Preliminary thoughts on Luke                           2005 May 4 for 30th

 

While the Gospel of Mark that we finished a month ago is shortest, the Gospel of Luke is longest and most detailed.  I was taught that Luke was a physician; dad liked to call him "doctor Luke" at times.  In high school I read a book about a person from this era named "Lucanus."  It was historical fiction but the main character, a physician named Lucanus, became the author Luke after conversion.  Some of my subconscious attitudes about those times doubtless come from that book.  For instance, although Jesus said as much himself, people then lived about as long as they do now, 70-80 years, and they had pretty much the same sorts of illnesses, major and minor, though they had much less in the way of technology to deal with them.

 

We expect from Luke the most detailed account and so will be most careful to study the implications of these details.

 

According to the introduction in my Bible, the books of Luke and Acts were written by the same author, a man of high literary skill.  Also it notes that Luke pays more attention to the women around Jesus, calling more of them by name than any other biographer.  Writing in the period roughly one generation after the crucifixion, Luke portrays Jesus as an historical person who healed sick people and befriended the helpless, poor, and sinful.

 

Luke 1:1-38                                                                2005 May 4 for 31st

 

At the very outset, Luke claims that he is writing secondhand in order to have a complete and orderly account of Jesus' life and ministry, based on his careful research with actual eyewitnesses.  Luke himself does not claim to be an eyewitness.  This makes him a "recent historian" with access to many primary sources.

 

There was a priest Zechariah whose wife was Elizabeth.  Both were descendants of Aaron.  It was Zechariah's turn to serve as "priest before God" and when he went in to burn incense, the angel Gabriel was standing there by the altar.  Needless to say, Zechariah was shocked and frightened.

 

Zechariah and Elizabeth had no children and they were both old.  Gabriel announced that they would soon have a son who they would call John.  John would be "filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth" and would observe the Nazarite vow regulations (not cutting hair, eating in a certain way, never drinking alcohol).  He would preach with the power of Elijah and prepare many people of Israel for the coming of the Lord.

 

Unusual though this all was, Zechariah was skeptical and challenged the angel for some sort of proof.  Gabriel was insulted, "I am Gabriel.  I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.  And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens…"

 

So Zechariah left the holy place.  The people praying outside were worried that he had taken so long and as he made signs to them, realized that he had seen a vision and that he couldn't talk.

 

After his service, he returned to his home and soon Elizabeth was pregnant.  She took this as a blessing in that it took away her "disgrace among the people."

 

Six months later, Gabriel visited a young girl named Mary in Nazareth.  She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph.  On being greeted by the angel, Mary was "troubled."  Gabriel announced that she would have a son who would be called Jesus.  He would be the "Son of the Most High" and would be given the throne of David in order to rule over the "house of Jacob" forever.  No wonder the people expected a political Messiah.

 

Mary presented her own challenge.  "How will this be since I am a virgin?"

 

The answer, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

 

As further proof, the angel offered that Mary's cousin Elizabeth was now pregnant in her old age.  "For nothing is impossible with God."

 

Either Gabriel had learned better how to deal with humans, Mary was an easier subject, or her question was taken as valid and not skepticism.

 

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.  "May it be to me as you have said."

 

In this story, the angel Gabriel appears to two people, un-witnessed, and so we have the word of those two people as to what happened.  There is really no proving or disproving the claims of these two people.  It is a matter of faith either to believe or to reject these facts.  As the story plays out, the veracity of the events and these people is confirmed.  It all must have been truly remarkable from their point of view.

 

Luke 1: 39-80                                                             2005 May 6 for June 1st

 

Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  When she arrived, the baby in Elizabeth's womb leapt and Elizabeth pronounced blessings on "the mother of my Lord".  Mary spoke poetry that has become known as "The Magnificat" and has been set to music in many beautiful forms:

 

"My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

  for the Mighty One has done great things for me -- holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

  he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful

To Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

 

We had thought of Jesus' preaching as radical, but this, from his mother, is also radical.  Look at all those reversals of fortune, rulers versus the humble, rich versus hungry, devastation of the proud.

 

John the Baptist was born and on the eighth day was to be circumcised.  Everyone was planning on calling him Zechariah, after his father, but Elizabeth insisted that they call him John, though they had no relatives with that name.  They asked Zechariah and he wrote on a writing tablet, "His name is John," to everyone's amazement.

 

At that moment he was able to speak again and, "filled with the Holy Spirit" made his own prophecy having to do with salvation from enemies and the newborn prophet who would prepare the way for the Lord.  Knowledge, forgiveness, and peace would result.

 

John grew up in the desert and was "strong in spirit".

 

Luke 2:1 - 40                                                              2005 May 7 for June 2nd

 

The Ides of March is remembered as the day Julius Caesar was assassinated.  He was followed by Augustus Caesar.  As the calendar was expanded from ten to twelve months, the new months, July and August were named for these rulers.  This is the Caesar Augustus who issued the decree that all of the Roman world should endure a census.  Everyone had to return to their home town for this and that meant that Joseph and his pregnant fiancée Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the City of David, the home of his family.

 

The displacement of people for this census led to problems finding accommodations, especially for poor folks like Joseph and Mary.  What was worse, the time for the baby to be born arrived while they were housed in the animal shed of some nameless inn.  Mary gave birth, wrapped up the baby with what cloth was available, and put him down to sleep in a hay bin.

 

Out in the country not far away, some shepherds were on routine duty with their flocks when suddenly the sky lit up with an angel who announced the birth of the Christ.  They would be able to tell which baby it was because he would be wrapped in cloths lying in a hay bin.  Then a choir of angels praised God with these words, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

 

After this demonstration, the shepherds decided to go into town and see if they could find this baby that God had told them about.  Sure enough they found a baby in just the condition they were told and were thus convinced that their vision was truth from God.  At that point they spread the news about the birth of the Christ to everyone they encountered.

 

As we saw in Leviticus, male babies were circumcised and named on the 8th day after their birth.  This was done and the baby was named Jesus.  When the time of the mother and child's purification was over (this was also covered in Leviticus) the young, poor couple came and made the prescribed sacrifice, in their case a pair of doves, bottom of the line, since that was all they could afford.

 

While they were at the Temple doing this, two old people approached them, a man named Simeon and a woman named Anna.  They were both devout, Spirit filled people who hung out around the temple most of the time.  Simeon had received a promise from God that he would see the Messiah before he died.  He prophesied, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.  For my eyes have seen your salvation…"

 

The family returned from there to their home in Nazareth where Jesus grew up, became strong, was filled with wisdom and the grace of God.

 

Luke 2:41 - 3                                                              2005 May 9 for June 3rd

 

Every year the family went to the Jerusalem for the Passover.  The year Jesus was twelve he turned up missing the first night as the family group traveled home from the big city.  That evening his parents missed him and when he wasn't found anywhere among the other kids, they returned to Jerusalem to search.  After three more days they found Jesus in the Temple sparring with the teachers there, who were amazed at his insight.  His parents were upset with him, but he replied that they should have known he would be in "my Father's house".  He went back to Nazareth and was obedient as he continued to grow up.

 

Several years later (the fifteenth year of a new Caesar, Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was in charge of Judea and Herod was the local ethnic ruler) the son of Zechariah, John, began his ministry in the desert.  According to a prophecy in Isaiah, he considered himself to be the warm up act for the Messiah who would soon appear.  His job was to prepare for the Lord by straightening out matters of faith and salvation.  When throngs came to him to be baptized he became indignant and said things like, "You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?"

 

A person who had grown up in the desert would actually have experienced broods of vipers, not just seeing such things in movies.

 

Having gained their attention, he went on with his real point, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance."  Oh, and don't think that just because you are racial Jews (children of Abraham) that you are automatically OK no matter what you do.  God can make children of Abraham out of dirt if he wants to, but as for the current crop, "The ax is already at the root of the trees…", the image here being of a woodsman ready to start chopping.

 

Puzzled and alarmed, the crowds asked what they should be doing then.  John preached socialism.  If you have more than enough, share with others who don't, food, clothing, whatever.  To tax collectors he said, don't collect extra.  To soldiers, don't extort or accuse people falsely.

 

The theme running through these statements shows the sorts of things people were actually doing, given a little extra authority.  Granted extra powers, like the backing of the authority of the state for enforcement or collection, people inevitably abused it for personal gain or meanness.  John said, "don't."

 

John was so powerful that people thought he might be the Messiah, but he told them that he was not.  "I baptize you with water.  But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

 

The end of the story of John, for now, is quite poetic, "When John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all:  He locked John up in prison."  Herod was the local ethnic leader, a political position, but he was not "observant" in his faith.

 

That "brood of vipers" stuff doesn't play well in the palace, but, talk about abusing power just because you have it!

 

Jesus was baptized "and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven:  'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'"

 

As was the custom of the time and people, Jesus started his ministry at age thirty.  The genealogy given here is through his "supposed" father, Joseph.  We note that Mary and Joseph were both from Judah (not Levi) but that their first common ancestor is King David.  The Messiah had to be in the line of David.  Joseph is descended through David's son Nathan (named, perhaps for the prophet?) and Mary is descended through the heir, King Solomon, as we saw in the genealogy given in Matthew. The list from the present to the beginning is:

 

Joseph, Heli, Matthat, Levi, Melki, Jannai, Joseph, Mattathias, Amos, Nahum, Esli, Naggai, Maath, Mattathias, Semein, Josech, Joda, Joanan, Rhesa, Zerubbabel, (these are interesting names aren't they), Shealtiel, Neri, Melki, Addi, Cosam, Elmadam, Er, Joshua, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, Levi, Simeon, Judah, Joseph, (this group is only named for the patriarchs) Jonam, Eliakim, Melea, Menna, Mattatha, Nathan, David, Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Nahshon, Amminadab, Ram, Hezron, Perez, Judah, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, (these are the patriarchs) Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Eber, Shelah, Cainan, Arphaxad, Shem, Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel, Cainan, Enos, Seth, Adam, God.

 

Luke 4:1 - 37                                                              2005 May 12 for June 6th

 

Jesus went to the wilderness for forty days and did not eat food for the whole time.  At the end of this time he was hungry.  I recently learned that when people go without food, they are ravenous for the first few days then their bodies adjust and they don't feel hunger anymore for several days or weeks.  When they begin to feel hungry again, as in this case, they are near death.

 

At this point then, near death, he was tempted in three specific ways, first to miraculously make rocks into food and feed himself (and save his life), second to make himself ruler of this whole world, and third to perform some public dare-devil stunt.  At his weakest point in life he resisted all of these short cuts, showing maturity, discipline and spiritual power.  He quoted the Bible in all three cases, "Man does not live on bread alone," "Worship the Lord your God and serve him only," (the price of world leadership was to worship the devil, who runs the world, for now), and "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."  In the third case, the tempter had used the Bible also, reminding Jesus that God would take care of him no matter what happened.  'So do whatever you want!'

 

The devil himself took on Jesus in this instance and the results prove that even a weak human can resist temptation if they are prepared and properly empowered.  Most of the rest of us humans do not do so well.

 

We are to infer from this that if Jesus can withstand these temptations at his weakest, then he will be able to withstand them throughout the rest of his ministry, when they would doubtless recur at various times and under all conceivable circumstances.

