Reading Luke In Lent

In subtle ways Luke shows Jesus to be priest, prophet and king. At the Transfiguration Jesus spoke of his exodus which he would accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus’ exodus echoes that of Moses the prophet and includes death, resurrection and ascension into glory.

Jesus instructed his disciples to say Peace to you whenever they entered a house. Here, Jesus, himself says it and echoes the beginning of the Gospel where his birth was announced with proclamations of peace.

At the last supper Jesus gave his disciples the Eucharist as a way of being present to his disciples. There he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and give it to them. Here the disciples recognise that they are in the presence of Jesus, that the guest has become the host.

It is the evening of Easter day and two of the disciples who heard the testimony of the women are walking away from Jerusalem disheartened. They meet Jesus, in his first appearance as the risen Christ, but they do not recognise him.

It is the women who have accompanied Jesus since Galilee (8:2-3) who are the first to witness Jesus’ resurrection. They see the empty tomb, they hear the message of the two men in dazzling apparel, they recall, and understand, the words of Jesus, and they go and tell the apostles.

Three people recognise and declare Jesus’ innocence in this section: Pilate, the repentant thief and the centurion. Pilate declares Jesus to be not guilty three times but in a reversal of Peter’s denial and repentance Pilate sends an innocent man to his death.

The greatest shall become the least. In the passion we see Jesus brought low stage by stage. At the Mount of Olives he prays and speaks in words which recall the Lord’s Prayer: to be led not into temptation and to that God’s will be done. Jesus is then betrayed by a sign of friendship. He sees one of the apostles, Peter, also brought low as Jesus is denied three times. Peter, however, begins his path of reconciliation.

Three times before in Luke has Jesus sent out his followers in pairs to prepare the way for him. Now he sends Peter and John to prepare the place where they will celebrate a meal. At the end of this section he will recall his instruction to the disciples to go out as he prepares the apostles to make their way in the world. But that is not yet.

Jesus tells the people that the temple will be destroyed, there will be persecutions, Jerusalem will be laid to waste and the Son of Man will come in glory. Jesus’ followers need to read the signs of the time and be ready.

In the Palm Sunday liturgy we hear the triumphal entry to Jerusalem and then we listen to the Passion narrative. In between Jesus is teaching in the temple. As often in Luke his audience is varied. There are the people who support him and his disciples, and then there are the scribes and the Sadducees who are seeking ways to catch Jesus out.

Jesus has prophesied his passion, death and resurrection three times in Luke’s Gospel. Now the begins the realisation of the prophecy. There is a lot of details in these passages. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is steeped in images of kingship from the Old Testament.

In the last section we heard about tax collectors, the humble and the least, and the difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom. In this section we meet Zacchaeus, a rich tax collector, who is small and humble enough to climb a tree to see Jesus.

There are those who recognise Jesus for who he is and then there are also those who mistake him. In this passage the disciples, including Peter and the twelve get things wrong whereas a blind man and children respond to Jesus’s presence.

When Jesus was first asked to teach his disciples to pray he taught them to say ‘Your kingdom come’. Now he teaches the disciples to pray continually and not lose heart. To help them understand he gives a parable about a patient and persistent widow.

The worried apostles are reminded of their future duties in a short parable. They will plough the field so that the seed of God’s word can be sown; they will look after their flocks. They will be true servants, as Jesus has modelled, offering the Eucharist to eat and drink.

Is being rich a barrier to the kingdom of God? Luke in one of his ironic juxtapositions has Jesus saying ‘You cannot serve God and money’ followed by Luke saying ‘The Pharisees, who were lovers of money’. In this section we have two more of Jesus’ vivid parables: the dishonest manager and the rich man and Lazarus.

The audience for these three parables of mercy brings together the tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees and scribes. The three stories speak about the lost being found and that this is something to be rejoiced over.

Inviting Jesus to your house for a banquet is a risky business. In this section Luke mirrors the last chapter. There's a further healing on the Sabbath and then two parables which play out what it means for the last to be first.

The Sabbath is still principally thought about as refraining from work. Jesus reminds us it is about the appreciation of God’s creation; Jesus will usher in, on the Lord’s Day, the new creation. The Sabbath is also the day of Exodus from slavery and once again Jesus sees his mission as bringing liberty to captives.

Reading through Luke the opening sentences will remind us of John the Baptist and his promise of Baptism. They also look forward to Luke’s volume the Acts of the Apostles when the Apostles will be baptised in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This looking back and forth emphasises the present moment.