Luke 13:11 — Community Reflections

LUKE 13:11 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.”

Then Jesus asked, What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches — the mustard seed's transformation from the smallest of seeds to a bird-sheltering tree communicates the kingdom's disproportionate expansion from a tiny Galilean beginning. Daniel 4:12 and Ezekiel 17:23 both use the bird-sheltering tree as an image of a world-encompassing kingdom.

Church Fathers on Luke 13:11

He soon explained that He had been speaking of the synagogue, showing, that He truly came to it, who preached in it, as it is said, And he was teaching in one of the synagogues.
Ambrose · 4th century

He teaches indeed not separately, but in the synagogues; calmly, neither wavering in any thing, nor determining aught against the law of Moses; on the Sabbath also, because the Jews were then engaged in the hearing of the law.
Chrysostom · 4th century

Now that the Incarnation of the Word was manifested to destroy corruption and death, and the hatred of the devil against us, is plain from the actual events; for it follows, And behold there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity, &c. He says spirit of infirmity, because the woman suffered from the cruelty of the devil, forsaken by God because of her own crimes or for the transgression of Adam, on account of which the bodies of men incur infirmity and death. But God…
Cyril of Alexandria · 5th century

Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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