 

Showing through this that he was up to the task, he began his public ministry and returned to Nazareth.  He went to Synagogue on the Sabbath and read this prophecy:

 

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

 

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

 

When he sat down he declared that this prophecy had been fulfilled right then, right there.  Everyone was amazed and delighted, but Jesus, realizing that he would have very little respect in Nazareth his home town, he continued with some less popular Bible stories.

 

When there was famine in Israel during Elijah's time he was not sent to any of the widows of Israel but to Zarephath in Sidon.  During the time of Elisha there were many lepers in Israel, but Elisha was sent to cleanse Naaman the Syrian.

 

This made the crowd furious.  Perhaps they realized that Jesus was sent not only to Israel, or maybe even to the exclusion of Israel.  They took him out of town and were going to throw him down a cliff, but he just walked away between them.

 

Still, how quickly the crowd turned from delight to rage.

 

He then went and taught in Capernaum.  People were amazed at the authority of his message.  A man in the synagogue had a bad demon that announced that Jesus was "the Holy One of God."  Jesus silenced him and told the demon to come out of the man, which it did.  This was even more amazing.  "What is this teaching?  With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!"  Such a thing must have been rare or unheard of.

 

Luke 4:38 - 5:26                                                     2005 May 13 for June 7th

 

Jesus went from the synagogue to Simon's house where Simon's mother-in-law had a high fever.  Jesus healed it and she got right up and served them.  People came from all over to be healed by Jesus, even after sunset.  When demons came he wouldn't let them speak because they would call him Christ.  Even when he went to lonely places to pray big crowds followed him and found him.

 

People have trouble believing Jesus was the Son of God, but demons knew and believed this fact.  Now we need to decide what we believe about demons, not that what we believe affects their actual existence or non-existence.  Or does it?

 

When he was trying to teach near the Lake of Gennesaret, so many people came that he commandeered a boat from some local fishermen, Simon, James, and John, who put him out off the shore from where he taught the large crowd.  When he was finished, he had Simon put out into the deep water and throw in the nets.  Simon protested that they had worked all night and caught nothing, but because Jesus said so, he would do it anyway.

 

They caught so many fish that they filled up all the boats to the point that they began to sink.

 

I think that doing something because an authority figure said so is easier if done voluntarily than under coercion from authority.

 

Peter was amazed and aghast.  He fell at Jesus' feet and told him to leave them because they were ordinary sinful men.  Jesus replied to the contrary that they would now be fishing for men.  They pulled all their gear up on shore and, leaving it behind, followed him.

 

A man with leprosy came to Jesus saying that if he wanted to he could heal him.  Jesus said that he did want to, healed him, and told him to go perform the required ritual of examination (that we recently saw detailed in Leviticus) for this healing.  Jesus also told him not to tell anyone, but news about Jesus spread rapidly so that he had great trouble being alone for prayer.

 

He was teaching in a house with Pharisees and teachers one day when some men brought their paralyzed friend on a mat to be healed.  They couldn't get near Jesus in the house, so they went up on the roof, dug a hole, and let the poor man down inside.

 

Jesus, impressed with their faith, forgave the man's sins, a prerogative of God alone and an act viewed as blasphemy by the religious leaders present.  Reading their minds, he took them on about it, instructed them in this usage, then healed the man to prove that he did indeed have such authority.

 

The man took his mat and carried it home himself.  Everyone else went away awestruck.

 

Luke 5:27 - 6:26                                                     2005 May 14 for June 8th

 

Passing a tax collector's booth, Jesus called the tax collector, Levi, to follow him.  This caused a stir among the religious leaders, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"  Jesus' answer was that it was sick people who needed the help of a doctor, not those who were OK.  "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

 

So, they poked at another angle.  The disciples of John fasted and prayed, a common expression of religious sincerity, so why don't you guys?  Jesus said that he was the bridegroom in this picture and it was improper to fast while the bridegroom was there.  Later on there would be plenty of opportunity for fasting.  ("Later on" would be now, for those of you who follow such observances.)

 

This led to a parable.  No one patches an old, torn garment with new cloth.  The new patch will tear up the old garment worse.  No one puts new wine in old wineskins, when the new wine expands with age, the old skins, that have lost resilience, will burst.  But, by the way, old wine is preferable to the drinker.

 

Is that last point part of the parable or just something that flows from stream-of-consciousness?  Up to there it looked like Jesus was saying that new things were happening that wouldn't fit into the old rituals, but here he is saying that the old is preferable.  In either case, so much for strict temperance.

 

Moving on, we encounter two Sabbath events we've seen before, one where Jesus and his followers were "harvesting" by eating out of the fields as they passed through and another where a person with a withered hand was in the Synagogue and Jesus publicly challenged the leadership "which is lawful on the Sabbath:  to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"  He then healed the man.

 

This appears to be the point where the religious leadership realized that this Jesus was totally beyond of their shaming control and would have to be dealt with.  It says they were "furious."

 

I've heard that anger is a natural response to danger, but nothing makes a person more furious than to have his self-righteous pronouncement turned on its head in public.  Humiliation is threatening to men of letters.

 

After praying all night, Jesus came and called his twelve disciples out of the crowd.  As we've seen, some or all of these people had been following him for some time.  Unlike other leading teachers of the time, these people were not chosen for their brilliant intellect or other outstanding abilities, but for other qualities that only God valued.  Perhaps we will get hints at what these qualities were.  (Paul, who wrote much of the remainder of the New Testament, claims to have been a student of Gamaliel, which follows the more conventional "brilliant leading the brilliant" arrangement.)

 

The twelve are called "apostles" and are:  Simon (Peter), Andrew (Simon's brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (the Zealot), Judas (son of James) and Judas Iscariot "who became a traitor."

 

Next is recorded a massive teaching which was delivered to "a great number of people from all over Judea."  Many were healed or had evil spirits removed.  (Seems like "evil spirits" is something else that most modern day Protestants don't take highly seriously either.)

 

Talk about turning things on their heads!  Here is a list of the "Blessed:"

 

The poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated (on account of Jesus).  These will all "be satisfied" in the kingdom of God.

 

When men hate, exclude, insult, and reject you as evil, "rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven."  The prophets were treated this way too.

 

Conversely, woe to:

 

The rich, the well fed, those who laugh, those who are admired by others.  These have "already received [their] comfort".

 

Why are these things bad?  This is how the false prophets were treated.

 

Which category do we find ourselves in here?  Are we poor or rich?  Hungry or well fed?  Weeping or laughing?  Hated or admired?

 

Which do we want to be?  Are we now in the comfortable category because we are in the kingdom of heaven already like the religious leaders were who were so upset with anything and everything Jesus said thought they were?  Is this something we take literally because, not only is it in the Bible but it is directly quoted from Jesus, or is this something we somehow explain around?  Or do we expect to suffer on account of the kingdom of heaven?

 

Luke 6:27 - 7:17                                                     2005 May 16 for June 9th

 

The revolutionary teaching continues.  Love your enemies instead of hating them.  If someone hits you in the face, turn and offer him the other.  If someone takes your coat, don't stop him from taking other parts of your clothing.  If someone asks for anything, give it to them and don't ask for it back.

 

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."

 

In all these cases, you get no credit in heaven for executing an even deal.  "Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be repaid in full."  But, if you lose out on any such deal, "your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

 

This is not the text we usually see quoted as giving God's blessings on capitalism.

While it is true that such non-affronting behaviors take a lot of the destructive tension out of social arrangements, what we always worry about, of course, is that such actions may invite abuse (and possibly waste) leading the giver and receiver both into poverty.  Battered women allow abuse to continue in the name of "turning the other cheek", and whenever a person or government agency helps those in need, lines begin to form in which other kinds of violence can be spawned.  The giving institution can go under itself unless it has careful controls, practically speaking.

 

I think the way that this is ordinarily interpreted for us is that Jesus is attempting to shock people out of their "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" mindset (Moses) into a "nobody hurt anybody and everybody help everybody" mindset.  While this is all a good idea, I do not know of any large-scale system in which such policy has ever succeeded.  Perhaps it is intended only for tribal-scale social orders, a thousand or two people at most.  I can at least fantasize that such notions could work in places like that.

 

We do not see Jesus preaching to the poor, "Don't abuse charities; pay back your debts."  Maybe there is a lot of that teaching already or maybe it is assumed that an innate sense of fairness is already there and that this is intended to be a balance.

 

In any case, ideas like these (guidelines?  commands?) are only non-destructive in voluntary situations.

 

Jesus continues:  To receive mercy in various ways (judging, condemning, forgiving, giving), show mercy yourself and God will reward amply.

 

As to leadership relations, a blind person cannot lead another; they both get in trouble.  A student is not his teacher's equal until fully trained.  Don't help somebody with their problems until you have dealt with your own bigger problems.

 

Trees are recognized by the fruit they make, good or bad.  So are people.

 

Jesus doesn't like it when people try to follow him but then don't do what he says:  "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"  To do what he says, he says, is like building a house on deep, solid foundations.  It will withstand disastrous weather.  A shack thrown up on sand will be washed away at the first hint of trouble.

 

Back in Capernaum, a highly valued servant of a centurion was deathly ill.  The centurion sent some people from the local synagogue to get Jesus, explaining that he himself wasn't worthy to entertain Jesus.  He went on, though, that he understood delegation and that Jesus could heal his servant just by speaking the word from anyplace.  Jesus was amazed at this show of faith and the servant was healed without the need for any house call.

 

Later, Jesus encountered a funeral procession near a town called Nain.  Luke reports this as being a particularly dire situation in that it was the only son of a widow.  Since men had all the resources, a woman without a man in the family would be destitute.  Jesus stopped the procession, touched the coffin, and told the man to get up, which he did.  News of this spread far and wide.

 

We see Jesus here practicing what he preaches and he doesn't seem to have any fear of running out of health and life to give away to whoever he encounters who is in need.  We are often chided by our own preachers for not having enough "faith in God" that he will provide enough for us to help others and take care of ourselves too.

 

There is little or no record of Jesus ever having any concern about his own needs, until the end.

 

Luke 7:18 - 50                                                        2005 May 17 for June 10th

 

Jesus was becoming very well known but somehow his cousin John (the Baptist) was confused, so he sent two of his disciples over to ask Jesus if he was "the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

 

In the moment, Jesus healed many people and then he turned to John's followers and told them to go back and report to John what they had seen.  Jesus worded the report for them as a quote from prophecy and ended with the exhortation, "Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

 

My first impression of this statement is that Jesus is saying in effect, 'I may not be what you were expecting, but don't lose faith on that basis.  I am what I am and this is, indeed, it.'

 

He then spoke to the crowd about John.  "What did you go out into the desert to see?"  Plants blowing in the wind?  Someone in expensive clothes?  No, you find people like that in palaces, not out in the wilderness.  What you went to see was a prophet, and he was the one in prophecy, the one who comes to prepare the way for the Lord, the warm-up act.

 

But, "I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

 

I stared at this statement for quite a while trying to make sense of it.  "Born of women" appears to mean a human walking the earth but what does "in the kingdom of God" mean?  We've had this question before.  Does it mean that the least of the angels is greater than the greatest of men?  Does it mean that the least among the true converts is greater than this person, the greatest prophet?  Why does Jesus even need to say this?  Something is missing here.

 

Parenthetically, Jesus then says that those who accepted John's baptism "acknowledged that God's way was right" and this included all sorts of sinners, the worst apparently being tax collectors and prostitutes.  The religious leaders, on the other hand, had "rejected God's purpose for themselves," by rejecting that same baptism.

