Welcome to Day 2969 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
Day 2969– “What A Difference Jesus Makes” – Luke 13:1-17
Putnam Church Message – 10/04/2026
The Good News According to Luke: “What A Difference Jesus Makes!”
Last week, our message was “It’s Time To Get Real,” and we learned our responsibility is to live faithfully, pursue peace, read the signs, receive grace, and settle your heart with God, because the time for halfhearted discipleship is over.
>Today, we continue with our fortieth-first message from Luke’s narrative of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Today’s message is: “What a Difference Jesus Makes!” Our core passage today is Luke 13:1-17, starting on page 1619 of your pew Bibles.
Repent or Perish
13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
Opening Prayer
Father, we come before You today with questions we cannot always answer.
Why do terrible things happen? Why do the innocent suffer? Why does evil sometimes seem to prosper? Why does justice appear delayed?
Lord Jesus, correct our perspective. Help us not to judge others from a distance while ignoring the condition of our own hearts. Teach us to see Your patience as mercy, Your truth as a call to repentance, and Your power as freedom for those who have been bound.
Holy Spirit, open our eyes to the difference Jesus makes—in our thinking, in our waiting, in our suffering, and in our eternal hope.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Introduction: When the Question Is “Why?”
A pastor once visited a family after an unexpected tragedy. There were no easy words. No clever explanation. No neat theological sentence that could make grief disappear. Finally, one family member asked the question humans have asked for thousands of years: “Why would God allow this?”
Maybe you have asked that question. Perhaps in a hospital bed. At a graveside. After an accident. After a diagnosis. After watching someone who tried to live faithfully suffer while someone who seems to care nothing about God prospers.
Philosophers call it the problem of evil. / If God is good, why is there suffering? / If God is powerful, why does He not stop it? / And, if we are honest, those questions become much more personal when the suffering comes close to home.
Last week, in “It’s Time to Get Real,” Jesus told us not to ignore eternity, not to miss the signs of what God is doing, and not to postpone reconciliation with God.
Now Luke continues the same conversation. / Someone brings Jesus breaking news. / Pilate has killed Galileans. / Another tragedy has taken eighteen lives when a tower collapsed. /
People want Jesus to explain why. / Instead, Jesus changes the question.
They ask: Why did this bad thing happen to these innocent people?
Jesus asks: “Are you ready to meet God?”
And then, in the same passage, Jesus encounters a woman who has suffered for eighteen long years. / He does not simply explain suffering. / He touches suffering. / He confronts the power behind it. / He sets a captive free.
And Luke leaves us with one magnificent truth: What a difference Jesus makes.
So, let’s explore four truths that will help us to understand this difficult passage. They are listed in your bulletin insert on the side that says, “What a Difference Jesus Makes.”
Truth 1: Tragedy Is Not Proof That Someone Is Worse Than We Are
Luke 13:1–5 The passage begins with terrible news. Some Galileans had apparently come to offer sacrifices, and Pontius Pilate had them killed. Luke says their blood was mixed with their sacrifices. Whether literally at the altar or connected to their worship, the picture is intentionally horrifying.
They were doing something religious. Something apparently righteous. And a brutal ruler slaughtered them. Pontius Pilate Was Capable of It.
This fits what we know about Pilate. / He was not the timid character sometimes imagined from passion plays. / He could be brutal. He provoked Jewish sensitivities. / He used force against protesters. / He had little patience for anyone he perceived as a threat to Roman authority.
So, people come to Jesus with a theological puzzle. / These Galileans were killed. / Pilate was still alive. / Where was justice? / Surely, people reasoned, those victims must have secretly done something terrible. / That way, suffering could be explained neatly.
The Old Assumption
This thinking was deeply rooted. / If you obey God, good things happen. / If you disobey God, bad things happen. / There is some biblical truth behind consequences. / Sin does have consequences. / It’s the law of planting and harvesting, which is generally true, but even the best farmers have bad crops at times.
Proverbs often describes how wise choices tend toward life and foolish choices toward destruction. But Job had already shattered the simplistic version of that formula.
Job’s friends looked at his suffering and said, essentially: “You must have done something wrong.” / Job insisted that their explanation was wrong. / And God eventually rebuked Job’s friends.
Jesus now does the same. / He asks: “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans?” His answer: No!
Then Jesus raises another tragedy. /...
