Reading Luke in Lent

In subtle ways Luke shows Jesus to be priest, prophet and king. At the Transfiguration Jesus spoke of his exodus which he would accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus’ exodus echoes that of Moses the prophet and includes death, resurrection and ascension into glory.

Jesus instructed his disciples to say Peace to you whenever they entered a house. Here, Jesus, himself says it and echoes the beginning of the Gospel where his birth was announced with proclamations of peace.

At the last supper Jesus gave his disciples the Eucharist as a way of being present to his disciples. There he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and give it to them. Here the disciples recognise that they are in the presence of Jesus, that the guest has become the host.

It is the evening of Easter day and two of the disciples who heard the testimony of the women are walking away from Jerusalem disheartened. They meet Jesus, in his first appearance as the risen Christ, but they do not recognise him.

It is the women who have accompanied Jesus since Galilee (8:2-3) who are the first to witness Jesus’ resurrection. They see the empty tomb, they hear the message of the two men in dazzling apparel, they recall, and understand, the words of Jesus, and they go and tell the apostles.

Three people recognise and declare Jesus’ innocence in this section: Pilate, the repentant thief and the centurion. Pilate declares Jesus to be not guilty three times but in a reversal of Peter’s denial and repentance Pilate sends an innocent man to his death.

The greatest shall become the least. In the passion we see Jesus brought low stage by stage. At the Mount of Olives he prays and speaks in words which recall the Lord’s Prayer: to be led not into temptation and to that God’s will be done. Jesus is then betrayed by a sign of friendship. He sees one of the apostles, Peter, also brought low as Jesus is denied three times. Peter, however, begins his path of reconciliation.

Three times before in Luke has Jesus sent out his followers in pairs to prepare the way for him. Now he sends Peter and John to prepare the place where they will celebrate a meal. At the end of this section he will recall his instruction to the disciples to go out as he prepares the apostles to make their way in the world. But that is not yet.

Jesus tells the people that the temple will be destroyed, there will be persecutions, Jerusalem will be laid to waste and the Son of Man will come in glory. Jesus’ followers need to read the signs of the time and be ready.

In the Palm Sunday liturgy we hear the triumphal entry to Jerusalem and then we listen to the Passion narrative. In between Jesus is teaching in the temple. As often in Luke his audience is varied. There are the people who support him and his disciples, and then there are the scribes and the Sadducees who are seeking ways to catch Jesus out.

Jesus has prophesied his passion, death and resurrection three times in Luke’s Gospel. Now the begins the realisation of the prophecy. There is a lot of details in these passages. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is steeped in images of kingship from the Old Testament.

In the last section we heard about tax collectors, the humble and the least, and the difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom. In this section we meet Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, who is small and humble enough to climb a tree to see Jesus.

There are those who recognise Jesus for who he is and then there are also those who mistake him. In this passage the disciples, including Peter and the twelve get things wrong whereas a blind man and children respond to Jesus’s presence.

When Jesus was first asked to teach his disciples to pray he taught them to say ‘Your kingdom come’. Now he teaches the disciples to pray continually and not lose heart. To help them understand he gives a parable about a patient and persistent widow.

The worried apostles are reminded of their future duties in a short parable. They will plough the field so that the seed of God’s word can be sown; they will look after their flocks. They will be true servants, as Jesus has modelled, offering the Eucharist to eat and drink.

Is being rich a barrier to the kingdom of God? Luke in one of his ironic juxtapositions has Jesus saying ‘You cannot serve God and money’ followed by Luke saying ‘The Pharisees, who were lovers of money’. In this section we have two more of Jesus’ vivid parables: the dishonest manager and the rich man and Lazarus.

The audience for these three parables of mercy brings together the tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees and scribes. The three stories speak about the lost being found and that this is something to be rejoiced over.

Inviting Jesus to your house for a banquet is a risky business. In this section Luke mirrors the last chapter. There's a further healing on the Sabbath and then two parables which play out what it means for the last to be first.

The Sabbath is still principally thought about as refraining from work. Jesus reminds us it is about the appreciation of God’s creation; Jesus will usher in, on the Lord’s Day, the new creation. The Sabbath is also the day of Exodus from slavery and once again Jesus sees his mission as bringing liberty to captives.

Reading through Luke the opening sentences will remind us of John the Baptist and his promise of Baptism. They also look forward to Luke’s volume the Acts of the Apostles when the Apostles will be baptised in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This looking back and forth emphasises the present moment.

Jesus’ phrases, ‘where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’, cuts both ways. The disciple’s heart should be in heaven and Jesus assure them of the Father’s care for them. Jesus then tells two parables about being ready.

On the journey to Jerusalem the focus of Jesus’ preaching is what it means to be a disciple. In a passage which stretches into the next chapter Jesus talks to the crowd. It is a varied speech, sometimes it is directed just to the disciples, some to everyone; sometimes he is interrupted. The whole passage gives us a flavour of the dynamics of his preaching.