 

Ouch!  (again)

 

'What is it with these people?' Jesus laments.  It's like kids playing.  We held a party and you wouldn't dance; we held a funeral and you wouldn't cry.  John came fasting and they said he had a demon.  Jesus came eating and drinking and they called him a glutton and drunk.

 

'Well,' Jesus concludes, "wisdom is proved right by all her children."  He seems to be saying again, 'check out the fruit.'

 

Next we come to an indoor incident that, if we were to stage it in a church play, would have to be seriously explained or rated "R".

 

Jesus was a dinner guest at a Pharisee's house, a man named Simon.  While he was reclining there eating, a woman came in and poured perfume on his feet and wept on his feet and wiped them with her hair.  This was shocking to the host and his peers but not for the reason it is shocking to me.  If we had this incident portrayed on TV, it would be called "sexually explicit" or at least "suggestive" and thus barred from prime time.  It was shocking to the host because this woman was a well-known "sinner."  It doesn't say what sort of sinner, but it seems likely that she was a prostitute.  (On the basis of:  what other sort of "sinful life" do women in the Bible live?)  So, if that is the case, it is even more shocking.  These actions could be construed as foreplay.

 

What happens next is not what one would expect in a television sitcom, however, or in a Roman era decedent Judean palace, such as the one run by Herod.

 

Jesus says, "Simon, I have something to tell you."  (Recall that Simon was the host.)

 

"Tell me, teacher."

 

Jesus told a parable of two people who owed a man some money, one owed a little and one owed a lot.  The man forgave both debts.  "Now which of them will love him more?"

 

"Simon replied, 'I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.'"

 

Yes, that was correct.  Jesus then pointed out the degree to which this woman had shown her love to Jesus ever since he arrived whereas Simon had not even offered water for Jesus to wash off his feet.  The point was not the possible breach of etiquette, but that Simon was the person owing the lesser debt, loving the generous master less.

 

Jesus then said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven."

 

This caused the usual stir among the dinner guests.  'Who is this guy who thinks he can forgive sins?'

 

Jesus then told her, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

 

Other than what we see here (and perhaps in cross reference to the other Gospels) we do not know much or anything about this woman's history or her history with Jesus.  Was she in the crowds earlier?  Was she one of the ones healed?  Had she listened to his preaching, accepted what he said, "that God's way was right".  If she were a prostitute, release from that way of life would have been a relief of unimaginable magnitude (unimaginable to me anyway).  If she had been a prostitute, perhaps she knew no other way of showing love than her actions detailed here.

 

Among the many stories of healing and restoration, this one is singled out for detailed telling.  Here we see Jesus facing down complex situations and serious temptations with unusual poise and directness.

 

Luke 8:1 - 39                                                              2005 May 17 for June 13th

 

This chapter opens with an interesting paragraph.  It lists the women who traveled with Jesus (in addition to the twelve men), why they did, and what they did.  They followed him because they "had been cured of evil spirits and diseases".  They helped "support them out of their own means."  It doesn't elaborate on what "their own means" might have been.  The list includes Mary Magdalene (from whom seven demons had come out, thought to be the woman who anointed Jesus' feet in the last chapter), Joanna, the wife of the manager of Herod's household, and Susanna.

 

If the woman with the perfume from yesterday was indeed the one mentioned here as having had seven demons cast out, she did indeed have a great deal to be thankful for.  It occurred to me that her very profession and the unholy demands of it might well have been (or been related to) the demons referred to.  When we think of demons, we think of cinematic possessors that speak in deep voices after taking control of a body, but perhaps the demons in this case were "only" the internal causes of a depressed, used, frantic, desperate life.  With this thought I am not trying to minimize the demons or Jesus' work in removing them.  I am trying to understand what they are and how they appear in ways that might be familiar to us today.  Do you know anyone who is in such bad shape physically or psychologically that you wish you could just throw that bad stuff out of them and "fix" them?

 

When a large crowd formed, Jesus told the parable of the farmer who went out to sow seed.  Some fell along the path, was trampled or eaten by birds.  Some feel on rock where it came up and withered.  Some came up in thorns and was choked out.  Some was planted in good soil where it belonged and yielded a large crop, a hundred times what was planted.

 

Sounds like a farmer with a hole in his seed sack.

 

At the end of the story, Jesus shouted out "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" but he didn’t explain the parable except to his disciples in private.  On this he quoted the prophet Isaiah "though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand."

 

It is not clear why it was important to Jesus to preach to people without them being able to understand, then making this proclamation as if he hoped a few would, or why it was necessary to do so in order to fulfill this sentence fragment from the prophet.

 

In the parable, the seed represents the word of God that is scattered everywhere, as in Jesus' own ministry.  The devil (birds) takes some of it away before people can assimilate it, so they don't believe.  Some people have no root, they believe up until it gets challenging to do so, then fall away.   Some have their belief choked out by concerns of this world such as riches and pleasures.  The good soil represents a person with a good and noble heart.  He hears, retains, perseveres, and produces a good crop.

 

We know from elsewhere that God does not want to lose anyone, yet here we see that there are many people and many types of people, all God's creations whom he presumably made the way that they are, who are essentially not qualified to host God's word.  Too bad for them, I guess.  There is no further word on their fate at this point.

 

Jesus then tells the example of the lamp.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under something.  That would be silly.  But take note, "there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed."  Ultimately the Light will reveal everything.  This then connects to the next thought, "consider carefully how you listen.  Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

 

I don't see the connection myself, but I do see both principles in practice and agree with their veracity.  I don't understand how the second point is fair.  Perhaps fairness, as we understand it, is not important with God.  (I don’t appear to have sufficient illumination.)

 

Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him but couldn't get close due to the crowds.  When someone alerted Jesus to this he denied his relatives an audience.  "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."  His ministry is thus more important than blood family to which he turns a cold shoulder, at least in this instance.

 

Later, Jesus ordered that the disciples cross the lake, so they got in a boat and sailed off.  While Jesus slept, a squall came up and was threatening to swamp the boat.  The disciples were terrified and woke up Jesus, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"

 

Jesus got up and "rebuked the wind and raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.  'Where is your faith?' he asked."

 

Now they were afraid, not of a storm on the lake but of a man who talked to the weather and was heard and obeyed by it.  Where indeed was their faith?  Where would be anyone's faith?

 

In the region of the Gerasenes (across the lake from Galilee) they came upon an unusually demon oppressed and possessed man.  He did not wear clothes or live in a house but stayed in the tombs.  Jesus sparred with the demons for some time.  They knew who he was and were terrified that he would sent them into "the Abyss".  It does not explain here what "the Abyss" is.  Jesus asked the demon's name and there were many of them so they replied "Legion."  He them commanded them by name to come out and, at their request, to go into some pigs in a nearby field, rather than into "the Abyss."  They did this, the pigs stampeded into the water and drowned, and the pig herders, now terrified themselves, ran into town to report this disaster.

 

Everybody came out of town to see the show and, when they saw it was all true, the man healed and in his right mind and the pigs dead in the water, they were all frightened and begged Jesus to leave the area, which he did.  The cured man wanted to go with Jesus but was denied.  Jesus said rather, "Return home and tell how much God has done for you."  The man's response was, "[He] went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him."

 

This clearly equates Jesus with God in the newly sane man's mind.  This is clearly a case where, in the actions of Jesus, the health of this individual was more important than local commerce.  (It is probably also not accidental that pigs are unclean ("detestable") to Jews.)  The reverse was the priority of the frightened locals.

 

I am reminded of the man who hosted Jesus when the paralytic was lowered from the roof into the house.  "Who's going to fix my roof?"  The answer probably is that the person Jesus healed was more important than the property and that the owner could handle the property without extraordinary help from Jesus later, if needed.

 

Luke 8:40 - 9:17                                                     2005 May 17 for June 14th

 

A "ruler of the synagogue" named Jarius had a twelve-year-old daughter who was about to die.  He came to get Jesus urgently and Jesus came with him, but the streets on the way were packed with people.  While they proceeded, a woman touched Jesus in order to be healed from chronic bleeding (which she had had for twelve years) and was healed.  Jesus asked who had done this and the disciples were incredulous; with everyone being trapped in this brutal crowd, how could he be concerned about who had touched him?  But, when he kept insisting, the woman, trembling, confessed everything.

 

Jesus told her that her faith had healed her and to "go in peace."  At this moment, "while he was still speaking", a servant of Jarius arrived with the news that the girl had died and they shouldn't trouble Jesus anymore.  Jesus only said, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."

 

When they got to the house mourners were already there and they laughed at Jesus when he said, "She is not dead but asleep."  Jesus took only his closest disciples (Peter, John, James) and the girl's father and mother to her room where he took her hand, spoke to her, and pulled her up alive.

 

He ordered them not to tell anyone about this.  They were astonished.

 

Next, Jesus divided the twelve into pairs and sent them off on their own mission trips, traveling very light, not taking anything extra no extra tunic, staff, bag, bread, or money.

 

I will hardly go outside my own house without my wallet and some sort of communications device, much less on a mission trip.

 

Stay with people in the town.  If they welcome you, all are blessed, if they don't, "shake the dust off your feet when you leave as a testimony against them."

 

I can remember my dad doing this once when we left a particularly difficult and unwelcoming town.

 

As instructed, they went out, preached, and healed wherever they went.

 

Herod heard of this.  Rumors were flying.  Some were saying it was John the Baptist resuscitated.  Some said that Elijah or one of the other ancient (i.e., long dead) prophets had appeared.  Herod was interested and perplexed and started trying to see Jesus.

 

The disciples (apostles) returned from their trip and reported on their great successes, then went on a retreat to Bethsaida.  This didn't last long, however; crowds followed.  Jesus welcomed them, preached to them, and healed their sick.  Late in the afternoon, the disciples advised Jesus to send the crowd away for food, but Jesus told the disciples to feed them.  Amazed, they confessed to having not much food "five loaves of bread and two fish."  There were five thousand men and some of their families present.  This seemed mathematically impossible.  Jesus had them sit in groups, blessed the food and passed it out.  Everyone ate and there were "twelve basketfuls of broken pieces" left over.

 

Luke 9:18 - 62                                                        2005 May 19 for June 15th

 

While at private prayers one day, Jesus asked the disciples who the crowds thought he was.  There were various answers:  John the Baptist come back, Elijah, or one of the prophets as we saw yesterday.  Jesus then asked who they thought he was and Peter replied, "The Christ of God."  Jesus told them not to tell people this, in fact, he had to suffer under the religious leaders and be killed so that after three days he could come back to life.  And, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

 

By losing your life to this, you save it.  By being ashamed of this here, you lose credit with Jesus when he is "in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."  He concludes with a puzzling statement, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."

 

Some took this to mean that it wouldn't be long before the kingdom of God arrived on earth, but here a hundred generations later, we can't reasonably think that anymore.

 

We will see in Acts that the godly man, Stephen, looked into heaven and saw God and Christ there as he was being stoned to death.  Perhaps this is what Jesus is talking about.  It would fit with the rest of his radical predictions.

 

"Take up your cross."  This is a cliché to us, but was unthinkably humiliating and degrading to this audience.

 

Eight days after this, Jesus took Peter, John and James up on a mountain where he was "transfigured" and shone bright white.  He was seen there talking with two other brightly shining men, Moses and Elijah.  It even says that they were talking "about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem."

