Lent 2025

Part 3: The Passion Narrative

There are two parts in this final section of Luke’s Gospel. The first part can be called, “The Ministry in Jerusalem”. The second is, “The Passion and Death of Christ”. Maybe, at some time in the future, God willing, we might study the Resurrection of Christ. But now it is Lent. Holy Week comes before we know it, and this Gospel is proclaimed at its opening on Palm Sunday.

The first of the two parts is the content of Chapter 19 as Jesus nears Jerusalem. The second part begins with Chapter 20, and it all takes place in the Temple area. This piece of Luke’s Gospel sets it apart from Matthew and Mark because of the central importance of Jerusalem and the Temple. The other Gospels do not focus on the Temple and Jerusalem as clearly as does Luke. Jerusalem has been the destination all along, and the disciples are to remain there until they receive the Holy Spirit. At the same time however, “Jerusalem” is not really a geographical location. The real destination for Jesus, and for that matter, for all of us, is God. That’s where he is going with this Journey. As a place, Jerusalem and the Temple are where God and humankind meet. 

We have no idea how long Jesus ministered in Jerusalem. The Church compressed this period into eight days, but there is every reason to believe that the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was not for Passover, but more likely for the Feast of Tabernacles which occurs in the fall. It’s the harvest feast. The whole business with Palm Branches in the other Gospels is a hint that this could be the Feast of Tabernacles when the Hebrew people cut branches to make “huts” out in the fields where they stayed during the harvest. So, the stay of Jesus in Jerusalem may have been much longer than the one week we have imagined. The Church, that’s us, has over time compressed all three Gospel accounts into one image of the event. If you are not careful, this can be a problem when reading Luke, because there is not one mention of palm branches. Luke’s orderly account shifts to Passover so that everything will fit together.

Chapter 19 begins with Jesus entering Jericho where he meets a short guy named, Zacchaeus who seems to be a good tree climber. This familiar story is full of important theological claims. The most important and obvious is that God incarnate dwells not with the pure and righteous but with tax collectors and sinners. In other words, with all outsiders. Meanwhile, the crowd grumbles. Just before entering Jerusalem, Jesus tells a parable about a nobleman who takes a long trip leaving a sum of money with three different servants to carry on business while he is away. Had we been there at the time, we would probably be nodding our heads with the crowd approving the caution of the third servant who took no risks. The focus of this parable is not the nobleman or “king.” He is not an image of Christ. The focus is the servants, and the story is told to address the fact that many were expecting the end of time or coming of the Kingdom to be very soon. Correcting that idea, the parable proposes that while we wait, we need to be working without fear with the message entrusted to us and not keep silent or think we need to hide in fear.

As Chapter 19 begins to close, we are on Mount Olivet near Bethany which is less than two miles east of the city. The whole role of the disciples is important to notice. They get a colt. They set Jesus on the colt. There is sense that the whole city came out as a crowd. Jesus is honored and praised by his followers. This is not a group who turns on him days later demanding his crucifixion. Luke’s version is less crowded and more subdued. It is of and for believers. There is not one mention of pam branches. Luke gives us some clues by which we may interpret this scene more clearly. 

1) This triumphal parade begins from the Mount of Olives, the place the prophet Zechariah (14:4) said God’s final intervention would begin. 

2) Jesus makes his way through an adoring crowd sitting on the back of a colt. It is a humble entrance in contrasts the arrival of powerful leaders on a horse with trumpets playing “Hail to the Chief.” 

3) Not even the poorest of the poor are held back. Anyone is welcome.

There is not one Hosanna in Luke’s Gospel. That word was used for parades with nationalistic overtones. None of that here. There is nothing said about David or his throne either. Luke seems to be carefully writing this so as to give Pilate nothing to use in accusation. The Temple is the place where things get focused now. Luke’s Gospel began with the Temple with Zechariah offering incense and angel’s announcement. At the end, the disciples are in the Temple. As Luke tells us in Acts, the Christians are attending the temple together every day. Luke seems to respect and perhaps admire the Temple, that may be why his description of Jesus cleansing it is simpler than the other Gospels. He purifies the Temple so that it can be the place of his own ministry. Jesus now claims this space for his teaching, and with that, opposition to him includes more than the scribes and Pharisees. Now the chief priests join in. He is in their space. 

As controversy heats up it might help to know who’s who. We keep hearing about the “Chief Priests, Scribes, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, Elders, and Pharisees. It’s important to sort them out. At the time of Jesus, two religious/political parties within Judaism were represented in the “Sanhedrin”. 

So, the Sanhedrin was a council with about 70 members who made up the religious court. It was composed of 

1. High Priests past and present from the priestly families as well as Elders who were the tribal and family heads of the people, 
2. Scribes who were the legal professionals. 

The majority of the Sanhedrin were Sadducees while the Pharisees were the minority. The difference between these two groups was religious not political or necessarily social. For instance, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin priest we hear about here was a religiously a Sadducee. But, most of the scribes were Pharisees. The presiding officer of this council was usually the high priest. The Sanhedrin was the highest court of appeal. Therefore, the Sanhedrin’s authority was broad and far-reaching, involving legislation, administration, and justice. They had religious, civil and criminal jurisdiction. 

At the time of Jesus, the council had lost to the Roman governor the power of capital punishment. They met every day except on Sabbath and feast days in rooms next to the Temple. In extraordinary cases, the council met at the house of the High Priest. One of the responsibilities of the Sanhedrin was the identification and confirmation of the Messiah. In fact, we read in the gospel that they sent a delegation to John the Baptist asking if he was the Messiah. There were about a dozen false Messiahs running around during the first part of this century deceiving the people making more important the responsibility of the Sanhedrin to sort it out. This is why Jesus eventually comes in contact with them.

The “Chief Priests” were drawn mainly from the ranks of the Sadducees the largest of the two groups. One of them was always the “High Priest”. We know that at the time of Jesus, Caiaphas was the High Priest. His father-in-law was Annas also called, “High Priest” and he was the real power behind the high priesthood. The Jews saw the High Priesthood as an office for life. The Romans did not, and they picked and chose High Priests from time to time, probably to keep the whole system from getting too powerful. Since he was still living, Annas was really the senior at the time which is why Jesus is first brought to Annas during his trial.

The Sadducees were really the “ruling class.” Today we would call them “Oligarchs.” They represented the aristocracy making peace quickly with the Romans to secure their privileges, wealth, and influence. They were educated, wealthy and held themselves aloof, with the result that they were not popular. Jesus was a threat to them and the status quo. Their functions were associated with the Temple and the cultic actions that took place there. They maintained the place. This gave them a great deal of authority. They collected taxes, mediated domestic disputes and regulated relations with the Romans. 

The Pharisees were associated with the Synagogue which made them more associated with the common people in contrast to the Sadducees. They were considered to be the experts in the Jewish law. They interpreted the Torah liberally, and they believed in the resurrection of the dead in the future, the existence of angels and demons, all meaning they believed in an afterlife. This is contrary to the Sadducees. They were devout laymen, not priests. Their conflict with Jesus was over their hyper attention to the minutiae of the Law forgetting about the intention of the law.

With that either made clear or further confused, Luke puts the action in the Temple where controversy really heats up. Authority is one of the hot spots in this controversy. Anything going on in the Temple is under the control of the Priests who are from the tribe of Levi. God appointed them as priests, and the Temple is their turf. Here’s the problem, Jesus is not a Levite, but he is teaching in the Temple as though it was a synagogue where the lay people are in charge. Those in charge confront him with three questions. The first is about his authority. “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” Luke then says: “They discussed it with one another, saying, if we say, From Heaven, he will say, “why did you not believe him? But if we say, “Of human origin, all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So, they answered that they did not know where it came from.” With this Divine authority is affirmed as more significant and authoritative than human authority. 

With that, Jesus tells the crowd a parable about the Wicked Tenants. It is a parable about these Priests and Scribes, but he tells it to the crowd in their presence, and they get the point. No doubt even more angry, they come at Jesus with a second question. This one is about Taxes, and you know the answer he gives: “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” It is a complicated response, because it’s not always easy to separate the two then or now. The third and final question concerns the Resurrection of the Dead. They are not asking a theological question. Their purpose is to argue or embarrass Jesus or force him into one school of thought or the other. Is he a Sadducee or a Pharisee? It is a classic “what if” question. His response just further angers them. He quotes Exodus 3:6 for believing in the resurrection of the dead. His response ends up dividing his opposition because some of the scribes approve of his answer and begin to speak highly of him. 

As Chapter 21 begins, there is one final jab at the Scribes as Jesus observes a poor widow offering the last that she has in observance of the law commanding contributions to the support of the Temple. Toward the end of this chapter, Luke begins to write in a different style of Literature called, “apocalyptic.” As a kind of literature, it deals with a revelation or a series of revelations usually by an angel disclosing a supernatural world beyond the world of historical events. The focus is on the end of the world as we now experience it and the beginning of a new world. Here, Luke joins historical events to descripe of what is going on behind and beyond history. In this literature style, major historical crises trigger apocalyptic thinking. The destruction of Jerusalem is the historical event that triggers Chapter 21. The writing about the future is mixed with what is really going on in history. Laced with symbols, signs, and mysterious figures of speech, it is a remarkable witness to the faith of those who write this way. Amid painful and prolonged suffering, with no relief in sight, faith turns its face toward heaven not only for a revelation of God’s will but also for a vision of the end of the present misery and the beginning of the age to come.

