Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

17:44)

Happy are those who shall live in those days, to see the good things of the LORD, which he will perform for the coming generation. Under the rod of discipline of the LORD’s anointed in fear of his God, in wisdom of spirit and of righteousness and strength… (

PsSol

18:6-7)

The Psalms of Solomon speak directly of the expected royal messiah, and they describe the messianic time, but the texts quoted show that this messianic time still lies in the future. It is only against the horizon of such future expectation that the whole explosive force of Luke 10:23-24 is evident. It is not future participants in the messianic time who are called blessed, but Jesus’ disciples. That means the future is already here. The time is fulfilled. Jesus’ saying about “new wine” also speaks of this fulfilled time: “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins” (Mark 2:22). Normally wine was kept in amphorae, that is, in large, two-handled clay jars. Only for purposes of transport would one use “wineskins” made of tanned hides of goats or sheep. No rational person would transport young wine that was still fermenting in old wineskins. They were no longer elastic enough to sustain the shaking on a donkey or in a cart. In his images and similitudes Jesus loved to speak realistically; he even insisted on it. The same is true here.

The new wine points to the time of the reign of God that has now begun, its newness enrapturing, destroying everything that is worn out and broken. Compromises are impossible. The reign of God is full of power and bubbling like new wine. Jesus’ answer to the question of fasting works within the same field of associations: “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they?” (Mark 2:19). As we saw already in chapter 14, Jesus regards the time that has dawned with his preaching of the reign of God as a wedding, God’s wedding with God’s people. The metaphor presumes that the wedding has already begun. The bridegroom has already brought the bride home. The wedding banquet is in full swing, and the days of the wedding will not end very quickly.

It would have been very natural for Jesus, when he was speaking within this metaphorical field, to have said: I myself am the bridegroom. This would have been a new and moving statement about the messiah. But Jesus holds back even here. He only says that the bridegroom is already here, and that itself is indirectly formulated. He certainly does not say, “It is I.” With similar reticence he avoids saying that he himself is the messenger from Isaiah 52:7, and yet his talk about the good news that is now being preached makes it clear indirectly that he himself is that messenger of joy (cf. chap. 11 above). This way of speaking, which holds back and yet can be understood by those who trust, is characteristic of Jesus. He is the center of everything that is now happening; he pours the new wine (John 2:1-11), and he has the bride (John 3:29). Through him comes the fulfillment of everything Israel has desired to hear and see for many generations. He himself is the bringer of the time of salvation. What a claim to sovereignty that is!

A Time of Decision

But what is now coming with Jesus is not merely a time of salvation; it is also a time of decision—for the very reason that the reign of God, if not accepted, will become division, separation, and judgment. Therefore Jesus is concerned not only with rejoicing in the reign of God but also with radical conversion. The similitude of the barren fig tree is about the time of decision into which Israel has now entered:

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”

He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:6-9)

In those days in Palestine shoots and vines were not trained on trellises as they are today. They simply proliferated on the ground or wound their way up the trunks of other trees. That is why trees, especially fig trees, were often planted in vineyards, making them doubly useful. Of course, that only made sense if the fig trees bore fruit and did not produce too much shade. In Luke 13:6-9 the barren fig tree gets a year’s reprieve through the dialogue between the owner and the worker in the vineyard; after that it is threatened with the axe. A single year! It is clear that the point of the similitude lies here: Israel has only a short time left to repent; if it does not make use of the time it will have missed its own meaning and mission.