to make the crooked straight (Luke 3:5) and to deliver the oppressed (Luke 4:18). And all His teaching was to that end.

We note that Luke constructs his Gospel in such a way that this is to be the last mention of Satan and his minions in action (Luke 13:11; Luke 13:16) until we come to Jesus' last days (Luke 22:3; Luke 22:31). And yet at the same time he makes it clear that this is not because that side of things has ceased, for in Luke 13:32 he depicts Jesus as testifying to the fact that his defeats of Satan's forces will continue on, right up to ‘the third day' when Jesus will finish His course and finally defeat them once and for all. Then through His crucifixion and resurrection they will become guerrillas on the run, and no longer possessors of the field. So the story of the crooked woman, coming in the middle of a whole host of teaching, is a reminder of the very real spiritual battle that is still going on, and would continue on right to the end. As we shall see, what follows is to be further teaching on the Kingly Rule of God, as He continues to reformulate their thinking, while His continuing activity towards that end is depicted by the deliverance of the crooked woman.

He does, of course, continue to preach to the crowds. That too would continue right up to the end. And yet at the same time it becomes clear that His disciples are now to go through their own intensive training course ready for the future, a future of which He is fully aware, even if they are not.

That is why from this point on attention will turn to life under the Kingly Rule of God, and we will find a series of parables which all look at the development of the Kingly Rule of God, the way life should be lived under His Kingly Rule, and the expected return of the King, all these sandwiched between instructions given by Jesus to His disciples in Luke 12:1-12 and Luke 14:25-35, and all centred around the fact of Jesus' deliverance from Satan and the making straight of those who come to Him (Luke 13:10-17).

Jesus Teaches Concerning Greed, Stewardship and the Need For Fruitfulness Under The Kingly Rule of God Centring on the Fact That He Will Make The Crooked Straight (12:1-14:35).

As we have seen we may analyse this next Section from Luke 12:1 to Luke 14:35 into its separate parts as follows: