7 jesus the savior lucan gospel

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Jesus the Savior of the World The Holy Gospel according to Luke

Transcript of 7 jesus the savior lucan gospel

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Jesus the Savior of the World

The Holy Gospel according to Luke

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CONTENTS

Luke’s gospel is the longest book in the New Testament. Like Matthew, Luke follows the basic outline of Jesus’ ministry established by Mark: preparation for the ministry, ministry in Galilee, movement to Jerusalem, passion and resurrection.

But Luke introduces many more modifications to this basic sequence than does Matthew.

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Especially striking is the amount of space he devotes to Jesus’ movement to Jerusalem. Occupying one chapter in Mark (10) and two in Matthew (19– 20), this section accounts for almost ten chapters in Luke (9:51–19:27).

And in order to make room for this expansion, Luke has abbreviated the Galilean phase of the ministry (Luke 4:14–9:17, compared to Mark 1:14–8:26; Matthew 4:12– 16:12).

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But not only does Luke go his own way in terms of the basic structure of the ministry; he also introduces quite a bit of new material not found in any other gospel. Famous parables, such as the Good Samaritan (10:25–37), the Prodigal Son (15:11–32), and the Shrewd Manager (16:1–9) occur only in Luke.

Only Luke records Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus (19:1–10), his raising of a widow’s son at Nain (7:11–17), and his words on the cross asking God to forgive his executioners (23:34) and assuring the dying thief of entrance into Paradise (23:43).

Just why Luke differs in these ways from Mark and Matthew will be a matter to explore later when we consider the composition of Luke’s gospel.

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• The Prologue (1:1–4). Alone among the evangelists, Luke introduces his gospel with a formal prologue modeled along the lines of those found in Hellenistic literature.

• The Births of John the Baptist and Jesus (1:5–2:52)

• Preparation for the Ministry (3:1–4:13).

• Jesus in Galilee (4:14–9:50).

• Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem (9:51–19:44). In this long section about Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, it is not easy to follow the course of the journey or to determine at most points of the narrative just where on the journey Jesus is. Luke seems more intent on stressing the journey motif than in giving precise locations.

• Jesus in Jerusalem (19:45–21:38). This section is devoted to what Jesus did and taught in Jerusalem in the days before his passion.

• Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection (22:1–24:53)

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LUKE–ACTSNo analysis of Luke’s gospel can proceed without a preliminary decision about the nature of the relationship between the gospel and the book of Acts. The prologues to the books leave no doubt that a relationship exists. The same man— Theophilus—is addressed in each, and the “former book” mentioned in Acts 1:1 is undoubtedly the Gospel of Luke.

All scholars today agree that the same person wrote both books, and most also find a considerable degree of thematic unity. Luke-Acts together shows how God has acted in history to fulfill his promises to Israel and to create a world-wide body of believers drawn from both Jews and Gentiles.

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The focus on Jerusalem in both Luke and Acts conveys this movement. As Luke in the gospel emphasizes (more than the other gospels) the movement toward Jerusalem (e.g., 9:51; 13:33; 17:11), the book of Acts describes a movement away from Jerusalem.

Luke thereby shows how Jesus fulfills God’s plan for Israel as the basis for a movement out from Israel to embrace the entire world.

Other specific themes, such as salvation, the activity of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Word of God, run through both books.

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Authorship

Scholars agree that Luke and Acts were written by the same individual. Not only do the prologues connect the two books, but language, style, and theology also point to common authorship. Internal and external evidence combine to point strongly to Luke, the doctor, Paul’s “dear friend” (see Col. 4:14), as the author.

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Authorship

The prologue to the gospel (Luke 1:1–4) makes clear that the author was not an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus. He claims that the “things that have been fulfilled among us” “were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word” (1:1, 2). The third gospel betrays considerable interest in Gentiles and may point to a Gentile author. He was quite clearly an educated man, and he writes very good Greek (note his reference to “their language” in Acts 1:19; Aramaic was not Luke’s language).

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The opening paragraphs are written in good classical style (1:1–4). The rest of the first two chapters have a strong Semitic cast, while the remainder of the book is in a good Hellenistic Greek that constantly reminds the reader of the Septuagint. This versatility points to a very competent writer.

But the most important internal evidence comes from the book of Acts. The latter half of Acts contains several passages written in the first-person plural. These “we” passages seem to identify the author of Acts as a companion of Paul at these points in his travels. Comparison with references in Paul’s letters to his companions narrows the field of candidates down to a handful—including Luke.