So, in this chapter, Luke describes the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem which had happened fifteen or twenty years before he wrote the Gospel. He seems to be concerned that believers not interpret the fall of Jerusalem as a sign the world is ending, and he continues to insist that the question of “When” is not answered because it is unknown. What Luke does through all of this apocalyptic scene is establish that the present time is the time for “testimony.” He writes: “But before all this occurs they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So, make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance for I will gives you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” Luke goes on to remind the church that the Son of Man will return. 

The whole purpose of this writing is not to inspire terror, but to strengthen the faith of believers in God, who works in real time This end time prophecy appeals to faith by opening eyes to see God at work even in places where we might not expect to. Jesus‘ prophecies here are not designed to scare, coerce, or intimidate believers into spiritual submission in order to avert death and hell. The end time prophecy is not really the end. It is a transition into a new beginning in Christ Jesus. He tells a parable of the Fig Tree as a reminder that the church should be watching for the signs. In other words, living with hope. With the last two verses of Chapter 21, the public ministry of Jesus is complete. It ends beautifully: “Every day he was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives, as it was called. And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the Temple.”

Luke’s method of presenting the final instructions of Jesus for these apostles is the Supper. He shapes the tradition in the form of a farewell meal with a leader and his followers. Luke’s Supper Narrative is three times as long as Mark and Matthew, and it is much less foreboding. There are words of warning, instruction and encouragement. There is a prediction about the apostles and Peter, but the tone is much more positive so that the conversation at the supper is tilted toward victory, where the disciples will sit on thrones in the kingdom of Jesus and Simon Peter will turn and strengthen his brothers.  Unique to Luke is the inclusion of the betrayer at the table. In Luke, Judas is there till the end of the meal, but it is important to notice that Judas is never named until the arrest scene.  In Matthew and Mark, he departs earlier. By including Judas in sharing the bread and wine, Luke emphasizes that forgiveness extends to tax collectors, a dying thief, soldiers with nails and hammers, and even Judas. What is perhaps important to Luke is that Judas not only betrays, but he breaks the covenant in the body and blood of Jesus. That is the issue.

There are two other interesting details in Luke’s reporting of the Supper. There are two cups. Listen to chapter 22 beginning at verse 14. “Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’” Research into this chapter suggests that Luke may have blended two oral traditions: one had the cup before the bread and another has two cups. The two-cup tradition associates this more closely to the Passover tradition which seems to be Luke’s purpose because the Passover Lamb was not a sin offering. The Passover lamb was the seal of a covenant, and the Passover meal commemorated that covenant offered to the believers by a God who sets free. This is the focus for Luke, liberation; not the forgiveness of sins. For the Hebrew people the forgiveness of sins was a completely different ritual. It had nothing to do with Passover. Luke’s concern here is not with forgiveness, but with unity in the covenant. Those who share in this covenant are joined to one another, life to life, as signified and sealed in the cup divided among themselves.

In this chapter, Luke takes an incident the other Gospels report earlier and inserts it into the occasion of this meal. That incident is the dispute about greatness. By including that here as well as by having Judas remain through the meal, Luke speaks very strong words to the church for which he is writing and for the church today. Betrayal of Christ has occurred and will occur among those who partake of the Lord’s Supper. Then, by taking the dispute from an earlier setting and putting it into the setting of the Supper, he takes what could be an historical event and makes it more than an ugly moment in history to a very real and present exhortation to those who share the table. Love of place and power was a problem for the first followers of Jesus, and it continues to be so. The instructions and the meal conclude with a dire warning about the danger and the threats that lie ahead. The disciples get the point. They know they are no longer in Galilee where welcoming crowds were everywhere. They are now in Jerusalem where danger is everywhere. Jesus contrasts the first sending of the disciples where they had great success without him to the coming time when they will be on their own and rather than success, there will be violence because the charges against him will spread to them. They respond to danger by instinct, sword for sword, weapon for weapon, blow for blow; that is, prepare for danger by becoming dangerous. This is, of course, not the way of Jesus, and Luke ends the whole report of the supper with powerful words of Jesus reacting to this sword talk: “It is enough.” With that, he goes off to pray in the garden.

With verse 39 in Chapter 22, the Passion Narrative begins. I think it is helpful to think of, pray with, and study over the Passion as if it were a Drama in Four Acts.

Act 1 has two scenes: Prayer and Arrest.

There are two verses in this chapter 22 that may have been added by a scribe later on because they are not present in the earliest manuscripts. They are 33 and 34 which go like this: “Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” Without those verses, Luke does not portray Jesus in anguish, wrestling for hours with the will of God. The scene is more like the other occasions of Jesus in prayer. Luke does not portray Jesus in distress. He is much more in command, and he simply instructs his disciples to pray while he prays. This Jesus is so at peace with God that he cannot be distraught by the sufferings that are inflicted on him. It is as though Luke would have Jesus revealed as a model to Christian sufferers and martyrs. Certainly, what Luke wants to do here is present Jesus as a model for all his followers in his prayer life and in the way he confronts a crises. In Luke, Jesus is always a man of prayer, and the prayer of Jesus at this point has a striking similarity to the prayer he taught the disciples. 

When it comes to details in this scene, Luke has five not found in the other Gospels. There are many more details in Matthew and Mark.  John omits the prayer scene entirely. So, unique to Luke are these:

1. This scene which we commonly call, “The Agony in the Garden” is the shortest of the Gospels.
2. Luke places this scene on the Mount of Olives, the place where Jesus had been staying. Mark & Matthew place it in Gethsemane. John simply says, “a garden.”
3. There are not 3 disciples in Luke. They are all asked to pray
4. Jesus comes to them only once, not three times and Luke explains that they were sleeping because of sorrow which softens the reprimand. He is not scolding or complaining. 
5. Luke has Jesus kneel in prayer not fall to the ground.

For Luke, the coming of that angel is all that Jesus needs for strength, and that is the answer to his prayer. With that, he goes to the sleeping disciples only one time and he is, as I’ve said several times, gentle with them. 

Now the second Scene, “The Arrest”.  Luke again is consistently kinder to the apostles than the other Gospels. There is no suggestion that Judas planned to kiss Jesus. There is no young man who runs away, and the healing of the severed ear shows us a Jesus who is still gentle and healing even with those who would do him harm. In this scene, the presence of the “Chief Priests,” captains of the Temple Guard, and elders is unique to Luke. The whole episode in Luke is brief. Only three times in Luke’s Gospel is there mention of Judas: in the naming of the 12, during the last supper (22) when Luke tells us that Satan had entered him, and finally here when Jesus address Judas directly. There is about it an intimacy that some scholars suggest is one last attempt to touch the heart of Judas.  Luke never tells us that Judas actually kissed Jesus. It is Jesus who brings that up in their confrontation, and it’s almost as if Jesus was refusing. Luke explains the decision of Judas by saying that Satan had entered Judas, and Luke is the only Gospel that says that. It would seem that this is Luke’s way of referring back to the Temptation scene at the beginning of the Gospel when he says that Satan would return. Only John’s Gospel has Jesus speaking to the arresting crowd about his disciples. In John, he insists that the disciples should not be arrested. In Luke’s Gospel, they simply disperse without any suggestion that they ran away out of fear. Luke is always protecting the disciples.  Then, Jesus is taken to the Sanhedrin at the house of the High Priest. End of Act One.

Act Two has four scenes.

In Luke there are four trials that make up Act Two.

Scene One is the trail before the Sanhedrin. This is the religious trial that begins the interrogation. It is in the midst of this trial that Luke tells of Peter’s denial. In Mark’s Gospel the denials are split up. All this happens at night. In the morning Jesus is before the assembly of the elders with Chief Priests and Scribes present. Two questions make up this interrogation, and the issue is his identity: Are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of God? Are you a King?

Scene Two is the first trail before Pilate. Luke, different from the other reports adds that the “Council” sent him to Pilate with three charges. This is a good example of Luke’s effort to be “More Orderly” as he promised in the opening of the Gospel.  It’s also interesting that these charges are the same charges raised against St Paul when he is brought before the prefect Felix in the 24^th chapter of Acts. The charges:

1. We found this man perverting our nation
2. Forbidding us to pay Taxes to the emperor
3. Saying that he is the Messiah, a king. 

This trial before Pilate is a preliminary trial to establish cause. Luke says nothing about false witnesses. The only witness is Jesus himself who answers the question about being King by simply saying: “You say that I am”. They do not condemn Jesus to death. Pilate has no interest in two of the charges brought by the Sanhedrin about being Messiah and Son of God, but he is focused on the last one about being King. He asks the question: “Are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus answers Pilate exactly the same way he answered the Sanhedrin. Pilate finds no guilt, and when he says so, the accusers insist that Jesus has been stirring up trouble in Galilee, a place that at the time was a hot-bed of revolution. With this, we have a major piece unique to Luke. Pilate sends Jesus to Herod who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time and had expressed interest in seeing Jesus.

Scene Three takes place before Herod. So, finding that Jesus is a Galilean and that Herod is in Jerusalem, Pilate sends Jesus to Herod who is the ruler of Galilee. Only a “puppet” ruler set up by the Romans, Herod has no real power. Jesus will not speak to Herod whose relationship with the Romans is a disgrace. This trial is unique to Luke. Found not guilty by Herod, Jesus is sent back for the fourth trial. This is a sequence that makes Pilate want to set Jesus free. The same pattern is found in Acts of the Apostles with Paul being sent by the Roman Governor to Herod Agrippa II only to have Paul found not guilty. It is at the court of Herod that Jesus is mocked and robed. 

