The Gospel According to Luke Chapter 2
Originally posted Monday, March 3, 2008
General Comment: In the First Chapter
Luke sets the stage for his version of the Gospel by establishing John the
Baptist as the latest and last prophet of Israel's
salvation history. In the fashion of Elijah, John will be the
announcer of the Day of the Lord, God's intervention in the world to establish
a New Age in fulfillment of the word that came to the ancient prophets of
Israel. As such he would be understood in first century Judaism as
Elijah returned from heaven, the forerunner of the Davidic Messiah. In a
parallel track, Luke introduces the one to whom John will one day bear testimony as
that expected Messiah. This one will be named Jesus and he will be invested by
God with the authority to announce God's Kingdom. Jesus' authority will
not be derived from his royal genealogy as the Son of David
through Joseph. He will be born with the authority of God through whose
generative power, the Holy Spirit, Jesus will come into being. He will be
Son of God.
Luke Chapter 2:1-20 The
Birth of Jesus
We
are all familiar with this Advent text, recited every Christmas Eve,
heard as part of musical programs and, of course in the 1965
television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It is complete with Mary and
Joseph, a manger in a stable, animals, visiting shepherds and a baby
Jesus. This passage is more than a bucolic reminiscence. Matthew's
birth story interconnects Jesus' advent with the Jewish Royal House and
ambitions of Herod the Great, the new Pharaoh from whom God's people
will be delivered. Luke, writing in and for a Gentile Christian community,
places Jesus in the matrix of Roman History and political polity, as the
newest citizen of the Roman Empire ruled by Caesar Augustus.
In
Luke both Mary and Joseph are residents of Nazareth (not of Bethlehem as in
Matthew). It is as a result of a Roman tax census that they end up in Bethlehem
(House of Bread). Bethlehem was the birthplace of King David, one of whose
offspring will be the Messiah who also is to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Luke's story is filled with
irony. The Son of God is born in a stable not a palace. He is wrapped in bands
of cloth, not a royal purple robe, His attendants are animals not slaves. The
first to hear of the news and pay the baby a visit were lowly shepherds not
aristocratic dignitaries but lowly, ritually unclean shepherds. As if this
irony were not enough, while the census was enforced by the army of
Rome, the birth was heralded by the heavenly Army of God, singing of
peace on earth.
This
is how the Son of God comes into the world as the other son of god sleeps
soundly unaware of the unimaginable shift of history that will unfold in the
House of Bread. "But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in
her heart."
Luke Chapter 2:22-38 Jesus
is Presented in the Temple
Luke
has conflated two ritual requirements of the Law. First is the
"purification" of Mary. Having born a son she would
be ceremonially unclean for seven days (fourteen days if a daughter)
during which time she could not participate in any religious gatherings or
activities outside the home. Her "blood purification" period would be
thirty three days (sixty six days for a daughter) during which time she
could not touch anything holy or come to the Temple. When the time requirement
was met she was to make a sacrifice of a lamb or, if a poor person, two doves
or pigeons (Lev. 12:1-8). By this we
learn that Mary and Joseph are poor (vs.
24).
The
second is the redemption of the first born son. This is based on the Exodus
experience in Egypt where the first born of every Hebrew family was protected
from the angel of death "passing over" while those of the Egyptians,
including animals, died. As a result of that protection all first born sons
belong to God, in effect as a sacrifice to God (see Exod. 13:12-17) which is redeemed by sacrificing a sheep or a
less expensive animal such as doves or pigeons.
Both
Mary and Elizabeth have given their own testimony regarding the
importance of the child, Jesus, before his birth. Now in the Temple
after the child has been circumcised, he is presented to the priest
to be redeemed as the first born male child by the required
sacrifice. Others are there as well. They are of the Old Age
of Israel who will cross that bridge to the New, as represented by this
baby. One is Simeon, a righteous and devout man who has been living with
the promise received through the Holy Spirit that before he dies he will see
the Messiah. Through the voice that guides him he finds Mary holding Jesus. He
takes Jesus in his arms and in an adaptation of Isaiah's poetry of deliverance,
affirms God's promise of Israel's salvation and her service as the light
which will bring the revelation of God to the Gentiles (see Isa. 52:10; 9:2). Both of these
affirmations are found elsewhere in the New Testament and represent the very
early understanding that Jesus is sent not only to Israel for their
redemption, but to all nations (Gentiles).
It
is evident that this text, and the one that follows with the prophetic words of
the prophetess Anna, became a major theme in Luke's evangelistic preaching to
Gentile audiences. These two, with prophetic voices and blessings, bestow
upon this child the mantle of authority and mission of
redemption which had been given to Israel.
Luke Chapter 2:39-40 Return
to Nazareth
This
brief passage serves two purposes. First, Jesus' parents have performed all the
requirements of the Law and are so considered as devout,
obedient and righteous Jews in all things. For Luke, they are like Simeon
and Anna, those who pass on by example the heritage of Israel at its best
to the one who will preach an even greater righteousness throughout Galilee and
Judea. The second purpose is as a parallel to LK 1:80. As John "grew and became strong in spirit," guided
by righteous parents, so will Jesus [grow] and become strong, with the added
tutelage of God's favor.