 

Peter, in a sleepy stupor, was silly and offered to build shelters, but a cloud came around them and spoke, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."

 

Then they were alone and Jesus, as usual, warned them not to report any of this.

 

We know from his own statements that Jesus knew that he would make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of mankind.  It was to be a terrible ordeal however, and it is my reading that this conversation with these ancient and long ago ascended men of God in which the fact and the details are directly confirmed, face to face.

 

When they got down from the mountain the next day, they found a boy possessed by a demon so strong that it convulsed him and foamed him at the mouth and the remaining nine disciples could do nothing to it.  Jesus' immediate reaction was, "O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you."

 

He sent for the boy who had another convulsion on the way.  Jesus, meeting him in the middle, "rebuked" the evil spirit and it came out to everyone's amazement.  Indeed, while they were marveling, Jesus carefully went back to his old subject and reiterated his preaching, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men."  They did not follow what he was talking about here and were afraid to ask.

 

Shortly, the disciples started arguing about their pecking order.  Jesus put a child in front of them and said, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.  For he who is least among you all--he is the greatest."

 

'Well, said John, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and stopped him!'   Jesus said not to do this, "whoever is not against you is for you."

 

As the time neared for Jesus to go to heaven, he became determined to go to Jerusalem because that was where his death had to happen.  One day on the way through Samaria, the people in a town they passed would not serve them because they were Jews on the way to Jerusalem, a racial barb.  The disciples wanted to "call fire down from heaven to destroy them" but Jesus said, 'Nooooo!'

 

As they continued in their journey, people came up and offered to become followers.  Jesus turned them all away.  "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."  Others wanted to follow but only after their parents were dead and buried, or after they said goodbye to their families.  To the former he said, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."  To the latter he said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

 

I guess he should have said goodbye when he left that morning.  You never know when God will call you away from the life you knew.

 

Luke 10                                                                      2005 May 21 for June 16th

 

Previously, Jesus had sent out the twelve in pairs.  Now he sent out seventy-two in preaching - healing pairs with similar instructions:  Don't take much, don't greet anyone on the road (because it would be distracting?  dangerous?), and don't move around among houses in any town.  Go into a house; eat what they feed you.  Bless them with peace.  If they are not welcoming, your peace will return.  Shake the dust off your sandals as you leave.

 

All of the ministries are two-edged.  Accept and be blessed, reject and be condemned.  Jesus then launches into curses of various places where he himself has ministered and yet they did not receive him:  Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.  He made the claim that if the miracles he had done in these places had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented.

 

So here we see Jesus using "would have" language and we wonder how he knows what "would have" happened someplace under certain conditions, and if he knows this, why wasn't there such preaching and miracle working in Tyre and Sidon?  Why is God's working so exclusive?  On what basis does he decide to bless some sometimes, but not others at other times?  Does he allow ignorance and evil as examples?  Remember what made the people in the synagogue so mad?  There were many widows in Israel during the famine, but the prophet went to a foreign widow.

 

The seventy-two returned with reports of success.  Jesus response was praise in this form:

 

"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."

 

"Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

 

"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father for this was your good pleasure."

 

"No one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

 

Privately he told the disciples that they were very blessed for seeing these things.  The Prophets and kings of old wanted to see such but were denied.

 

Again, we're wondering why God is so selective and parsimonious.  He has some overarching involvement in our world where individuals and cities are mere pawns to receive mercy or destruction.

 

An expert in the law had an interesting interchange with Jesus; he began by asking what he needed to do to "inherit eternal life."

 

Jesus reply was the interesting part, "What is written in the Law?  How do you read it?"

 

"How do you read it?" indeed!

 

The correct answer was, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;' and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

 

So human beings here are seen as being divided into heart, strength (body), mind, and soul.  Countless books and sermons have dealt with the meanings of these divisions, I am merely intrigued that the Bible is seen as supporting such an analysis.  The point here is, "Love God with everything."

 

Of course, this is the famous case where the legal expert was looking for a loophole, "And who is my neighbor?"

 

This led Jesus to tell a revolutionary and incendiary parable.  A man was accosted on the road by robbers, robbed, beaten and left for dead.  A priest and a Levite both came on the scene and ignored the man, passing on the other side so they wouldn't have to deal with it.  A (racially hated) Samaritan came, took responsibility for him, rescued him, treated him, carried him to an inn, and paid his bills while he recovered.

 

So, who was the neighbor here?  Checkmate.

 

Jesus told the expert in the law, "Go and do likewise."

 

Further up their own road, Jesus stayed in the home of a pair of sisters named Martha and Mary.  Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teaching, while Martha stayed busy preparing to feed the small army that had descended on their house.  She complained to Jesus that Mary wasn't helping but got no sympathy.  "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

 

Man [woman] does not live by bread alone, then.  We infer that Jesus would not have rebuked anyone in this instance for lack of a meal, but perhaps some of the followers would have grumbled.  We did see Jesus at least point out Simon's lack of hospitality earlier in illustrating how he was inferior to the woman with the perfume.  Lack of this same meal might have been seen as lack of hospitality that the seventy-two were instructed to curse earlier.

 

Was Martha wrong for doing this work, for complaining about her sister, or for not postponing it until the teaching was over?  Indeed, was Martha wrong at all, or was this human imperfection and Jesus' handling of it just another example allowed to happen for the benefit of others?

 

Luke 11:1 - 36                                                        2005 May 21 for June 17th

 

After Jesus prayed one day, as was his routine, the disciples asked him to teach them to pray just like John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray.  Jesus gave the outline for what we know today as the "Lord's Prayer."  It is given more completely in other gospels.

 

God's name is holy.

Provide for our needs.

Forgive our sins; we forgive others.

Do not lead us into temptation.

 

Why do we have to ask God not to lead us into temptation?  Wouldn't something like "protect us from temptation" or "lead us out of temptation" be more correct?  Is this a linguistic problem?

 

Jesus then gave some examples about prayer, the thrust of which was to be persistent, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."  He told a story of a man who had an unexpected guest late at night and was caught without food.  He went to a friend to get some bread but the friend was already in bed with his children and the door was already locked.  "I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs."

 

… once he is up anyway.

 

The message seems to be, 'Be persistent with God in prayer.'

 

Jesus continued in his ministry of driving out demons, continuing to cure people from various ailments and incapacities (in a case related here, a man who was unable to speak).  This continued to amaze the crowds, but some more educated people said that he drove out demons by Beelzebub.  We don't know (from what it says here) if this is another name for the devil or a devil but it set Jesus off into a lecture about who could cast out what.  "If I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out?"  He said it was unworkable for someone on the side of evil to cast out evil.  He goes further, "He who is not with me is against me…"  Note that this is different from what we saw earlier "He who is not against me is with me," and has an exclusive meaning, rather than an inclusive one.

 

Jesus was clearly pricked by this taunt.

 

Jesus goes on about evil spirits.  When they leave a man, they travel through "arid places seeking rest."  It (demons are neuter) then decides to go back to the man it came from and take friends with it.  This means the man is worse off than before.

 

The purpose or value of this teaching is not clear but it appears that it is a warning that removal of demons might not be permanent.  He doesn't make any exclusion for demons he has cast out himself nor does he give preventative measures against such relapses.  Perhaps there are none.

 

While he was talking a woman in the crowd shouted out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."  It doesn't say what sort of spirit this woman was full of but the sentiment sounds decidedly Catholic.  Jesus replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."  We have not yet seen him encounter his earthly family that he doesn't distance himself from them and reiterate the emphasis on his heavenly family instead.

 

Taunted further by people who kept asking him for signs from heaven, on the other hand, Jesus called the crowds "wicked."  They would get none "except the sign of Jonah."

 

By the way, the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah.  The Queen of the South traveled a long way to hear the Wisdom of Solomon.  But not you guys today, not this generation.  Both of those will "stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it" because, as Jesus says, he is greater than Solomon or Jonah.

 

By the way, it is said that the ever-popular book of Jonah is in our Bible due to this quote from Jesus.  Although living in a great fish for three days seemed a little fantastic, Jesus' endorsement here can't be wrong, it is reasoned.

 

Also, no one lights a light and hides it.  "Your eye is the lamp of your body."  When a body is full of light, no part of it is dark.  Beyond the obvious meaning that good and truth are light and light is good, no further elaboration on this is given.  We are left hearing and not understanding.

 

Luke 11:37 - 12:21                                                   2005 May 23 for June 20th

 

A Pharisee invited Jesus over for dinner, so Jesus went over to his house.  The Pharisee noticed that Jesus did not wash his hands before eating and was surprised.

 

Jesus began to instruct his host in the ways of the Pharisees:

 

They clean their outsides but inside are full of "greed and wickedness."  The same God made outside and inside, clean them both.  Give what you have to the poor and everything will then be clean.

 

They tithe everything in excruciating detail, right down to "mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs."  Meanwhile, they neglect justice.  Do both!

 

They love the important places and greetings in society.  They are like unmarked graves.  Men walk over them without knowing they are near corruption.

 

At this, another dinner guest, an expert in the law joined in, "Teacher when you say these things you insult us also."  Certainly.

 

On this, Jesus then turned to a detailed account of the sins of the experts of the law:

 

They make burdens nearly too hard to carry but offer no help.

 

They build tombs for the prophets that their forefathers murdered, thereby testifying that they approved of these murders.  "Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.'"

 

I'm not following here what is wise about that policy or why building a tomb constitutes approval of a murder.  But, Jesus goes on.

 

The blood of all the prophets "from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah" will be on this generation.  The experts in the law take away the "key to knowledge" and therefore, while they do not obtain knowledge themselves, they also prevent others.

 

When Jesus left, the two groups got together to mount serious opposition, besieging him with questions, hoping to trip him up in something he might say.  Notice that by doing this they fulfill the prophecy.  They are not questioning Jesus to learn something but to destroy him.  He must be a prophet himself.

 

The crowds got so large that people were getting trampled.  Meanwhile, Jesus instructed the disciples not to trust those hypocrite Pharisees.  Don't trust that anything will be secret, "what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops."  Sounds like modern television.

 

Don't worry about these guys who can merely kill you bodily.  Rather, fear God (implied) who can both kill you and send you to hell.  God cares when a bird dies and people are worth much more than birds.

 

When you are put on trial, don't worry about your defense.  The Holy Spirit will take care of it on the spot.  Acknowledge Jesus to men so that he will acknowledge you in heaven.  Nonetheless, speaking against Jesus is forgivable but speaking against the Holy Spirit is not.

 

This last warning is much discussed.  Some say that it refers to something that cannot happen today.  Some say that this, whatever it is, is the "unforgivable sin".  I don't pretend to know what is going on here.  I know that resisting the Spirit is not a good thing, but I don't know if this has anything to do with that.

 

A person in the crowd asked Jesus to intervene with him and his brother over their inheritance.  (It would be clearly wrong by the law for an older brother not to share the inheritance with another brother, at least in some portion.)  Jesus first claimed that he lacked jurisdiction.  He then instructed that a person's "life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."  This led to the parable of the man who had such a bumper crop that he tore down his barns and built bigger ones, figuring that he was set for years to come.  The only problem with this was that he died that night.  Then who would own the stuff?  That is what it is like to accumulate possessions rather than godly riches.