Scene Four is back before Pilate. He convenes a larger group to announce the fate of Jesus. He will not intervene in any religious disagreement. At first Pilate is not yet influenced by the growing displeasure of the crowds who are not present. He is caught between the innocence of Jesus and the council’s desires. Only Luke’s Pilate declares the innocence of Jesus on three occasions. Politically savvy he does not go against the Jerusalem leadership and the condemnation is an alliance for two opposing political forces. So much so that Luke tells us that Herod and Pilate became friends that day. Despite Luke’s portrayal, Pilate must have considered Jesus some type of threat. You may notice that in Luke, there is no explanation about that custom of releasing a prisoner. Probably because Luke, who knew a lot about Roman customs did not think it was true. Luke simply has the people wanting to make a trade. Jesus for Barabbas. In the earliest manuscripts, this is not mentioned at all. Some scribe added this later without any explanation. Luke, as we now have it, simply has the people in a tirade, Jesus for Barabbas. Pilate gives in, and the Romans carry out the crucifixion. Act Three ends with Jesus being “handed over” as they wished. Act Three closes.

Act Four has three scenes.

The first scene is the Journey to the crucifixion, and Simon of Cyrene is introduced. Luke tells us he was “seized. He had no choice in the matter. Then, unique to Luke is the encounter with the women of Jerusalem. Including them as mourners gives us a clue that not everyone in Jerusalem were calling for crucifixion. Surprisingly Jesus tells them to stop weeping. The command to stop weeping comes up several times in the Gospel all pointing to the fact that the march to the cross is going to end not in death but in resurrection.

The second scene takes place on Golgotha.

Here, two others about to be crucified are mentioned. They are nameless, but Luke calls them “evildoers.” Matthew and Mark call them robbers. Luke’s Gospel is the only one to record the exchange between Jesus and the second criminal. The other Gospels record that the criminals join in reviling Jesus. The division of Jesus’s’ garments in Luke uses words from Psalm 22 as evidence for what Luke claims all along that Jesus’ life and death fulfill God’s promises in Scripture. The mocking of Jesus by everyone present is really an affirmation of his identity. The report that darkness covered the earth about Noon suggests that the whole cosmos is invested in the redemption offered through this Messiah.

The Temple has been a key setting in Luke’s Gospel. It begins and ends there. The tearing of the veil is told in the passive voice, suggesting that this is God’s response to the crucifixion. God refuses to stay put, even in a sacred space.

The Last words of Jesus in Luke: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” come from Psalm 31: 5 In this psalm, the anguished psalmist cries out to God for deliverance and praises God for preserving the faithful. The Psalm ends with hope. Luke’s story of Jesus does not end with the cross. God will vindicate God’s servant and provide redemption for the whole world.

Although the Romans have played a major role in the crucifixion, it is a Roman centurion who first responds to the death of Jesus. He has witnessed the taunts of the Jewish rulers and fellow soldiers. He has heard Jesus speak with the criminals and heard the cries to the Father. After experiencing the darkness and observing the death of Jesus, he praised God saying: “Surely this man was just.” The multitudes are also witnessing to the death, and it is not clear that these are the folks who shouted, “Crucify him.” This multitude probably consists of the same people who marched behind Jesus, stood by and watching as the rulers scoffed and the soldiers mocked. The text simply says that they gathered for this spectacle. Now Jesus is dead, and there is nothing left for them to do but to go home. Whatever hope they had that Jesus would perform a miraculous escape is gone. 

Beating their breasts suggests an intensification of the mourning that began on the way to the cross. The image recalls the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector who prayed before God in heaven beating his breast and begging for God’s mercy. Jesus says that this tax collector went home justified before God. Likewise, this multitude who may not understand what they have just witnessed, nonetheless know enough to be distraught like the publican. 

At a distance are all the acquaintances of Jesus – a group that likely included the disciples. Highlighted among them are the women who have followed him all the way form Galilee. In Luke’s Gospel, this is no small feat. These women have left everything to follow Jesus. Nonetheless they, like the other disciples are watching from a distance. In contrast to the criminal and the centurion who give voice to their faith, the acquaintances seem hesitant to identify themselves too closely with the crucified. 

We are left to wonder with these witnesses: Why was it necessary for the Son of Man to die? Could God’s plan for the world’s redemption really include such a violent scene as this? Fortunately, this is not the end of Gospel story, but there is no good news without the cross. All would-be followers of Jesus are forced to acknowledge the scandal of God’s forgiveness and grace. 

Luke views the killing of Jesus as a martyrdom, the unjust murder of an innocent man by the authorities is a model for disciples. Luke avoids any connection between the death of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. For Luke, the forgiveness of sins comes from the Risen Christ. For Luke, Jesus stands at the end of a long line of martyr/prophets just as the prophets of old were all murdered. For Luke this death is the fulfillment of prophesies. Jesus dies quietly, full of trust, a model for Christian martyrs to follow. That calm assurance at death was enough to convince the centurion of the innocence of Jesus. He confirms once more what we all know: “Certainly this man was innocent.” 

The Third scene tells of what happens after the death of Jesus. Luke’s narration of the burial shows his artistry and the unity of the Gospel. In style and substance, this scene hearkens back to the Gospel’s beginning and brings us full circle. Joseph of Arimathea is neither an opponent nor a disciple of Jesus. He is described as a “good and righteous man” who “was waiting for the kingdom of God. In this way, Luke casts Joseph alongside the characters we met at the beginning, Elizabeth and Zechariah, Anna and Simeon who were waiting for the Kingdom of God.” 

Luke’s account of the Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea has two significant variations from the story in Matthew and Mark giving us some clues about what matters to Luke. He tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin who “had not consented to their proposal and deed.” In other words, he thought Jesus was innocent which is a theme heard all through Luke’s trial scenes. Pilate said it twice, Herod said it, a crucified thief said it, a centurion said it, and now Joseph of Arimathea is the final human witness to the innocence of Jesus. The second variation concerns the women (no surprise there since Luke has always been attentive and recorded stories of the women’s role in the ministry of Jesus). Luke indicates that some women saw where Jesus was buried but also specifies that they had come up with Jesus from Galilee and that they saw how the body was laid. Luke, as I said before is very concerned to establish that there was a dead body and that it was buried. This give credence to what is to come with the Resurrection and the Ascension. He wants to clearly establish a link between the church’s Lord and the one who dies in Jerusalem and the one who worked in Galilee by having Galileans present as witnesses to the Jerusalem events. Theologically, this means that the one who empowered is the one who died. The is real. It was through this suffering that the obedience of Jesus was perfected. To put it more simply: “There ain’t no glory without that cross.” Or, There’s no way to the Father except by obedience to the will of the Father.

We are now at Chapter 24 which concludes the first part of Luke’s work, Acts of the Apostles being the second part. This is really the most interesting part of our study and reflection on Luke’s Gospel because with one exception the material here is not found anywhere in the other Gospels. Luke began his Gospel with the Infancy Narrative that was uniquely his own, and he concludes with a narrative of the Resurrection that is also uniquely his own. When you read it, try to blank out details we have all absorbed from Matthew, Mark, and John. Just concentrate on what is there.

Some of this Chapter clearly draws on Mark 16: 1-8. Another version is found in Matthew with John’s being quite different. What present research suggests is that scribes who copied the manuscripts quite early permitted, consciously or unconsciously, the resurrection stories of the other Gospels to influence what they were writing. In some cases, they probably were remembering Mark or John while writing Luke; in others they may have intentionally been harmonizing. This does not mean that there was an attempt to deceive or to reduce the faith in any way. On the contrary, the general tendency was to enlarge the story. This “cross-fertilization” of texts is to be taken as evidence that the early church treated the resurrection stories as one story, and the blending occurred as it does with us, two, three, or four accounts of one event, even though each has its own accent and purpose, tend to become one account in the church’s memory.

There are five major events: two empty tomb episodes; two major appearances; and the departure of Jesus. This is all located in Jerusalem or nearby, and it all happens in one long day. This exclusive focus on Jerusalem is distinct to Luke. Matthew and Mark have things happening in Galilee over a longer period of time. So much for the idea that Jesus hung around for 40 days before the Ascension! Once more, you see, this is Theology. It is not history. Details do not have to match.

Let’s just deal with the theology. Luke is passing on to us the early Christian understanding of the resurrection as a prototype of Christian existence. In earliest Christianity the resurrection of Jesus encompassed three different realties:

1. The Victory of Jesus over death.
2. The removal of Jesus from human time and space into another dimension (God)
3. The new function of Jesus as cosmic Lord.

Luke takes these realities and makes three separate events on a chronological time line. In other words, he takes this theological idea of what happened and he puts that idea into events that happen in sequence: The Resurrection, The Ascension; The Exaltation. By taking the three different pieces individually, he can focus on the meaning of each without distraction. What this means is that in Luke, the resurrection of Jesus refers only to his victory over death. The thinking of Luke is that what happens to Jesus is what his disciples may expect for themselves. 

Stick with me. This is complicated, but not impossible. The first empty tomb tradition which is the women at the empty tomb and the second appearance story which is the one after the Emmaus story when Jesus appears among the apostles affirm the reality that there is a body that has risen. There is no dead body in the tomb even though they saw it put there. An empty tomb means one thing, the body is not there. That’s all. If Christians are going to proclaim Christ has risen, there needs to be experiences of the Christ who was dead and is now risen. So, there is a body that eats something. More importantly this body has the wounds that were on the body they buried. This faith is based upon witnesses who saw and experienced something real. It is not based on how they felt or what they wished. Whatever the nature of this victory over death was, it involved the absence of that body from the tomb. 

