The Interceding Lord: Luke
13:1-9 Lessons from a Tree
ルカ13:1-91 ちょうどそのとき、ある人たちがやって来て、イエスに報告した。ピラトがガリラヤ人たちの血をガリラヤ人たちのささげるいけにえに混ぜたというのである。2 イエスは彼らに答えて言われた。「そのガリラヤ人たちがそのような災難を受けたから、ほかのどのガリラヤ人よりも罪深い人たちだったとでも思うのですか。3 そうではない。わたしはあなたがたに言います。あなたがたも悔い改めないなら、みな同じように滅びます。4 また、シロアムの塔が倒れ落ちて死んだあの十八人は、エルサレムに住んでいるだれよりも罪深い人たちだったとでも思うのですか。5 そうではない。わたしはあなたがたに言います。あなたがたも悔い改めないなら、みな同じように滅びます。」6 イエスはこのようなたとえを話された。「ある人が、ぶどう園にいちじくの木を植えておいた。実を取りに来たが、何も見つからなかった。7 そこで、ぶどう園の番人に言った。『見なさい。三年もの間、やって来ては、このいちじくの実のなるのを待っているのに、なっていたためしがない。これを切り倒してしまいなさい。何のために土地をふさいでいるのですか。』8 番人は答えて言った。『ご主人。どうか、ことし一年そのままにしてやってください。木の回りを掘って、肥やしをやってみますから。9 もしそれで来年、実を結べばよし、それでもだめなら、切り倒してください。』」
IN LUKE 13,
WE FIND TEACHING ON a number of topics: Repenting or Perishing Because of
Suffering (today’s message), a Crippled Woman Healed on the Sabbath, Parables
of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast; the teaching of Jesus being the Narrow Door,
& Jesus’ Sorrow for Jerusalem.
Today we are dealing with the reality of pain and
suffering. Everyone seems to be in the
same boat. Rain on the good and on the
bad.
全ての人が痛みを感じることがある。
People suffer—not
because of their sin—necessarily, but because they live life. Verse 3 gives more light. “Unless you repent, you too will all perish.” "もし悔い改めないなら、みな同じように滅びます。" Death will anyways happen but the
difference is how we respond to the pain and the issues of life. We all suffer pain and things might not get
any better for you in the long run but in that life of pain, you look up and
repent.
Repenting brings a different result.
悔い改めは異なる結果をもたらします！
悔い改めると全体像が見えてくる。
We can live with life.
We can see the other side of the tapestry. We see the whole picture with more clarity…or
at least, the potential is there for that.
The presence of pain in our world is always disturbing. Most Believers tend to feel that death and
suffering will continue to exist until Christ’s return. Many hope that suffering is at a
minimum. If tragedy comes, the
responsibility lies with the person who experiences the misfortune.
When we look at the world today, we see much of suffering.
Some are unbelievable. Some might tend
to feel that when certain people are affected by atrocities, they must have
been doing something wrong to deserve or to justify this: punishment for sins
done in the past. A special suffering
set up for them for secret sins done in their past. Jesus tells us that that is a wrong
interpretation.
世の中には多くの「痛み」があるが、必ずしも悪いことをしたから罰を受けているとは限らない。
Others might feel that when good people suffer and bad
people escape the pain proves to them that there is no God. Their interpretation is also wrong.
また、悪い人が苦しまないのは、神様がいない証拠だ、という人もいるが、この解釈も間違っている。
What do you think?
Which is it or is there another answer?
I tend to think one way but believe another. I would wish that the evil people of the
world would get saved, crushed or blown up or something that would end their
reign of terror…BUT I also believe that, given different situations, I would be
the one being blown up. After all, we
are all sinners. We all
deserve God’s wrath. It is only a matter
of degree. We all come short to the
Glory of God—short of His requirements.
We are all guilty and without excuse.
全ての人が罪びとである。
We all stand under God’s displeasure.
