Recap

So far in Luke, we've read through the introduction, and started Jesus' ministry in Galilee. 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 two stories of miraculous conceptions. Zechariah and Elizabeth, too old to have children, and Mary, a virgin, are both visited by an angel. Zechariah and Elizabeth are told they will have a son, John, who will turn people back to God. Mary is told she will give birth to Jesus, the son of God and the promised king from David’s line. Both John and Jesus fulfil what the Old Testament had been pointing towards.

We read as Jesus was born in Bethlehem in a manger, shepherds watching their sheep, and angels. Through this we saw God’s desire to reach the poor and the outcasts, because the first people to meet the promised king were a group of ragtag shepherds. Mary and Joseph the took Jesus to the temple to fulfil all the rituals and laws associated with having a firstborn son.

At the age of twelve Jesus found himself in the temple working in his father, God's, business. Jesus is baptised and then spent forty days in the wilderness, resisting the devil’s temptations. And all the way through these stories, we saw people filled with the Holy Spirit to do things, whether that was to give birth, understand things without being told, or prophesy. 

We got John the Baptist teaching on the importance of repentance and caring for the poor. Then we saw Jesus start his ministry. He taught in the synagogue, using Isaiah 61:1-2 as the basis for his ministry. He is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and he has come for the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed. Basically, anyone who is marginalised or outcast.

Chased out of the synagogue, Jesus put this straight into action, liberating those who were held captive by demons or severe illnesses. Jesus called some of his first disciples by demonstrating his power to them. He provided a net full of fish to some fishermen who had gone all night without catching anything. In this, we saw the provision that Jesus offers.

He also called a tax-collector, someone who was marginalised and hated by his community. When questioned why, Jesus answered it was because he had come for those in need. And we saw Jesus heal a leper, and a paralysed man, again demonstrating his power to heal and his care for those on the edges of society. 

Luke 6-7

Having already got some push back from the religious leaders, Jesus addresses the issue of the Sabbath. Practising Jews were not allowed to do anything on the Sabbath. The tradition had spiralled out of control, and the religious leaders took it to the farthest extreme. They complain when Jesus’ disciples help themselves to some grain in a field as they walk by, and when Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.

Jesus points out to them that king David was allowed to eat forbidden food when his men were starving. Jesus isn’t subject to the Sabbath. He is the Sabbath. And also, is it not okay to do good on the Sabbath? This thoroughly annoys the religious leaders. We then see Jesus go up to a mountain to pray and then call his twelve disciples. 

With his disciples selected, we then get a large selection of Jesus’ teaching focused on the nature of Jesus’ kingdom. Most of this is similar material to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and is aimed directly at the disciples (Luke 6:20). The focus of this teaching is its reversal of the normal way of doing things.

Like Matthew with his beatitudes, Luke also opens with beatitudes. But then Luke adds some anti-beatitudes.

These people are not blessed, but cursed. These are the people that already think they have all that they need. These are the people that are likely to reject Jesus because they don’t think they need him. While at the moment everything looks good for them, eventually they will be left wanting and mourning.

The lesson? Avoid being proud and remain humble. Recognise how much you need Jesus and be willing to be rejected by others doing what is right. Better that than risk doing wrong just to please others.

Jesus tells his disciples to love their enemies and pray for those who abuse them. Anyone can love those who love them back, but it’s that extra step of loving your enemies that reflects God’s character and proves someones as a child of God.

Jesus warns his disciples against the trap of being too focused on other’s sin and not focused enough on their own. The measure by which they treat others will be used against them. If like, the religious leader, they judge and condemn others, then they too will be judged and condemned. But if they are forgiving and generous with others, God will be forgiving and generous with them. 

Jesus uses two different metaphors to explain this. The first is of a tree that bears fruit. If someone is good and has treasured up in their heart good things, that the fruit they bear will be good. It will be this loving and forgiving fruit that Jesus has been talking about. But if they don’t and allow their hearts to be filled with evil, then the fruit they bear will be wicked and selfish.

Then he uses the metaphor of a house. Those that build their lives on his teaching, following them faithfully, will be like a house built on firm foundations. It will survive the tough storms of life. But those that do things their own way will find their foundations are not firm, and their lives are more likely to fall apart when the storms come. 

After that teaching on Jesus’ kingdom, come more examples of it in practice. The first appears in both Matthew 8:5-10 and John 4:46-54. A centurion, a non-Jew and likely Roman, has a servant who is sick. This centurion recognises Jesus’ authority and power, and declares that if Jesus merely tells this sickness to go, it will go. Jesus is impressed at the centurion’s faith and does what he asks, healing the man’s servant.

But Luke adds a unique detail. In Luke’s version a number of Jewish elders come to Jesus pleading with him to help this centurion saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” (Luke 7:4-5).

Luke wants to contrast the religious leaders with these outcasts. The Romans were hated by the Jews, so as far as the Jewish community would normally be concerned, he would have been an outcast. And yet here is this outcast whose heart is good.

Compare that to the Jewish religious leaders, who were seen as the most important people in society, but with hearts that are hard. We also get a uniquely Lukan story of Jesus bringing a young man back to the life, moved to compassion by the mourning of a widow.

We noted yesterday how the Old Testament identified widows and foreigners as a key part of this marginalised group. In these two stories, we see Jesus as one who has great power and authority, and who is here to care for those who are marginalised.

Finally, we get the question from John the Baptist, now in prison “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Luke 7:20). Jesus responds to this question by pointing to his ministry so far, “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.” (Luke 7:22).

If there was any doubt in the reader’s mind by this point, then this realisation should calm it. Jesus then witnesses to John’s ministry. John was a great prophet, and the thing that he was prophesying about was Jesus. And so it’s not surprising that people, predominantly the religious leaders, reject Jesus. They rejected John the Baptist before him.

Then comes another story that is in all four gospels. A woman comes and anoints Jesus (see Mark 14:3-9; Matthew 26:6-13; and John 12:1-8). Each gospel has a slightly different focus and details around this story. In Matthew and Mark, the woman is unnamed. In John, it is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who did the anointing. Here in Luke, the woman is merely described as a sinner.

For Luke, this story is another contrast between then marginalised and outcast who are able to draw near to Jesus and understand who he is, and the religious leaders who are too proud to see what is in front of them.

In Matthew, Mark, and John, the anointing was to prepare Jesus for his burial, as he was soon to die. For Luke, this woman served as a model for repentance and forgiveness. Because the woman knew she had been forgiven much, her response was one of generous love, just as God had shown her. Just as Jesus taught in his anti-beatitudes, this woman recognised how much she needed Jesus and was willing to be rejected by others doing what is right.

Psalm 113

This psalm isn’t attributed to anyone in particular and falls into the category of praise psalm.

Psalm 113:1-5 - Praise the Lord

Psalm 113:6-9 - For he lifts up the poor and needy

The psalmist opens with a call to the servants of the Lord to praise his name. The name of the Lord should be praised forever, all day. Why? Because “the Lord is high above all nations”. His glory is even greater than the heavens. Who else is like him that can look out over all creation as he does?

But this Lord isn’t some distant figure that just looks down from above. He interacts with his creation and his people. He lifts up those who are poor and needy. He makes them equal to princes. He places the woman with no family into a home and surrounds her with family.

In short, this psalm argues that the Lord is a redemptive God. He takes people out of their places of struggle and pain, and puts them into places of flourishing.