Luke wants to give some real authority to this, so he mentions names and these are the same women of Galilee who saw the body being put in that tomb. They knew where it was Luke told us in the previous chapter. Then Luke tells us that when the women came to the apostles and the others, Peter got up and ran to the tomb. (There is no John in a foot race with Peter in Luke’s narrative.) Luke wants the witness of Peter so that there are two sets of witnesses. Peter’s witness is important to Jewish people at the time because women didn’t count. There is no surprise here since Luke’s Gospel always gives women a special place. So, there they are. In order to be persuasive at the time, there had to be a male witness.  The detail of finding the linen clothes by themselves is Luke’s way of stopping the rumor that the body had been stolen. They would not have taken the body without it being wrapped. This is Luke’s way of celebrating the victory over death.

After the two empty tomb episodes, we come to the first of two appearances: a story unique to Luke and a story that really highlights his writing skills. It is what we have come to call, “The Emmaus Story.”  Luke now clarifies the nature of the Eucharist, and he uses the Emmaus story to do so at least for the Lukan community. In Luke’s wonderful story telling style, we get to know who the person is that joins them, and in an ironic way, we get to hear them talk about the death of Jesus to Jesus himself! We should notice (because Luke wants us to) that there are three units to the whole story: the narrative discussion, the meal and the journey back as a Mission of Proclamation. 

The meal is really what holds this together. It is the Eucharist as we know it.

It begins with an act of hospitality, an invitation to a stranger by those who prepared the table. It is the presence of Christ at a table opened to a stranger which transforms an ordinary supper into the sacrament. Christ is in a sense the guest, and yet he is the host who breaks the bread, blesses God and shares with those at table. It is in this act that that the disciples recognize the stranger as Christ. 

It begins then with the Scriptures as Jesus goes over the writings and the prophets. The one who is named in this episode, Cleopas, provides us with a glimpse into the earliest preaching. It is Luke’s concise statements about Jesus, his mighty works, suffering, death, and resurrection. This is the content of Christian preaching. The description of Jesus reviewing the Prophets with these two is a kind of reprimand for their unbelief on the grounds that the suffering death, and resurrection of Jesus is set forth in the Scriptures that they should have known. All through Luke’s Gospel there is insistence that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Scriptures. They pointed to the very acts of his ministry, so his suffering, and his death. For Luke, the gospel of Jesus Christs continues and brings to fulfillment the law, the prophets, and the writings.

The Eucharistic ritual continues: after the Word comes the Sacrament, and then Mission. The time of day is significant because the evening is the time when the Christians would gather together for prayer and the eucharist. As the story goes, Jesus becomes the host, which confirms that Luke is describing a Eucharistic Meal connected to the Paschal Meal in the upper room. Luke tells us that Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. This is ritual language that Luke has used before when he fed the multitudes, and when he sat in an upper room. On those occasions, they did not “recognize him”, but now, the risen one is recognized. When Luke says that their eyes were opened, it describes conversion. This story serves as a bridge between the meals the earthly Jesus had with his disciples and the later church’s Eucharist. It also says that at such meals the presence of the risen Lord was known. Jesus is alive and one place of his recognition is in the breaking of bread. The importance of knowing and experiencing the living Christ in word and sacrament cannot be overemphasized. 

There is a third part to this story that we may not overlook: the return of these two to Jerusalem where they want to spread the Good News. It is the perfect match or parallel to the Eucharist as the Church has known it: Word, Sacrament, Mission (Mass). Without the third part, the “Missa” something important is missing.

Now to the appearance of Jesus to the Eleven in Jerusalem. This also reinforces the theology that what rose was a living body.  They thought they were seeing a ghost. He shows them hands and feet with the wounds, and then he wants to eat something. They fed him and he ate in front of them. Angels and Ghosts don’t eat. Only humans eat. For Luke, the risen Lord is no less than the Jesus before he died. He eats and can be seen and touched. These two stories say the same thing about the nature of Jesus’ victory over death: it is not to be understood as an escape from the perishable body, but a transformation of it. That transformation is not into a spiritual being because Jesus remained flesh and blood though immortal and not limited by time and space. This is not the immortality of the soul while the body decays. It is something totally new.

For Luke, there is here what we could call “Table Fellowship”. What was interrupted by the death of Jesus is resumed at the initiative of Jesus. From now on the disciples will continue to do this in remembrance of him. These incidents when Jesus eats with them serves as a bridge between the meals the earthly Jesus had with his disciples and the later church’s Eucharist, it says that at such meals the presence of the risen Lord was known. Jesus is alive and one place of his recognition is at the breaking of the bread.

At this point I think it is important to dig into what it means to “remember”. I believe that this issue is at the root of a great problem among believers when it comes to what we believe about the Body and Blood of Christ. There is no room for anything but a firm belief that what looks like bread is the very real Body of Christ and what looks like wine is the very real Blood of Christ. These are not “symbols” or signs. They are real. The root of this error probably comes from a failure to understand “remembering”. In this use and context, it does not mean to “recall”.  There are three times in which to know an event: in rehearsal, at the time of the event, and in remembrance. In rehearsal, understanding is hindered by an inability to believe that the event will really occur or that it will be important. At the time of the event, understanding is hindered by the clutter and confusion of so much so fast. But in remembrance, the nonseriousness of rehearsal and the busyness of the event give way to recognition, realization, and understanding. 

To understand this, we have to take the word apart: RE-Member. It means to put together, to join. Think of it this way. God’s response to sin which broke and still breaks the relationship we have with God was a gathering in, the formation of a People that today we call the “Church”. It’s a joining together what had been broken apart. In the Eucharist God joins us with one another and with God’s self in the Body and Blood of Christ. Jesus gathered a people. He reached out and looked for those who were alone by sickness or sin, and he re-membered them to himself and to all the people who had been scattered by sin, self-centered, selfish, and alone. For a deeper understanding, we start with the Bible. 

John 6 is the place to start. First, we hear of the magnetic power of the presence of Jesus. Large crowds followed him everywhere. In that chapter, Jesus goes up the mountain – which is the place where one can get close to God. Once there, Jesus sits, the posture of a teacher there on that holy mountain. This is what happens in the first part of our Mass. Jesus teaches us. There he feeds that crowd by taking the little bit that we have (think of the gifts we bring to that altar). With that little bit, he can multiply it for the feeding of the world. We know how much is left over: twelve! There is the Mass.

Then he goes to Capernaum and the people follow him. He begins to teach again. He says don’t hunger for these passing loaves of bread but for the food that lasts for eternal life. “I am the bread of life those who come to me will never be hungry, those who believe in me will never be thirsty. I AM THE LIVING BREAD come down from heaven. If you eat this bread, you will live forever. The bread that I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world.”  The crowd balked at this. A first century Jew would be repulsed by the eating of flesh with blood. That’s forbidden to them. Given therefore every opportunity to soften his teaching or propose a symbolic meaning, he goes on to say, “Amen, Amen, I say to you. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. You have no life in you, for my Flesh is real food. My Blood is real drink.”  Now, the verb Jesus uses here is not the usual word for eating. He uses the verb (trogain) which means gnaw on. 

Something real strange is going on here. While the scriptures are full of symbolic thought and symbolic images, but when Jesus puts this out so clearly, many of his followers turn away and would not go with him anymore. So, he asks the twelve if they would like to leave. This teaching is a watershed, a point of division. It’s either you are against me or with me moment. If this was just symbol talk, why would anyone be upset. But Jesus does not compromise, soften it, or give in. This is the ground for the Catholic insistence that this is the real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

Ignatius of Antioch in letter to Smyrna. (35 AD) “They abstain from the Eucharist and Prayer because they do not admit that this is flesh of the Son of Man.” Justin Martyr (165 AD) “For not as common bread or common drink do we receive, but we receive the real body and blood of Christ.” Origin of Alexandria (early 3^rd century)  speaks about reverence and almost obsessive care for crumbs that fall from the sacred gifts.  St John Chrysostom says: “What is the bread but the body of Christ. What do they become who partake of it, the body of Christ? Not many bodies, but one body. This is the way we are Christified. Our bodies are Christified. We are prepared for heaven by bringing our body in contact with the body of Christ.  The early church never wavers from this.

In the 11^th century a Bishop in Tours proposes the symbol/sign language. He teaches that something is added to the Bread, some spiritual, but it is still bread with an added something.  A great debate occurs that ends with a Council. That council insists that this is wrong, and that what is on the altar after the consecration is the Flesh and Blood of Christ. His opponent says that there is something more going on in the Eucharist than is going on in the other sacraments. This is not a spiritual addition to bread. In the other sacraments, oil is still oil and water is still water. In the Eucharist, something is different.

Aquinas in the 13^th century – a vivid personal relationship. He wept at Mass, and would often rest his head against the tabernacle begging for inspiration. At the end of his life after completing his masterpiece, he places the text about the eucharist at the foot of the cross, and it said that a voice came from the cross saying: “Thomas, you’ve written well of me. What would you have as a reward: I will have nothing except you Lord.” His great work has three parts: 1) About God and Creation 2) About human being and our moral life 3) About incarnation, Christ and the Sacraments. The last part he wrote is about the Eucharist. Baptism is the generation of Life. Confirmation is the augmentation of life. Communion is food of the life. Eucharist has three names in time 

1 Past: Sacrifice 

2 Present: Communion with Christ 

3 Future: Viaticum the great name is Eucharistia. Thanks giving which is what we will do in heaven. 

Transubstantiation comes from Thomas. Substance is the deepest and core reality of something. When we speak of substance, we mean the deepest reality what something is. What stands under. What does it stand under? Accidents Appearance or Species like spectacle. What you see. 