 

It is true and observable that when you leave this life you leave all your junk here.  There are no known exceptions.

 

Luke 12:22 - 59                                                        2005 May 24 for June 21st

 

Jesus has an intimate teaching for his followers.

 

Don't Worry!

 

Birds don't build barns.  Lilies don't sew clothes.  Both are clothed and fed just fine.  God cares more about you than birds or flowers.  God has given you the kingdom.  Sell your earthly possessions, give them to the poor so they will have something, and build up treasures in the kingdom of God.  Your heart follows your treasure.  Don't put it on the earth.

 

On the other hand, don't lose sight of whom the boss is and what you are supposed to be doing.  When the master shows up, even if it is in the middle of the night, be ready to do your job.  It is bad to be abusive or to neglect your responsibilities just because you think the master is not watching and there are punishments.  Peter asked if Jesus was telling this to everyone or just the inner circle.  After re-reading Jesus' words that follow this three times, I don't think they are responsive to the question, but just continue with examples and reiteration of the principle.  He does say, however, that the punishment for one who does wrong and knows it is wrong is greater than for one who did not know something was wrong but only erred.  This would mean that the punishment for the disciples, who were inside to all knowledge, would be greatest.

 

But, on the other hand, for those servants who were good servants, the master would have them recline and would serve them in reward!

 

Jesus is here to bring "fire on the earth" but can't do it until after he has suffered.  Until his "baptism" is complete, he is distressed.  But, "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?  No, I tell you but division."  Right down to splitting up families.

 

So much for "peace on earth, goodwill to men."

 

Speaking again to the crowd, he called them hypocrites.  Their form of hypocrisy was that they could predict the weather from watching the clouds but that they didn't know how to interpret the present times.  "Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?"

 

If you are on the way to court with an adversary, try hard to settle with him.  If it goes to the judge, you will be in prison until all is settled.  I've heard contemporary lawyers say this too.  "Stay out of court at all cost.  Use court as a last resort."

 

Jesus seemed to be in a very irritable (distressed?) mood today.

 

Luke 13                                                                      2005 May 25 for June 22nd

 

There were some Galileans "whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices."  We infer from this that these people were offering sacrifices at the Temple when Pilate came and killed them at the altar.  It says no more here about the circumstances or personalities.

 

When they told Jesus about this, he said, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?  I tell you, no!  But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

 

So, no sympathy there.  All are guilty.

 

Same thing with the eighteen people who died when a tower fell on them.  They were no more or less guilty than anyone else in Jerusalem.

 

Very comforting.  Jesus was not trying to make anyone feel safe.

 

This brought Jesus to a parable about a fig tree that had not had fruit for three years.  The owner was mad and was going to cut it down so that it wouldn't waist the soil it was sitting in.  The guy in charge of the garden held him off, however.  He said he would give the tree special attention for another year.  After that if it didn't have fruit, cut it down then.

 

The story ends there, we are not told what happened, whether the tree responded or not, but we are left to infer that eventually one runs out of chances to straighten up and produce.

 

Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath.  A woman was there who was bent over and couldn't stand straight.  She had been this way for eighteen years due to a demon.  Jesus healed her on the spot, enraging the Pharisees who immediately proclaimed, quoting the law, "There are six days for work.  So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."  This in turn enraged Jesus who did not shy away from slapping them down, "You hypocrites!  Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?  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?"

 

This lecture humiliated those who were quoting the law, but the crowds loved it.

 

"What is the kingdom of God like?"  Jesus wondered aloud.  A mustard seed!  The tiny thing grows up into a large tree that birds live in.  What else?  Like yeast that permeates a big bunch of dough.

 

After listening to such dire preaching for a long time, people started asking things like, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"  This seems to me like a logical question.  How could anyone hope to measure up?  Even the closest disciples had been told that they knew more so would be held to a higher standard and would therefore receive greater punishment.  The immediate answer is not encouraging.  "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to."  The "owner of the house" will get up and shut the door and after that, there will be plenty outside knocking and begging but, too late.

 

He will say, "I don't know you or where you come from."  They will protest that they knew him and that they ate and drank with him and that they listened to his teaching in the streets.  The parable is sounding a lot like Jesus is the exclusive master of the parable.

 

But, nope.  There will be "weeping… and gnashing of teeth."  Many children of Abraham will be thrown out while other people come from all over the place to join in God's feast in his kingdom.

 

"Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last."

 

Who is Jesus talking to here?  Who is he talking about?  What does he mean when he says that someone is now first or last.  What does it mean to be first or last in the kingdom of God? Why does rank matter here or there?

 

Some other Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill him.  The last we heard about Herod he had killed John the Baptist but was merely wondering who this Jesus really was.  Jesus replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.'"  In any case, he was compelled to carry on inasmuch as "surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!"  The three days seems to allegorize the time that Jesus expects to spend dead, but it isn't clear.

 

Jesus then laments Jerusalem; that it would not come to him but, rather, would become desolate.  "I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

 

Is he speaking here of Palm Sunday, or of the Second Coming, or of some other future?  Is this the curse that it seems to be?

 

Luke 14                                                                      2005 May 26 for June 23rd

 

With all the plotting and scheming going on, a trap was set for Jesus at a prominent Pharisee's house.  It was the Sabbath and Jesus was there teaching.  They planted a man with "dropsy" near the front of the crowd, so Jesus asked the legal experts if it was legal to heal on the Sabbath or not.  They said nothing.

 

Jesus, impatient, healed the man and sent him on his way, then asked the crowd which one of them, if he had an ox fall in a ditch on the Sabbath, wouldn't deal with it on the Sabbath.  To this they also said nothing.

 

You would think that to Jesus, teaching would be considered "work."

 

When it was time to eat, the guests were competing for the important positions at the table.  Jesus told them not to do that.  If you take the highest seat and someone who outranks you arrives, you will be bumped to the first available seat, probably at the bottom.  But, conversely, if you just take the lowest place from the beginning, your host will promote you to a higher place when he sees this, a win-win situation.

 

In addition, when you are the host yourself, don't invite your peers, people who will repay, like your brother or neighbors.  When you are repaid you are even.  Invite those who have nothing -- the poor, crippled, and blind.  They can't repay you, but "you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

 

Strong themes are developing here.  Anytime is a good time for doing good deeds.   To be rewarded by God, do good things for which there is no reward on earth.  Help the helpless.  This is among the reasons why Christians sometimes take vows of poverty.

 

As an example, Jesus gave a parable.  A man gave a banquet and invited lots of people.  When it was ready he sent servants to announce that they were ready but most of the guests begged off with various excuses.  One had bought a new car (well, OK, a yoke of oxen), one had just gotten married, and another had bought some property.  This all made the host angry so he sent the servants to go get people off the street, the poor the crippled, the blind, and the lame.  When the house still wasn't full, they went out into the countryside to find more people.  But, "not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet."

 

God is above everything, and he knows it.

 

A huge crowd was following Jesus so he threw this cold water on their aspirations.  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters -- yes, even his own life -- he cannot be my disciple.  And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."  As we've mentioned before, the notion of carrying a cross was not a cliché to these people like it is to those of us who were raised in the church.  It was the beginning of death torture for the worst criminals.  The act of carrying a cross was well understood to mean a high, painful price.

 

This hating of your closest relatives fits with not inviting them over for meals, since they will probably repay.

 

If you are going to follow Jesus, estimate the cost and see if you can afford it.  A person building a building or a king planning a defensive war will carefully count the cost so that they will know if they can finish what they start, so that they can plan alternatives if needed.

 

"In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."  This finalizes the question we had about the rich young ruler, that is, was it just about him, or did Jesus mean everyone should give up everything they have and follow him?  Looks like it was everyone.

 

Indeed, it is like salt.  If it is not pure, it's worthless for anything.

 

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

 

The kingdom of God appears to be very exclusive.  These concepts, God above family, God above comfort, God above commerce, God above equality, God above defense, God above development, in fact, just to be simple, God above everything, were barely conceivable to the Jewish audience then, or to us now.  This was not the Messiah they were expecting, one requiring his followers to carry crosses.  This is not the God who makes political majorities across the nation.  The pain was particularly severe to religious leadership, the custodians and heirs of the explicit faith, as it would be now.

 

Luke 15                                                                      2005 May 27 for June 24th

 

The religious leaders grumbled that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them.  This led to three stories.

 

If a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one gets lost, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine who are not lost in the open field and go searching for the lost one?  When he finds the lost one he throws a party with his friends.  Similarly, in heaven there is more rejoicing over one of the lost coming back than there is over all the ones who didn't need to come back.

 

It's like a woman who lost some money in her house.  She cleaned house until she found it, then threw a party.  They have a party in heaven when one sinner repents.

 

Then there was a more detailed story.  A man had two sons.  One asked for his inheritance early, before his father died, moved to another country and wasted it all on "wild living."  As soon as he was out of money the economy collapsed and he was among those who was starving.  Although he managed to get a job taking care of pigs, there was no food for him although he would have eaten pig food.  This despair brought him around and he went back home, prepared to hire out to his father where he could, at least, eat.

 

Back home his father had all but given him up for dead, but kept checking and one day, saw his son returning in the distance.  He went out to him and brought him back.  He would not even allow him to complete his conciliatory speech.  Not only was he restored to son-ship, but the biggest available party was thrown.  A special animal (the fatted calf) was killed for the food.  They put the best robe on the son.  They had musicians.

 

His older brother was, as always, at work and when he came in that day, heard the party going on.  Someone told him what was going on and he became furious and wouldn't participate.  The father came out to plead for him to also celebrate and accept his brother back.  Of course, this son felt gypped.  Part of him wanted to go squander the inheritance too and he felt he had missed out, waiting himself for his father to die so he could take over.  He'd never even been allowed a small party with his own friends, he complained.  At least he thought it hadn't been "allowed."

 

The father didn't see it this way.  As a parent he was concerned for the life and health of his children.  The older one was always there and this felt relatively safe.  The younger one was presumed dead.  Returning was like Jacob finding Joseph alive again in Egypt after all those years.  It was a totally unexpected blessing and relief.

 

And, we surmise from this, lots of partying in heaven.

 

Luke 16                                                                      2005 May 30 for June 27th

 

Jesus told an interesting parable about employment.  A rich man had a manager who was thought to be dishonest, so the rich man called him in and told him to close the books because he was fired.

 

While he still had access to the estate during the transition period, he called in all the rich man's debtors and had them commit fraud on their bills, reducing the amount owed.  The idea was that after the fired manager was on the street, these people would welcome him in because of their "savings."  Otherwise he would be destitute, reduced to digging, for which he was too weak, or begging, for which he was too proud.

 

At this point, you would expect some sort of discovery and additional punishment because the dishonest manager had continued to act in character, but the story ends like this:  "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.  For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.  I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

 

So, what is going on here?  Are we being instructed to be shrewd?  Is shrewdness a good thing?  Are we being instructed to bribe people and peddle influence so that we have friends because friends are better than money?  Are we being instructed that money, stolen or otherwise, is appropriately used in such ways?  Are we being instructed that, if we're going to be dishonest we should be good at it?

 

Really?  This doesn't fit with the squeaky-clean Protestant ethic that I was taught, one in which strictly correct handling of money, property, and other resources was a supreme virtue.

 

I'm sure that various lines of Protestant thought have ways of explaining around the plain meaning of this, or perhaps this one is just ignored, largely.