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Yet the main reason for singling out Luke as the author of Luke-Acts comes from the external evidence. Marcion identified Luke as the author of these books in the middle of the second century.

The same identification is made just slightly later in the Muratorian Canon (c. 180–200?).

In Adversus Haereses, Irenaeus claims that Luke, a doctor, Paul’s companion, wrote the gospel (3.1.1, 3.14.1).

The so-called “Anti-Marcionite” Prologue to Luke assumes that Luke is the author, claiming he was a native of Antioch and a doctor.

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In the beginning of the second century, Tertullian characterizes the third gospel as a summary of Paul’s gospel (Against Marcion 4.2.2 and 4.5.3).

The oldest manuscript of Luke, Bodmer Papyrus XIV, cited as P75 and dated A.D. 175–225, ascribes the book to Luke.

First, although both Luke and Acts are anonymous — there is no explicit claim to authorship — it is unlikely that the books ever circulated without a name attached to them in some way.

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Second, no one in the early church disputes the identification of Luke as the author. Both Irenaeus and Tertullian write as though there was no doubt about the Lukan authorship of these books.

Third, it is hard to understand why Luke’s name would have been attached to the gospel if it had not been there from the beginning. The manifest tendency in the early church was to associate apostles with the books of the New Testament.

The universal identification of a non-apostle as the author of almost one-quarter of the New Testament speaks strongly for the authenticity of the tradition.

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PROVENANCE

Early tradition (the Anti-Marcionite prologue, c. 175, is the earliest) claims that Luke was from Antioch; but we possess too little evidence to know for sure. The same tradition, along with at least one other (the Monarchian prologue) asserts that Luke wrote his gospel in the region of Achaia.

Still other traditions (e.g., some late manuscripts of Luke) give Rome as the place of composition, but it is not known on what basis.

Achaia is a reasonable conjecture, but we cannot say more.

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DATEThe date of Luke’s gospel is closely intertwined with the dates of Mark and Acts. Luke used Mark as a primary source for his gospel. And Luke must, of course, be earlier than Acts, since Acts presupposes the existence of Luke. Two main options for the dating of Luke are extant in scholarly literature: the 60s and 75–85.

We will consider first some of the reasons to date Luke in the 60s.

1.Acts makes no mention of several key events from the period 65–70 that we might have expected it to mention: the Neronian persecution, the deaths of Peter and Paul, and the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans. No event later than 62 is mentioned.

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DATE

2.Luke spends much of the last part of Acts describing Paul’s arrest, trials, and journey to Rome. We would have expected him to have completed the story by telling us what happened to Paul in the end. But he ends Acts with Paul imprisoned in Rome. This may point to the date at which Luke published Acts (about A.D. 62).

3.Luke tells us how the prophecy of Agabus about a world-wide famine was fulfilled (Acts 11:28); we might have expected him all the more to show how Jesus’ prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem (Luke 21:20) took place. The inference is that it had not yet taken place.

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4. The most probable reading of the Pastoral Epistles is that Paul was released from his Roman custody described at the end of Acts and returned to the Eastern Mediterranean for further ministry—including ministry in Ephesus. But in Acts 20:25, Paul claims that he would not see the Ephesians again. If the later visit to Ephesus had taken place, we might have expected Luke to have reflected the fact in some way.

5. The Pauline Epistles were evidently treasured in the early church, but they are ignored in Acts. The later we put Acts, the more difficult it is to account for this.

6. It is questioned whether a Christian writer would give as friendly a picture of Rome as we find in Luke-Acts after the Neronian persecution.

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Luke after 70, usually in the period 75–85. We next consider and respond to these arguments.

1. Luke’s version of Jesus’ prediction of the fall of Jerusalem reflects the actual events. In Mark (Luke’s presumed source), Jesus refers to an “abomination that causes desolation” in the temple (Mark 13:14). But Luke has changed this to “Jerusalem… surrounded by armies” (Luke 21:20), more accurately depicting the actual circumstances of Jerusalem’s envelopment by the Roman legions.

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2. A broad consensus of scholars holds that Luke used Mark in writing his gospel. But if we date Mark in the mid–60s or later, then Luke could not have been written before 70 at the earliest. For this argument to work, of course, Luke would have had to use Mark in its final form, and a good number of scholars question whether this was the case. And since both Mark and Luke were in the group associated with Paul, Luke might have obtained a copy of Mark very shortly after it was written.