At the heart of this chapter is Jesus’ saying ‘Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’ It can be seen as dividing the chapter between those who do and those who don’t.

The formation of the disciples by Jesus continues. First three potential followers learn the cost of discipleship. Then Jesus sends out 72 disciples to prepare the way for him. Their task is to announce the kingdom in word and deed. Their greeting of ‘Peace be to this house!’ echoes the angels who announce the Messiah’s birth.

In Luke’s Gospel Jesus prays before significant events. Mountains carry the resonance of Moses’ climbing Mount Sinai to speak with God where is appearance will be altered and glow. Through various small details, not only is Jesus’ appearance altered his clothes are dazzling, Luke shows that Jesus is greater than Moses and Elijah, that he is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets, that is the scriptures.

These passages are part of the conclusion of Jesus’ Galilean ministry before he sets off on the road to Jerusalem. The themes of proclaiming the kingdom and healing the sick are passed on to the twelve apostles. At the end of this section the themes of suffering death and resurrection have been introduced.

Having calmed the storm in the last passage and showed his power over nature. Jesus now shows his power over evil, sickness and death. He and the disciples have crossed to gentile territory at the beginning of this section, hence they keep pigs. The demons, who are many, recognise Jesus and call him the ‘Son of the Most High God’.

Jesus’ family are those who hear the word of God and do it. They are like the seed which falls into good soil and grows and yields a hundredfold. But there are also those who do not act, who wither away, who hide their light. Those who listen will be rewarded — they will be given more than they have.

Jesus tells a parable about the forgiveness of debt which Simon understands but as is often the case does not recognise as applying to the current situation. Here a woman, a sinner, anoints Jesus’ feet and receives forgiveness.

In the stories of the Centurion and of the Widow Jesus lives out his commands to love your enemies and to be compassionate. Giving these stories together Luke is not only following his pattern of pairing stories about men and women he is also picking up on something Jesus said in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:25–27) where he mentioned Elijah and the widow and Elisha and Naaman, a foreign leader.

Luke has referred to Jesus teaching a number of time. Now he gives us his teaching. There are three sections: the beatitudes and woes, the commands on love and mercy, the teaching on the two ways. The beatitudes (blessings) and the woes are given in parallel — blessed are the poor, woe to the rich. Like the Magnificat this shows the values of the world turned upside down.

Whenever bread is mentioned it is possible to make a connection with the Eucharist. Here the verbs to eat and to give are linked with the Last Supper. But this passage is also about who Jesus is. Again there is the connection with David the king but also Jesus is the priest who can eat the bread and give to others. Finally in this passage he refers to himself, once again, as the Son of Man, who here has divine authority.

This is the first of the meals or banquets in Luke’s Gospel. Each meal is a foretaste of the Last Supper. In this passage this is apparent in the second half with the reference to bridegroom being taken away and then the new wine which echoes the new covenant Jesus will make (this is also the first parable in Luke’s Gospel).

Luke’s storytelling can have vivid touches: the boat pushed away from the shore, the removal of a roof. As vivid is Jesus’ calling of Simon Peter: the invitation to put out into the deep, the catch of fish. Peter follows because of what he has seen and heard; he is the first to recognise him as ‘Lord’.

Jesus, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, is led into the wilderness. Luke has just made a connection between Jesus and Adam who was also tempted but failed and was cast out of paradise. The other connection is with the people of Israel who wandered 40 years in the desert and again succumbed to the temptations on route.

In the previous passage Jesus proclaimed the kingdom in words here it is proclaimed through his actions. As often in Luke there is a parallel between the synagogue in Nazareth and Capernaum. Here they receive Jesus’s word and actions and ecognize that his teaching has authority. At the end instead of rejecting him they do not want him to leave. Whatever people’s reaction Jesus’ mission leads him onwards.

Jesus prays throughout Luke’s Gospel. Here, following his baptism, his prayer is answered by the heavens opening, the appearance of the Holy Spirit and the voice from heaven proclaiming that Jesus is the beloved Son of God who is also the servant of the Lord.

Just as at the beginning of his Gospel, Luke gives the historical context for this new stage in the story. John the Baptist is portrayed as an Old Testament prophet to whom the word of God is given when the time is right. He is described in the words of Isaiah as someone who prepares the way of the Lord.

Luke’s story of the births of John the Baptist and of Jesus began in the temple and here returns to the temple in Jerusalem.

Just as in Chapter 1, Luke compared Jesus with John the Baptist, in Chapter 2 he compares Jesus with Caesar Augustus. What sort of king is Jesus?

The crowd is often fickle in Luke’s Gospel. They begin by rejoicing with Elizabeth but then put pressure on her about the name of the child.