In the act of Consecration, the substance of bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Jesus even as the appearances (species) of Bread and Wine remain. This is how we bring John 6 forward.  The senses perceive bread and wine. The change comes at the level of substance not appearances. The disciples on their way to Emmaus see everything, but they don’t get it. They do not understand. If all we understand is what we see, we are lost. 

There was a great 16^th century Protestant/Catholic debate. Luther did not like Thomas Aquinas. Luther saw an addition to the bread. To speak in a general way, Protestants do not believe in Transubstantiation. The Council at Trent addressed the issue in response. 11 canons (summaries) Canon One: If anyone were to deny that the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity is contained truly and really substantially as a symbol – let them be condemned. We are to say that the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity is contained real, true and substantially not in sign or figure.

How does Christ become really present? Trent says, By the power of the Word. The words do not just describe reality. Language can also be active and transformative. Not just expressive or descriptive. A Baseball word changes reality: “You’re out”. Sometimes someone says something to us that changes your whole life. That’s creative and transformative. Or something the other way around something hurtful changes us for years. Our little words can change reality – think of God’s word! How does God make the world? By the power of a Word Speech! God’s word is not descriptive it is creative. God speaks the world into being. In the beginning there was the Word – the Word became flesh, and What God says IS. Lazarus come out! Pick up your mat and walk.  What God says IS. The night before he dies he took bread and said THIS IS MY BODY. Notice at Mass how the language changes.  This stuns me every time I pick up that host. The priest begins in the third person: “He Took Bread, said the Blessing, broke it and gave to them saying…”  Then it changes into the First person. We speak in persona Christi. 

With this final wandering away from Luke into John, we can see how closely the theology of the Gospels weave together the core of our faith resting upon the revelation given to us by each of the evangelists. Let me conclude by repeating what our Holy Father Francis has been saying over and over again as he allows the Holy Spirit to reshape this church of ours. Evangelization is what we do and evangelists is what we are by the command of Jesus and will of the Father. What Francis is reminding us over and over again is the evangelization is not a matter of words, or saying the right thing, or convincing someone by argument. Evangelization is a quality of life. People are won over to Jesus Christ not by arguments from history or propositions from a Catechism, but by actions of believing people. People came to Jesus because of what he did before they heard him say anything. People still today will be won over by the heart before the brain. Our study of the Sacred Scriptures, our study and knowledge of St Luke’s Gospel is to open our hearts so that we might live this gospel not preach it, because people will see what we do long before they hear what we say, and in the end what we say must come from the heart.

January of 2025

Part 2 of 3: The Journey Narrative

We believe that all four Gospels have two major sources.

1)       An Oral Tradition, which is the stories passed on by memory from one place to the next and from one generation to the next. This tradition came first.

2)       Then, a collection of the Miracle Stories seems to have been passed around from one community to the next.

From these two sources, Mark assembles a Gospel which may have depended upon Peter as one of his sources. It would have been oral. The writers of both Matthew and Luke both seem to have had all three of these sources at their disposal, and blended them together depending upon their focus, the audience, and the circumstances for which they presented the Gospel. 

By the latter half of the 2^nd century this book we all know as the Gospel of Luke was being attributed to a Luke who was a companion of Paul. Three references speak of him as a fellow worker and beloved physician who was faithful to Paul in a final imprisonment. Many scholars believe that when Paul speaks of “we” implying that he was not travelling alone, it was Luke who was to be included in that “we.” At the same time, there are things in Luke’s Gospel that do not match with things in Paul’s writings which would suggest that Luke and Paul were not together all the time. In the fourth chapter of Colossians, Paul mentions Luke in a list of those who are with him, and Paul divides the group into those “who have come over from the Circumcision” from others implying that Luke is not a Jew. Tradition says he was a physician because he pays great attention to the medical matters that occur in the Gospel. The Good Samaritan story is an example of this as well as the comment about many physicians unable to cure the woman with a hemorrhage. As a sometime companion of Paul, a disciple who had not witnessed the ministry of Jesus, he wrote his Gospel for Gentile converts after the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, and began his work with Chapter Three later adding the Infancy Narrative as I said in the previous talk.

With Chapter Three we read what scholars believe to be the original beginning of Luke’s Gospel. Read aloud, the first six verses have the character of an Imperial Edict. The chapter establishes the identity of Jesus with his unique emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Of all the Gospels, this is the one that brings the Holy Spirit into the tradition and faith of the Christian Community. The Spirit is there at the moment of Baptism when the voice says: “This is My Beloved Son.” Then right after his revelation of divinity of Jesus as God’s Son, Luke inserts a genealogy and lists the ancestors of Jesus to affirm his humanity. Luke traces his genealogy back to Adam and God. Matthew traces his genealogy back to David and Abraham.

There is no going forward without this distinct affirmation of the Incarnation. And the divine/human nature of Jesus. Then, as the fourth chapter opens, Luke tells us that Jesus was led by the Spirit to the wilderness where he is tempted by the devil. The temptations themselves are each worth a lot of prayerful reflection, but that’s not for today. Luke moves on as Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee. He goes home. Now remember what Luke said at the very beginning: this is an orderly account of events. That does not mean it is historical. This is theological, and so the “order” has to do with theological order or perhaps theological priorities. THIS IS NOT HISTORY!

Jesus would not remain alone in the Gospel Mission, and his mission does not cease with his death and resurrection. Having presented the identity of Jesus, the message, and the mission of Jesus, Luke focuses on the disciples and shows how their own life, work, and mission is rooted in a special call. This part opens (again Luke’s dramatic style) by the lake of Gennesaret where Jesus calls Simon Peter and his companions to missionary discipleship. Then, the scene shifts from the lake to a city where Jesus demonstrates his healing power, a power exercised with due respect for the law and religious legal authority (5:15 “Go show yourself to the priests). This event reveals the basis for the developing conflict between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees.

Through this whole section, the focus is on the identity of Jesus (Who is this?). Yet this provides the bases for the identity of disciples. Once you know who Jesus is, you know who you are. Once you know what Jesus does, you know what you must do. The work of reconciliation is our work. It is the work of the Church. As the identity is focused, the whole issue of a new way of life begins to surface. 

From Chapter 3 till Chapter 6, incident by incident, Luke develops the hostility of the scribes and Pharisees. Conflict develops in that home cure, in the meal, and finally over the sabbath observance. They are watching, and gradually, they begin to pick up a pattern they don’t like. Fasting is called into question. The Sabbath is not observed the way they like. Meals are shared with tax Collectors, and Jesus is in the company of sinful women and even a Roman Centurion The last straw comes for them when he begins to speak of and proclaim the forgiveness of sins. Furious at being completely undone and unwilling to change, the scribes and the Pharisees have no alternative. They must find a way to rid themselves of Jesus. Then, in the 11^th verse of Chapter 6, Luke says: “They were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”  Now, for the first time in just six chapters, Luke uses one of his dramatic techniques to change the scene. He has Jesus withdraw “to the mountain to pray.”

Now, Jesus begins to establish the new Israel whose leaders would later be formed and actually sent on the mission. This new Israel will have twelve tribes just like the old Israel. Peter has already been on the scene, but now it’s time for the others. It is Luke’s way of emphasizing the primacy of place held by Peter. Instead of tribes there will be Apostles, and he calls them from among the disciples. Then comes a description of life in the New Israel. The Lukan Beatitudes, an instruction on love, a warning against judging others, the need to bear good fruit, and the importance of a solid foundation. Then Jesus responds to the plea of a Roman Centurion and raises the son of a woman form Nain, making it clear that the new Israel will be very inclusive. A resolution of the relationship with John the Baptist ends this section with more examples of this inclusiveness as several incident with women are included.

From the very beginning the status of Peter is affirmed. With that by way of introduction, Jesus calls the twelve (Chapter 9) and gives them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. When they return with the glowing report, Luke, almost as an aside or maybe a warning, inserts the news that Herod was perplexed and asks the question; “Who is this?” Meanwhile, Jesus has taken the apostles aside for some talk, and a huge crowd found them. At the end of the day, the crowd is hungry. The disciples recognize this, and Jesus tells them to feed the crowd. When the don’t know what to do, Luke resolves the matter with what can only be described as a preview of the Last Supper and the Holy Eucharist quoting Jesus, he took, blessed, broke, and gave. Then, the scene closes as Jesus goes off to pray alone. Here is another example of Luke’s technique.

This time the disciples are near. Jesus asks about his identity. If Luke were writing stage directions as well as a dialogue, there would be a drum roll as Peter proclaims Jesus to be the Messiah of God! Trumpets would sound, lights would flash. Then, Jesus tells them what lies ahead: suffering and death. Lest they be discouraged, he takes them up a high mountain and the Transfiguration occurs. Again, a voice from heaven speaks to the witnesses: “This is my Son, my chosen one; listen to him.” They come down and again he warns of his betrayal. With verse 51 now in Chapter 9, it says: “He set his face to go to Jerusalem.” With that the Journey narrative takes off.

It begins in Galilee and it moves toward Jerusalem. That movement is constant in Luke’s Gospel, and it is easy to call the middle of Luke’s Gospel between the Infancy Narrative and the Passion, “The Journey Narrative.” Jesus is now on the move, and as he begins, he picks up those we call, “Apostles.” Everywhere he goes, he stops at the Synagogue. Luke is always anxious to give us a Jesus who is faithful in prayer and observant of his traditions. Think how many incidents occur in that context from the Presentation of the infant in the temple by Mary and Joseph to the final observance of the Passover. Jesus prays there, and a lot of things happen there. 