 

Jesus goes on to a related set of thought, the test as to whether a person can be trusted with great wealth is whether they can be trusted with small things.  The test of whether a person can be trusted with "true riches" (heavenly) is whether they can be trusted with worldly wealth.  The point here is that character is consistent regardless of amount.

 

Further, no one can "serve two masters."  He will hate one and love the other.  Specifically, no one can serve both God and money.

 

I have noticed that, one cannot go far into the "service" or pursuit of wealth without having to bend or break other principles, typically.  Some people seem to have different results with this.

 

In any case, this set off the Pharisees again, who "loved money".  Jesus engaged them directly, "God knows your hearts.  What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."  This reference to money uses the same word "detestable" that Leviticus does in talking about eating pork or men lying with men.  So now we have three detestable things, two of which we modern evangelicals pursue with supposedly God-ordained relish while maintaining that the same God forbids the third.

 

Jesus then concludes this by saying that the kingdom of God had been preached throughout the law and the Prophets and that everyone "forced" their way into it.  It would be easier for creation to summarily disappear than for one mark to disappear from the law.  "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

 

I don't follow how these three thoughts are connected.  People throughout the Old Testament are seen forcibly hijacking religion, or rebelling against it, and this is analogized to prostitution or other sexual sins.  Maybe that is a connection.

 

Continuing on the theme of the value of riches, we have another parable.  There was a rich man whose needs were met in luxury and comfort.  A poor man, Lazarus, was laid at his gate hoping just to get the scraps from the rich man's table.  Dogs licked his wounds.

 

Both died and were buried.

 

In heaven, the poor man was comforted and seated next to Abraham.  The rich man was in "torment" in "hell".  Being in agony in the fire, he called to Abraham to send the poor man down to touch his finger in water and cool his tongue.  Abraham stated that this was not permitted.  From this we might infer that there is no going back and forth from death to life nor is there any going back and forth from heaven to hell, but the dead can talk to one another, at least sometimes.

 

Or maybe this is not meant to be accurately illustrative of actual conditions in various afterlives, but merely schematic to the point at hand.  That point appears to be that roles of comfort and torment will be universally reversed after death.  We have not seen Jesus say anything else.

 

Whatever the case, the rich man, giving up on himself, asked Abraham to send Lazarus to his relatives so they wouldn't end up in torment too.  "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'"  We see here what Abraham sees.  Everyone has had Moses and the Prophets and it doesn't help everyone.  The rich man then pleaded again that someone, Lazarus for example, return from the dead to warn them.  Abraham flatly denied that this would do any good either, which also matches with what we observe today.  Christ came back from the dead, preaching before and after, and that fact doesn't even effect all of those who believe that it literally happened, much less those who do not.

 

Not to complain here about how God deals with matters of life, death, and instruction about how to avoid torment, but it appears that the Law, the Prophets, and Jesus are considered adequate warning.  Take it or leave it.

 

Luke 17                                                                      2005 June 2 for 28th

 

Jesus instructs on people causing other people to stumble into sin.  "It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin."

 

What's more, if someone sins against you, "rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."  What's more, if he sins against you seven times a day (by which he means often enough to be unbelievable and annoying) and yet repents seven times, forgive him every time.  This is the example that God sets for us.

 

On this the disciple cried out, "Increase our faith!"

 

Indeed.

 

But Jesus just answered that if anyone had tiny faith they could tell a tree to plant itself in the ocean and it would.  Since we never see trees planting themselves in the ocean, are we to surmise that people don't have even tiny faith, or that those who do give more sensible commands than the moving of trees to oceans?

 

But he goes on.  Suppose you have a servant.  When you come in from work do you tell the servant to relax while you feed him?  No, you relax while he feeds you, then he can eat later.  Same with followers of Jesus, just to do as told is to do only your duty.  When you do that you "should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"

 

On the way to Jerusalem, ten lepers stood a long way off (as Leviticus required them to do) and yelled for Jesus to have mercy on them.  He yelled back that they should go show themselves to the priests (as required by Leviticus) and when they did they were healed.  One came back to offer thanks.  Jesus wondered why the other nine weren't there praising God too.  But, he said to the one, "your faith has made you well."

 

A Pharisee wondered when the kingdom of God would come on earth.  The reply was, "The kingdom of God does not come visibly."  Pay no attention when people say it is here or there, rather, it is inside you.

 

The end will come like it did to Noah's age.  Commerce and social life went on as usual, then one day Noah got in the ark and it started raining and it was all over for everyone else.  The end will come just like it did in Lot's age.  One day it was commerce and social life as usual, then Lot left town and it rained fire and brimstone.

 

The end of our own age will also come suddenly.  If you are caught in it and if you are outside, don't go in the house for anything.  Some will be taken and some will be left.  Two people will be in bed, one will be taken and the other left.  Two people will be working together; one will be taken and the other left.

 

In my training, this refers to an event called "The Rapture" in which Christians are instantly taken to heaven while the rest are left to suffer on a godless earth.  The Rapture itself is not named or defined as such anywhere in the Bible.  Such a reading is a pretty big elaboration on what we see here, though it may make sense in an extended context by comparison with other parts of the Bible.  (I might go so far as to say, carefully selected and narrowly read other parts of the Bible.)  Just to read these words, the plain meaning is that something like half the people will be taken, maybe through death or to captivity.  The selection will be finely divided, some standing next to the "taken" will not be taken.

 

Jesus' final words on the subject, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."  This only reinforces for me that half the people will just die or something like that.

 

As I get older, I begin more and more to adopt the belief of some of my spiritual advisors from when I was younger (and they were older).  For an individual, for any of us, the end can come suddenly at any time and it is inevitable that it will come at some time.  There is no time in history when there were not disasters, locally and globally.  We have deluded ourselves into thinking that the world is safer and more rational and somehow more controlled now than it used to be in the times of all those wars, revolutions, and plagues that we have studied, yet, men, no matter what system of government they set up, are too stupid to govern without permitting or even causing catastrophe, and there are things beyond any person's or group of people's control that happen as well.

 

Good advice anytime.  Be ready to go, without looking back.  I would only be kidding to say that I am properly, psychologically, emotionally prepared for the end, whatever it may be for me, that I am only focused on God at all times so that my physical status becomes nearly irrelevant.  No one, however, should kid themselves into thinking that it can't be at any time.  Ready or not.

 

Luke 18                                                                      2005 June 3 for 29th

 

Besides having a more complete story and mentioning the name of women, there is something else that Luke does.  He introduces some of the stories with a summary of their intent.  For example, the next story begins, "Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up."  If such summaries are in fact accurate, they are immensely helpful.

 

The story is about the civil judge who feared no one, neither God nor man.  A widow, however, kept pestering him for justice on some matter.  The judge said to himself that although he feared neither God nor man, he would have to satisfy this widow or she would wear him out, so he did.

 

Jesus said that God would do the same thing, so don't give up, be persistent.

 

In my upbringing, I was taught that this did not mean to pester God mercilessly.  Begging, pleading, and pestering were looked down upon in my culture.  I don't see the basis for that in the words of Jesus here, however.  I see Jesus saying to pester God until you get what you need.

 

Another story is aimed at "some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else."

 

Two men were praying, a self-righteous Pharisee and a tax collector.  The Pharisee was proud that he fasted twice a week (when only once was required) and tithed with precision.  The tax collector, a person who might be played in our culture by an unscrupulous car salesman or internet spammer or phisher, had nothing to say except, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

 

Jesus didn't ask the followers, he told them that the second man went home right with God and the first one did not.

 

Reversals of fortune and status are a major theme in Jesus' teaching (far more major than anything having to do with sexuality, as an alternative example of what is prioritized in the church of today).  From this one I learned not to be proud but to be self-effacing, which is considered charming but misguided in my culture.

 

In a quest for efficiency, the disciples were turning away people who were bringing little children to be touched and blessed by Jesus.  Jesus rebuked the disciples for this, saying, "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

 

A ruler came to Jesus and asked what he had to do to "inherit eternal life."  Jesus said first not to call him good, that only God was "good."  Second, he said, "You know the commandments:  'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"  The ruler had always done these things.  It seemed for a moment like there might be hope, then, in keeping all those rules.  Jesus then said, "Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me."

 

While this would be easy for people who had very little anyway, the poor, this particular man was very rich and it was too difficult for him to give all that up for this opportunity.  Everyone was sad, the man, Jesus, and the crowd.  Jesus said that it was very difficult for the rich to get into the kingdom of God for this sort of reason.

 

The disciples were flabbergasted.  "Who then can be saved?"  They wondered, having always thought (as many do today) that wealth meant blessing and God's favor.

 

"Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with men is possible with God.'"

 

This answer, vague though it is, preserves an un-quantified amount of hope.

 

Peter, probably in pain over this, yet another point of view, told Jesus that they had given up everything to be followers.  Jesus acknowledged this and said that they would be rewarded with "many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

 

I think by "many times as much" he means that the company they build around the ministry is larger and better than blood family.  About eternal life, and the kingdom of God, I don't know that anyone really knows what he is talking about, though I suspect that many of the images and interpretations we have or have been taught about "eternal life" are dead wrong, so to speak.

 

In private with The Twelve, Jesus once again predicted that he would die by abuse 'mocking, insulting, spitting, and flogging.  "On the third day he will rise again."

 

Like we now, contemplating our own futures, are clueless about matters like eternal life, the disciples had no idea what he was talking about when Jesus talked like this about their own near future.

 

As they traveled along, a blind man was calling out from the side of the road although members of the crowd, probably impatient with their own patient attempts to get near Jesus and get anything from him at all, tried to shut him up.  This only made him call louder.  Jesus heard and ordered the man brought up then asked what he wanted.  (This would presumably stop the whole procession for a time.)  "Lord, I want to see," he replied.  So Jesus healed him based on his own faith and sent him on his way.

 

This man was persistent, as Jesus had said we should be with God.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease.  I think the Bible teaches us to pester God (and perhaps others) for what we need, that such behavior is not a sin (rather, it is being with God), and that my own upbringing along these lines was within a culture where the people just didn't want to be pestered and thus attached shame to speaking out on your own behalf.

 

Luke 19                                                                      2005 June 4 for 30th

 

Perhaps one of the most recognizable stories in the Bible is of the short tax collector, Zacchaeus, who climbed a tree to see Jesus and his huge entourage going by and whom Jesus called down from the tree, commanding that he stay at his house that day.

 

There is even an elementary level Sunday School song for this occasion.  "Zaccheaus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he…"

 

Today, most people dislike the Internal Revenue Service and fear its auditors, but these people are not generally thought of as cheats or shills for a foreign occupation or unchristian sinners like murderers or prostitutes, so I don't think the term "tax collector" captures the disgust in which the populace held these "sinners."  They were traitors to the faith, after all, collecting taxes for a ruler besides God.  As I pointed out yesterday, modern professions like used car salesman or unethical lawyer or politicians of the other party or, well, prostitutes or murderous gang members are thought of, at least subconsciously, as being beyond the reach of grace.  Salesmen are the people who work commission based today and who can take advantage of customers with weak haggling skills to increase their profits.  So, what if Jesus and his crowd were touring South Central and the leader of the Bloods or a badly dressed used car salesman was up in a tree watching him go by, and Jesus said, "Come down, we're going to crash at your pad today."

 

It's more like that.