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3. Luke claims in his prologue that “many” people had drawn up accounts of the life and significance of Jesus (1:1). Considerable time would have had to elapse to allow for the writing of these accounts and their circulation to the extent that Luke would be able to know and evaluate them. But how much time? If we date the latest gospel event in about A.D. 30, and Luke writes in the 60s, then these predecessors of Luke’s would have had over thirty years to produce their accounts. Surely this is enough time.

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4. A broader and more subjective argument concerns some of the peculiar emphases of Luke’s theology. A popular interpretation of the development of early Christianity holds that the church moved from a fervent belief in the imminent return of Jesus in glory to a resignation that his return would be postponed indefinitely. And with the early Christians’ modified eschatological timetable went considerable theological revisions and developments.

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The only really significant argument for dating Luke after A.D. 70 is the argument that Mark must be dated in the mid-60s at the earliest. But we have seen reason to question the necessity of dating Mark as late as that. And if Mark is dated in the early 60s, then Luke could well have been written in the mid or late-60s.

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AUDIENCE

Luke opens his gospel with a prologue in which he acknowledges his predecessors, states his purpose, and recognizes his addressee —Theophilus. Since “Theophilus” is the transliteration of a Greek word that means “lover of God,” some scholars have suggested that the address is generic. Luke writes to any person who might fit into the category of a lover of God. But the more natural interpretation is that Luke has a definite individual in view. This person’s name might have been Theophilus; or Luke might be using an alias to guard the person’s true identity.

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AUDIENCE

By calling him “most excellent”, Luke may also imply that Theophilus was a person of rank, perhaps a Roman aristocrat (compare Acts 24:3 and 26:25). Theophilus may, in fact, have been Luke’s patron, the person who incurred the costs of Luke’s writing. Since Luke writes to convince Theophilus of the “certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4), he was probably a recent convert to the faith.

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Though not necessarily having the same social rank as Theophilus, the wider public Luke addresses probably shared with him a Gentile background. Luke implies such an audience in many ways: his concern to situate the gospel events in the context of secular history (e.g., Luke 2:1; 3:1–2); his emphasis on the universal implications of the gospel (e.g., his genealogy begins with Adam in contrast to Matthew’s, which begins with Abraham);

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his omission of material that focuses on the Jewish law (e.g., the antitheses of Matthew 5; the controversy about “uncleanness” [Mark 7:1–23]); his tendency to substitute Greek equivalents for Jewish titles (e.g., “Lord” or “Teacher” for “Rabbi”); his focus on Gentile converts in the book of Acts.

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PURPOSE

Luke clearly intends the two books to be read in relationship to each other but not as a single narrative broken in two only by space considerations. The reader should be sensitive to commonalities between the two books even as he or she allows each book to stand on its own. This posture is certainly appropriate in considering Luke’s purpose.

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PURPOSE

We begin with Luke’s own claim about his purpose in writing, found in the prologue. He writes so that Theophilus “may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” The word “certainty” [asfaleia] has the notion of assurance.

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Luke wants Theophilus, and other converts like him, to be certain in their own minds and hearts about the ultimate significance of what God has done in Christ.

By the time Luke wrote his gospel, the early church had separated from Judaism and was, indeed, experiencing hostility from many Jews. At the same time, the new and tiny Christian movement was competing with a welter of religious and philosophical alternatives in the Greco-Roman world.

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• Why should Theophilus think that Christianity is the one “right” religion out of all these alternatives?

• Why should he think that Christians and not Jews constitute the true people of God, those who are the true heirs of God’s Old Testament promises?

• Why, to put the matter at its most foundational level, should Theophilus continue to believe that God has revealed himself decisively in Jesus of Nazareth?

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Luke’s gospel, along with the book of Acts, is intended to answer these questions and to give new converts to the faith a “reason for the hope that is within them.”

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Jesus the

Savior of the World

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Luke is a kind of Greco-Roman biography of Jesus. Like all the other Gospels it too is anonymous and appears to be written by a Greco speaking Christian somewhere outside Palestine (Achaia?).

Perhaps the most obvious difference between this Gospel and all others from the antiquity is that it is the first of two set volume.

