Luke : Chapters 4-19
|
|
LukeSurvey of the New Testament: The Gospels & ActsWinter 2005 |
[Previous: The Son of Man Comes (Chapters 1-4)][Next: The Son of Man Saves (Chapters 19-24)]
The prophecies and proclamations surrounding the birth of Jesus highlighted the purpose of his coming ministry. This newborn child would indeed be the Son of God and rule on David's throne. The angels declare to the shepherds that a child is born who is “a savior who is Christ the Lord” (2:11). But his purpose would not be to come as a conqueror or a judge, but as a savior.
Mary proclaimed this in her famous Magnificat . As she exalts her Lord, she proclaims Him as savior (1:47), as one who exalts the humble and humbles the powerful (1:52), and one who feeds the hungry and send the rich away empty handed (1:53). This turns out to be the ministry of Jesus who, throughout his ministry, reaches out to the disadvantaged, the poor, and the unlovely, while condemning the powerful and the rich.
Jesus, however, would not just reach out to the poor and disadvantaged in Israel, but His ministry would reach out to the Samaritans and all the Gentiles. Simeon, in his prophecy at the temple, explains this, proclaiming Jesus as an infant as “a light of revelation to the Gentiles” (2:32).
Jesus reiterates this purpose as He begins His ministry in Nazareth. Jesus steps up to read scripture in his hometown synagogue, reading from Isaiah that he has been anointed to reach the poor, the prisoner, the blind and the oppressed (4:18).
All of Jesus ministry will be focused around ministering to just those who society ignores and rejects: the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed.
Jesus healing ministry highlights his purpose as He makes well those who ill and hurting. In Luke 5:12, Jesus heals a leper, and even in how he conducts this healing He illustrates the compassion He has on those who are hurting. Leprosy was considered highly contagious and so lepers had to call out whenever they walked through a crowd “leper, leper,” lest someone touch them and become infected. But Jesus reaches out and touches this leper (5:13) to heal Him.
Jesus even chooses as one of his disciples one of these social outcasts. In Luke 5:29 Luke records the call of Matthew-Levi, the tax collector become-disciple. Tax collectors were hated people, not just because of the abusive taxation levied on the people, but because they were seen as traitors of the Jewish people. They were Jews who worked for the occupying Romans. Tax collectors were not poor and oppressed. However, they were despised and cut off from polite society in those days. They were not “down and out,” but “up and out. [1]”
After Matthew decides to follow Christ, he throws a banquet in Jesus honor. But the guests to this banquet are Matthew's tax collecting friends. Jesus is not embarrassed or compromised by being in a party with the tax collectors. He has been invited as their guest of honor, and He responds. This troubles the Pharisees. Why would this teacher, this supposed man of God, hang out with the “tax gatherers and sinners.” Jesus answers:
(Luke 5:32 NASB) “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance”
Luke's gospel emphasizes the role of women in the ministry of Jesus. From Jesus birth, which is told from the perspective of Mary (2:19, 51) to the resurrection, where the women could not convince the disciples that Jesus is alive (24:8-11), women play a prominent role in the life of Jesus. Women were among the closest of Jesus' disciples, some of which were quite wealthy and supported Jesus' ministry financially (8:1-3).
In that society women were not highly esteemed and would not have been considered a reliable testimony. Yet, Jesus reaches out to women in the same way he reaches out to others who society rejects.
Jesus has not come to condemn the unrighteous, instead to save them. Jesus clearly states this in Luke 9:51-56. As Jesus is traveling towards Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples come to a Samaritan village. But the Samaritans do not receive Him. James and John ask Jesus if they should call fire down from heaven to destroy them for not welcoming them into their village. Jesus rebukes them, saying:
(Luke 9:55) You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.
In addition Jesus used the parable of the good neighbor to show Samaritans are to be part of his ministry.
A lawyer had been discussing the law with Jesus, asking what is the greatest commandment. Jesus answer is “love God and love others.” This lawyer, however, was looking for a loophole in the royal law. So in Luke 10:29 he asks the question of Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” With that, Jesus tells a parable, which today we call the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The Jews despised Samaritans. They were half-breeds; descendents of Jews who intermarried with the Assyrians after the fall of Israel, and were considered inferior to full-blooded Jews. They were hated not just because of their nationality, but because they were perceived as a nation of traitors who had intermarried with the enemy. Furthermore, the Samaritans had corrupted the Jewish religion and worshiped God, not in Jerusalem, but in their own false temple. Now Jesus has portrayed this Samaritan as the only one who kept the greatest commandment.
At the end of the story, Jesus asks the lawyer, “Who proved to be this man's neighbor?” The lawyer answered, the Samaritan. When Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself, he was saying, love the Samaritans. Love the despised. Love your enemies. Love those who you consider inferior. Love them as yourselves.
Jesus makes a tremendous impact on this target audience. By Luke 15, Jesus is no longer seeking the lost, but that the lost are seeking Him. The Jewish religious establishment normally would have rejected these people. But here they were drawing near to a Jewish rabbi, eagerly listening to what He would have to say. In Chapter 5, many were invited, and Jesus clearly had an impact on this group of people. Now, they all are ready to listen to Him.
