You shall likewise perish

Joe Rigney of Bethlehem College and Seminary offers further observations on Luke 12-13. The remainder of the post is from Joe.

In 12:49-53, Jesus says that he’s come to cast fire on the earth and divide families. He goes on to make a point about his audience’s ability to discern weather: they recognize rain in the first clouds, and they recognize scorching heat in the first breeze from the south. The common point is that we recognize major weather events in their small precursors. We can see storms in seed form. The hypocrisy of the Jews was their unwillingness to apply this basic principle to judgments: They knew how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but not the present time (12:56). They had not learned the lesson of Amos 4:6-13: the famine, drought, blight, pestilence, and raids are simply the warm-up, the warning of what is to come if the people don’t repent. Failure to interpret the events and heed the warning will lead to the ultimate judgment: Prepare to meet your God.

Following this point through in Ch. 13, Jesus is telling them that the fall of the tower and the mixing of the blood is a precursor to a greater calamity for the whole nation. Pilate’s mingling of the blood is the cloud; the falling of the tower is the south wind. The desecration and destruction of AD 66-70 is the storm and the scorching heat. They’re drawing conclusions about the individuals involved instead of realizing that such calamities are a message to them, a merciful warning from God.

In this light, the intervening verses in 12:57-59 make sense. Israel is the accused on the way to the magistrate; judgment is coming. Now is the time to settle with the accuser, to make things right. Otherwise, you will pass through the full range of the court system: accuser, judge, and officer, and find yourself in prison until you can pay.

Thus, there’s a tight unity to Jesus’ entire discourse at this point, and one that ought to be instructive for us as we try to learn what it means to interpret the present time.