The Gospel of Luke provides a sketch of the life and death of Jesus, and the Book of Acts narrates the birth and life of the Christian Church that emerge afterwards.

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The Preface to Luke’s Gospel

By beginning his Gospel with a standard “historiographic” preface, written in a much style of Greek than anything found in Mark or Matthew, Luke alerts his readers both to his own abilities as a writer and to the scope of his work.

Luke indicates that he has had several predecessors in writing a narrative of the life of Jesus (v.1) and that these narratives are ultimately based on stories that have been passed down by “eyewitness and ministers of the word” (v.2)

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Luke dedicates his work to someone he calls “most excellent Theophilus.” Unfortunately he never tells us who this is. We have 2 options:

1. From the title “most excellent” was in reference to a governor of a Roman province. To show that Christianity is not opposed to the empire.

2. Literally means “lover of God” or “beloved of God” i.e. a code name for the Christians to whom he writes.

Luke’s work would belong more naturally to a history than a biography.

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Lukes Birth Narratives in Comparative perspective

The two lengthy chapters that begin Luke’s account contain stories relating the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist. Luke has an obvious point of contact with Matthew.

Both have broad similarities and at the same time striking differences. Reminding us that the Christmas story recounted by Christians every December is a conflation of the two Gospels.

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Joseph and Mary’s Hometown

Luke – Joseph and Mary lives in Nazareth and has to leave to go to Bethlehem (2:1-7)

Matthew – no indications of the travel suggest the couple lives in Bethlehem.

Where the Magi found they in a “house” and not a stable or cave.

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For Luke Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the family returned to their hometown Nazareth.

CONCLUSION: Both authors agreed that Jesus was born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth, even though this happens in strikingly different ways in their two narratives

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The Salvation of the Jews: Luke’s orientation to the Temple

For Luke, the message of God’s salvation comes first to the Jews, to the capital of Judea, to the most sacred location of the most sacred city.

Luke’s Gospel is oriented toward showing how this salvation comes largely to be rejected in the city of God by the people of God, the Jews… This rejection leads to its dissemination elsewhere, principally among the Gentiles.

Unique for the Lukan Gospel is this orientation.

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John’s birth is announced in the temple (1:8-23) the first announcement of God’s salvation.

Jesus was born in the nearby Bethlehem (2:1-20) Circumcised (2:21) and in the temple consecrated to God (2:22) and while in the temple, was recognized as the long awaited messiah by Simeon (2:25-36) and Jewish prophetess Anna (2:36-38) and in the Temple his parents offer sacrifice and do all that the Law commands (2:25,39)

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Then we have Jesus at age twelve was found in the temple after 3 days. “Did you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?? (2:49) Luke stresses Jesus’ early association with the temple in Jerusalem. In there the heart of Judaism, that God’s message of salvation comes.

For Luke, the message of God comes to his people in their most sacred City, Jerusalem, in the most sacred of all sites, the Temple, but this message is not meant only for the Jews. In Luke’s view, it is a message of salvation for all people.

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The Salvation of the Gentiles: Luke’s Orientation to the Whole World

Like Matthew, Luke also had a Genealogy (3:23-38) after his baptism (3:22). Both of them trace Jesus’ lineage through Joseph, even though neither Gospel Joseph is Jesus’ father and in both Joseph is a descendent of King David. However there is a discrepancy.

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Matthew – Joseph is a direct descendant of David’s son Solomon

Luke – from David’s other son Nathan

Both however, explicitly trace the ancestry of Joseph (Matt 1:16, Luke 3:23)

The genealogy started after God proclaimed Jesus as his son. So the genealogy also makes the same explicit declaration in a radically different way. The genealogy goes all the way back to God, the “father” of Adam – making Jesus the Son of God by direct descendant.

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Matthew – shows that Jesus belongs to the Jews

Luke – it shows that Jesus belongs to all people, both Jews and Gentile.

For Luke, the message of salvation that begins in the heart of Judaism is a message for all nations of earth.

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FROM JEW TO GENTILE: LUKE'S PORTRAYAL OF JESUS THE REJECTED PROPHET

In Luke, Jesus' ministry begins with a sermon in the synagogue that infuriates his fellow Jews, who then make an attempt on his life.

It is not an auspicious beginning.

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In order to begin Jesus' ministry in this way, Luke narrates a story that does not occur until nearly halfway through both Mark's and Matthew's account of the ministry (Mark 6:1-6; Matt 13:53-58; Luke 4:16-30).