It is clear early in the journey that he is gaining favor and a reputation that brings great crowds not only following him, but looking for him. One by one, the miracles or cures that he works get listed: an unclean spirit is cast out, and in the episode, even the unclean spirit proclaims who Jesus is, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” says the demon. While the unclean spirits seem to know, the people just wonder. At Simon’s house, sick are brought to him and they are cured. In another town a leper is cleansed. Then a paralytic. As Luke presents each of these individual cures, the signs that prophets said would point to the Messiah are checked off While we know what’s happening and who Jesus is, the people in the Gospel drama still are wondering.

Through this first section with the focus on the crowd, three major groups of people seem to emerge: the crowd, the disciples, and the apostles. What now becomes clear is that Luke is sensitive to the distinct historical phases of the life of the Church. There is the crowd of the curious and the needy, there is the Church (Disciples) and among them are apostles. Luke is already, even before Pentecost and Acts of the Apostles shaping the Church.

By the sixth chapter the disciples are all accounted for, and the mission begins. Luke affirms again and again that the Gospel is for everyone. So, once the Twelve have been sent out on a successful mission, and once the identity of Jesus is confirmed by Peter, the example of the twelve motivates the sending of the Seventy lest the “Disciples” think that evangelization or the work of Jesus is only the work of the twelve. So, what’s up with the number? Two pieces of history probably shaped this detail. Moses chose seventy elders to be his helpers (Numbers 11: 16-15). Scholars suggest that more likely a stronger influence is the report of seventy nations in Genesis 10. With this Luke, anticipates the mission to all the nations beginning at Pentecost. Luke is anxious for us to see how the Church originated in the life and work of Jesus.

Now comes the great journey to Jerusalem, a journey that would lead Jesus out of history into the heavens. This is also the journey of the church which accompanies Jesus on his way to God. The idea, the whole concept of Journey recalls the Exodus during which time the disorganized, tribal people led by Moses gradually by trial and error finally become God’s people and reach the promise. This kind of journey story is nothing new. It is a theme used in ancient myths, and finally it is one made holy by the Word of God. The Journey has four stages:

1. Villages of Galilee from which the group of apostles is drawn and expanded.
2. From Galilee the setting shifts to Jerusalem
3. In the Temple of Jerusalem where Jesus teaches various groups that either rejected or struggle with his challenge
4. From Jerusalem to the Father – the Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

At this point, it is that first and second stage that we are focused on.

Again, this is not history. You cannot trace the journey on a map. There is no sense of organization for the route because it is not geographical. The destination is the Ascension, not really the city of Jerusalem. In fact, as you may notice, the narrative never says that Jesus got to Jerusalem. It simply says he entered the Temple. It never says anything about Jerusalem. The point is the Ascension not some place. 

In the summer of 2001 I was at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Oklahoma City. I had been through the Gospel of Luke five times during that assignment of fifteen years. I was not looking forward to the summer preaching once again for the sixth time with the Gospel of Luke. One of the great benefits of staying in one parish for a while and of being the only priest there is the opportunity to really teach consistently and progressively with the Word of God. I miss that in retirement, and sometimes I am frustrated that I never get to be in the same place and the same time with the same people two Sundays in a row. It is my opinion that for the congregation, that’s a loss because there is no way to develop and really explore consistently the Word of God. In other words, now in retirement, I can never say: “As I said last week…” Or “As we heard in the Gospel last week…” 

At any rate it was 2001 and I was dreading the summer months simply because I had been through those summertime gospels five times and was feeling out of ideas. One evening, I speaking with Father Stephen Happel, a life-long friend and priest companion. We were comparing notes about the summer preaching when he called my attention to the obvious fact that these chapters from nine to nineteen of Luke’s Gospel are actually a unit that ought to be treated as a whole. With that, the Holy Spirit which is so prominent in Luke’s Gospel turned on the lights. Some might think of tongues of fire, but fire always brings some light. Someday I hope an artist will paint a new image of Pentecost. Instead of tongues of fire over the heads of the Apostles, I want to see light bulbs. I think that’s the way the Holy Spirit works: inspiration, new ideas.

Beginning with verse 51 in the 9^th Chapter, it begins. What we have here is a course in discipleship. What the Lukan Jesus is doing as he wanders around taking a long time to get where he is going is teaching and proposing a set of virtues that are essential for discipleship and must be at the heart of the Church Luke is forming.

The first is Poverty. Those who would follow Jesus and the Church (people) that continue his mission must be poor. The poverty Jesus commends to his followers is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. It is not some ill to be solved, cured, and wiped out by an economic system. That kind of poverty is an issue of justice. One kind of poverty comes from injustice. This virtue of poverty comes from a life style with a new way of relating to things. It has to do with what can be shared. If something you have cannot be shared, you are in Gospel trouble. If your computer is too delicate or your car too expensive, you are not poor. God is poor. God shares the sun and the rain on the good and the bad. God even shares God’s only Son. 

Then moving into Chapter 10, Jesus teaches his disciples about joy. We shall have joy as disciples because we are free of anxious concerns and worries that have nothing to do with us. In the Gospel, Jesus sent out the disciples instructing them to take nothing – to be poor. Then with nothing to worry about, nothing to lose, nothing to pack, carry, or slow them down, they are free. That quality of freedom from worry and possessive concerns that seems to weigh down the rich whose stuff is too good to loan or share is called Joy. 

Next, in the same chapter Jesus reveals that Mercy is a virtue of discipleship with the story of the Good Samaritan. This is a quality of generosity and compassion not just at exceptional moments or a response to disasters, but a quality that is consistent and present all the time. 

As the chapter continues, so does the formation, and hospitality becomes the next virtue. The story of Martha and Mary develops this virtue, and there is a way of looking at those two as really one person, the disciple whose life is in balance between being and doing. It is a call to keep work and prayer in balance, and being hospitable is characteristic of God reminding us to be good guests and gracious hosts in the spirit of Abraham and Jesus.

Chapter 11 begins in a different place where Jesus teaches disciples about Perseverance which is the real secret to effective prayer because it preserves the relationship no matter how things are going. After teaching them about prayer, Jesus teaches disciples about worthy priorities as a challenge to greed. It is way of relating to things that is independent and free. This makes disciples rich in wisdom, purpose, and usefulness.

In the 12^th chapter, there is a lesson on fear, with the assurance that we are never alone. The fear of abandonment is probably the greatest of all fears; and with it, the fear that there is not going to be enough of everything leads to thinking that we had better take care of ourselves because no one else will. Having the gift of freedom also means being free from fear which allows the disciple to look ahead not for something bad to happen, but for the master’s return and treat us like friends not as servants. Later in that same chapter, zeal is proposed by Jesus as a quality of discipleship. Those who have zeal in their lives are people who have a clear purpose, who know who they are, where they are going, and what they have to work with. This gives them a vibrant quality that is eager, and expectant, vigilant and ready for the Lord’s coming. 

Chapter 13 raises a question to which Jesus does not respond. He never answers the question about how many or who will be saved. He simply launches into that talk about entering through the narrow door which we immediately decide means admission to heaven. The whole question comes from a world which saw reality as limited. For most people of the first century there was only so much to go around including salvation. Competition was endemic to the religious as well as the economic sphere. In the end, Jesus instructs that disciples are saved, and saved disciples live at home in the present because they have been given bread. They know the comfort of forgiveness because they have forgiven each other.

In the 14^th chapter, the protocol for the Banquet of Heaven is being set, and the way Jesus sees it, there is to be a radical departure from the system used in the ancient world not entirely out of use in our own. It’s about Humility, a virtue rooted in truth. This virtue does not mean being a doormat. It means know one’s rightful place in the reign of God, and it means knowing that it is a gift. The humble find their sense of self and their identity in God, not in comparison with others. As the chapter moves on, the Lukan Jesus speaks of prudence for disciples. This a quality of life rather than behavior. Remember, first discipleship is about being something, then, from that comes the doing of something. The disciple always asks what kind of person shall I be, not what shall I do. Some think that Prudence means being cautious, timid, frightened or mediocre. These are not the qualities of Prudence. In fact, they are just the opposite. Prudence seeks the best way to do the right thing. The point is the Doing. It is a virtue of action not of passive caution.

The journey and the lessons continue on with Chapter 15 when Jesus insists that a disciple is watchful. It’s those three stories about a woman sweeping the house looking for something, about a shepherd leaving 99 behind to look for just one sheep, and ridiculous father who does not go back to “business as usual” when his son takes off, never giving up hope, never living with that final and self-justifying attitude about a another that says: “They’ll just always be that way.”

The next chapter finds Jesus insisting that his disciples will be wise, that they will have a quality of Wisdom seen in faithful attention to frequent and familiar tasks of each day not matter how small and insignificant they may seem. What Luke suggests is that life consists of a series of what seem to be small opportunities like a cup of water. “Whoever is faithful in little things is faithful in bigger ones” is the way he puts it. Wise disciples will know what is of lasting value and what is fleeting. They will also know that they can only serve one master. Further into the chapter there is a story we could all tell without the book. It is the story of the rich man and the poor man who has a name, Lazarus. What Jesus reveals is that awareness must be a quality of his disciples. It is about an awareness of others. Never listening to the prophets, that rich man found himself in unending misery. Never listening to Jesus, we can run the same risk. Disciples of Jesus hear the master’s words. Aware of His presence and his Gospel, they become aware of injustice.