 

What would the papers say about this upstart religious leader going around cohorting with gang members?  He did hang out with prostitutes for similar reasons (prostitution being thought of as the "world's oldest profession.")

 

Well, the response was this:  Zacchaeus got up and announced that he would give half of his wealth to the poor and that if he had cheated anyone, would pay them back four times as much.  Jesus pronouncement on this was, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham."  (He was also answering his own critics on hanging out with "sinners".)

 

A sharp lawyer (with questionable ethics) might pick up the comparison between this and yesterday's pronouncement.  Today, Zacchaeus got off while retaining up to half of his wealth (maybe 30%-40% after the promised restitution, depending on how good his records were, how much of a cheat he had been, and how well he followed through).  Yesterday, Jesus told another man to sell everything.  Is the lesson here, "don't ask but volunteer generously and pre-emptively?"

 

Jesus then moves on to the parable where a master trusts servants with money.  We've seen this story before, but there are new details in Luke's version that we don’t want to miss and the economics are a little different in this telling

 

The master is a man of "noble birth" who is planning a trip to a faraway place to be made king there.  Using the footnote in my text to convert to modern values, he calls in ten servants and gives each of them $25,000 to work with while he is gone.  Meanwhile, his future subjects hate him and send a delegation to tell him that they don't want him as their king.

 

"He was made king, however, and returned home."  This was not a democracy.

 

He then takes report from his servants.  One has made a quarter of a million dollars on his trust.  The master is delighted and puts him in charge of ten cities.  Another has made $125,000 on his charge.  The master is delighted and puts him in charge of five cities.  Another reports that he kept the initial $25,000 hidden and safe, knowing that "you are a hard man, [taking] out what you did not put in and [reaping] what you did not sow."

 

The master judged him by his own words, suggesting that he might have at least put the money on deposit in the bank so it could earn interest.  He ordered the money taken away from him and given to the servant with the quarter million, to everyone's surprise, saying, "To everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."

 

This is another ongoing theme in Jesus' teaching that doesn't receive much attention in any religious teaching that I've ever encountered.  Some have a lot and get more.  Others have little and lose it.  We know this is true (with some exceptions) but we don't think of it as particularly "Christian."  We concentrate more on the socialistic, egalitarian, and anti-sexual readings and interpretations, not on these "lordship" concepts.

 

But there is more.  The master continues, "But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them -- bring them here and kill them in front of me."

 

I can guarantee that if this parable was taught where I go to church today, this "kill them in front of me" bit would be omitted.  In fact, I can't remember ever hearing this discussed from a pulpit in church or from a lectern in Bible class.

 

The plain meaning of this parable seems to be this.

 

God (clearly the master who is being made king) gives his servants opportunities.  Make something of it and be rewarded.  Don't make something of it and be reprimanded.  It doesn't say here that the unproductive servant is thrown out into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, but one of the other Gospels adds that.

 

God is king whether you like it or not.  Speak up against this and be killed.

 

Or maybe it is Jesus who is the master on his way up.  Either way, from our point of view it is the same result.

 

Growing up in Sunday School, we spent a lot of time celebrating the salvation of Zacchaeus.  We were never told about "bring them here and kill them in front of me."

 

After this, Jesus sent into town for a colt.  He told his disciples where it would be and what to say if they were challenged.  They were challenged.  They were, after all, a bunch of strangers to the area untying a horse that clearly wasn't theirs and leading it away.  "Tell [them], 'The Lord needs it.'"  They did this and said this and were allowed to take the colt away.  The implication here is that the Lord's need and the leading of the Spirit with the owner (implied) override "Thou Shalt not Steal" from the law.  It was, after all, only borrowing.

 

Jesus rode it into Jerusalem on this mount with the crowds praising him joyfully along the road.

 

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

 

The Pharisees in the crowd, of course, told Jesus to tell the crowds to stop this blasphemy, such words only being appropriate for the praise of God himself, but he replied to them, "I tell you, if they keep quiet the stones will cry out."

 

So, Jesus did not stop them.

 

He then wept over Jerusalem, sad that they did not recognize who he was in this day and that such recognition would bring them peace.  As it is, though, Jerusalem would be besieged, everything torn down to the ground, and "They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls… because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

 

Images of "kill them here before me" come back to mind but this is a real prophecy.

 

Certainly this is all true and all the predictions came true and certainly Jesus had to say all of this for the benefit of those listening, and for us today, but, as someone reasonably familiar with the ways in which this world really works, I have to ask the same question that I had to ask after God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from just that one tree.  "Did you really expect anything else?  Was anything else really possible?"

 

Jesus rode on into the Temple and threw out all the buyers and sellers, correcting a disgusting scene very reminiscent of the sales of indulgences portrayed in the recent movie "Luther" (2003).

 

For these two current and many other offenses, the leaders wanted very badly to kill Jesus, but couldn't figure out how to do it without starting a riot as "all the people hung on his words."

 

Luke 20                                                                      2005 June 6 for July 1st

 

While Jesus was teaching the people, some religious leaders asked where he got his authority.  Jesus replied by asking them the source of John's baptism, from men or God?  This was a trap since, if they said God, Jesus could ask why they didn't believe him, but if they said men; they would lose ground with the crowds who liked John (and Jesus).  Seeing the trap they declined to answer.  Jesus then also declined to answer.

 

Jesus now went on the offensive and told the parable of the man who owned a vineyard but couldn't get any of the hired hands to pay their rent.  They ignored some servants and abused others.  When the owner sent his son, they murdered him, thinking that they would then own the vineyard but the owner had them all killed and leased the vineyard out to others instead.

 

The people said, "May this never be!" but Jesus followed up further:  "What is the meaning of that which is written:  'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.'?"

 

The stone will fall on some, who will be "crushed."  Others will fall on it and be "broken to pieces."  The religious leaders realized that the parable and the lose-lose situation with the cornerstone referred to them and looked for a way to arrest Jesus, though they couldn't follow through for fear of the people's reaction.

 

Yes, they continued trying to do exactly what the parable said they would do, kill the son thinking that such an act would leave them in charge.

 

Trying to shift the burden of enforcement to the state, they tried their own trap question, asking if it was legal to pay taxes to Caesar or not.  A religious leader typically would have hated paying taxes to the secular, occupying government and would have spoken out against it, if he were willing to risk charges of treason.  Jesus, though, recognized the trap and escaped it by asking to see a coin.  "Whose portrait and inscription are on it?"  Of course, it was Caesar's.  "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

 

Unable to trap Jesus even with this, the leaders "became silent."

 

But, not the Sadducees, who wanted to argue their favorite topic, disproof of the resurrection.  They had a hypothetical situation in which a woman's husband died and she successively married all of his brothers, who each died in his turn.  She finally died childless, thus rendering moot the question of whose heir any children would be.  The question was, whose wife would she be in the supposed resurrection, as if this seeming conundrum was too big a problem for God or somehow proved or disproved anything about God's policy in this world or in the resurrection.

 

Jesus replied that people in the resurrection did not marry and were not married.  They were God's children, "children of the resurrection."  When Moses was at the burning bush, Moses referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom were gone from this life but, Jesus claims, were still alive thereafter.

 

Jesus then proposed his own puzzle.  The Christ is the son of David, but David, in the Psalms declares him "Lord."  How is this possible?  Jesus then warned his disciples, while everyone listened, to beware of the teachers of the law.  They liked being big men in society and being honored wherever they went.  Meanwhile, they "devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers.  Such men will be punished most severely."

 

Further details of this punishment are not given.

 

Luke 21                                                                      2005 June 7 for July 4th

 

Jesus saw people putting their offerings in the box at the temple, some of them rich.  When a widow woman came and put in two cents, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

 

Do we deduce from this that giving everything one has to live on is recommended?  Is this just a chance remark that, because of it's shocking nature (making two cents worth more than wealth) was remembered and recorded?

 

The followers of Jesus were admiring the temple buildings and expensive gifts with which the grounds were decked out.  (This reminds me of a modern Catholic church, among others and seems to be a common theme through institutions of religion.  Perhaps such finery brings people a sense of safety and stability.)  Jesus told them that it would all be torn down; everything would be destroyed.

 

They wondered what he was talking about, when it would happen, and what the signs would be.

 

It would happen within this generation, some standing here would see it, he said, and it would be a terrible time of punishment.  Don't go into the city when the siege happens, or if you are there; get out if you can.  Head for the hills.  Further, those who were with Christ would be handed over to authorities and treated as criminals.  Close family members will betray each other.  ("But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.  For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict."  "Not a hair of your head will perish.  By standing firm you will save yourselves.")

 

Signs would occur in the heavens and the earth too:  bloody sun and moon, earthquakes, roaring seas.

 

As for how to tell it is happening, when trees leaf out you know that summer is near.  Same thing with this.  All of this distress means "that the kingdom of God is near."

 

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," Jesus said in conclusion.  As always, I don't see the direct connection here.  Maybe Jesus words (we are people of words aren't we?) will be something to hang onto while everything else disintegrates.

 

A warning:  don't be caught goofing off or partying, it will happen suddenly.

 

We are taught that this foretells the end of time but that doesn't agree with the statement that some standing there would see those things happen.  We know that Jerusalem was finally overthrown about 70 A.D., in a way that does match with these predictions.  (Except that many Christians were persecuted and killed, some by crucifixion, some by burning, some by consignment to the salt mines.  Perhaps being "saved" has broader meaning than just surviving the trials of this life.)

 

I've heard also of the concept of "rolling prophesy", where the fall of Jerusalem was one "fulfillment" of this, as were other evil times as will be the end of times.

 

I know from my own patchy and incomplete study of history that there are no times or places without some evil, usually a great deal.  Some claim that this is because the devil doesn't know what God will do or when so he always has to have things going on, but I tend to think that it is just because the creation and the people in it are imperfect.  Evils, great and small, intentional and unintentional, iniquities and transgressions, are all inevitable.  Is there perfection in the larger reality?  Well, the devil lives there too, at least for now, so, apparently, not yet.

 

Jesus spent the days teaching in the temple and the night on the Mount of Olives.

 

Luke 22:1 - 46                                                        2005 June 9 for July 5th

 

The time for the Passover arrived.  The religious leaders wanted to get rid of Jesus but were "afraid of the people."  The disciple Judas (Iscariot) went to them and made a deal on how to turn Jesus over to them at a time and place where there was no crowd.  They were delighted and agreed on a price.

 

It says, "Satan entered Judas".

 

Jesus told his disciples to go prepare the Passover, a ritual that we have seen prescribed by Moses in Exodus.  They wondered where they should do it, having no headquarters.  He told them to go into the city where they would meet a man carrying a water jar.  They were to follow him and, when he entered a house, ask the owner for the guest room.  They did this and were shown a large, furnished "Upper Room" where they prepared for the feast.

 

This event is reported in this way because it is a miracle that such things would work out like that, though only minor miracle compared to what we have become used to seeing.

 

When it came time for the ritual, Jesus was again melancholy.  He had wanted to have this feast with them before his suffering, because he would not eat or drink again until the Passover was fulfilled in the kingdom of God.  He also said that he would be betrayed by one of them.  They began discussing this among themselves as well as which of them was the greatest.  Interesting juxtaposition.  'Who here is the worst?  Who here is the best?'