Luke Chapter 2:41-52 The Boy
Jesus in the Temple
Luke
has included this story of the twelve year old Jesus in the Temple
precincts as an extension and confirmation of the previous verse. The
devout parents travel to Jerusalem for Passover, as required of all Jews who
are able to travel. Jesus is twelve which would be the approximate age of
responsibility for a male child, when responsibility for his obedience to the
commandments and traditions passes from the parents. Jesus is pictured
here as studiously listening to the teachers (Scribes and Pharisees), asking
and being asked questions. As befitting Luke's mention of Jesus being
filled with wisdom, those who hear him are amazed.
While
the experience in the Temple speaks to the precocious ability of Jesus in the
midst of Jewish scholars, the greater meaning is found in the encounter between
Jesus and his worried parents. He is found to be missing from the caravan
returning to Galilee. Mary and Joseph return to Jerusalem and then to the
Temple precincts to search among the remaining pilgrims. When they find
him they rightfully express their displeasure. Jesus' response is the focal
point of the entire passage. Mary has expressed her and Joseph's anxiety
in terms of "your father and I" have been searching. Jesus' answer
conveys two expectations. Mary and Joseph should have known where he would
be and why he was there. The word "must" is critical to
understanding the response. In Greek it is what is called the "divine
imperative." Jesus must be in his Father's house, with house as a
metaphor for the place of learning. Jesus will seek God's will and
direction for his life. He will not be guided by the random relationships
and happenstance of life to form his understanding of vocation. Here is
our first glimpse of Luke's view of Jesus' relationship with God. It is one of
such an intimacy that what Jesus becomes has already been fashioned in a unity
of purpose. What God wants, Jesus wants for his future. This is not by any
means some form of predestination and the futility of resistance. We have
already read of Jesus' human nature which knows when to avoid danger
and that he will struggle with tears when faced with a life and
death decision. The "unity of purpose" that defines the
relationship is a matter of Jesus' discernment. He has come to
know intuitively what he will do.
The
passage closes with the return to Nazareth, his obedience to his parents and
continued maturing in wisdom as well as age, As at the time of the shepherds'
visit to the manger, and no doubt the words of Simeon and Anna, Mary will
ponder these things in her heart.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Note
1) Whether deliberately
constructed as such by Luke or not, this simple birth to simple
people in an obscure corner of the Caesar's realm will create the
untenable and eventually fatal situation of two Lords, two Sons of God and
two Saviors of the world. For some New Testament scholars the Gospels are meant
to be viewed and interpreted through this sociopolitical lens. Jesus becomes
God's agent whose ministry points out as a matter of intent, the difference
between God's demand for "peace through justice" and Caesar's maxim,
"peace through military victory." This ideological collision is
certainly an accurate portrayal of what happened when Jesus was understood by
his followers as both the Son of God and Royal Davidic Messiah, King of the
Jews. But was it Luke's intent to present a Jesus who consciously sought
to act in such a way as to challenge Caesar and Roman culture with a
different world view? Put another way, did Jesus understand himself to be in
competition with Caesar for the hearts and minds of the people? Such an
argument seems to be based on a top-down perspective. First one concludes what
God's will is for humanity and then interprets Jesus to meet that will. It
would be a more natural method to determine what motivated Jesus' ministry
and then draw some inferences about god's will, that is if we assume for
ourselves that Jesus is the revealer of that will, a presumption only available
through faith.
2) There are no birth
stories in Mark or John. The implication in both is that Jesus is from
Nazareth as a home town. Of interest is the reference to Bethlehem in Joshua 19:15 as a village in the
territorial allotment of the tribe of Zebulun, roughly Galilee. This
site has been excavated and is approximately seven miles from
Nazareth. An interesting review on this possibility as Jesus' birthplace
can be found in Bruce Chilton's book,Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography
3) Considerable energy
has been expended to explain the differences between the birth
stories in Matthew and Luke. Some will accept one as "factual
history" and reject the other. Others will (and have) harmonized the two
to make one story. Neither of these choices are realistic. Examples of merging
the two do not lend themselves to any reasonable degree of credible
scholarship. The difference is not an example of scriptural contradiction any
more than the existence of two the creation stories in Genesis. The problem is
one of interpretation. The fundamental question is "What is truth?"
Is there any other form of truth than empirical? Can two
divergent stories both be true? And more than that, what if one or
both of the stories contain verifiably inaccurate historical data? As we
have mentioned before, we do not read the Gospels to learn history. History is
a tool (matrix) with which the writer fashions Jesus' relationship with
the world and events around him. What we are asked to do by the Gospel writers
is to find Jesus, the God of Jesus and what word they can speak to our lives as
we live them in the twenty first century. Whether there were one or two
birth stories, we can find meaning (truth) in both.
4) Luke has included a
story from Jesus' youth to emphasize his maturing understanding of God and
his growing sense of God's leading. There were many stories from Jesus' infancy
and childhood that appeared in a number of Gnostic Gospels and other
writings. These emphasized Jesus' powers, even his meanness towards others
who offended him. Miracles were performed such as making clay birds then
causing them to come to life. One has a story of the healing effect of use of
his bath water on the sick and infirm. These Gospels are more concerned with
the spectacular acts of Jesus and less concerned with his relationship with God.
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