You can ask any Christian child why Jesus came and they will tell you a variant of “To save us” or maybe a John 3:16 or 17 or any of 20 learnt gospel verses… But Jesus himself gives us a remarkable explanation in Luke Chapter 13…
And I am sad to say, I have never read it like this till today!
It starts off with Jesus shattering the idea that bad things happen to people who “deserve” it… that it is some punishment for something they did wrong.
They come to Jesus and tell Him about the Galileans whom Pilate killed, it seems at the temple, their blood mixing in with the blood of the sacrifices. Jesus responds with…
”Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”
(Luke 13:3 NIV)
Jesus also refers to those who died when a tower collapsed in Siloam… Do you think this calamity is a punishment for something they did wrong? Jesus is very adamantly straightforward, and ads a kick in the shin:
“I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
(Luke 13:3 & 5 NIV)
What?! Why will we perish, we are hanging around with Jesus?
But Jesus explains through the rest of the chapter that the Kingdom of God (here on earth) has gone rancid. It has gone bad. … Like the yeast in dough… the decay has spread everywhere, and like the birds nesting in the tree of a mustard seed, they are resting in places they are not supposed to be… _(The Mustard plant was not a “good” plant in Jesus’ time…!)_
The Jews of Israel have started worshipping the laws of Moses, and not the God of Moses. It became a ritual. A ritual of sacrifices and rote repentances without a relationship with the God they are supposed to be worshipping, loving and adoring!
By example, Jesus heals a woman on the sabbath and gets rebuked for “working” instead of the love and gratitude for the healing of a suffering person.
So when a bystander asks Jesus, “Will only some have eternal life?”, Jesus explains that no matter how much time you spent in the synagogue, no matter if you walked with, dined with or talked with the Lord. Or even listened to every one of His teachings…
Unless you repented and made a decision, a hard decision to return to God, and God alone, you are not part of the family.
“Once the head of the house has shut and locked the door, it will be too late. Even if you stand outside knocking, begging to enter, and saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us,’ he will say to you, ‘I don’t know who you are. You are not a part of my family’.”
(Luke 13:25 TPT)
So the Israelites are in trouble, they have completely ruined the purpose of the laws of Moses, they have all but lost their relationship with God (The Old Testament in a nutshell)… Where does Jesus fit in?
In verse 6-9, Jesus explains His role…
A master comes to his fig tree for some figs… and there is none. So he says to the gardner, I have given this tree a chance, but for the last three years its been barren. No fruit. Chop it down. It is a waste and using up good soil.
But the gardner intervenes:
“‘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.’”
(Luke 13:8-9 NIV)
Jesus is the intervening gardner.
He is asking God: Give me one more chance with these people, let me invest myself with them, nurture them, care for them…
And that is the whole purpose of the bible and the reason for Jesus summed up in a single chapter… the rest is just mechanics.