Romans 1:18-20, ローマ1:18-20 18 というのは、不義をもって真理をはばんでいる人々のあらゆる不敬虔と不正に対して、神の怒りが天から啓示されているからです。19 それゆえ、神について知らされることは、彼らに明らかです。それは神が明らかにされたのです。20 神の、目に見えない本性、すなわち神の永遠の力と神性は、世界の創造された時からこのかた、被造物によって知られ、はっきりと認められるのであって、彼らに弁解の余地はないのです。 2:1; ローマ 2: 1 ですから、すべて他人をさばく人よ。あなたに弁解の余地はありません。あなたは、他人をさばくことによって、自分自身を罪に定めています。さばくあなたが、それと同じことを行っているからです。 3:19. ローマ 3:19 さて、私たちは、律法の言うことはみな、律法の下にある人々に対して言われていることを知っています。それは、すべての口がふさがれて、全世界が神のさばきに服するためです。
It is not that some suffer and are allowed
to suffer atrocities and accidents but that ANYONE is spared. Christ says it clearly in 13:3
and 5. Unless we repent,
we shall all perish. Perish-not
necessarily in some tidal wave or gun shootings but under the Wrath of Almighty
God for eternity.
Because we are alive today is in no way proof that we are
better than those who died. It is due to
the explanation Jesus gives in the next passage.
今、生きている人間が死んだ人間よりもいい人だったから生き延びている、というわけではない。
As a parable, Jesus is teaching us a lesson on Life. Understand the teaching and you will have
greater understanding of what Life is all about.
Here we retell the story.
There was this fig tree that had not given any figs for three years and
the owner of the fig farm told his servant to cut it down. “We had given it a lot of attention and yet it still does
not yield fruit so cut it down.”
実りのないイチジクの木は切り倒される。
The worker suggest that the master wait yet one more year. The
Boss agrees and here the man takes special care to tend to the tree—so that it
would produce fruit. If it does not, it
will be cut down.
There are at least three
lessons from this parable. One, Christ is teaching His
contemporaries that IF they do not produce the fruit that is expected of them
to God’s satisfaction they will not be spared indefinitely. No one can be. If we do not produce, we will be cut. 私たちが実を結ばないなら、我々は切り倒されますAgain, we are all in the same boat.
Is. is the Fig Tree
Secondly, there is a difference of what
Jesus says here and that of John the Baptist’s warning. Here we may want
to look back at 3:7-9.
Timing is the issue: タイミングが問題である: John’s teaching is this: Produce fruit in keeping with
repentance or you will be cut down! Live
it or die. Hard to hear this simple lesson. In short, again, live it or get pruned. No sitting on the fence here. It is either you ARE in His Camp or you are
not! No gray areas.
神様に属するか、そうでないかである。どっちつかずの中間地点はない。
This is a matter for growth IF you choose to live a life of
obedience.
It is not a one-time choice.
It is a lifetime worth of saying YES to Him.
一回限りの選択ではなく、一生神様に「はい」と言い続けるのである。
And it is not 100% up to you. The real work had already been done—at the
Cross.
私たちの功績ではなく、キリストが既に十字架で成し遂げてくださった働きによる。
It was His role—His job—His privilege to stand in your place
before the Father and to intercede or arbitrate on your behalf. This is a
divine intercession. 神の執り成し Shows us God’s Grace & Love!
One more year!
John the Baptist was using a similar language when he warns
the people that the axe had already been laid at the root of the tree. There was only the waiting for the order from
the Master to start cutting it down.
斧が木の下にあり、主人が命じれば木が切り倒される。
Once it is given, down comes the unproductive tree. Death
AND Judgment will happen: Just before the death of actor W.C. Fields, a friend visited
Fields' hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible.
Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, "I'm looking for
loopholes." There are no loopholes—only One Way I.E. Jesus alone!
So Jesus asks the hard question: "Do you think
that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because
they suffered this way?" This was a good question to a Jewish
mind and toward us today. Often in the Old Testament a tragic event is seen as
the product of sin—this was the interpretation of Job's friends. You are sick;
you had done something wrong to deserve it! Live with it!
But before the self-righteous in the growing crowd could get
lost in the various possibilities raised by the question, Jesus personalizes
it. "I tell you, no! But unless you repent,
you too will all perish." There is a more fundamental issue
than "them" and "their sin." Mortality is evidence of the
presence of sin in our world (Found truth of this from Gen 3). More important
than the timing or cause of death is this: only repentance can change death
from a tragic end into a bridge to a new kind of life.