The Pharisees were communicating a message that God will only accept you if you can keep the laws as they do. God is not an accepting God, but a demanding tyrant. The Pharisees, seeing Jesus associating with this group, begin to grumble. But in the three parables that follow, Jesus communicates that God is accepting and loving and eager for sinners to come to Him.
The first story, found in verses 4-7, tells of a shepherd who discovers one of his sheep is missing. He leaves behind the rest of his sheep, unprotected, to go and search for the lost one. And when he finds it, he is excited and joyful at the one sheep he has found. Jesus says the same is true in heaven. In verse 7, Jesus says:
(Luke 15:7)…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
The second story, found in verses 8-10, tells of a woman who has lost a coin. She searches all over the house and finally finds the lost coin. We she finds it she calls her friends and tells them of her exciting find. Jesus repeats that this is true in heaven. In verse 10 he says:
(Luke 15:10)…there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
The final story in this trio is the well-known parable of the prodigal son. Jesus tells of a young man who leaves his father, squanders the family fortune, and ends up destitute. At his low-point, he remembers his family and wonders if he can come back and work as a slave for his father. So he returns home. Jesus, describes his homecoming starting in verse 20:
(Luke 15:20-23) But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called son.” But the Father said to his slaves, “Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.
You can sense the deep passion the Father has for his son. He runs to him, almost ignoring the confession of his son. He begins a celebration, throwing a large party. There is no lecture, no “I told you so”, no penance or punishment. It is pure compassion and love.
(Luke 15:20-23) For this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.
The story goes on to tell us about the prodigal sons older brother. This is the brother who did not run off and squander the family fortune. This is the brother who remained faithful. And this is the brother who does not share in the joy of his father. Upon his brother's homecoming, He complains that this unworthy louse of a brother gets the big party. His years of faithful service to the father have never been rewarded. He resents the love and attention given to the repentant son.
This is a not so veiled condemnation of the grumbling Pharisees. The Pharisees, like the older brother, do not share in the compassion of the Father. They are more worried about getting their reward than they are about the repentant son. This parable is a condemnation of their selfishness, and a condemnation of a heart that does not track with God.
The message of these parables is that God gives more of his attention to the world that is dying outside the doors of our church than he does to the people inside the church. If we do not share this level of attention, then we are also condemned by these parables as the Pharisees were.
When we do not reach out to the poor, the hurting, and the outcast, we are the selfish older brothers. We have become the prideful Pharisees who do not share the compassion that God has for those who do not know Him.
The reality is, we have forgotten who we are. None of us really is the older brother. None of us have been the faithful servant of our Father. We all have been prodigal sons or daughters, who have run away from home and squandered the family fortune. Until we realize this, we will be condemned along with the Pharisees.
Luke emphasizes Jesus teaching on wealth, poverty and finances. Jesus inaugurates His ministry in Nazareth by proclaiming that He was anointed “to preach the gospel to the poor” (4:18). In Luke's rendition of the beatitudes it is merely the poor who are blessed, not the poor in spirit as in Matthew (6:20).
However, Jesus does not condemn the wealthy. In fact he even encourages the wise use of money in the promotion of the kingdom (16:9-10). Riches can be used to promote the kingdom, but money will serve no purpose in the after life (16:19-30).
In Luke 18:18-34 a rich young ruler believes he has earned his way into the kingdom through his obedience to the law. When he asks Jesus what he must do to enter the kingdom, it is not so much a question, but a chance to brag. However, Jesus tells this man that he must give up his wealth to enter the kingdom. The young man cannot bear to give up his money. Jesus tells the disciples, “it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus is continuing His agenda of bringing down the rich and powerful while promoting the poor and weak.
However, the disciples wonder then, “who can be saved?” Jesus tells them that with God, all things are possible, and that those who leave behind things in this life, will live forever. Immediately then, Jesus then tells him of his upcoming death and the resurrection (18:31-34). This is how it is possible for people to be saved.
In contrast to the religious young man who thinks he is righteous, but lets money get in the way, in Luke 19:1-10 we meet a non-religious rich man who is willing to give up all his money to follow Jesus.
Zaccheus is an extremely wealthy citizen, and he is the chief tax gatherer. He went to great lengths to see Jesus, to the point of climbing a tree. This was an influential man who is climbing trees to catch of glimpse of this man he had heard so much about. Zaccheus is intrigued.
Jesus encounters Zaccheus and invites himself to his house for dinner. Jesus doesn't ask him to do a thing. But just the fact that Jesus took notice of him brought Zaccheus to the point where he was ready to give half his possessions to the poor. The message of Jesus was so attractive to this tax gatherer that he took extraordinary measures to catch a glimpse of Jesus, and then when encountering Him, gives up his wealth to be a disciple.
Are the sinners in our community as eager to hear us as they were to hear Jesus? Do we have prostitutes, homosexuals, and drug dealers coming to us to find out what we have to say? If not, why? Do we treat them like the Pharisees, or do we treat them as Jesus did? Do we communicate that God will only accept you if you meet a certain standard? Or are we like Jesus, not condemning, not calling them to repent, but explaining what a gracious, loving Father God is. Do we tell them that God cares more about them than He does for the ones who go to church every Sunday?
[Previous: The Son of Man Comes (Chapters 1-4)][Next: The Son of Man Saves (Chapters 19-24)]
|
Visit the Grace Community Fellowship Home Page. (C) Copyright 2005 - Grace Community Fellowship |