In Chapter 17 an interesting parable raises another virtue, Duty, and the parable tells the story of someone giving what is due, which is the meaning of the word, “duty.” The parable is a somewhat “back-door” way to remind disciples that they are servants. Fidelity to the duties of discipleship provides no grounds for feeling superior, and it should not bring ideas of honor or appreciation. In discipleship there is no “look what I have done” attitude. In fact, there is no time for that because there is always more to do. When the apostles cry: “Increase our faith” which begins this section, they are aware of the great task that lies ahead and what Jesus asks of them. What we learn in this section is that it is not the quantity or extent of a person’s faith that is at issue. It is not a matter of more faith, but a life consistent with the faith we already have.

As an example of how Luke’s work is not factual history, in this chapter, he has Jesus headed to Jerusalem through the region between Samaria and Galilee. That would be like going to Miami through Tallahassee. None the less, along the way, Jesus gets to another profoundly important virtue for disciples: Gratitude. In Luke’s thought the grateful recognition of God’s initiative that brings healing and salvation is the surest sign of faith. Gratefulness confirms one’s faith. Disciples recognize what God has done for them. It’s the story of the 10 lepers that unfolds this virtue. Disciples return again and again to the feet of the master speaking his praises. This is not a passing emotion, but a way of life. It is not private either. It is public, and real gratitude is contagious. 

In the 18^th Chapter Luke pulls a switch with another parable about a nagging woman who comes before a judge. Probably when Jesus used this parable, it was, like all his parables, about God his Father. In which case, the focus of the story was the judge, and the listener would be drawn into a reflection upon the surprising figure who is moved by this persistent widow to provide the justice for which she pleads. When Luke tells the story, it is not so clearly about the judge. The widow emerges as the story’s focus. She is the focus not because she is a widow, not because she is alone, not because she is an uneducated outcast without a name, wealth, land, or power. She emerges because, unlike others of her kind, she is persistent, constant, steady, and unbending in the face of any obstacle. Her strength of persistent prayer is the virtue that must be found in a disciple. 

In this chapter another parable is told that we know very well about two men who go to the Temple to pray. With that parable disciples are brought to recognize that they are justified. However, this is not because of what they say or what they do, who they know or where they are, but that they are justified by God. In the parable, there is nothing wrong with the prayer of either man. They are both reciting psalms: the Pharisee is using Psalm 15 and the Tax Collector is using Psalm 34. The problem is not the prayer, the problems is the focus. All the Pharisee can do is recite what he has done. His prayer is all about him. What the tax Collector does is make God the center of his prayer. One has no room for God because he so filled with his own accomplishments. The other acknowledges God as the source and ground of his life and hope. He is justified, not the other one. Disciples of Jesus are justified, not because God owes them something but because they stood in truth before God and acknowledged their need and how useless their own deeds are to save them.

The new order Jesus came to inaugurate is an era of salvation and justification experienced as a gift, not as a right. In such disciples then, righteousness is never about self, but always about the God who saves with mercy, forgiveness and love.

Chapter 19 begins with these words: “He entered Jericho and was passing through it.” He is now near Jerusalem, and before the chapter ends, he enters the city and with that his Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension are about to take place. Armed with the virtues he has presented along the way, disciples, his church, will be ready to move forward without him because of him by the power of the Holy Spirit as the second part of Luke’s work, Acts of the Apostles will reveal.

November & December 2024

Part 1 of 3: The Infancy Narrative

Let’s get into what we know and admit what we don’t know adding the truth that sometimes when we don’t know something, we make up stuff to cover that lack of knowledge. There is a set of questions that ought to guide us whenever we begin to explore something: Who, When, What, Where, and How.

So, who wrote this Gospel? Except for John, the other three Gospels remain anonymous. This is quite different from the writing of Paul whose name appears throughout his writing. However, Luke is the name used consistently from the second century. He was a companion of Paul, and not an eyewitness. So, he is depending upon the testimony of others. He is a second-generation Christian, not a Palestinian but a native of Antioch in Syria. His knowledge of the geography and customs is faulty suggesting he did not live there. He was a some-time companion of Paul. That information comes from the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians and the Epistle to Timothy. He simply suddenly appears at Paul’s side during Paul’s second Mission. We can say that, because in Luke’s second part which we call “Acts of the Apostles” chapter 16, he suddenly switches to the first-person plural. He says, “We.”

When: The years 80 to 85 are generally accepted as the time. However, from the fact that Luke’s writing stops while Paul is still in custody around the year 63 and the fall of Jerusalem in about 70 could push it a little earlier. Here is an example of contrary data that leaves us to simply say: “We don’t really know exactly.”

It is fairly certain that Luke had at hand a copy of Mark’s account. Sixty-percent of Mark is incorporated into Luke. Probably another collection of quotations from Jesus was probably available and these would have been written in Aramaic. There were certainly some oral sources available from John, the deacon Philip, and possibly from Mary herself.

Luke’s Gospel, when it comes to literature is a masterpiece. He is very observant of mannerisms, psychological reactions, and hidden motivations. He favors minorities, segregated groups, and the underprivileged. Watch how often Samaritan, lepers, publicans, soldiers, public sinners, ignorant shepherds and poor show up. All of these people get special encouragement from this Gospel. Some may disagree with me on this, but Trump and his tribe would have a problem with this kind of “Diversity.” He is writing for Gentiles. We know that because of the way he omits Semitic words and finds substitutes for them. For instance, he explains in his Gospel the meaning of “Abba”, “Rabbi”, “Ephphata”. Luke omits all the controversies over the Law about what is clean and unclean. He seldom quotes the Old Testament. This Gospel was written in Greek, and it was good Greek, not easy street language. Luke is educated, and he writes to people who speak good Greek.

Finally, you must keep in mind all the way through. This is not History. It is theology. So, it is a distraction and silly to wonder or ask if something really happened. The question to ask is: “What does this mean?” and “What are we going to do or become because of it?” Luke makes no claim to have been an eyewitness. He tells us that he is giving us a well-ordered narrative so that we may know the truth. He says he is writing to Theophilus. He calls him “excellent”. That adjective/title was reserved for Roman Procurators. It was also a very common name, so there is no point in making a lot out of it.

At the time of Luke, there were two problems or “crises” that may have prompted his writing. The first was the Gentiles, and their concepts or ideas about God.  The whole Mediterranean world was very parochial, and there were as many ideas about God as there were communities, and with that, there were different cults. That’s hard for us to understand, but it was a great challenge at the time. Rome made it even more difficult with Emperor Worship. As Rome spread across the region, this parochialism was overcome. With this came an overwhelming sense loyalty and security that drove people to side with the powerful. If you understand that world, then you can see why the message of humility and the ideas expressed in Mary’s Magnificat are seen as a revolutionary threat. Themes of Greek plays at the time would have thought humility to be silly. The grand nobility of persons was the theme of their plays captivating theatergoers. They would have scoffed at the idea of humility proposed by these followers of Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, the Christian community expected the world to believe the story of a man who died the death of a rebellious slave. Rediculous!

The second crisis was over the Jews. The descendants of Abraham even earned the respect of Rome as Rome recognized that in the history of these chosen people no power could shake their fidelity to the law of their fathers. This people, reared with a profound respect for the law, their traditions, the experts would find shocking the stories of Jesus who flaunted the accepted ways and seemed so arrogant toward his religious superiors. Jesus seemed to be encouraging social, economic, and religious sedition.

Originally, the Gospel began with Chapter 3. The Infancy Narrative was added after Acts of the Apostles was finished. The presence of the genealogy in the third chapter is a clue that suggests this. Listen how Chapter 3 begins and see if you don’t think is the beginning. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was ruler of Galilee and Philip his brother ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

With the way it opens now, Luke has a formal prologue, a literary convention common among historians and other writers of his time. He is the only New Testament evangelist to do so. Matthew begins with a genealogy that stakes a claim for Jesus as the royal Davidic Messiah. Mark begins with a one-line heading that launches a tale told with thunder, John. Luke mentions his predecessors, alludes to his sources, touts his credentials as a longtime observer of events, acknowledges his patron, Theophilus and states his basic purpose in writing. We are in the hands of a confident author who invites us, gently, into his narrative world. 

In his address to Theophilus, he reveals that what has transpired – what he will narrate is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. He understands the events he will narrate in a biblical mode – in other words, what is to come is a biblical narrative held together by a progression of prophecies and fulfillments. He revers Jewish scriptures, makes use of quotations from it, and often writes in the style of the Septuagint. 

With the birth and infancy narratives we enter an enchanted world. It is replete with angels, heavenly signs, startling prophecies, unlikely pregnancies, improbable births, temple rituals, religious functionaries, pious laypeople, isolated shepherds, a child prodigy, and with it all an abundance of echoes from Israel’s Scriptures. It’s almost like Harry Potter when you start to think about it. This is the religious imagination at its best, an outpouring of legend and imagery fitting for a turning point in human history. It the momentous coming of a Savior who is Christ the Lord. 

Think for a minute how Luke organizes Chapters 1 & 2. There are seven episodes or scenes if you want to think in drama terms, and it is dramatic.

1. Annunciation of John the Baptist
2. Annunciation of Jesus
3. Visitation
4. Birth and Circumcision of John
5. Birth and Circumcision of Jesus
6. Presentation in the Temple
7. Finding in the Temple

There are obviously two parallels 1 & 2 and 4 & 5. Three hymns fill in the narration: The Canticle of Zechariah, The Magnificat, and The Gloria. Scholars believe that these were added later.  Episode 7 serves as a transition or story/passage.

I cannot emphasize this enough. 

The Infancy Narrative is a Dramatization of Theology. It is NOT history!

It all begins with the story of the conception of John the Baptist by Divine plan.

