The Kingdom Is Not What You Expected

Luke 13:10-21 combines the healing-exorcism of a woman on a Sabbath day with two short parables. It’s a conflict story, in a religious environment, on a religious day, with a religious ruler. But the Jews recognize neither the kingdom of God, nor the King himself. Instead they fixate on violations of law. Jesus is provoking them to answer this question — “Why am I healing this woman on this day?” It’s not about demon possession or what is permitted on the Sabbath, but rather about the identity of the King and the nature of God’s kingdom. God’s Son, the King, delivers and rescues from slavery (Deuteronomy 5:15). Jesus follows his miracle with two parables explaining how God’s kingdom, imperceptible at first, grows upward and outward as well as inward and through. This miracle and these parables lead us to identify the King and better understand the kingdom. Paradoxically, life is given through death, and the kingdom will grow worldwide after the seed has germinated. Jesus said in John 12:23-24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Eventually, safety and rest will be found by many throughout the world in the branches of the tree.