 

Once again, Jesus corrected them.  "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them."  There were also "Benefactors" who lorded authority over those lords.  "But you are not to be like that.  Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves."  And, although it was necessary and inevitable that Jesus be betrayed, things would not be good for the betrayer.

 

He then conferred a kingdom on them, as he had received one from his Father, "so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."  Not being from a lordship society, I don't precisely follow what this means.

 

He then addressed Simon directly "Satan has asked to sift you as wheat."  (I've never understood what this meant except that it seems to imply tearing his spirit to pieces.)  Jesus had prayed for him, however, and when he recovered he was to "strengthen [his] brothers."

 

Peter protested, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death."  But Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before sunup.

 

Jesus then directed them to get their possessions together.  "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?"  "'Nothing,' they answered."  "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

 

They understood this language, "See, Lord, here are two swords."[!]

 

"'That is enough,' He replied."

 

We have no idea what this statement means.  Enough to fight?  Enough to perform an action with swords that we will soon see?  Enough for the road?

 

The party then went to the Mount of Olives to pray, as was their custom.  Jesus went a little ways off and pleaded for his life and for the impending manner of his death to be removed, so earnestly that he sweat blood.  "An angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him."  Meanwhile, the disciples fell asleep.

 

"Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation," he told them.

 

Luke 22:47 - 23:25                                                   2005 June 11 for July 6th

 

While Jesus was speaking to the disciples about prayer and temptation, Judas showed up with the religious leaders.  Jesus knew what Judas was there for and confronted him before he even arrived.  Judas greeted him with a kiss, the sign of the betrayal, and a brief skirmish ensued.  The disciples, now awake and scared, asked if they should use their two swords, and one of them went ahead and lobbed one at a servant, cutting off his ear (thus showing he wasn't very skilled with a sword).  Jesus put a stop to the violence, healed the ear, and then confronted the religious leaders for coming after him in this way at this time, although he had been around the temple all day every day.  "But this is your hour -- when darkness reigns."

 

Jesus was seized and taken away to the Temple.  Peter followed at a distance and sat with some people who had made a fire in a nearby courtyard.  One of them recognized him, but he denied that he had been associated with Jesus.  Someone else recognized him and he denied it again.  An hour later, someone recognized him as a Galilean and said he had to be one of the followers.  Peter denied it again, at which point Jesus "looked straight at [him]".  Peter "went outside and wept bitterly."

 

Jesus' guards began abusing him, mocking and beating him and demanding that he prophesy who was hitting him.

 

At daybreak they started questioning him, trying to get him to claim to be God's son, the Christ.  He told them that if even if he said so they wouldn't believe him but when they said in essence, 'well, are you the Christ then?' he said, You are right in saying I am."

 

At this they took him straight to the Roman governor, Pilate, claiming that he was stirring up rebellion by forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar.  We have seen that this was not what happened when they had tried to trap him with these issues, but when you start to play media gamesmanship, lies don't seem to matter anymore.

 

Pilate asked him if he was in fact the Christ to which he received an affirmative answer.  He then declared that there was no basis for a charge and proposed to release him.  The retort to this was that he had been causing trouble all the way from Galilee.  Being Galilean put Jesus under Herod's jurisdiction, so Pilate sent him to Herod.

 

Herod was delighted to have the chance to see Jesus and asked him many questions in the presence of vehement accusations from the religious.  He also wanted to see a miracle but Jesus didn't interact with him at all.  This made them furious.  Herod and his people abused him some more, put him in a fancy ruler's robe as a joke and sent him back to Pilate.

 

This incident, by the way, led to former enemies, Herod and Pilate, becoming friends.

 

At this point Pilate said again, correctly that Jesus was innocent and proposed again to release him.  This made the religious leaders more furious and they stirred up the crowd into a fury (doing just what they were accusing Jesus of having done).  They all shouted for the release, instead, of a notorious murderer and actual insurrectionist, Barabbas.  After a few exchanges where Pilate wanted to release innocent Jesus and kept asking what the charge was, he finally agreed to what the crowd wanted before they got further out of control:  release of the criminal Barabbas and crucifixion of the innocent Jesus.

 

Mob rule often goes like this; it is the way of the world.  Pilate had no reason and knew that he had no reason to crucify Jesus, but the crowd prevailed.

 

Luke 23:26 - 24:12                                                   2005 June 13 for July 7th

 

A Roman death sentence being immediate and final, Jesus was provided with a cross and led away immediately to his crucifixion.  A man from Cyrene, Simon, was yanked off the road and pressed into service helping Jesus carry his cross.

 

Some women were following along wailing, but Jesus spoke to them, telling them that that should weep for themselves and their children because the day would come when people would be better off not to have had children.  If men would do something like crucify an innocent man when things were "normal" what would they do in times of grave distress?  "They will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!'"

 

When they arrived at the hill called The Skull they crucified him between two other criminals.  Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."   The guards gambled for his clothes.

 

One of the two criminals yelled insults and said, "Aren't you the Christ?  Save yourself and us!"  The other one "rebuked him.  'Don't you fear God, since you are under the same sentence?'"  He then asked for Jesus favor when he entered his kingdom, a concept that he seemed to understand at some level though they were both about to die.  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

 

The religious leaders, unaware that death would be anything but a final and permanent defeat, chided him, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

 

The temptation to do just that had already been faced back before the beginning of his work, when Jesus fasted in the desert, but just knowing that you can defeat a temptation doesn't mean that it doesn't occur again with renewed intensity.

 

The very creation convulsed.  The sun stopped shining from noon until mid afternoon   Jesus shouted out "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," and "breathed his last."

 

The centurion in charge worshipped God, awestruck by these events.  "But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things."

 

Joseph, an upright man from the council of religious leaders, who had not voted for Jesus' death, went to Pilate and asked for the body.  He took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and put it in a brand new tomb.  It was nearly sundown, the beginning of the Sabbath.  The women had spices and perfumes for the burial, but "they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment."

 

It is interesting that, although Jesus had worked every Sabbath throughout his ministry and taught boldly about his superceding priorities, at this point, they were obedient to the commandment once again.  In times of bereavement, one's faith becomes important.

 

The day after the Sabbath, the women were there at the tomb very early in the morning to prepare the body.  They found the tomb open, however, and two angels inside ("men in clothes that gleamed like lightning"), but no body of Jesus.  The women said nothing but the angels reminded them of Jesus' words, that he would have to suffer and be killed and then would rise on the third day.

 

These women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others.  They went to the disciples, now "the Eleven" with this news but were not believed, "because their words seemed to them like nonsense."  Peter did run to the tomb himself to check it out though and, looking inside, saw "strips of linen lying by themselves".  He went off wondering what was going on.

 

Luke 24:13 - 53                                                        2005 June 14 for July 8th

 

Two followers were on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, talking about the momentous events of the week.  One of them was named Cleopas.

 

Another traveler started walking with them and asked what they were talking about.

 

"Are you the only one living in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened there in these days?" Cleopas asked.  They explained about the crucifixion and that this was the third day since and that the woman had said something amazing, that the tomb was empty, and that some of the disciples had gone and checked it out and sure enough, Jesus was not there.

 

The new companion then said, "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!"  He then explained beginning with Moses and the prophets about how this death and resurrection were the fulfillment of the whole Bible up to that time.

 

When they got to Emmaus, the fellow traveller was going to go on but the two urged him to stay the night there, as it was nearly evening, so he stopped with them.  When they sat down to eat, he took bread and blessed it and they recognized that it was Jesus who had been talking and walking with them.  Then, he vanished!

 

Right then, they got up and went back to Jerusalem (this would be about a two hour walk for me) and found the Eleven to whom they related this story, another confirmation that Jesus was still alive.  While they were talking, there was Jesus with them in the locked room!

 

"Peace be with you," he said.

 

"They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost."  He showed them that he was not a ghost but a person with flesh and bones and wounds from being crucified.  He then asked if they had something to eat, and ate while they watched.

 

He then explained to this larger crowd about rising from the dead on the third day and all the implications of this:  forgiveness of sins with repentance.  He concluded, "I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

 

Some time later they all set off for Bethany and, on the way, Jesus lifted his hands and blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he was taken up into heaven.  The disciples returned to Jerusalem and spent their time worshiping and praising God in the temple.

 

As before, I tend to give this text the benefit of a doubt.  This does not sound like a made up story, this sounds like confused people who were witness to extraordinary events but recovered some composure near the end.

 

Concluding thoughts on Luke                           2005 June 15 for July 11th

 

As advertised, this most detailed gospel did mention women more than the others, many times by name.  Aside from that, I found it much like reading through Matthew or Mark again.  Some of the stories, though the same, have subtle differences which seem to give them a different emphasis, or even a different point.  I'm sure that students and scholars have compared and contrasted these subtleties for centuries and I won't attempt any more of that here.

 

It could be that much of what we think of as Christianity comes from the writings of Paul, the brilliant scholar who worked it all out in the aftermath of Christ himself.  That could be why what we see here preached and exemplified by Christ doesn't have very much in common with the way we think about and experience Christianity now and here, a moralistic society with political clout.  As we move on through the New Testament maybe we will see whether such a hypothesis is true or not.

 

I was discussing the radical nature of Jesus' teaching with Will Salmon the other Sunday and he stated something that I had heard before but forgotten, that much of Jesus stories were beyond radical for the shock value so as to stir people and get them thinking.  As such, they are not to be taken too literally.  No cutting off your own arms or cutting servants to pieces, for example.  Or giving everything away to the poor one wonders?

 

While it is true that we can only live with our faith via some ameliorating understanding like that, (or, alternatively, some see it as possible only through the "grace of God") and while it is true that this is what we do to cope, still, something about such an explanation doesn't quite sit right with me.

 

Would God really do that?  Would he come to earth then speak in hyperbole rather than the straight truth?  Is this really the way that it works?   Is it part of the reality of God with his sentient creations that he has to speak to them over the top because they are so dull?

 

Indeed, we have often seen Jesus speaking in such a way that he is preaching what he must in a way that no one will understand.  He has done this on purpose.

 

This feature of the gospels is puzzling and troubling to me.

 

Further, I was wondering just today about the ascension.  Jesus spent part of a chapter showing that he was not spirit or "ghost" but a body similar to ours, though resurrected from an awful death.  After that he goes part way to Bethany and, from a hilltop "ascends" into "heaven."  If he was spirit or ghost, this could be seen as a reasonable exit or allegory, but as a person with a physical body, where did he go that was "up" off the earth?

 

We moderns, being used to flying around in the air and even in space can imagine or even recreate an ascent like this.  Such abilities, in fact, take some of the mystery out of it, but they also create more questions, like where did a body go?  Where is this heaven, anyway?  The first cosmonauts in orbit said that they saw no "God" or "heaven" while they were out in space.  Believers, as always, just scoffed at this.  'He just didn't know what to look for,' they quipped and in any case heaven isn't something physical that would be found "above" or, I guess, apart from the earth.  It is some sort of spiritual place.  This is our common understanding anyway, but, that being the case, where did Jesus, the person with a body, go?

 

As with the stories, I'm sure that students and scholars have worked on this and other conundrums for centuries, some more effectively or closer to reality than others.  From an unassisted, plain reading, we are left today with just another long set of questions.

 

Still, I found this gospel the most readable, the most understandable, and in a strange way, the most comforting, puzzles and troubles notwithstanding.  Perhaps it is the most familiar or complete.

 

© 2005 Courtney B. Duncan