Luke 21:29-33--The Lesson of the Fig Tree

Luke 21:29-33
English Standard Version
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The Lesson of the Fig Tree
29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

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Remember the parable of The Barren Fig Tree in Luke 13?  That was a while ago for us because we've been moving at a slow pace through the book of Luke, but that would have just been a short time ago in the life of Jesus.  Jesus uses that same analogy about fig trees turning green and getting leafy showing the vinedresser that they are getting ready to bear fruit as a way to talk about how we will know that the kingdom of God is near.

Jesus also used this imagery when He cursed the fig tree on His way into Jerusalem saying that Israel should have seen the signs and been ready for His first coming, because they had all the Law and the Prophets pointing forwards toward Him, so we should should not be surprised by the coming of the kingdom of God even though it will come as a thief in the night to those in the world.  They will be caught off guard and will caught asleep when they should have been awake and vigilant if they would have known when the thief was going to come.

Now then, what did Jesus mean when He said, "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place."?  Did He mean that the generation of the apostles would not die before the kingdom of God (what many refer to as the Millennial Kingdom) was established?  This is one of the verses often referenced by Amillennialists to say that if this verse is true that the kingdom of God cannot be a physical kingdom like the Jews were expecting, but it must be a spiritual kingdom that is fulfilled in the Church and this prophecy was fulfilled at Pentecost.

I personally favor the opinion that Jesus is referring back to the generation that He was talking about in verses 25-28.  Again, this is one of the disadvantages of reading small portions of text out of context, but this is a good example of how doing so can lead you to some faulty conclusions or can be a way for people to try to base their theology on a single verse.  It seems to be saying that the same generation that sees the coming of the Son of Man will be the same generation that will see the coming of the Kingdom.  Both judgment and deliverance will come concurrently, and the end will not come until all the prophecies have been fulfilled.

The last verse is sad to the people of this world, but it is message of hope for those of us who are in Christ and I will focus on it for a bit today as to how that one verse has helped shape my worldview.  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."  This world is not something we need to cling tightly to because in the end it too will pass away as God will make all things new.  There will be a new heaven and a new earth.  I don't see this as God simply fixing what's broken here, but that the entire universe will be destroyed because it is tainted by the curse of sin and God makes a New Heaven and a New Earth that is an appropriate dwelling place for Himself and His people.  We have already covered some of these topics in 1 Peter and 2 Peter and some of the other epistles and will study the topic more closely when we study some of the Old Testament prophets and the book of Revelation.  How different our perspective is though to know that the world cannot and will not cease to exist until God has completed everything He has set out to accomplish!

The world lives in fear of things like global warming telling us that the world will be destroyed by rising temperatures and flood waters in tens of years (I've heard many predictions from the climate scientists regarding this and so far they have all been wrong because they have not taken into account that the end will not come until God says it is time).  God may allow the results of sin and rebellion against Him to become more and more prevalent as His good design was for us to be stewards of His creation, and Satan is out to kill, steal, and destroy, thinking that somehow if he can destroy the people and the world, that God's plan will be messed up.  But the gospel will not be thwarted.  The end will not come until every single person whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life has been redeemed.  That does not mean that we live in a way where we are poor stewards of what we have been given, but we need not fear when the alarmists claim that the world is going to end in this many years or that many years.  Yes, there are going to be terrible plagues that will come at the end of the world, but they will come at the hand of God to try to get people's attention and call them to repentance.  The gospel will go forth to the whole world, and then the end will come.  Has that happened yet?  Not at all!  We still have many unreached people groups in the world today and if truly mean it when we pray, "Thy kingdom come....." then we will be about the business of seeing God's power of recreation come in the hearts and minds of people in the here and now.

This passage isn't meant to tell us exactly when the end will come, but it does give us an indication that God and not the devil or the Antichrist will be in control of when the end will come.  We can have hope that everything, even the end of the world, is going to go exactly to God's plan and that God is going to take care of all those who belong to Him.  We can live in the here and now by faith and not be controlled by fear and just because we don't know the exact details of how the future will play out does not mean that it is something we need to be afraid of either, for our salvation in Christ is secure.