Recap

So far in Luke, we've read through the introduction, Jesus' ministry in Galilee, and started the journey to Jerusalem. We noted how this book was written with the book of Acts to be one continuous story. We also looked at how, for Luke, the kingdom of God is centred on uplifting the marginalised and outcasts and bringing salvation and repentance, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We read the two miraculous conception stories of John and Jesus who would both fulfil Old Testament prophecies. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, announced to shepherds by angels, showing God's desire to reach the poor and outcasts. At twelve, Jesus is in the temple, focused on God's work. He is later baptised and resists the devil’s temptations in the wilderness. Throughout, people are filled with the Holy Spirit to fulfil their roles. John the Baptist taught the importance of repentance and caring for the poor.

Jesus began his ministry by declaring his mission to those on society’s margins using Isaiah 61:1-2. After being rejected from the synagogue, he liberated people from demons and illness, demonstrating his power by filling fishermen's nets and calling his disciples. He healed a leper and a paralysed man. In all these he showed his care for the marginalised.

Jesus then taught his disciples the values of his upside-down kingdom, where the needy are blessed, and the self-reliant are warned. His many miracles, from healings to feeding 5,000, led to Peter recognising him as "The Christ of God." Jesus revealed his coming suffering and was confirmed as God's chosen when three disciples witnessed his transfiguration.

We began the journey to Jerusalem and focused on what it means to be a disciple. Lacking faith, the disciples failed to cast out a demon and argued over greatness, threatening violence when rejected. Through them, we learn what not to do when following Jesus.

Jesus reclaimed his kingdom by sending out seventy-two disciples. He taught love for God and neighbour, as shown in the parable of the Good Samaritan and the example of Mary at his feet. He warned of final judgement, urging consistency in life and trust in God.

Then, at a banquet, Jesus challenged religious leaders' pursuit of status. He urged them to bless others and focus on building meaningful relationships. God's kingdom seeks the lost, not wealth.

Turning to his disciples, Jesus encouraged them to avoid causing others to stumble. They are called to forgive,and grow their faith through faithfulness. He healed ten lepers, with only a grateful Samaritan returning to thank Jesus. In contrast, a wealthy man couldn’t face losing his wealth. The outcasts embraced the kingdom while the proud rejected it.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem, we return focus to Jesus as king bringing his kingdom. He reminded his disciples that he was going to Jerusalem to die. On the way, a blind beggar recognised Jesus as the promised king.

Luke 19-20

Entering into Jericho, Jesus is quickly surrounded by crowds. A man named Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but he was shorter than everyone else and couldn’t see over the heads. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, which would have made him an outcast. All of his money he got from extorting money out of people, finding any excuse to tax them.

He climbs a tree to see better, catching Jesus’ attention. Jesus walks over and invites himself over to Zacchaeus’ house. To sit and dine with someone else is a big deal at this time. We’ve seen before how the religious leaders would get angry at Jesus for sitting and eating with sinners and tax collectors. In doing so, Jesus was giving these people value, when the religious leaders felt that they deserved no value.

The exact same happens here. The crowd grumbles amongst themselves that Jesus would choose a cheat and a scoundrel like Zacchaeus to eat with. Being treated this way by Jesus quickly leads Zacchaeus to change his ways. He willingly offers half of his wealth to the poor and offers to give back all the money he cheated out of people.

This story carries on the Lukan theme that it’s not your social status, or your reputation that matters, but the state of your heart. But it also provides a healthy balance to the rest of Luke’s teachings. So far, rich people haven’t come off well in Luke’s gospel. They’re either proud, like the religious leaders, or unwilling to part with their wealth like the young ruler (Luke 18:18-30).

Because of this, it might be tempting to judge someone for being rich, but then we fall in the same trap of judging someone not on their heart but on their social status. The only difference is that we’ve flipped it so now rich is bad and poor is good. Zacchaeus reminds us that even with people with a lot of wealth or social status, we’re called to look at the heart, not the external stuff.

Jesus then turns to the crowds and shares with them a parable. This parable is very similar to the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). A man gives his servants a certain amount of money and then leaves for a while. When he comes back, he assesses what each servant has done with the money he was given.

