![coptic reader luke 6 coptic reader luke 6](https://stillnessofthemorning.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/img_0399.jpg)
He doesn’t look a thing like the bread they or their ancestors have eaten. He’s Mary and Joseph’s boy.” They know facts about Jesus but they don’t really know him or where he comes from. Today he challenges the people to consider what kind of bread they are seeking and eating, perishable or imperishable, then he declares himself to be “the bread of life,” “the living bread that came down from heaven.” That’s when the conflict started. Yesterday, in John’s gospel, Jesus fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. It seems that when we run into Jesus we often get conflict between what is and what might be, between our understanding and his understanding, between knowing about Jesus and really knowing him. Instead of more bread they got Jesus and conflict. That’s why everyone showed up in today’s gospel. It was supposed to be another feeding, or so they thought. The following sermon is based on John 6:35, 41-51. Want to see these messages of radical love and grace reach more? Support E2R on Patreon.The collect and reading for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 14B, may be found here.
Coptic reader luke 6 free#
Those connected to the living Vine have nothing in common with the barren fig tree.Įxtracted and adapted from chapter 21 of Paul Ellis’ book AD70 and the End of the World.Įnjoy this article? Why not sign up to our free email list and we’ll notify you about new articles as soon they come out. The believer does not strive to become holy, because “as the root is holy, so are the branches” (Rom. The believer feels no pressure to produce fruit because Jesus is the Vine and it is his fruit we bear. The believer need not fear the axe at the root because Jesus is our Root and the root sustains us (Rev. Those who trust in Jesus have nothing to fear. The lesson of the fig tree is not “God will smite you if you don’t perform,” but “Jesus is the life.” To reject the Author of Life is to reject life itself. Had they been grafted into the living Vine they would have been saved from sin and Romans. They should have abandoned their quest for self-improvement and put their faith in God. What should they have done? They should have listened to Jesus. Just as the fig tree withered from the roots up, the religious Jews rotted from the inside-out. Their source was self and their root was their downfall. The religious Jews trusted in themselves. The punch line of the parable is not produce fruit or else, but have faith in God.
![coptic reader luke 6 coptic reader luke 6](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/h9xPNB6LbP0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Look again at the last four words in that passage. Being reminded, Peter said to him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:20–22) For three years Jesus warned the Jews with tears that they were on course for destruction, yet they didn’t listen.Īs they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. If your neighbor wakes you in the middle of the night shouting, “Your house is on fire,” but you don’t believe him, you could die. The parable is about how unbelief can kill you. Preterist: “The parable foreshadowed God cutting down Israel in AD70.”Įxcept the cursed fig tree withered straight away (Matthew 21:19), not 40 years later, and God didn’t cut down Israel the Israelites cut themselves off through unbelief (see Rom. The next morning, Jesus cursed a fruitless fig tree (Mark 11:14).īut what does the parable of the fig tree mean?
![coptic reader luke 6 coptic reader luke 6](https://smsj.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/sixth-wk-2.jpg)
When Jesus entered Jerusalem at the start of his final week, the people waved branches without fruit. Then for three years Jesus searched Israel in vain for the fruit of faith. “The axe is already at the root of the tree,” warned John (Matthew 3:10). John, the last of the old covenant prophets, urged the religious Jews to “Bear the fruit of repentance” (Matt. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?” And he answered and said to him, “Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer and if it bears fruit next year, fine but if not, cut it down.” (Luke 13:6–9) And he said to the vineyard-keeper, “Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. A man had a fig tree, which had been planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.