How did the disciples understand the words spoken to them? They could only have understood them in the sense that now, with Jesus, the time of messianic salvation has come. The word “messiah” does not appear, of course, any more than does an equivalent of “messianic time.” But both lie concealed behind this beatitude. The Psalms of Solomon describe the messianic time as follows:
Happy are those who shall live in those days, to see the good things of Israel that God shall accomplish in the congregation of the tribes. (
PsSol
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.
What is crucial in our context is that in this similitude of the barren fig tree the time is strictly limited. It becomes a provisional time, a time for ultimate decision, a deadline. We could also say that it is a grace-given deadline. Everything depends on whether the fig tree will produce fruit after all. The gospels contain a whole series of similar texts that call for radical conversion and so speak of the last chance to secure one’s own existence.16
While the parable of the barren fig tree is only about the truth that the decision for conversion must happen immediately because God is allowing just a short period of time, the following little composition goes a step further:
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
(Matt 10:34-36; cf. Luke 12:51-53)
“I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” This saying of Jesus has led a whole series of twentieth-century writers astray, making them see Jesus as a social revolutionary—examples include the Social Democratic politician Karl Kautsky (1854–1938), the Austrian cultural historian Robert Eisler (1882–1949), or the English historian of religion Samuel G. F. Brandon (1907–1971). They, and others, saw Jesus as a kind of Marxist preacher of revolution who relied on violent exercise of force.17 Why else would he have talked about a “sword”?
But this interpretation mistakes the metaphor in Jesus’ words. “Sword” here stands for division, separation. That sense of “sword” needs explanation, of course. The discourse composition does this by means of a quotation from the prophet Micah, who depicts the judgment that will befall faithless Israel. That judgment includes the fact that no one can trust another any longer. The land is torn apart by fear and mistrust:
Put no trust in a friend,
have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your embrace;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are members of your own household. (Mic 7:5-6)
This quotation from Micah within the composition of Matthew 10:34-36 says that this very condition has now arrived. Division and rejection are everywhere! But why? The reason is directly connected with Jesus himself. Jesus has come to unite the people of God under God’s rule, and he has indeed brought many people together in this new condition. He has bridged chasms. He has assembled toll collectors and Zealots, sinners and saints, poor and rich at one table. His colorfully mixed band of disciples is a sign of this gathering movement.