This is the famous narrative of Jesus' sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, a story that is much longer and more detailed in Luke than in the other Gospels and that, as the opening account, sets the stage for Luke's overall portrayal of Jesus.

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As a visitor to the synagogue, in Luke, Jesus is given the opportunity to read and comment on the Scripture. He reads from the book of Isaiah, in which the prophet claims to be anointed with the spirit of God in order "to bring good news to the poor . . . to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (4:18-19).

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After reading the Scripture, Jesus sits and begins to proclaim that the predictions of the prophet have now come to fulfillment—by implication, in him.

Those in the synagogue are incredulous; they know, after all, who Jesus is (or think they do; they call him "Joseph's son" in v. 22). Jesus understands their reaction: they want him to prove himself by doing miracles for them like he has done in Capernaum.

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Jesus responds by launching into an extended sermon, not found in the other Gospels, in which he recounts two familiar stories from the Jewish Scriptures about prophets who were sent by God, not to Jews but to Gentiles.

He tells how Elijah was sent to assist a widow in the city of Zarephath during an extended drought and how Elisha was sent to heal not the lepers of Israel but Naaman, the leper king of Syria (4:25-27). In both instances God sent his prophet, not to help his people the Israelites, but to pronounce judgment against them for having turned against him.

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These are the stories that Jesus uses to explain how he fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah.

His message is clear: he too is a prophet of God who will not receive a warm welcome among his own people in Israel, who like their ancestors have rejected God along with his prophets.

Because of this rejection, Jesus' message will be taken to the Gentiles.

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Jesus' sermon is not a smashing success; in fact, it is very nearly a smashing failure.

The Jews in the synagogue rise up in anger and try to throw him off a cliff. Jesus escapes, leaves town, and takes his message elsewhere (4:28-30).

For Luke, this reaction marks the beginning of the fulfillment of the sermon that Jesus has just preached. The prophet of God is opposed by his own people, and they will eventually call for his death.

As a prophet, he knows that this is to happen. Indeed, it has all been predicted in the Jewish Scriptures.

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LUKE'S DISTINCTIVE EMPHASES

THROUGHOUT HIS GOSPEL

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Jesus the

Prophet

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It was shown how Luke understood Jesus to be a prophet sent by God to his people.

For ancient Jews, a prophet was not a crystal ball gazer, a person who made inspired predictions about events far in the future. He was a spokesperson for God, a messenger sent from God to his people.

Often the message was quite straightforward, involving a call to the people of God to mend their ways and return to God by living in accordance with his will.

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Jesus as a

Prophet in Life

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Luke places an even greater emphasis on Jesus' prophetic role as the spokesperson for God who comes to be rejected by his own people. This emphasis can be seen not only in the inaugural story of Jesus' ministry, the sermon in Nazareth, but also in a number of other stories that occur in Luke but in neither of the other Gospels.

In fact, the prophetic character of Jesus is seen even before the rejection scene in Nazareth, for in this Gospel Jesus is born as a prophet.

When Jesus begins his public ministry, he explicitly claims to be anointed as a prophet who will proclaim God’s message to his people. He also does miracles of a prophet.

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Jesus as a

Prophet in

Death.

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Not only is Luke's Jesus born as a prophet, and not only does he preach as a prophet and heal as a prophet, he also is said to die as a prophet. There was a long-standing tradition among Jews that their greatest prophets, both those about whom stories were told in the Scriptures (e.g., Elijah and Elisha) and those who penned scriptural books themselves (e.g., Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos), were violently opposed and sometimes even martyred by their own people. In Luke's account, Jesus places himself in this prophetic line.

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In Luke, Jesus' knowledge that he must die as a prophet may explain some of the unique features of his Passion narrative. In Mark's Passion narrative, as we have seen, Jesus appears somewhat uncertain of the need for his own death up until the very end.

There is no trace of uncertainty, however, in Luke's account. Here Jesus the prophet knows full well that he has to die, and shows no misgivings or doubts, as can be seen by making detailed comparison of the two accounts of what Jesus does prior to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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Unlike marks Mark’s account of the crucifixion, Luke paints a very different portrayal of Jesus in the throes of death. For one thing, Jesus is not silent on the way to crucifixion. Instead, when he sees a group of women weeping for him, he turns and says to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children" (23:28). Jesus does not appear to be distraught about what is happening to him; he is more concerned for the fate of these women. This note of confidence and concern for others is played out in the rest of the narrative.