The first two were able to turn around a profit, and so he blesses and rewards them. They had been faithful servants and good stewards of all that the master had given them. But the third man had not. He hid his money away, doing nothing with it, so the master rebuked him for being wicked. The lesson here is that we are called to be faithful stewards of all God gives us. Whatever God has given us, we are called to use it for his kingdom, not sit in fear that we might get it wrong.

But Luke’s version is slightly different from Matthew’s. Jesus is close to Jerusalem at this point, and the expectations that he is going to come and establish his kingdom is high. In Luke’s parable, the master is declared king and his citizens reject him and are punished.

In this parable, these citizens reflect the religious leaders and others who are rejecting Jesus and want nothing to do with him. Jesus is coming to establish his kingdom, though not quite in the way that everyone thinks. Those that reject him are going to face death and destruction because of it.

Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt, and while many celebrate his entrance, some of the religious leaders challenge his authority. Seeing this and the city, Jesus begins to weep. He can see forward to 70 CE when the Roman empire will come and destroy this city, and it’s all because they’re rejecting God’s way.

Their ancestors refused to accept God and were destroyed by the Babylonians. Now these people are going to refuse to accept Jesus, and they will be destroyed by the Romans. They are unable to see the way of peace, and instead will choose for themselves the path for destruction.

This becomes the point of no return. The conflict that we’ve seen between Jesus and the religious leaders is reaching a head, and is rushing towards its final conclusion. The promised king has entered his royal city. As the readers, we’re meant to be expecting a great moment of victory. As we draw closer to this moment, the conflict continues to rise.

We then begin to see Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem. Jesus enters the temple and chases out all those using it as a place of trade. In return, the religious leaders challenge Jesus’ authority.

Jesus draws on vineyard imagery from Isaiah 5:1-7 and tells a parable of some rebellious tenants. The tenants managed their master’s vineyard but decide to keep all of its fruit for themselves. They beat up any of the servants that come to collect what belongs to the master and eventually kill his son so that they might inherit the vineyard. So the master comes and kills the tenants, replacing them with others who are faithful.

This parable is a direct attack from Jesus against the religious leaders. They are the rebellious tenants, and he is the master’s son. If they reject him, they will face destruction.

They continue to try to trap Jesus, asking him questions about paying taxes and the resurrection, but Jesus easily answers all their questions while they can’t answer any of his.

Psalm 119:1-32

This psalm isn’t attributed to anyone in particular and falls into the category of wisdom psalm. A couple of days ago, we read the shortest psalm in the Bible, Psalm 117. In contrast, Psalm 119 is the longest at 176 verses. Because of this, we’re going to split this psalm across six days.

Each stanza has eight verses each, and each verse within a stanza starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. With twenty-two stanzas, we have a different stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In many ways, this psalm can be seen as the A-B-Cs of Biblical wisdom.

Psalm 119:1-8 - Aleph (א): Blessed are those who walk according to the law

Psalm 119:9-16 - Beth (ב): Treasure up the ways of the Lord from youth

Psalm 119:17-24 - Gimel (ג): Be good to me so that I may understand

Psalm 119:25-32 - Daleth (ד): Even when I’m low, your word strengthens me

Much like Psalm 1, this psalm starts with a blessing for those who walk in the ways of the Lord. Here Psalm 119 ties that specifically those who walk in the law of the Lord, who keep his decrees. It is through God’s word and commands that we learn how to live. We are required to be faithful to the God’s commands and steadfast in keeping them. This is how we avoid being put to shame.

The second stanza is focused on how might young people learn to keep their ways pure. The answer is by keeping to God’s word. The psalmist treasures the word of God in their heart. They delight in it and meditate on it. And they ask God to help them keep it. They recognise it’s not something we can do on our own.

In the third stanza, the psalmist asks God to be good to them so that they can keep God’s word. Top open their eyes so they can understand it properly. The psalmist is surrounded by people that don’t love God or keep his ways. The examples around them are bleak. So the psalmist asks that God continually bring his word before them and help them keep them.

For the fourth stanza, the psalmist shares some of their own struggles. They often feel low and filled with sorrow. Because of this, they recognise it is the Lord’s words that revive and strengthen them. It is understanding God’s ways and meditating on what he has done that keeps the psalmist going. Because of this, they cling to the Lord’s words.

We’ll see many similar ideas and language repeated throughout this psalm. The whole point of the psalm was that it was structured in a way that meant it could be easily memorised. Then, once memorised, it could be meditated upon. The repetitive themes and language all help this purpose.