Luke 3:8; ルカ3:8 それならそれで、悔い改めにふさわしい実を結びなさい。『われわれの父はアブラハムだ』などと心の中で言い始めてはいけません。よく言っておくが、神は、こんな石ころからでも、アブラハムの子孫を起こすことがおできになるのです。10:13; ルカ10: 13 ああコラジン。ああベツサイダ。おまえたちの間に起こった力あるわざが、もしもツロとシドンでなされたのだったら、彼らはとうの昔に荒布をまとい、灰の中にすわって、悔い改めていただろう。15:7ルカ15: 7 あなたがたに言いますが、それと同じように、ひとりの罪人が悔い改めるなら、悔い改める必要のない九十九人の正しい人にまさる喜びが天にあるのです。
There is a sort of joy when a
Believer passes away. Joy in that they
are in His Care even more than when they were on this planet that is prone to pain. The event of death shows life's delicateness.
Disaster and or misfortune looms heavy for the unresponsive.
That is why the Gospel is told. That is why, we as Believers need to present
the facts of the Gospel to our loved ones and fellow workers.
信者は愛している人や同僚などに福音を述べ伝える必要がある。
There seems to be a call to personal repentance found in the
first part of this story and a greater national or corporate call for
repentance in the later segment. This
would be called The Eschatology of Christ or
the study of the Return of Christ. Found
in the New Testament, this would be the day at the end of time following
Armageddon when God will decree the fates of all individual humans according to
the good and evil of their earthly lives.
When is it to late to repent? The time is always NOW!
悔い改めるのが遅すぎるのは一体いつ？→答え：今
It looks like the people living at the time of this
encounter were living on borrowed time.
Going to the Cross, the people of Jerusalem said, “Let His blood be on us and our children!”
In 70 AD, the city fell and the Temple
was destroyed.
Timing is important. Peter talks about that in 2 Peter 3:9-12: 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not
wanting anyone to perish, but
everyone to come to repentance.
10 But
the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a
roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in
it will be laid bare.
11 Since
everything will be destroyed in this way, what
kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you
look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about
the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
Q: “What kind of people ought you to be? "あなたがたは、どれほど聖い生き方をする敬虔なひとでなければならないでしょう"
A: “You
ought to live holy and godly lives.”
We would be deceiving ourselves if we think that the final
verdict for the Judgment Day against the unbelieving and unrepentant is as yet
uncertain or unclear. There is a verdict
and it is most clear: We must repent or we perish.
悔い改めなければ滅びる。
Romans 3:19 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
The third lesson is this: Death and its rewards or punishments are not ours
because of any merit or goodness we can muster. It is also not based on how
superior we might feel over the ‘real
sinners’ we see on TV or in the news.
We own this reprieve simply due to the intercessions of Christ. We can see His divine character as it works
it’s self out in Divine Compassion. His pleading for the stay of execution of
the sentence we all deserve so that we
might seek Him, take advantage of the opportunity to repent and to be saved
by His Grace. No other way. Forgiveness comes only from The Lord Jesus
Christ.
主イエスキリストのみが許すことができる。
His dying for us on the Cross 2000 years ago paid the price
for our transgressions. Belief in that
sacrifice gives us eternal rewards.
Jesus is again stressing that the real fact of life
we must face is mortality, not the timing of death. MORTALITY not WHEN is the REAL
issue死ぬべき存在にとっては、いつなのかが本当の問題ではないMore important than determining what caused the death
or timing of one’s death, is dealing with the fact of death and of the
subsequent judgment. This quickly levels the playing field for everyone and
calls on each of us to consider where God stands in the equation—or better,
where we stand before Him in the equation.
Jesus teaches us that the Clock of Time is ticking. God is
watching over His vineyard. If His vine does not bear fruit, He can find other
ways to get fruit. We are to produce fruit.
The fruit of righteousness and in making disciples for Christ. Romans 11
also makes it clear that God is not yet done with that surgery. Maybe He needs
to prune you a little?
神様は私たちを刈り込む必要があるかもしれない。
Be open to that and
be ready to change direction.
心を開いて、変わる用意があるようにしよう。
Bring an illustration to close: F.B.
Meyer once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are three
things we do not know: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to
sin. And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or
her. Third, we also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances. We
are not to judge but look to our own need to repent. "イエスが来たときに宣教の教会ではない教会が、見失った教会になるでしょう。"
“The church which is not a missionary church will be a missing
church when Jesus comes.”
罪を犯した兄弟姉妹はどのような状況で罪を犯したのかわからないので、裁かないようにしよう。むしろ、自分の罪を悔い改めよう。
And I will
encourage you: Evangelize, equip-tend the vine, and send out disciples into the
harvest to bring others to Jesus. Will
you do that?
Translation
by: 松井 順