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While being nailed to the cross, rather than being silent, Jesus asks forgiveness for those who are wrongfully treating him: "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (23:34).

While on the cross, Jesus engages in an intelligent conversation with one of the criminals crucified beside him. Here (unlike in Mark) only one of the criminals mocks Jesus; the other tells his companion to hold his tongue, since Jesus has done nothing to deserve his fate.

He then turns to Jesus and asks, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (23:42). Jesus' reply is stunningly confident: "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

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Jesus is soon to die, but as a prophet he knows that he has to die, and he knows what will happen to him once he does: he will awaken in paradise.

And this criminal who has professed faith in him will awaken beside him. Most striking of all is the way in which the scene ends. Whereas in Mark Jesus appears to die in despair, forsaken not only by friends, companions, and fellow Jews, but even by God himself—in Luke's Gospel he dies in full assurance of God’s special care and favor. Here, he offers up a final prayer, indicative of his full confidence in God's love and providential care: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (23:46).

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In Mark Jesus is in real agony at the end. In Luke he dies in calm assurance. Each author wanted to emphasize something significant about Jesus' death. We have already seen Mark's emphasis. Luke's is somewhat different. Luke emphasizes that Jesus died as a righteous, blameless martyr of God. As a prophet he knew that this had to happen.

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Jesus' Death

in Luke

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One other important aspect of Luke's portrayal of Jesus in his death emerges when we consider the events that transpire at the close of the scene.

As we saw in Mark's Gospel, the view that Jesus' death was an atoning sacrifice was suggested by the tearing of the curtain in the Temple immediately after he expired and the confession of the centurion that "this man was the Son of God."

Oddly, Luke includes both events but narrates them in ways that differ significantly from the accounts in Mark (and in Matthew).

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In Luke's Gospel the curtain is torn in half, not after Jesus breaths his last, but earlier, when darkness comes upon the land as the light of the sun fails (due to an eclipse?). Scholars have long debated the significance of this difference, but most think that for Luke the tearing of the curtain does not show that Jesus' death brings access to God, since here, it is torn before he dies, but rather that God has entered into judgment with his people as symbolized by this destruction within the Temple.

In this Gospel, Jesus himself proclaims to his enemies among the Jewish authorities that "this is your hour and the power of darkness" (22:53). The torn curtain accompanies the eerie darkness over the land as a sign of God's judgment upon his people, who have rejected his gift of "light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" (1:79).

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In Luke the centurion does not make a profession of faith in the Son of God who had to die ("Truly this man was God's Son," Mark 15:39; Matt 27:54); here his words coincide with Luke's own understanding of Jesus' death: "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).

For Luke, Jesus dies the death of a righteous martyr who has suffered from miscarried justice; his death will be vindicated by God at the resurrection. What both of these differences suggest is that Luke does not share Mark's view that Jesus’ death brought about atonement for sin.

An earlier statement in Mark corroborates his perspective; Jesus' own comment that "the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (10:45; Matt 20:28). It is striking and significant that this saying is not found in Luke.

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Jesus, then, must die because he is a prophet who comes to be rejected by God's people. His death does not appear to bring salvation in and of itself, and yet the death of Jesus must relate to salvation for Luke. But how?

For now it is point out that the salvation that Jesus preaches in Luke is similar to the salvation preached by the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures. The people of God need to repent of their sins and return to God. When they do so, he will forgive them, and grant them salvation.

For Luke, the biggest sin of all was killing God's prophet. And when they turn to God in recognition of their guilt, he responds by forgiving their sins. Thus, what brings a right relationship with God for Luke is not Jesus' death per se but the repentance that his death prompts.

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The Gentile MissionWe have already seen that Luke places considerable emphasis on Jesus' significance for the Gentile as well as the Jew. This emphasis is not unique, of course. Mark himself may have been a Gentile, and almost certainly a large portion of his audience was. Matthew also appears to have written to a mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles, even though he was himself probably Jewish. For both authors, salvation in Jesus comes to all people.

Even more than in Matthew and Mark, however, this is a special emphasis in Luke, as we have seen already in his genealogy. For Luke, salvation comes to the Jewish people in fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures, but since they reject it, the message goes to the Gentiles.