Now we get down to business with Zechariah. Luke tells us he is a good man married to a good woman. Yet, in spite of that they have no children, and in that time and culture, something is not quite right. God is about to intervene to make right what that culture believe is not right. So, Zechariah enters the Temple to perform the privileged and familiar duty of lighting an incense offering to God. An angel scares him with good news. What we see here is God confronting the highest of temple officialdom. Zechariah does not believe this good news, and Gabriel strikes him mute. There is no room or time for doubt. There is no blessing outside the Temple that day either. A world of religious devotion has been disrupted. There is also an important detail. Zechariah does not name his son, God has done that, and the same thing occurs with the second Annunciation story.

There is a struggle in Luke to fit John the Baptist into the schema of salvation and persuade unconverted disciples of John. You can sense that as the Gospel unfolds. With the birth of John, it is likely that Luke is trying to establish a connection with the Old Testament rather than writing intimate family history, because there is a parallel between the parents of Samuel as told in the Book of Samuel, and the parents of John. They are old. The career of John the Baptist caused problems for the early church. He was a prophet in his own right, founder of a Palestinian reform movement that would eventually find adherents as far away as modern Turkey. An inconvenient truth is that for a time Jesus of Nazareth was part of it. He was baptized by John. Luke will work hard through his gospel to make it clear that John was not superior to Jesus. Scholars believe that the legends of John’s birth originated in the circles of believers John attracted to himself. Luke incorporates this into his narrative. In this first story, Luke stirs imaginations. He paints a picture of a world of religious devotion about to be disrupted and enriched in ways no one could have foreseen He invites us to make it our own.

Right after the birth of John comes the second annunciation. Having entered this enchanted world through John the Baptist and his parents. Few scenes in all the Gospels rival the annunciation to Mary for its capacity to fire up the imagination. I think that is why so many artists have been and still do try to capture this moment on canvas. They are countless. The Louvre alone has 2,000 of them!

The second annunciation story is linked to the first in two ways: it is dated to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, and it is constructed out of similar components, the appearance of the angel Gabriel, the perplexity he causes and the assurance not to fear, the announcement of an unlikely pregnancy, the divine naming of the child and the reference to a legitimating sign.

Gabriel shows up. The only other time in the Bible that we hear of Gabriel is in the eighth chapter of the Book of Daniel. There, Gabriel is sent to explain a vision Daniel has, and Gabriel scares him so much that he fell to the ground. The Book or Prophecy of Daniel proclaims the coming of everlasting justice – the final time.

In the Annunciations scene there are five steps:

1. The appearance
2. The fear
3. The message
4. The objection
5. The giving of a sign

The central figure is a young girl in a man’s world. Perhaps younger than 15, she is an impoverished girl with nothing of importance to say. Her question to the angel is much like the question of Zechariah. The main burden of this text is to establish Jesus as a Davidic Messiah and Son of God. The whole concept of a Virgin Birth is unheard of in the Old Testament. So, when it springs up in the Gospel two times, it is an entirely new idea that brings with it the sense of a “New Creation”. The language and the images are rich in symbolism. Being “overshadowed” reminds is all of the cloud in the desert that hid God but yet was a sign of God’s presence and action. This is the introduction of the message and identity of Jesus as God’s Son.

A departure is a literary technique or gimmick Luke uses to indicate a change of scene. Notice how often he has some one departs or go away as the scene changes. So, the Angel departs, and a new scene begins that is an otherwise unremarkable meeting of relatives that takes a dramatic turn when the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at the sound of Mary’ voice. It is not the first time for such gymnastics to be recorded in the Bible. Twice in Genesis, Jacob and Esau do the same thing. It is a jump for Joy and it all happens because of the Holy Spirit. More than fifty times in Luke’s Gospel the action and consequences of the Holy Spirit will be recorded. So, with the Visitation story, the scene of the Annunciation is complete. The Visitation itself is a bridge passage that now brings together two characters of this drama: John and Jesus.

We get two birth stories. One is of lesser importance than the other obviously by the details. John’s birth only takes two verses. In Chapter 3 Luke describes the entire career of John including his imprisonment by Herod before he narrates how John Baptized Jesus. You might see something odd here. The Baptism of Jesus had to have happened before John was imprisoned. Again, there is no history here, so do not expect things to “add up”. This is Luke’s way of shifting all the focus onto Jesus.  Another example is that Luke describes the growth of John into manhood before he describes the birth of Jesus which, if this was history, should have taken place only a few month later. Again, a shift of attention.

Now, the census is Luke’s way of explaining the presence of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. Since it all began in Nazareth, he had to get them Bethlehem. There is no historical evidence of a census. It is a literary device that provides a solemn beginning. I find great irony is the way Luke uses the mightiest figure in the world, the Roman Emperor, to serve God’s plan by issuing this edict for a census. Caesar Augustus is the peaceful ruler, the one who pacified the world. Greek cities of Asia Minor (perhaps not far from where Luke was writing) adopted September 23, the birthday of Augustus as the first day of a new year, calling him a “savior.” Luke’s description of the birth of Jesus is a direct challenge to this imperial propaganda. 

As I said earlier, Luke is interested in details. Swaddling and manger are more important any anything else if you just look at the information. That manger has nothing to do with poverty. It is simply an odd location caused by circumstances. There is a reversal going on here. In the first chapter of Isaiah it says: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey knows the manger of its lord; but Israel has not known me.” Luke is saying that this is now repealed. The shepherds have been sent to the manger to find the Lord who is the source of joy for all people of Israel.

Like the manger, the swaddling is no sign of poverty. It is a sign that Israel’s Messiah is not an outcast among his people but is properly cared for. In Luke, Jesus is not born like an alien in an Inn, but in a manger where God sustains and feeds his people. This is Theology. The details lead us deep into the mystery of what God is doing.

When it comes the Annunciation to the Shepherds, there is nothing sentimental intended nor is there any effort on Luke’s part to identify with the common man as sometimes badly conceived homilies might want to suggest. This episode is tied to the Jewish idea that is much more deeply involved. It is draws heavily from images in the Prophet Micah which anticipates and for-sees the triumph of Jerusalem by a ruler from David’s place of origin. Remember what David was? This detail ties in with a King descended from a shepherd image: David the King.

This Annunciation to Shepherds is written in the style of an Imperial Proclamation. I like to think that this is Luke’s counter-propaganda that Jesus, not Augustus was the Savior and source of peace whose birthday marked the beginning of new time. Probably however, Isaiah 9: 5 seems to be the source: “For the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Then Luke gives us the final hymn: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he favors”. Like the other hymns, added later, it was probably composed by a community of Jewish Christians using the same kind of poetry. It is used to hail Jesus as the Messiah at the end of his ministry, something the angles knew at the beginning of his life. Luke is telling us that the angels of heaven recognized at the beginning of life for Jesus what the disciples came to know only at the end; namely, the presence of the Messiah King comes in the name of the Lord. 

After the Shepherd’s visit, Luke says: “The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.” With that, they depart. There is Luke’s signal: End of scene.

Through all of this we see Luke the pastor writing to comfort, encourage, and renew a community that was stumbling, disconnected from its roots and facing new challenges. His purpose was not so much to speak new things, but to present old things in a new way, old things which the readers knew from the very sources and traditions Luke used in his work. He chose a familiar form, “narrative.” This form is to literature what story telling is to the spoken word. It communicates in such a way that the readers enter the story and discover that it is their own. Gifted with knowledge, the readers little by little learn how the characters in the story arrive at the knowledge which they already have and what that truth really means.

The whole thing is an invitation to keep these things in our hearts, to wonder at them as their meaning is gradually unfolding in the story. Remember, Luke is writing to people who have differing ideas about God in the midst of a Roman occupation as Rome has its own idea about God with a divine Emperor. Luke is going to straighten that out.

What do we learn so far?

Jesus is a human, born of a woman.

Jesus is Divine, born of God. 

Jesus would return to God, and Christians must accept the end of his life and his absence from history as an individual figure or person.

The Narrative is like a painting with two panels. In the first panel is set in Jerusalem with Zachariah and Elizabeth. Like them, we believe yet we doubt, and what does God do? God does not need our perfect belief to fulfill the promise of biblical history which reveals again and again that the barren past can become fruitful. In the second panel the scene shifts from Jerusalem to Nazareth. Luke is concerned to show that the origins of Jesus are much more significant than those of John the Baptist. Nazareth is a no-place. Jerusalem is power. There is a message here.

The role of Zachariah and Mary are parallel, but it is Mary the mother, not Joseph the father who gives a name, who receives a message and brings things to pass. John’s birth is about overcoming the inability to conceive. The birth of Jesus introduces a whole new order, and we are pulled into the realm of creation by the working of the Spirit which is a powerful theme in Luke’s Gospel as we will see chapter by chapter.

The visitation story invites us to see the New Testament, Mary reaching out and transforming the Old Testament, Elizabeth.

Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth of Galilee. This is clearly held by Christian tradition without contest. At the same time, a clear theological tradition held that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Matthew handled it one way, by beginning at Bethlehem. Luke another way by beginning in Nazareth. Luke had a problem of getting them to Bethlehem, so he has a census. He uses this event for another reason too.  He wants to show that Jesus was being just, obedient, and legitimate when it comes to Roman Law. This is a concern all through Luke.

It’s all a journey, a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel just as it is for us. As we conclude this reflection on the Infancy Narrative, remember the story of Jesus being lost for three days only to be found again. It’s all part of Luke’s plan. The loss of Jesus creates confusion and consternation and Jesus explains the divine necessity which called for his absence; the Father’s business. He must be with the Father. This is his ultimate destiny, and we, the church through him, and with him, and in him are on the same journey to the New Jerusalem.