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31 At that time some Pharisees said to him, “Get away from here if you want to live! Herod Antipas wants to kill you!”
32 Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow; and the third day I will accomplish my purpose. 33 Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day I must proceed on my way. For it wouldn’t do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem!
Jesus was never afraid to speak His mind. He is being warned that Herod Antipas wanted to kill him, yet He didn't run away He stated what He would planned to do.
The confidence of Christ we can have as well. If we know God the way Jesus knows God we could live with that kind of conviction and determination in the face of threats. Each day, getting to know the God who loved us so much that He gave His son as the ultimate sacrifice. Today in churches everywhere we celebrated that sacrifice. What a glorious day!
Blessings my friends.
So much of this chapter seemed new to me today. The first thing to strike me was His healing, again, on the Sabbath--which struck because it ISN'T new. I'm sure Jesus healed very often and we only get certain stories, but it seems like he healed on the Sabbath A LOT, doesn't it? And I love that. What better day to heal by grace than the one set aside as holy?
ReplyDeleteAnybody have any thoughts on the parable of the barren fig tree? Is it saying that God gives us many chances? Usually in these parables the owner/father figure is God...is it perhaps that God is the owner and the servant is Jesus, begging for another chance for us? I can't recall ever actually talking about this one...
Luke 13
ReplyDeleteA Story About a Fruitless Tree
6-9 Then Jesus used this illustration: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on the tree but didn’t find any. He said to the gardener, ‘For the last three years I’ve come to look for figs on this fig tree but haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up good soil?’ “The gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it stand for one more year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. Maybe next year it’ll have figs. But if not, then cut it down.’ ”
The fig tree along the roadside in Matthew 21:19 was not in fertile ground like this fig tree planted in a tilled and watched after vineyard. The stones have been removed, and the soil tended.
When we come to Christ, He removes our stones and impediments, teaching us His Word, replacing our traditions and opinions of man. Do we sit infertile year upon year, or are we producing fruit that lasts? Are we ourselves digging deeper into God's Word to gain understanding, or relying only upon what others teach us? Our growth depends on whether we are applying God's Word, or nodding our head that it is so. God's Word is true. Does our life demonstrate it is?
Isaiah 5
1-7 A Song about the Lord’s Vineyard
1-4 Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a rich and fertile hill. He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines.
In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter. Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah, you judge between me and my vineyard. What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes, why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?
Mark 4
1-20 The Parable of the Sower
13-20 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”
For the fig tree parable, I interpreted as this:
ReplyDeleteGod is the one that planted the fig tree. He gives us life and expects us to "bear fruit". Jesus is the gardener. He came to give us another chance to "bear fruit".