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One of the unmistakable indications that Luke is especially concerned for the Gentile mission is the fact that he is the only Gospel writer who includes a sequel recounting the spread of the religion throughout the empire, particularly among non-Jews. This concern is also found elsewhere in the Gospel. As we have seen, after Jesus' death the disciples are not told to go to Galilee (contrast 24:6, 49 with the instructions to the women in Mark 16:7).

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They remain in Jerusalem, where they encounter the resurrected Jesus (contrast chap. 24 with Matt 27:10, 16-20). On this occasion, Jesus explains that everything that happened to him was in fulfillment of the Scriptures; indeed, so is the Gentile mission that is yet to take place, for "repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations [same word as "Gentiles“ ], beginning from Jerusalem" (24:47).

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The Divine Plan

Thus the Gentile mission was all part of God's plan, in place, according to Luke, since time immemorial. The spread of the Christian church in the book of Acts occurs under the powerful direction of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason it proves so successful: since God is behind it, it cannot be stopped. The divine plan is at work in the Gospel as well, where Luke places a careful emphasis on terms like the "will" and the "plan" of God (e.g., see, 4:43; 13:33; 22:37; 24:7, 26, 44).

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The Delay of the End of Time

Luke's idea of the divine plan relates to one other distinctive aspect of his Gospel. In Mark and Matthew, as we saw, Jesus predicts the imminent end of the world. In Luke all of these predictions about the end are worded differently. In Luke, Jesus does not envisage the end of the age happening immediately. How could he?

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First the Christian church had to be spread among the Gentiles, and this would take time. Consider the differences between the apocalyptic predictions of Mark and those of Luke.

In Mark 9:1, Jesus claims that some of his disciples will not taste death "until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power." Luke has the same story, but here the disciples are told simply that some of them will not taste death until "they see the kingdom of God" (9:27; note that they are not promised to see its "coming in power," i.e., with the coming of the Son of Man).

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For Luke, the disciples already see the kingdom of God, because for him the kingdom of God is already present in Jesus' ministry. This becomes clear in several stories found only in Luke: the kingdom of God is said to have "come near" in the ministry of Jesus' disciples (10:9, 11), it is said to have already "come to you" in Jesus' own ministry (11:20), and it is said already to be "among you" in the person of Jesus himself (17:21). To be sure, even in Luke there is to be a final cataclysmic end to history at the end of this age (21:7-32), but this will not come during the disciples' lifetime.

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Luke's emphasis on the delay of the end also explains the difference in Jesus' reply when interrogated by the high priest. Whereas in Mark Jesus stated that the high priest would "see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (14:62), in Luke his response is simply that "from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God" (22:69). Luke appears to know full well that this high priest would not live to see the Son of Man coming in his glory to bring the end of the age; in his version of the story, Jesus never predicts that he will.

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Other differences in Luke's account point in the same direction. For example, only in Luke is Jesus said to have delivered the parable of the pounds, precisely in order to disabuse those who thought that "the kingdom of God was to appear immediately" (19:11-27; contrast the parable of the talents in Matt 25:14-30).

One final Lukan emphasis also relates closely to the delay of the end: Jesus' social concerns.

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The Social Implications of the Gospel In Luke's Gospel, Jesus knows that the end is not imminent, and this may explain one other way in which his Gospel stands out as unique. More than either of the other Synoptics, Luke emphasizes Jesus' concern for the social ills of his day. Luke contains many of the beatitudes found in Matthew, but they are worded differently, and the differences clearly illustrate Luke's social agenda. Whereas Jesus in Matthew says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (5:3), in Luke he says, "Blessed are you who are poor" (6:20). Luke's concern here is for literal, material poverty. Whereas Matthew's Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (5:6), in Luke he says, "Blessed are you who are hungry now" (6:21) Moreover, in Luke Jesus not only blesses the poor and oppressed; he also castigates the rich and the oppressor: "Woe to you who are rich. . . . Woe to you who are full now. . . . Woe to you who are laughing now" (6:24-26).

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Luke's social agenda is also evident in the attention that Jesus pays to women among his followers here. From a feminist perspective, things were much worse at the beginning of the Christian era than they are now.

In Luke's Gospel, on the other hand, Jesus associates with women, has women among his followers, and urges his women followers to abandon their traditional roles as caretakers so they can heed his words as his disciples (e.g., see 8:1-3 and 10:38-42, stories unique to Luke).